I was enraptured from the beginning. At first, I wasn't sure of the narrator but I think it added something very special to a wonderful story. I loved the queer representation and how accepting many of the characters are. Speaking of characters, from main to side characters, all were compelling and three-dimensional. No one ever really felt like a throwaway even if they were only seen once or twice. I would have to say my personal favorite is Miss Bickle because of how she interacted and viewed anything otherworldly. I can't wait to have a physical copy of this book on my shelf.

I was provided this ARC from NetGalley for a fair review. This is a f/f historical romance inspired by Midsummer Night’s Dream, which sounded very intriguing. Unfortunately I am DNFing this one. It is rather chaotic and unfocused. It may just me and my mood but I have picked this up and put it down about 10 times since early February so it’s time to give up. I have enjoyed Alexis Hall’s previous books and will check out their books in the future, this is just a miss for me.

The inspiration behind this book feels like a sapphic Jane Austen crossed with a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sweet Maeys Mitchelmore, granddaughter of an Earl, is enjoying her social season in Bath until her plans to hook an eligible young gentleman are thwarted by a curse. Maeys journey to cure her curse, through the thorny world of fickle gods and outcast witches, draws her closer to the Lady Georgiana Annendale a.k.a the Duke of Annendale. There is a growing chemistry between them, but everyone warns her not to trust the orphaned heiress and rumored witch and murderess.

First, the things I enjoyed–I loved the ludicrous humor and antics surrounding Maeys, and her friends Lizzie and John. I feel like the parody of formal society was very strong. I thought many of the exchanges between Maeys and her love interest the Duke of Annendale were witty and steamy, and I liked their exploration of power dynamics.

However, I couldn’t fully get into the book since my experience was interrupted by a couple of things. The book has a first-person narrator who isn’t involved in the action, and is often unsympathetic to the characters–I often wanted to shush their quips. They felt intrusive and distracting, especially in intimate scenes. The pacing of the story was stilted somewhat, especially as characters deliberated a lot over their decisions in dialogue. Some of the diversity in the story felt sort of flat. It felt like the author didn’t fully think through how different historical events, like enslavement and colonization, could be affected by a world with magic.

An ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings: murder, kidnapping, assault, public humiliation, transphobia (targeted at a side character, fought by MCs)

We follow Maelys through a troubling season in Bath. She is waylaid by a curse and must figure out who's out to get her and how to stop it. This is a fantastical tale involving spiteful gods and a Puck-ish narrator. The world is colorful and fun, and an entirely refreshing take on a "young woman of marriagable age" historical. The characters are delightful; the Duke of Annadale is an immediate hit, as well as third quarter show-stealer Polly the housemaid. The use of a narrator was almost equal parts hilarious and destabilizing. He took us for a ride, but ultimately had me glancing into the shadows hoping for a glimpse of the Puck-ish narrator of my own mortal folly.

Alexis Hall’s first romance, Boyfriend Material, was quite enjoyable, if I remember correctly. While it boasts a pretty atrocious cover, it manages to fall in the sub-genre of “romance with a little bit more depth” for me, being still relatively fluffy but also exploring self-sabotage with enough delicacy and nuance that the love story hits at a higher degree. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was sufficiently engaging I’ve been tracking the author’s future releases.

What has come since has been total flops. Something Fabulous, which somehow made the ever-confusing NYT Best Romances of 2022, featured an incredibly repetitive plot and wildly annoying characters, plummeting my opinion of the author. Still, it was queer, and it was also a historical romance, so I figured it could just be my biases, on the prowl again. I was willing to give Mortal Follies a chance, though it might be worth noting that chance was not a very large one.

Mortal Follies is significantly better than Something Fabulous, but that isn’t saying much. It’s readable, which is cool. It’s also sapphically queer, which is even cooler. Beyond that, it’s hampered by a very strange but very prominent rhetorical device Hall clings to desperately: the entire story is told from the perspective of a sprite/goblin spectator. It’s a plot-irrelevant omniscient narrator, which means its largely traditional narration, but Hall never lets the reader forget it’s a fairy viewing the human characters, frequently chiming in with details of how the narrator is changing forms in order to follow the characters around on their little quest. It’s cute—to a point. Ultimately, such a gimmicky narrator not only gets tired, but also severely hinders the reader's opportunity to be actually invested in the romance we’re watching play out. Tension and drama tends to die a little when it’s an unknown, invisible spectator who’s telling you it’s there, especially since the narrator frequently reminds the reader how little they care about human affairs.

