𝗠𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 is a story about the beginnings of a romance between Maelys and Lady Georgiana aka the Duke of Annandale as told by Robin the hobgoblin. It’s also about curses, petty gods and goddesses, and how terribly inconvenient they are. Good times!

Maelys is cursed so she and her friends set about to find out who cursed her. On one such occasion when the curse is in full effect, she’s rescued by the Duke of Annandale who has a wicked reputation and rumors that follow her. Mae feels instant gratitude for the many times she’s been rescued by her and forms an attachment whereas the Lady Georgiana is cold and keeps her distance. The entirety of the book is overcoming the curses, and Mae seeking to get with Lady Georgiana.

The writing, as always, is delightful. There’s definitely more whimsy to it especially with Robin interjecting with notes throughout. I quite enjoyed learning about the curses, and how Mae and her eccentric friends would break them. I also loved Robin’s anecdotes about the various mythical creatures. I wasn’t fond of the middle part of the book where Mae pursues Lady Georgiana only because the latter was constantly standoffish, and poor Mae kept trying in her sweet way. It happened repeatedly which was tedious to me. It felt unnecessarily drawn out (and a little bit cruel on Lady G’s part) when the reason behind Lady Georgiana’s aloofness could’ve been revealed sooner. It got interesting again when the tables were turned and Mae and her besties had to do the rescuing and with great urgency.

I had fun reading it even if the middle felt slow to me. It’s a good summer pick if you’re looking for a bit of an otherworldly and offbeat sapphic romance adventure.

Many thanks to @netgalley & @delreybooks for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 is available now!

A young noblewoman must pair up with an alleged witch to ward off a curse in this irresistible sapphic romance from the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material.

I was really looking forward to this book. It's a delightful novel that delves into romance, friends and a pesky little curse. The book really plays out in two halves, with the first being a mystery and the second a love story. Recommended for fans of fantasy and romance.

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for letting me review this book.

Thank you to negalley and Del Ray for the advanced copy of this book!

This was my first book from Alexis Hall, and now I understand the hype! I'm always a fan of queer historical romances, but admittedly it's not the first thing I gravitate toward. This book delivered for me though. It has a diverse cast of characters who's witty bickering had me laughing through many pages. I sincerely enjoyed this read and will be picking up more of Hall's book in the near future.

If you're looking for a book that's got fantasy, queer romance, and comedy then I'd definitely pick this up!

I really struggled with Mortal Follies. I found it to be so very slow and several times I almost put the book down and walked away to find something else to read. I'm glad I rallied because there was some excellent snark in this book but overall, I found myself disappointed.

3.5 stars. Alexis Hall has written some of my favorite romances. Even though his books are often wildly different in setting, tone and style, they are always so witty and clever. This was no exception.

Mortal Follies is set in the Regency era and follows the story of two women that come together despite the meddling of vengeful gods. The whole book is enjoyably narrated by an hobgoblin named Robin and has a charming cast of side characters. Overall, I think the main issue I struggled with here was the pacing of the plot. It’s quite engaging in the beginning as you have Maelys dealing with all kinds of supernatural mishaps and being rescued from them by Lady Georgiana aka the Duke of Annadale. This all culminates in quite the climax and I was a bit confused when I realized I was only about halfway through the book. Unfortunately, the ending dragged on for me and kind of spoiled the enjoyment I had of the first half.

Thanks so much to Random House - Ballantine and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I don't know how Alexis Hall always manages to hit it out of the park with book after book, different genre after different genre, but I devoured Mortal Follies much like any and all of Hall's previous books. This story managed to be unique while not using unique elements, and brought back one of my favorite writing gimmicks: the narrator as independent character.

I loved that the whole story of Mae and Georgiana was told from a third person perspective - quite literally, since the perspective was coming from an unnamed, third character who had enough wit and sarcasm and additions to fuel the entire story. He was comic relief, stirred up trouble, and weighed in on the plot in ways no human character could. I loved reading about Mae's interactions with her friends, but my favorite character, by far, is the narrator.

