The Shakespearean Mortal Follies weaves a comical sapphic romance in the year 1814. Robin Goodfellow sews a plot of villains, angry gods and extraordinary romance featuring the dashing Lady Georgiana, “the Duke,” and the cursed Maelys Mitchelmore. If you can expect anything from Alexis Hall, it’s a great read that will make the gods quake in their boots.

a cute sci-fi romance, this was an enjoyable read

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

This was such a unique regency romance! I loved that it was part fantasy/part queer regency romance! The narrator was funny and full of charm! This isn't my favorite genre, but I really enjoyed this book!

Maelyn is an interesting character but her best friend Miss Bickle is truly the showstopper with her childlike wonder, openness to all things fantastical, and her always positive outlook. It was at times a bit much but Mae does ground her as Lysistrata uplifts her in return. While the friends are wonderfully complimentary to one another, the relationship between Maelyn and Georgiana the Duke of Annadale, while tricky is such a fascinating dichotomy of the nature of society. Georgiana choosing to isolate herself with a powerful presence to intimidate, yet doing so to protect others from a goddesses wrath is such a selfless act from someone who is seen as quite selfish to the ton. She has the veil of intrigue that hides her true self, and Mae has an air of innocence that hides her somewhat darker desires. The two being together is such a scandal but after all they’ve been through they are past bowing to the whims of a patriarchal society for a more traditionally acceptable image of love. Or perhaps as the ostentatious narrator of the tale implied, maybe it was all but a dream.

Beautiful cover bamboozlement at its absolute worst. And it feels like a crime because the premise and the tropes held so much promise but the execution really got in its own way.

At first I enjoyed the omniscient narration, it was so unusual and tongue in cheek. But as the story dragged on it became increasingly less relevant and poorly suited for Robin the hobgoblin to be narrating this random story of a randomly cursed maiden and her budding romance. At first the chaos of it all was entertaining but eventually it grated and felt forced and even slightly voyeuristic (which is not to k!nk shame, but rather seemed like an unfortunate miscalculation since I don’t think the author intended for this to be ~that~ kind of book). Having an exterior POV for a romance essentially blocks the reader from everything we love about the romance genre - the pining, the yearning, the spiraling inner monologue - to my utter devastation.

Because the writing itself was so lovely, with delicate sentences and clever word play and lush vocabulary. But couple the awkward narration with terrible pacing and even I can’t get suckered in by some pretty words. Everything broke down at the half way point because it felt like the story should have ended but it didn’t and everything after just felt vaguely pointless. There was no cohesive story arc or intentional passage of time, it was just a hodgepodge of random events and happenings.

Also I found it hard to connect to the characters. I wanted to like Georgianna as a love interest but she was SO. BORING. What happened to the intrigue?! The character development?! And my two brain cells might be to blame but I couldn’t keep these insipid characters straight for the life of me, everyone was Miss So and So and Mr This and That and truly my itty bitty brain cells were not prepared to retain so many surnames. No one stood out, no one was unique (except for you Miss Bickle, you were a scream). It was Bridgerton on shrooms and we were having a bad trip.

2.5⭐️ It’s not that I had a bad time it’s more that this book wanted more brain cells than I was prepared to give or that I felt it had a right to demand. If you like regency romance and nonsensical musings and an endless parade of faceless characters and you’re prepared to sacrifice more than two brain cells, I wish you well on your endeavor.

**thank you NetGalley & Random House publishing for the eARC**

This book is described as a "Queer Fantasy Bridgerton" and it absolutely fits the bill.

The Duke of Annadale and Miss Mitchelmore are forced to come together to remove a curse... problem is, they don't exactly get along. What ensues is magical hijinks, witty banter, and a beautifully written sapphic romance.

This book had me smiling and giggling throughout. Definitely worth the read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was great. I really enjoyed the book from start to finish. I loved all the character and the journeys that they were on. I thought the book was well written. The pacing of the book was also near perfect. Overall I thought this was a great read and I definitely recommend it.

A highly anticipated read that left me feeling a bit meh.
As someone who just adores Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Austen in general, and has read it multiple times, I should've loved this one to pieces because of its setting but I unfortunately, didn't.
It just felt so dragged on and at one point, I was just so annoyed and tired of the back and forth and back and forth between the MC and LI.
Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This was a delightful queer period romantasy, featuring a fun framing narration, a delightful protagonist, and some extremely fascinating worldbuilding. If you’re looking for something with a little suspense, a good bit of magic, and a lot of sapphic longing to brighten up your summer, I’d definitely recommend MORTAL FOLLIES. (Also: that cover. Look at how beautiful that cover is.)

this was a really charming romance set in an alternate 1800s England, where magic is acknowledged (if not commonplace) and some still worship “the old gods” of pagan Rome (or earlier). We follow Miss Maelys Mitchelmore, a young debutante, as she discovers that malicious magic seems to follow her wherever she goes — and keeps bringing her into the orbit of the mysterious, brooding Lady Georgiana, the “Duke of Annadale,” rumored to be a murderous sorceress. As Maelys and her friends try to unravel the mystery and the curse, she also finds that she’s drawn to Lady Georgiana in ways she wasn’t expecting.