Otherwise, the integration of the magic into Victorian England is a trick that’s been done before, but isn’t wildly offensive when done here. I’ve found Hall’s characters to be consumed by their quirks in the past—so quirky are they, they cease to have actually personalities that might make them enjoyable characters to read and relate to—and there’s a couple of characters who teeter on that cliff of quirkiness but don’t manage to fall off. I’m not sure the romance would stand up even without the fairy-spectator-lens to hinder it, as there’s an age and experience gap that makes both characters uncomfortable at different points. It also doesn’t build appropriately; it’s insta-love, but still strangely plot-oriented for a romance novel, where their relationship development is largely stagnant as they address the curse subplot.

I want to be consumed by a romance novel. I want there to be no option for me but to blitz read it, so consumed am I. While that may sound like a high bar, it isn’t actually—the number of things that have consumed me is frankly embarrassing. The sad failure of this book is that I struggled to care. A combination of the author’s stylistic choices and their underdeveloped characters severely hampered this book. While they’re not without hope, I won’t be picking up their next one.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for the ARC, gifted in exchange for my honest review.

Alexis Hall did it again! I throughly enjoyed this book, I loved the magical elements and the queer romance. Thank you so much for the early copy!

It might be for others, but it’s not for me. As much as I wanted a saphhic fantasy historical romance, the Puck narration was just too much. Too distancing from the characters, too twee, and betraying too much of the author’s selfxsatisfaction.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the eARC.

This was an enjoyable, whimsical tale narrated from the perspective of the hobgoblin puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The hobgoblin narrates the tale of Miss Maelys Mitchelmore who finds herself cursed and doesn't seem to know. Maelys finds herself in the mercy of Lady Georgiana Landrake due to the curse and romance with a magical plot ensues.

In terms of the narration, it was mostly enjoyable, but perhaps due to the omniscient nature of it, the author included a few of scenes and characters that really didn't add much to the plot, particularly in the first half. It might have been flowed better if those scenes were excluded. However, while it may pull you out of the story at times, it added a fair amount of whimsy to the story which was befitting the nature of the tale.

It is also a mostly humourous novel, with many quips by the narrator, plenty of banter, and a lot of comedic relief, particularly from Miss Bickle. The quips mostly landed and the banter between Maelys and Georgiana were top notch(I enjoyed every interaction they had). The Miss Bickle parts were more uneven in my opinion. While her quirkiness was amusing, it reached a little over the top at times(e.g her "tinging"/shipping felt a little too referential for my tastes, bordering on cringe).

The characters, for the most part, were quite endearing, though the means of narration meant that we never quite get to feel the emotions with them. Maelys is a very likable heroine and I really enjoyed her arc. Georgiana in her brooding, Byronic nature and sharp tongue is quite swoon-worthy(I do wish we got to spend more time with her than we did). While Miss Bickle did get a bit over the top sometimes, her friendship with Maelys was very sweet and her idiosyncrasies were mostly endearing. I don't have strong feelings for Mr. Ceaser who felt mostly there to round out the dynamic and had some scenes that really went nowhere as mentioned earlier.

The plot did feel like it was done at the halfway point initially, but in hindsight connected quite well. Though you never quite feel a tension as it progresses despite the dastardly plots involving gods. It's certainly more of a cozy read.

All in all, it's funny and enjoyable romcom with a unique voice and endearing characters. And while it certainly could have been tighter, it's still a relatively quick read. 3.5/5

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- i really wanted to like this, but a huge complaint of mine was the choice of the narrator. it’s an omniscient point of view, which can be done nicely, but not in this book. it ended up making me feel detached from the characters, and in part, made me not finish the arc entirely. it’s unfortunate, since the idea of sapphic lovers uncovering the ways of healing a curse sounded so good.

I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved a whole bunch of Alexis Hall's books, and ultimately loved this one too, but it took 3 attempts to really get into it. The combination of fantasy elements with a regency setting was delightful. The characters were brilliant, from the main lovers to the supporting cast. And the plot itself was a fun multi-part romp, with more depth than I normally pick up from a romance.

However, I had a few issues, both helping to explain that slow start to enjoyment. I think the narrator choice was fun, but overly complicated. It felt like we were seeing this story through a filter, when the story was interesting enough that the filter was unneeded. Adding to that, the characters were so deep in their regency stereotypes that sometimes it felt hard to follow what they meant. I have not read that many regency romances, so this could just be my lack of familiarity with the sub-genre though!

Overall, another very fun sure-to-be hit from Alexis Hall!

Alexis Hall has an absolute talent for weaving stories in amazing new ways. I fell in love with every character in this book and even the narrator. This story brings so much love and passion into the plot which I was not expecting but absolutely loved.

The representation of how hard queer relationships can be is so true and it’s all shown in such an amazing manner. The aesthetics, the writing, the characters, ect. Everything was amazing.

