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Member Reviews
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Magic and regency era like setting felt so promising, but this one didn’t hit me like I hoped. I do love how the FMC is a soft hero, but found her character to be a bit annoying. And the chemistry between her and the MMC a bit lacking.
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This is such a beautifully written and delicate romantasy that is currently living rent free in my head, Books have the power to do that, especially ones like these.
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WHAT A DELIGHTFUL FANTASY!
All the elements made it extremely captivating! The Magic and romance, tension and banter, an actually believable world and real stakes, and of course characters were so fabulous!!!!
Allison Saft has done it again and proven why she's an instant auto-buy author able to just transport me to a whole another world in all the books she writes!
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The writing was confusing and chaotic. I was really hoping for that young adult forbidden regency romance that was marketed but it fell flat and felt like I was reading a middle grade novel.
Romance was just okay. The reveal was underwhelming and just seemed like a direct ripoff of Bridgerton Lady Whistledown.
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While I love regency inspired worlds and romantic stories, this book fell a bit flat for me. It felt overly juvenile and I wasn't impressed with the writing style or prose. The characters were also a bit flat which made me struggle to finish this one.
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DNF @ 10%
Premise seems interesting, but the beginning is so hard to read. Massive info dumps and just this one helpful character just going on long expositions telling us everything we need to know. Feels like there's no point in reading the rest of the book, everything was laid out so clearly.
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Hard DNF. At 40% in, the pace was glacial and absolutely nothing of consequence had occurred. It’s a fun premise but nothing more.
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A bit of a disappointment.
I was so ready to love this one, but it just felt like a lot of wasted potential.
This one could have been amazing.
However, there was some fun moments and I loved the Bridgeton vibes.
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I really enjoyed this book. I hope the author continues to write more books in the future. I can't wait to see what this author releases in the future.
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A Fragile Enchantment is Alison Saft's young adult foray into historical romantic fantasy. More specifically, it is a forbidden romance filled with tension and banter. Saft brings a unique perspective into this genre with their slow-build romance but fast-paced novel. The characters have their own intrigue and are believable, the world is fascinating and an interesting touch of a historical. I believe fans of Brigerton will really enjoy this book as it brings everything from captive budding love story between two characters who do not get along, only to find out they have more in common than they realize.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for an arc to review.
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The writing was lovely and atmospheric, and I thought the magic system was inventive. I also loved the character development!
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I absolutely LOVED this book!! It was a 6/5 star read for me. It had everything I loved…magic, Bridgerton vibes, and fashion/sewing.
As someone with chronic health issues studying fashion, I really felt like I could relate to Niamh, which made me love her so much more. Beyond that, I truly loved all the characters in this book because they felt real. One minute I absolutely loved them and the next minute I was so frustrated with them, but nonetheless, I wanted to be best friends with most of them.
Even though it took me a minute to get into the book, I fell in love with it (I literally stayed up until 3 am to finish it). The romance between Niamh and Kit just gave me all the feels. It was the kind of love story that made me laugh out loud, smile, and kick my feet with excitement. Overall, I just felt so immersed in the story. In summary, READ THIS BOOK!!!
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I loved A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft. It's a sweet and magical story with a forbidden enemies-to-lovers romance in a cozy fantasy setting. It reminded me of Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle in the best way. This was my first historical fantasy romance, and it definitely won't be my last. I can't wait to read more by this author as well.
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Allison Saft is one of my favorite authors in YA fantasy right now. I really love her worldbuilding and magic systems, and this book was no exception. I loved Niamh's magic and how it played into the romantic, regency atmosphere. The hate to love romance was fun and compelling, as was the court intrigue. A new favorite.
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This was a much better book than I expected. I thought the story was predictable, but still incredibly well written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. The characters in their own way are all endearing. And to my own surprise, I actually highlighted two quotes that spoke to me and I am not a person to highlight within my kindle books. Niamh Was strangely relatable, and I absolutely adore her as a character, and Kit ended up being so much better of a character than I initially thought he would be. It gave me Cruel Prince vibes, but I enjoyed this book a good amount more.
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The book had a great premise but I believe the execution could have been better. While the author gave reason for the political unrest the people's anger and plead for operations wasn't convincing. I feel that this would have been better if it were a duology to flesh out the political background as well as the love story. The book focused too much on the love story but not enough on the racism and the damage that was done to the main characters' kinfolk. I feel that the ending was a little rushed and wrapped in a pretty bow without any real solution taking place. It was a quick and whimsical read but I found it lacking in depth. I wish the main character was able to do more with her powers or show a different facet of her powers that she discovered to solve the political unrest. It wasn't bad by any means just lacking.
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Review to come when St. Martin's Press meets with protest organizers. I have read and have a review ready for this book and would very much like to post about it, but I will not cross the picket line.
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I absolutely loved these characters and could not get enough of the world and beautiful writing.
What I love
Historical magical fantasy
Enchanting friendships
Dreamy and captivating
Swoony
Lovable characters
Eloquent writing
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I have some mixed feelings about this one. There wasn’t anything wrong with this exactly, quite the contrary but try as I might I could not convince myself to love this the way that I wanted to. It’s a low stakes fantasy but for me it felt like a bit too low to the point that I was bored. The characters were lovable but didn’t quite enamor me, I loved the magic system and would have loved more stakes given the parallels to history and the potential of that element but all in all, this was just OK. I do want to give this another go on audiobook sometime in the future.
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A wonderfully whimsical Regency romantasy!
When Niamh, whose magic allows her to imbue fabric with memories and feelings, is invited to make the royal-wedding wardrobe for the powerful neighboring country of Avaland, she is determined to work her hardest. She has her family to provide for, and, in Avaland’s royal court, she’s representing the people of her own country, who are marginalized and oppressed under the imperial reach of Avaland. Niamh is also terminally ill—time is not on her side, so she must make her mark on the world while she can.
She arrives in Avaland to find that she’ll have to work directly with the groom, a prickly prince named Kit with secrets of his own. As if her growing feelings for the grumpy and very-engaged Kit aren’t bad enough, Niamh must also navigate high-society scandal, a mounting rebellion, and her own inner conflict at working for the monarchy that’s oppressing her people.
A FRAGILE ENCHANTMENT will appeal to anyone who loves:
- Bridgerton, but wishes it had a dash of magic
- Kyo Sohma from Fruits Basket
- Practical magic systems (like in Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic quartet)
- Sunshine x grump
- Yearning and angst!
- Whimsy!
While this book’s plot is led by the romance, it doesn’t fall into the trap I’ve sometimes seen in romantasy where the story suffers at the expense of building the romance. Rather, the story and romance are inextricably woven together. The political intrigue is not simply historical window-dressing but grapples with colonialism, class politics, and critiques of monarchy.
I loved that the entire friend group (!) was queer, and that Niamh and Kit bonded over their shared sexual identity. The relationships in this book are all intricately crafted, from the romance between Niamh and Kit to their friendships with Sinclair, Rosa, and Miriam, and the sibling dynamic between Kit and Jack. One relationship I really appreciated was the one between Kit and Sinclair—it was such a lovely example of a male friendship that we need more of! These layered, nuanced, and very real relationships brought the book to life.
While there is certainly lots of forbidden love and angst—and both Niamh’s and Kit’s internal journeys and healing processes were truly moving—there are also so many sweet, cozy, and wholesome moments throughout the book. I can’t recommend it highly enough!