In general, this was a really good read. The worldbuilding was absolutely delicious, and I’d love to read more stories set in this alternate-England. the characters, even the side ones, were fun and well-realized (I have a particular fondness for Miss Lysistrata Bickle, Maelys’ best friend). The narration was fun, though I felt it sometimes got in the way of the actual story. My biggest qualm was actually with the pacing — the “big conflict” seems to wrap up around the midway point of the novel, only for a second, bigger conflict to be introduced afterward, and I think the story would have benefited from a greater intertwining of those two narratives.

In general, though, this was a charming read, and I’d recommend it! Thanks so much to @delreybooks and @netgalley for the ARC!

I know they normally say to never judge a book by it's cover because even if the outside is ugly, the inside could be marvelous. Well, I think the reverse is true in this case. This cover is S T U N N I N G!! The inside is... lacking.

For the first 50 pages, I was invested. I thought to myself "I am going to LOVE this book"! ...and then it kept going. And it felt like we didn't have the proper build up to care about any of these characters or what outcomes befell them.

Miss Mitchelmore is a very sweet protagonist, but there is no substance to her. All we see is that she is out for the season and that she realizes she is only interested in women, not men. Great! And now she's in love with Lady Georgiana and knows instantly that she's a nice person and could never be the person casting a curse on her. Why? She just KNOWS (aka she's hot) so we just go along with it.

Lady Georgiana's character is much the same in that she's stagnant and the only real "character growth" that we see is that she also likes Miss Mitchelmore back by the end of the book.

Nothing felt high stakes until it was, and even then I was just very bored with it. Overall, just not my cup of historical fantasy romance tea.

Thank you so much to Del Rey and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

The greatest tragedy of my pride month: DNFing 2 Alexis Hall books 🥲

In all honesty, nothing was particularly wrong with this book. I love Alexis Hall's humor and style so much. But I NEVER wanted to pick this book up.

I felt as though the emphasis was put onto the stylistic choices & narration. Which was really unique and fun! But it meant that the characters themselves and the plot felt lacking in my opinion.

With the 3rd party narrator telling us a story, we never really got to know the characters outside what Robin observed. Which meant that I never cared much about what they were doing since we were never privy to their thoughts or motivations.

On top of that, the narrator was constantly going on tangents which made the pacing of the plot feel extremely slow.

This is a book that I may return to in the future. But for now, this one just wasn't for me. But luckily Alexis Hall has another book coming this year that I can't wait for!

Book Summary:

Miss Maelys Mitchelmore is a young noblewoman in the early 1800s. Her entry into society is already quite complicated. Throw in a pesky curse, and it's no wonder she's struggling to find a place for herself in this society.

When the curse starts to hit fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore will have no choice but to seek the one and only Duke of Annandale for help. That's the nickname for Lady Georgianna of Landrake, of course.

My Review:

Historical fiction meets fantasy and romance in Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall. I've been trying to step back from historical fiction for a bit – got a little burned out on it – but I couldn't resist this read. The pretty cover and LGBT+ promise certainly upped the temptation. Am I the only one that thinks this book looks like a cupcake?

That said, Mortal Follies ended up being a lot heavier than I expected. Obviously, I wasn't expecting the content to be as light and fluffy as the cover made it seem. But I was surprised by some of the content (see trigger warnings below). That made it harder for me to finish this read, so consider yourself warned.

Likewise, I wish there had been more details about the world here. I'm a big fan of worldbuilding, and it felt a little shallow here. What I saw was enough to get me curious, so I'm mentioning the wish for more.

All things said and done; Mortal Follies was a decent read. Not quite as mindblowing as I had hoped, but still worth the read.

Highlights:
Historical Fantasy
LGBTQ+
Magical Curses

Trigger Warnings:
Near Drowning
Animal Sacrifice
Transphobia (challenged)
Slavery (Discussed)
Sexual Harassment

Alexis Hall’s Mortal Follies has all the quirky humor you’d expect from the other Hall’s books.

