I actually am obsessed with this book. it's different from anything i've read before. it's so fun and refreshing honestly. i love the idea, i love our main characters, i love the surprises. 10/10 i will buy a copy of this asap

Mortal Follies is a delightful romp of a sapphic regency romance, fit with faeries, sorcerers and Bridgerton-esque politics of manners. I’ve always been a fan of Alexis Hall’s witty, pacey stories and this was no different. I loved the writing style and the gorgeous details that made the world and characters positively jump off the page.

Following the story of two women finding love amidst curses, an intriguing mystery and plenty of tender romance. It reminded me somewhat of Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon a Broken Heart (but sapphic and regency) which is always a win in my book!

The only thing that kept me from fully loving the story was the narrator. They take on an omniscient role and frequently provide overarching opinions and remarks about the MCs. I don’t mind this style of narration generally, but found their voice to be a little long-winded and prone to tangents, which distracted a little from the main story.

Overall, I’d rate it a 3.5/5 stars!

This is a historical romance/ fantasy stand alone told in the third person through the POV of an invisible fae storyteller, Robin. He follows Miss Maelys Mitchelmore, a young lady enjoying the season in Bath.
Maeyls has been struck by curse in the middle of a ball. As her cloths begin falling to shreds as she stands, Maelys runs from the ballroom and is saved for ruin by the mysterious “Duke” of Annadale. Following this, Maelys, her cousin, and best friend begin the arduous task of discovering her malevolent benefactor while attempting to keep abreast of the perilous situations she keeps finding herself in, and all the while Lady Georgiana, AKA the Duke, lingers in the background whenever the curse strikes.
Mortal Follies is a cyclical tail split into two parts. It has evil curses, mischievous fae, witches and cultists, a morally gray love interest, and pissed off goddesses.

I really like a handful of Alexis Hall's other books. This book, however, seemed to waffle between "hurry up, and get to the point," then "wait, did I miss something?"

To be fair, some of the meanderings were interesting but not always pertinent to the direct story. This is because the story was narrated by an observer rather than one of the main characters.

Nevertheless, it was a well-written and very fun story, and I will probably end up rereading this book if a follow-up book is ever written.

A queer historical romantic fantasy told through the eye of a comical narrator. It had just the right amount of whimsy and the writing style itself drew me in right away. The character and world building is superb.

I chose to read this book because of the beautiful cover alone and I am so glad I did because I was not disappointed. Alexis Hall is a literary genius!

I am a HUGE fan of Alexis Hall, and I was so excited to read this book.
First, what I liked: I think this was a really interesting take on the Regency romance. I loved the magical elements, and the mystery. I loved that the story was steeped in Queerness, beyond our main sapphic romance. Speaking of that, the tension between our two MCs was HOT!
On the other hand: I didn’t love the third party magical narrator. At first, it was cute, but for me, it quickly became tiresome. I also found myself having difficulty keeping track of all the characters in play, especially at first. Overall, I wanted to love this book, but it was not my favorite work from the author. Still, it was an enjoyable read, and I would especially recommend it for all the Midsummer Nights Dream fans!

A magical and lovely romance that wasn’t really a favorite of mine. Would recommend for fans of Bridgerton and A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

A wonderful sapphic celebration of Shakespearean mischief and Austenesque expectations. Alexis Hall’s stories never fail to make me laugh as much as tantalize me. I always finish one with a smile on my face and Mortal Follies was no exception.

This book starts off strong gets a little slow in the middle but then picks back up at the end. The entire book is narrated by a third party who we eventually learn is Robin (or we would know him as Puck!)

Due to circumstance, they have been reduced to telling stories of a publishing house, and they are quite bitter about it. The narrator provides commentary throughout the entire book, often leading us to believe they may not be the most reliable narrator. At one point the narrator describes themselves as “an observer, a chronicler, and occasional maker of mischief.”

This is one of my first times reading a book like this and it is Alexis Hall’s first time writing one (aside from the brief flashes of changing tenses they experimented with in Glitterand.)