Mortal Follies beautifully blended two of my favorite genres, and I loved this version of 1800s England where fairies and gods ran amuck, much to every humans knowledge, fear, and amusement. However, and unfortunately, one of my least favorite characters just so happened to be Mae's love interest, which caused me to repeatedly lose interest in the romance storyline. Had I been reading this story solely for the romance, I might not have finished it; there was just not enough chemistry between the two and too much protesting from Georgiana for me to fully be invested in their love story. Luckily, I felt that Mae's continuous issues with the deities far outshined her romantic entanglements and that kept me engaged with the story until the very end.

Overall, Mortal Follies was another hit from Alexis Hall. Sapphic in nature, this romance/fantasy definitely came across stronger on the fantastical, and less so on the romantic. But with entertaining characters, dialogue, and shenanigans from the narrator, this one was well worth the read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book

** I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and this is my honest review**

3.5 Stars overall

I struggled to get into this book until after about the 15% mark. I was excited about the blurb and the premise that framed this as a regency, fantasy, sapphic romance. However, our narrator Robin, left me feeling very disconnected from the main characters for much of the story. This would be fine if Robin ever revealed much about themselves, but we are left with comments eluding to their exile from the fae realm but with no true backstory for our narrator other than, they are bound to tell stories by their patron.

For the first 15% the narrator often pulled me out of the story at inopportune times. Then we had much of the action and immediate peril happening about the 55-65% part. The pacing slowed significantly after this and while we got a complete story that was satisifying in the end, it would have been easy to put the book down without the secondary perils being resolved.

As a fantasy story set in an alternate regency era England where magic is known and old powers revered, this story would hold up very well. As a sapphic romance where we fall in love with the characters as they too fall for each other, it fell short for me.

I'd put this under my solidly enjoyable reads, but probably not to be purchased for my bookshelf or reread. Once I was in the story, I did enjoy it and truly enjoyed this version of regency England. I even liked Robin despite their habit of yanking me through the story. The characters were well developed and each held a distinct spot in the story. The points that really caught my attention though were when magic and rituals and old powers were involved.

Mortal Follies is an 1814 Regency era slow burn, sapphic romance that is more slow and less burn. The narrator is this silly, mischievous fae sprite (Robin); doing such narrating from the modern world where they're exiled. Robin continually has a lot to say about their own story; very much like mystery science theatre. Which can be very funny, the idea of it anyway. However, in actuality it's quite hard to get into and more jarring and annoying, working against the story, rather than with it.

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO: non-mc narrator (delightful audiobook!), fairies & magic, historical, queer (sapphic main pairing), lovely cast of characters

CWs: sexual content, threat of violence (wasps, drowning), animal sacrifice, death of family members, transphobia (challenged), discussions of enslavement, period typical homophobia, severe illness (magic related)

>> what an intriguing tale! the audio narrator is A++ and made the story that much more enjoyable and feel like a true performance/piece of art. while it wasn’t my cup of tea (i like romances that have dual pov or at least have the mcs pov), i cannot deny how artfully Alexis Hall worked his magic on this story! i was thoroughly entertained and loved the cast of characters.

This took me forever to finish because the pacing was a little weird and dragged at times but overall, I really enjoyed this!

I thought it was fun that the story is being told by someone watching all the events occurring, it was different and the sidebars and little quips made me laugh. I also really loved that this was a Regency romance but magic and mythology and curses were also thrown in.

The romance was between Maelys and Lady Georgiana…… it had me ✨yearning✨ it was such a slow burn and at times I wanted to just push Georgiana to stop being so stubborn and just kiss the girl already but it was so well worth it when they finally did give in to their passion for each other. The ribbons scene was *chefs kiss*. I do personally wish the story had been spicy but this did not affect how much I loved the romance between the two characters.

The best way to describe this is a really fun, sometimes a little wacky, sapphic romance (think lesbian Bridgerton with faeries and vengeful goddesses), which I had a really good time reading.

Having enjoyed "A Lady for a Duke" last year, I was stoked to see a sapphic historical romance from Alexis Hall!

All of the characters were a delight (made even more so thanks to the embellishments from the unreliable fae narrator) and the world itself was a perfect balance between the dangerous and wonderful aspects of living alongside gods and mythical creatures.

While I generally felt that Robin's telling of the story was charming, I also think that distance did a disservice to feeling really immersed in the story and romance between Maelys and Georgiana. Maelys in particular read as one dimensional for the first half of the book, with bad shit just happening to her over and over and Georgiana rushing in to save her. The last 150 pages or so were what cinched my enjoyment of the story and really solidified the romantic chemistry! Would definitely be interested in reading other stories set in this same world.

Thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

I was surprised when I went into this story to find it told from a third person omnipotent view. Which unfortunately took me directly out of the story.

This book contained a wonderful love story and was beautifully written; however, it had a very hard time grabbing my attention in the beginning and, when it finally did, it struggled to hold it. I struggled with the narration coming from the fairy in which we are witnessing this love story through, I would have preferred to hear this love story from the two women experiencing it so that I could feel all of the emotions, highs, and lows that our main characters are feeling instead of getting them second hand from an observer.

Overall I like the story, but the narration from a third party made it feel less than it could have been.

3.75!

in a world of fairies, hobgoblins, witches, goddesses, etc. a noblewoman named Maelys and a suspected witch named Georgiana have to team up to break a curse that has been cast on Maelys, and despite their initial disdain for each other, the forced proximity of this search for a curse breaker may end up being a blessing of something more romantic.

there were a few points in this book that kept it from being a 4 star for me. first, the narrator being a fairy that is once removed from the main characters left the characters feeling a bit distant from your perspective, and really dampened any chance of building a deeper understanding of their feelings and emotions. i feel like i would just start getting absorbed into the story and then the fairy’s dialogue would pull me back out of it. second, the writing itself is a bit too wordy at times, like the author used a thesaurus to find the biggest word to use for every situation, and while i love big words, when there are so many artful and complex words, it’s harder to have a steady stream of reading because of all these speed bumps of mouthfuls of words. and lastly, i felt like most of the conversations between our MC’s felt very repetitive, like they were having the same argument over and over, and i would’ve loved to see their relationship have a bigger transformation over the course of the book.

other than these qualms, this book has a very entertaining plot, clever and entertaining dialogue between characters, charmingly vulgar conversations, and cute characters. i would recommend this book, it’s a very fun and cute read, but it’s not quite a perfect book for me! worth the read but could’ve been improved in the areas i have said. thank you to netgalley for an e-arc of this book in return for a review!

I liked parts of this book but it had issues. I think the problem in the story got resolved too quickly. Everything after the resolution should have happened before the problem got resolved. It would have made the story flow better. I loved the narrator and Miss Bickle though! Super funny.

Mortal Follies is a cross between Bridgerton, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a fantasy novel written with Alexis Hall's beautiful writing style. This book was fun, imaginative, and definitely unexpected with the lovely swoony moments. The book has Alexis's signature wit and witty banter and contained his unique writing, insight, and wonderful, intriguing characters. I really enjoyed the fantasy elements sprinkled into the Regency world. I love how everyone is free t be themselves and how accepting the world is of them.

I loved having Puck as the narrator, as I loved him in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was definitely snarky and so much fun. It was a fun journey watching Maelys Nitchelmore and Lady Georgiana Landrake (Duke of Annadale) grow to care for each other.

I truly loved this book and definitely recommend it! The cover art is absolutely gorgeous!

ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 10% I did not like the way this story was told, which was 3d person, like fly-on-the-wall but with so many characters and no true connection to anyone because of them, I just kept getting confused, and having to reread sentences as well. I think the writing style was not for me either. I really wanted to like this because the synopsis is that of a book that was tailor made for me.

Absolutely loved it! Alexis Hall can do no wrong

Thanks you to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy

This book is maybe 150 pages longer than it needed to be. And it is something that I have felt from other books by them. Once the mystery of why she was cursed is solved, that felt like a more natural end of the story. However adding that the other main character is also from a cursed home multiple chapters after felt like repetition that was not needed. Some of the walks and chats also didn't really add to the narrative and didn't add to the love story that this was supposed to be. The narrator, hobgoblin-Robin, who I was calling Bobgoblin in my head, and Miss Bikle were great characters. I think I liked them more than the main characters, they added comedic relief to a story that might not have been funny if not for them. Overall, I don't think this story was for me, but I can see how people would enjoy it.

This was my introduction to Alexis Hall and I can say - I will be devouring more. In an attempt not to spoil anything - I think the story follows a very relatable love story although the narrator POV is something, I believe I am still trying to process and maybe that is because It is new to me. This will definitely be a re-read once I process a bit more but I have tossed this out to many of my fellow book lovers and the consensus has been consistent!