CW/TW:
Attempted Rape

I liked this novel reminded me a lot of the author's other novel a lady for a Duke in its writing style. I really loved that it was an explicitly lesbian romance that took place in not modern setting. I really wish it had spent more time on the last arc of the novel for the ending felt a little abrupt looking for items for Minerva.

Mortal Follies starts with a bang but quickly loses steam. The narration gimmick is interesting - having a fae narrating the humans' story- but it was badly suited for a romance (there's only so much an exterior narrator can say about a romance before it becomes creepy and awkward). The narrator's commentary often disappears when the author seem to realise he wants to write the story and actions and not comment on everything so why do we have this narrator in the first place (besides fun concept to play with)

I am surprised this book is not the first in a series (or it has not been announced yet) because there are way too many side characters set up for their own arc and vast possibilities opened up. Honestly too many insipid characters in the first part of the story made me lose interest in this for weeks. The main story is really boring and the book really becomes a romance in the last third. Although "romance" because with an external narrator the characters have to voice all of their emotions for us to know about them.

Something that bothered me is that Georgiana is presented as a stone top (lesbian who only gives and does not let her lover touch her). This is rare to see in books and I was pleasantly surprised to see an non-lesbian author explore a complex part of lesbian sexual identity. Turns out Maelys spends some time upset about this and try to pressure her lover into letting her touch her which I found extremely uncomfortable. Georgiana accepts because the reason she was like that is that she's brooding and has a dark secret (which is really disappointing- both the secret and the non stone top thing).

And then we get more fantasy plot which does not do the book any good

This was really cute. Funny, bridgerton meets witches but with a pov/narrator that gives me Hermes vibes.

10/10 would recommend!


Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to receive an arc in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed it, and then I didn't.
The writing was great and the story was very whimsical. I love a good whimsy, especially in a magical Victorian England set story. However, we are introduced to interesting characters that aren't seen again. I am hoping this is because there will be more stories to come set in the same world. Otherwise, what was the point? I also felt that the romantic aspect of the story was drawn out far too long. The Duke is very hot/cold, to the point where I was over it. A little too slow-burn for me. The first half is fun, there's magic, there's curses, there's the 'will they, won't they?' relationship, there's a battle of sorts. It almost seems as if the second half could have been a separate story. A second curse tacked on after the first felt superfluous. The characters are really what kept the story going. Miss Bickle, Mr. Caeser, the parents, Tabitha, and even the Goblin narrator are all delightful. The character development for Maelys was fantastic and worth the read, even if I think she deserved better than the Duke.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Buckle up for a romantasy— for a sapphic romance— for a grumpy sunshine trope— for a return to Bath (if you love Jane Austen that is). I’m a huge fan of Alexis Hall, and Mortal Follies had the whimsy and humor I have come to expect from all of Hall’s books. I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan so the allusion to Midsummer Night Dream was lost on me for the first half of the book— then I felt very silly. Now that I can appreciate it that Puck is our hobglobin narrator I want to reread this book to see what other things I may have missed! The narrative voice IS hilarious and I’m sort of hoping Hall writes more tales from my new favorite globetrotting hobgoblin’s point of view! Some other reviews mentioned the pacing of this book was surprising— I would just say that it’s a ride, and you should enjoy it. The arc is maybe not what you would expect but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. The romantic storyline happens more in the latter half than the first half and that’s all I’ll say! I enjoyed an arc from NetGalley and this is an honest review.

This was such a fun and enjoyable sapphic read! While the story and plot were interesting and enjoyable, who doesn’t like a good curse and godly magic, my favorite aspect of this was the narrator! It was lots of fun to reward this through the eyes of Puck, the hobgoblin. I was literally laughing out loud at the narration and story telling. The story itself was good but a little predictable. It was easy enough to figure out who put the curse on Miss Mitchelmore and the ending and some other little things. But I did love characters and their relationships. Miss Mitchelmore and the Duke of Annadale had a well written slow burn that had me screaming at them to kiss in every scene together and delighted when it finally happened. I also absolutely loved Miss Bickle and found her hilarious. She completely stole the show! I want another book but with her as the mc.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and recommend you read it when it comes out this summer!

Read if you like…
•sapphic
•curses
•regency era
•slow burn
•faeries

4.0 stars. A Regency romance in which Miss Maelys Mitchelmore, plagued by increasing levels of supernatural misfortune, falls in love with a noblewoman suspected of dark magics by polite society. As told by eternal trickster Robin Goodfellow.