The two main characters are beyond delightful. Miss Mitchelmore is a lady of high society who has been cursed (with clothing great unmakes itself) and Miss Georgiana, who we learn is a trans woman, is infamous for possibly having cursed and killed bet brothers and father. Naturally, they are both each other’s only hope, and hilarity, heartfelt feeling and passion commence.

They take grumpy/sunshine to a new level and the banter was phenomenal, and not just between the MCs. All of their friends, acquaintances and enemies also provide amazingly funny anecdotes and monologues throughout the entire book. While the pace is a little slower, it is mostly because Alexis Hall continually sets scenes with grand details and hilarious commentary.

I recommend this book (and all Alexis Hall books!)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a ARC copy to review.

Once again Hall gives us a book filled with beautiful writing and a fun cast of characters!

Things I adored about the book: the writing style, of course. The characters feel fleshed out and interesting, and this take on A Midsummer Night's Dream. .

As a huge fan of retellings, I was immediately sold on this book and when our Narrator was introduced to us, I knew I would be in for a funny treat. Almost every time Puck broke the fourth wall I would laugh or shake my head. By far my favorite character, honestly. I love sarcastic gossipers.

I am notoriously picky with my wlw reads and I'm so thankful this book didn't disappoint! The chemistry between Maelys and Georgianna was very alluring and fun to delve into. All in all, their story was fun to read.

My only complaint is at some parts the story would drag on just a bit too long, but that's a nitpick that I'm sure very few people agree with. This was such a fun book 4/5!!

This book is a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The only word I can use to describe this book would be tedious. It took me weeks to read this. I am a fan of the authors others books but I could not get into this book. The characters were unlikable, the plot was confusing at best. It was way too silly for me.

This is another delightful and ridiculous book from Alex Hall. I’ve really been loving their historical romances, and this has all the wit, snark, over the top absurdity, and sweetness that I have come to expect. And this time, let’s add faeries and vengeful ancient goddesses!
Since the narrator is Robin (more familiar to us mortals as Puck from Midsummer Night’s Tale), we get additional side commentary and insights, but rather less spice, as it would of course be indiscreet for Robin to give us those salacious details.
I did find Lady Georgiana and Maelys to be a less compelling couple than I’ve found in the other books; Lady Georgiana is rather cold (for a decent reason!) but it still made it hard to warm up to her (unlike for example the Duke in Something Fabulous). Though I did love Miss Bickles, Maelys’ best friend; she reminded me a bit of Bonny from SF.
Overall, I think my personal headspace inhibited me from enjoying this book to the full extent it deserved, but I’m not going to let that detract from my recommendation of the story!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a requested copy for review. All opinions are my own.

alexis hall is always a hit or miss for me, and this book was unfortunately a miss, specially because I could not stand the narrator, not a bad book just not for me

3 ⭐️
This is my first time reading this book by this author and I am planing to read more books by this author!

Honestly, I had mixed feeling about this book because the story plot got confusing towards the middle to later half 😭. The ending was super rushed and the way this book was written didn’t allow me to experience the plot but rather it felt like someone was explaining the story to me?

I enjoyed the characters and the fairy tale vibes from this book was fantastic!

I hadn’t read anything by Alexis Hall before this, though their books were on my radar. What a fun read this was! The narration choice was amusing and helped move the story along in a really clever fashion. I enjoyed the magical aspects and I appreciate that they brought something to the story (instead of acting as filler like they do in some stories). I will definitely check out more of their books after this one. I would have finished it sooner if I hadn’t just been reading it on my kindle (which I usually just use for bedtime reading).

My biggest struggle with this book is how fragmented it is. The first half and the second half have the same characters, but two completely different plot arcs and resolutions. It was confusing and I finished feeling like I just read a fever dream and maybe also had a fever dream myself in reading the fever dream.

I loved the first hundred pages, the setting in regency time but with queer characters is something I love and want to continue to see more of. The bantering between Mae and Georgiana was wonderful and I loved the set up of their relationship. However, after that the book started to lose me. I don't know much at all about greek gods and maybe this all would have made more sense if I did but there was too much going on with curses (past and present) and offerings to gods. I totally lost me after the second animal was cruelly murdered as a "sacrifice". By the second half I was very annoyed with Georgiana and how she was treating Mae, their relationship did not seem healthy but it was supposedly all okay because they loved each other ???? I wished there was more conversation and time spent on their relationship developing instead of on the curse multiple plot arcs

While the narrator was occasionally funny and certainly witty, I did not think it added much to the story and made some of the more intimate scenes really awkward to "watch in" on instead of getting the experience from the characters themselves.

