nope. i did not like this book AT ALL. 1) the unnecessary love triangle that brought nothing to the story and you knew from the get go who she was going to end up with, 2) the love interest was this white knight type of guy and the way this is rendered was terrible: a rape attempt is quite traumatic, even if it’s “just” an attempt, and i hate when this kind of things happen just so the 2 characters can get closer, have them talk about it but don’t use it as a way to get them to kiss, 3) i didn’t particularly feel the italian folklore and although i don’t know much about it, i couldn’t tell it was there. 4) on the love interest, can we stop with the alpha male guys? it’s cringe most of the time, borderline sexist to straight up terrible and this book didn’t escape this phenomenon. 5) cannetella was a little annoying and stupid but she improved as the book went on. cute cover but the actual story wasn’t it. 1.5⭐️

I love the cover but I found the story and characters lacking. I love the author's ideas, but I feel like they could have been polished more.

Cannetella wasn't the book for me. In some instances it was predictable and enjoyable but mostly landed flat. I was really hoping I would enjoy this one.

Thank you to #Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions above are my own.

DNF about 30% the book is lackluster. The female main character showed promise, but when it was time to act, she didn’t really help herself much.

the dedication: to all the girls who saw the true villain before anyone else.
the cover: GORGEOUS OMG I’m obsessed before I even open the book
FMC: Cannetella- the princess of a kingdom who is being forced to marry by her 20th birthday. She gives her father the impossible task saying she will only marry a man with a face of pure gold… there’s no way he’ll find someone that matches this, and she can live her life free of the confines of marriage… right?
MMC: Enzo- the lone surviving Stregone who will do anything to get his kingdom’s magic back… including wearing a face of pure gold and marrying a rival kingdom’s only daughter.
POV: 1st person, single POV
HEA: yes
spice: yes, there are several open-door spicy scenes with lots of talking and praise
TWs: slight OW drama, poisoning, murder, kidnapping, attempted SA, death of a parent, death of family, physical abuse from family members, emotional manipulation
standalone: this is book 1 in the Tales of the Lost Kingdom series
final thoughts: this book was SO GOOD I loved the enemies-to-lovers, push-and-pull, aspects of their relationship. I couldn’t put it down and loved almost every minute of it… I KNOW I KNOW it’s just a story but the OW drama and manipulation was driving me NUTS and I just wanted him to stop being an idiot and tell her how he feels and trust her! BUT the storyline was great, and the spicy scenes were SO GOOD. I feel like there are so many things left open and I’m curious to see how they unfurl in the next book of the series if it follows the same characters.

read this book if you love
🥰 nicknames
🥵 dirty talk/praise
🌍 world building
🔮 supernatural creatures
🪄 magic
💖 paranormal romance
🏝️ forced proximity (locked in a castle)
📖 retelling (Beauty and the Beast vibes)
🌀 plot twists
🗡️ murder mystery

Summary: this book was not for me.

What I liked:
Cannetella does become less petulant as the book goes on so I did like her a bit more then. Enzo had some fun moments and some very good/fun lines.

What didn’t work for me:
Everything about this book should have been something I loved but it just never landed for me. I was bothered by how Enzo was controlling and seemed to not really want her help even though he brought her to his home for her help?? Then annoyed with how Cannetella did not act like somebody who needed to break a curse to save her life (and Enzo’s magic which also meant her freedom) Honestly, I just kept wondering “what are the actual stakes in this story!?” This is ultimately what I couldn’t get over.



Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I’ll keep it short, but this book wasn’t for me. I enjoyed the Italian influences, but that’s about it. I’m sure others will love it though.

I DNFed this book at the 51% mark which is also when her second sexual assault attempt occurs in this book. If your story isn't strong enough to progress without a series of attempted sexual assaults, there is a fundamental problem with the story and it needs to be reworked.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

Thank you netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for allowing me to read this book. I was so excited for this book from the moment I requested it and it did not disappoint! I loved how scrappy and feisty cannatella is and how witty Enzo was. I liked the drama but wish cannetella wasn’t so back and forth. I loved the world building and couldn’t get enough of all the different characters! I really enjoyed the twists and turns throughout the book although I did predict who the bad guy was. I was squealing when it came to the steamy interactions between cannetella and Enzo, There was just so much tension and chemistry! I absolutely loved this book and would love to read about jacopo finding love and get to experience more of this fantasy realm they are living in.

I was very intrigued by this story when I read the synopsis. I never read Italian folklore so I wanted to read something different that I never picked up before.

First off, I really did like the characters. The princess wasn't extremely unlikable at first. She was pampered and wanted the life she wanted without responsibilities. So, when she was forced into the marriage, she fought tooth and nail in the situation. She didn't let life dictate her.
Enzo did come across as a mysterious but gentle person and I wanted to know more about him. Love it!

But, unfortunately, there wasn't enough world-building in my opinion of the magic system that seemed to be banned in Cannetella's kingdom. You are in the dark about the Stergone and why they have the magic that they do. This magic is to be feared by you really have no idea why.

When I started reading this book, I thought, WOW, this is amazing. I love this. I charged ahead in the next chapters really loving this book. Then, at the 25% mark, when Cannetella was in the castle of her new husband, the plot just dragged. The plot wasn't moving fast and I struggled to stay engaged with the story at that point.

Other than the golden mask and some Italian words, this did not come across as Italian folklore but just another Beauty and the Beast retelling. For someone who doesn't read Italian folklore, I wish there was more of a way of understanding the difference between what everyone is familiar with and the folklore that is being introduced.

i was not expecting it tbh. it was fun, entriguing. the plot was a bit predictable but nice, the characters were quirky and loveble, especially the fmc.