I very much enjoyed the first half of this book and its stylized voice (in which I am now struggling not to write this review). Maelys's struggle to deal with her curse and the not-always-helpful input from her friend and family played delightfully against the formal setting of Regency-era high society. But by the latter half, I was wishing for Maelys's free-spirited friend, Miss Bickle, to take up the reins as main character. The action subsided as the romance between Maelys and the Duke took precedence, and it felt as if the sense of bright, brittle whimsy tinged with mystery and darkness was never quite recaptured. There was also a mismatch between the conflicts encountered and the actions undertaken to address them. That said, if there are any more stories forthcoming in this world of Fey and Old God observers, I would gladly take the plunge.

I was given the opportunity to review an e-ARC of MORTAL FOLLIES through NetGalley.

Man, I went on a journey with this one.

It’s always a tricky experience when you have high expectations for something, whether because it sounds like something you would love (lesbians, magic, historical, ironic narrators) or because you love the author’s past work (Pansies, … okay look I can’t list everything). You want to love it, but you are hyperaware about the potential for disappointment so you’re preemptively trying not to try to love it, because that will just make you dislike it? And this book is such a specific tone that I read it in batches with days in between because I wanted to really be able to immerse myself in the tone instead of reading it in snatches on the train or while some database was loading on my work laptop (what, am I going to sit around and do nothing while I wait? That’s a whole 15 seconds!), which meant that this book was percolating for significant amounts of time even though I wasn’t always reading it. So rather than try to write an actual review, I’m going to give you a sense of my experience of reading it:

1%: Delightful!
30%: Idk idk… is this a bit depressing? Does the tone really cohere?
40%: Is it me or is this dragging…. Why this filler? The plot is going nowhere.
56%: uhhhhhh okay this is decent actually, but was the plot just basically resolved?? What is going to happen for the rest of the book??
70%: you know what, this is great! I would happily just follow these characters. (But seriously, what’s going to happen, now it’s just looming.)
90%: okay this all totally works, this makes perfect sense, what an incredibly structured book actually, when I finish maybe I should reread the first half so that I can reflect on it in context??
100%: I’m literally tearing up???? Oh my god, a perfect happy ending, this is all I ask for in a historical romance!!

So, like I said…. I went on a journey lol.

A few additional points which, while seemingly random, all turn out to relate to Jane Austen:

- One of my favorite things about Austen etc. is a narrator/narration that lovingly(…ish) mocks the characters. I knew I loved Emma when she bent down to tie her absolutely not-untied shoelace so that Harriet and Elton could walk on together and then a little child ran up so she walked next to them, and it was all totally natural, the most natural thing in the world… or, the book gently and hilariously points out, it would have been natural if she were not, you know, doing it all on purpose. Technically speaking. So basically I adored this book’s puckish (hah) narrator. I wonder if it would get old and it never did!
- I loved how, Austen-esque, there was a relatively small circle of side characters that recurred at various points in the story. There was a moment where I thought “oh no! Are we really not going to see [redacted] again??” Pshaw, of course we were!
- I appreciate the lack of plot predictability even though the plot is very purposefully structured and exists within a genre full of familiar tropes? Because it was really that I was expecting a modern Regency romance plot and what I got was an Austen plot. Very fun! I was hesitant about this book because prior to reading it I was really feeling oversaturated on Regency era historical romance, but I think the key is that the book is a play on Austen, not Georgette Heyer.

And finally… it’s brutal how much I relate to/want to be the Duke of Annadale and yet I have neither an ominous reputation, nor a gallery with portraits of my devilish ancestors, nor a pistol on my bedside table, nor a beautiful ingenue begging me to fuck her and/or save her life…….………… 🧐

I have mixed feelings about this book. The writing was beautiful. Scenes and characters were described in vivid detail and the narrator went out of their way to be sure you understood what was happening

However, I wasn’t fond of the narrator. This book is told through the lens of a fairy set about finding a story. So while we do get an omnipresent point of view, it is filled with the narrator’s opinions of the women and their actions.

Overall, there was nothing outright concerning about the content. It was an adventurous and beautiful story chronicling two women finding love. It was just HEAVILY detailed to the point of being overdone. The narrator fell down many a rabbit hole. It took me a long while to finish the book and, at only 416 pages, it felt much much longer.

I have to state that this book is a romance book first and foremost. Is it spicy? No. Is it rich with love? No. Is it realistic regarding love? Yes. This book seemingly has two parts: during the curse and after the curse (and during the curse again). Whenever it seemed the main conflict was resolved, a new conflict would become apparent.

I liked this book and the overall message. I just didn’t care for the narrator. I felt like I was hearing a story secondhand (which I was). I never felt like I was an active participant in the enjoyment of the story. I read about how much the narrator enjoyed the story, but I never enjoyed it. It was like reading a chronicle- very informational.