There’s queer romance, a sprite as the narrator of the story, family curses, vengeful goddess, and fun loyal friends set in regency era. While I enjoy several of the elements, there wasn’t a super strong chemistry between the two heroines. There was a bit of mystery at the beginning but also very easy to figure out. I was t a huge fan of the pacing either because the beginning was very slow and things don’t pick up till almost halfway through.

I’d still recommend if you’re a fan of Alexis Hall’s other books, but this is not my fav.

3.5 ⭐️

Unfortunately the narrative style of this just didn't work for me. I felt so separated from the characters and just couldn't get invested in their struggles. I will continue to pick up books from this author though in the future. I've liked all of the other works I've read from him so far.

I have been a fan of Hall’s books for several years, and I have especially enjoyed his forays into the world of Regency era historical romance. If you don’t want to read any further, I will assure you that Mortal Follies is the best of several excellent books. If you do want to continue reading, I will elucidate.

First of all, this book has a rather clever and original conceit: a narrator.

But almost all books have narrators, you might say.

And then I will agree with you, but point out that very few books are narrated by Puck. No, not the outlandish cast member from The Real World: San Francisco, but rather the hobgoblin from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Robin Goodfellow. Yes, that’s the guy. The conceit is that he has been exiled from the faerie court and must suffer numerous indignities of the modern world like paying for rent. So, he has agreed to tell the tale of when he intervened into a most intriguing set of events in 1814.

As the book description suggests, our protagonist Miss Mitchelmore realizes that she has been cursed, and must figure out both the identity of the person who has cursed her and how to stop the curse. Enter love interest “The Duke of Annadale” who might be the only person who can stop the curse OR the person who set the curse in the first place. Or why not both? To quote the conclusion of an elementary school book report, “you’re going to have to read for yourself to find out what happens!”

Many of Hall’s books, both historical and contemporary, have a single narrator rather than the more common dual points of view. This works well because only knowing as much as the point of view character heightens the tension and makes big reveal much more impactful.

Having an omnipresent and (almost) omniscient narrator takes things to a delightful new level. Our gentle guide has the potential to be unreliable, but he remains steadfast in his recounting of the tale. There is plenty of snide commentary and witty observations along the way, which adds to the overall enjoyment of the narrative.

The plot itself is satisfying, with likeable characters, and a storyline that, aided by an appropriate amount of plot twists and big reveals, moves along at a steady pace.

I would absolutely recommend Mortal Follies. I want my all my books narrated by Puck. I mentioned earlier that this my favorite of Hall’s historical romances, but I would take a step further and say that this is one of my overall favorite Hall books. His books keep getting better and better, and I can’t wait to see what he is going to do next.





I received a digital ARC of this book from Random House/NetGalley

This follows Maelys Mitchelmore in 1814. As if she doesn't have enough going on with the balls and other high society events, it appears she's been cursed by a goddess. She needs to find out why she was cursed and fix it before her reputation is ruined or possibly kills her.

I enjoyed this, but it's definitely not a new fave. It's perfect to read in between chunky fantasy books. It's fast and it's fun. I liked the characters.

An extremely fun, humorous, and queer look into the hijinx of the fae, gods, and goddesses of Victorian England! We see this story unfold from the perspective of Puck, the infamous trickster himself, as he watches a curse tormenting young Maelys Mitchelmore, and how the Lady Georgiana - the Duke of Annandale - seems to always sweep in to rescue our damsel. Clever, creative, and sometimes laugh out loud funny, we watch Maelys and friends try to unravel the source of the curse…as well as the knot of her feelings for the Scandalous Lady Duke.

This was an okay read. It wasn't my favorite but it had some enjoyable elements. I love how queer society was normalized. It felt like it could have been two books in the same series almost. Overall, it was fine.

Mortal Follies is a sapphic Regency story with goddesses, fairies, and curses. Maelys Mitchelmore finds herself cursed and enlists the help of Lady Georgiana Landrake, also known as the Duke. As the two set about breaking the curse, hijinks ensure! I love a good historical fantasy and was excited to read this one!

I had a great time reading this book! I liked the characters and the story a lot. The book is narrated by one of the Fae, which adds some further whimsy to the novel. I liked how magic, mythology, and Regency vibes were put together in the same book. I think it was well balanced and was told in a light hearted fashion that I have come to love about Alexis Hall's books!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it if you enjoy historical fantasy, Regency novels, or just a fun story. 4 stars from me! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Oh this book! Lush historical fiction sapphic fantasy romance in a “Mid Summer Night’s Dream” filter. The narrator being a character in of themselves was so entertaining and really sold the book for me. Pacing was probably the down point for me, but overall I loved the story, setting, and characters. Just a dash of spice and mystery, but a heaping helping of beautiful prose, hilarious side characters, and a bit of pining!