This synopsis had me and with it being new adult I thought it would read more like an adult book but sadly, no. The FMC was so spoiled and obnoxious that I had a very, very hard time wanting to root for her. It was also suppose to be an enemies to lovers trope but there was this whole insta-lust thing that just didn't fit. Maybe I'm not the intended reader group but this one was just not my cup of tea.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.
Cannetella is a story about a human girl tricked into marrying a sorcerer after growing up to hate magic and all that has to do with it. Turns out they have to pair up to keep themselves alive. Romance and chaos happen.
There were some things I liked and some things that didn’t sit right with me. The things I liked: the world was beautifully described, the steamy scenes were decent, and the magic system was mostly developed. Things I didn’t like: sexual assault as a main plot driver and way too many villains.
The author did a great job of describing the world; the castle, the lake, and the forest were all well expressed in a way where I felt very much there. The magic system was also easy to follow. You are born with magic and it can be stolen. You weren’t surprised by a new magic thing because nothing was deemed impossible. The steamy scenes were also decent. They were put into places that made sense and were mostly realistic.
Now. The bad. First off, the number of villains was several too many. I did not like how there is a whole plot line where Cannatella has grown up believing sorcerers are evil but not Enzo! He will show you that there are good and bad sorcerers just like there are good and bad humans. Except then basically every sorcerer she meets thereafter are evil? And the sexual assault. Cannetella thinks the Enzo is going to assault her. But he doesn’t (good guy remember). But then the next guys she meets does try to assault her. And then her uncle basically almost does too? Also her mother was a victim of creepy Uncle too? Why are all the men so icky here?
Anyway. The book wasn’t bad per say. But it also wasn’t my cup of tea.

3.5/5

I enjoyed the story overall!

I liked the enemies to lovers romance between Cannetella and Enzo and the magical feel of the writing. I always felt very present in the magical world Rowan built. I also liked the plot line of Cannetella being tricked into marrying Enzo and that she must find the answers to the cursed necklace she's wearing or else she will die.

However, I felt like the plot was rushed at times and jumped to conclusions rather than explain. Additionally, I loved how fierce Cannetella was, but too often she was very immature for her age that was very annoying for the first half of the book. I also wish there was a bit more world building to know more about the world and the magic in the story.

I read the description, saw the cover, and was interested, but skeptical. I was, very, very pleasantly surprised. I really, really enjoyed this book and 100% recommend it.

Plot
The plot in Cannetella is well thought out and well written. Although it was a little predictable at points and there weren't any huge plot twists of surprises within the book, it was good. The plot was interesting and drove the characters relationships forward. Arranged marriage situation ship, lives on the line due to a situation, all and all, it was a pretty well rounded and entertaining plot.

Characters
The characters are well written and relatively fleshed out. While at parts they did feel a tad 2-dimensional, for the most part, they were well done. The relationships had me entertained, although I do wish there was a tad more relationship development, for how plot driven this book was it's totally okay that there wasn't quite as much. Especially for how short of a read this was - for me at least.

Overall
Overall, I rather enjoyed this book, and 100% do recommend it. It was a good, entertaining, and relatively short read for me. It only took me about three-ish hours to read, and breaking it up over several days made it the perfect low stress plot driven fantasy read.

Interesting plot based off of Italian folklore that I haven't read about before. The writing style was very pretty, but the book had a pretty decent amount of grammatical errors and typos. The plot twist was pretty predictable, which made me kind of sad since I thought I was going to be surprised going into it. Pacing was a bit rushed towards the end as well. The story has a ton of potential though!

I really enjoyed the first quarter or so of this, but I unfortunately lost interest beyond that.

I did really like the mythology and fantasy aspects, but I think part of the reason for losing interest is that the relationship between the main couple felt like it developed much too quickly to be believable. I didn't feel like there was enough character development either individually or together as a couple for me to get invested in their story.

I think may people will enjoy this because the fantasy aspects are quite fun, but sadly not for me overall.

Thank you for this opportunity! Oh was this just simply magical and fun. I stayed up way past my bed time to finish it. It was that good!

I was excited for this book and the journey ahead when Cannetella asks for a nearly impossible wish that somehow gets granted. But as time goes on Cannetella becomes repetitive and as a character she seems like nothing more than a brat. And for some reason Enzo likes this???? It’s the classic case of one person who is terrible while the other person seems to be magically in love with this person for basically no reason and does anything to make them happy. All the while the story remains nearly stagnant until like 85 to 90 percent of the book when suddenly everything is set in motion and the Princess who has been foolish the entire book suddenly becomes mature and turns everything around. It was too quick of a switch up for me to believe the way things play out and I was not into their romance or love scenes at all. I cringed the entire time because his possession thing was not it. It was such a good premise but got drawn out for far too long. Not a terrible book but not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

I’m a fan of the author’s decision to use lesser known fairy tales for their retellings. I hadn’t heard of Cannetella before, and although the original story is much (like so much) darker than this iteration, I appreciate author’s that tap into stories that haven’t been told a million times over.

A wintery Castello set upon a lake deep in the woods, (mostly) well explained magic system, and a so-so enemies to lovers trope between the main characters.

The plot, considering the book is relatively short, did drag on and meander, especially in the beginning. I kept falling asleep in the first 30% of the novel until it finally picked up pace. You knew who the bad guy was throughout the entire story — so, not shocking when Cannetella realizes what’s been verrrry obvious for months.

I love the cover, I like the concept, and the story itself was good enough to keep me engaged after that bumpy start.