I felt that the story was disjointed and uneven. The predominant conflict was resolved halfway through the book, which was pretty unsatisfying. There was a lot of back and forth between Maelys and Lady Georgianna's relationship before a brand new conflict was introduced. The plot felt a bit slow and dragged periodically, especially with the focus on Maelys and Lady Georgianna's relationship. The premise was intriguing but not something I would read again.

The Story
The story began with Miss Mitchelmore having discovered she was under some spell while at a ball and her clothing was coming undone. She happened upon a Duke, a woman, who saved her from public humiliation. Miss M's friend, Miss Bickle, urged her on to pursue feelings for the woman all throughout the story while Mr. Ceasar suspected the duke of the source of the crime.

The story followed along like a mystery. Halfway thorough the book, the mystery was solved, leaving the reader wondering what the purpose of the second half of the book was supposed to be about.

Firstly, I was stricken by the quality of writing, which was thoroughly enjoyable to read. The setting of the book took place in a Jane Austen-esque Bath with a magical, fairy tale style to it, along with paganism and witchcraft. The narrator was a hobgoblin with almost, but not quite, omnipotent abilities. Personally, I enjoyed the narration, sometimes it was humorous.

Characters
There were issues with the vast amount of characters, who were often mentioned by their last name, but not introduced into the story yet. Later, the multitude of characters—who the reader wasn't familiar with yet—were mentioned by their first name, or a nickname, or a second nickname, and it had all become confusing. For many characters, I wondered why they had been introduced at all and weren't significant to the story.

Miss. Bickle was fun for a side character, since she was rather odd and had a strange way of thinking that could be considered dumb amusement. The main character was rather dull and the duke shelled herself in and tried to push others away. The picnic had some amusing characters as well, like the father who kept reciting poetry.

The duke so happened to always be at the right place at the right time and saved our damsel in distress multiple times. That had became tedious and ridiculous after a while.

Conversations
Some of the conversations seemed to draw out and didn't fit into the story well. For instance, after the duke saved Miss M., each time, it's indicated that she knew more that she was letting on and the heroines met to discuss things. Eagerly, I wanted to know what the duke knew, but instead of discussing anything of any importance (like the mystery they were trying to solve), they discussed having sex together and what they wanted to do to each other. It always seemed out of place and at the wrong time.

Again, when the trio was together discussing who could be the suspect, the conversation seemed to be pointless and went nowhere, and then the conversation was brought back to the feelings between Miss. M and the duke . . . again, and again. It didn't feel as if the story was moving along, but rather it was the same conversations in a different setting.

The parts about the sacrifices and idolatry was gross and lost stars for me.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I decided to read this during the trans rights readathon during a week when I was experiencing an extreme reading slump, but boy, did this one get me out of it. I love that the action starts immediately to draw the reader in. However, towards the middle, it did become a bit of a slog, but it picked back up by the end. I must say, the ending was just ok. It could've used a little reworking to draw the action out a little bit more. It’s probably because most of the conflict seemed to disappear or get resolved by the second act, which is why I removed a star from my review. It's not all bad though, this book had some great moments! Several times I laughed aloud, which is rare for me. It goes to show how well-written the narration is. The characters were easy to root for, the dialog was well done and I felt like these could’ve been conversations I’ve had with my friends in real life. The romance was charming! I won’t drop any spoilers, but it's a cute sapphic love story. I was swooning! Overall, the plot was a bit unhinged, but that’s what made this a fun, exciting and quick read for me.

The story itself was a bit all over the place for me as I personally felt that this book could have been broken up into a duology. However, I am a sucker for any sapphic fantasy so I really can't complain that much. Above everything, my favorite part of the story was the narrator. If Hall decided to do a collection of short stories with this narrator I would read it in a heart beat (hint hint).