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

I only gave this book 3 stars because it took me forever to get into the story. The beginning really dragged so it took me over two weeks to get to the point where I was gripped by the story because I just kept putting it down.

Once the story picked up, it was pretty interesting. I liked both Niamh and Kit. I also really enjoyed the magical system in this book. Overall, the story was good, but I wish it wouldn’t have taken so long to get to the interesting part.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn't influence my review. This book was like Spin the Dawn, as the FMC had to sew magical dresses. Some tropes include: hate to love, bisexual MMC, enemies to lovers. This was an okay read.

“You're like a pint-sized hurricane of earnestness and good cheer.”

No one writes romance like Allison Saft. The yearning, the pinning and the sweet kindness throughout? Impeccable. When Saft's men fall in love, they fall in love with their entire mind, body and soul. I would die to be loved like a Saft man. A Far Wilder Magic is my Pride & Prejudice so when I found out she was writing a new fantasy book with a dressmaker - I was so excited.

A Fragile Enchantment follows Niamh Ó Conchobhair, a dying dressmaker that wants create a safe future for her family in a world where her people are oppressed, so when an invite comes for her to design and create for the royal wedding, she packed up and went to the city. The groom, Kit Carmine wants nothing to do with the wedding, but knowing that it's his political duty as the younger brother of the king - making him prickly and abrasive to Niamh.

Fighting to keep her job and knowing that her future resides in the palm of someone who wouldn't remember her, she tries her best to make her styles and magic show. Their time together starts to bleed almost into a friendship - until a gossip column sees them together, putting both her job and his marriage and ergo the country's future on the line. But love is not meant to be denied, and these two are drawn to each other regardless of country, status and anyone else. (Side note: I won't spoil it here but there's no cheating involved!)

Unfortunately this one didn't hold up for me as much for 2 reasons. The writing style is still IMPECCABLE and I'll always be the biggest fan of Saft's prose but I didn't like how the country's finances were never really solved. If this was SUCH a big issue, why was it never addressed beyond "eh we'll use investments to fix it".

Additionally,  Jack (the King) is very kind to her throughout the entire book UNTIL he finds out she's involved with his brother and suddenly he becomes this massive villain - berating her status and heritage. This complete switch wasn't something I saw coming and it wasn't addressed enough in the story because after this I only saw him as a villain. Alas, this wasn't my favorite of her books.

rep// side wlw, chronic illness, bi MC

cw// alcoholism, homophobia, microaggressions, colonialism

Thank you to the publisher for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked it, it's a book that reads quickly, and hooks you from the beginning!🤍
The plot is not complicated, and it is very entertaining. I also liked the plot twist, it surprised me haha.🙈
I love Kit and Niamh, I loved them since they met and they didn't like each other haha, it's like grumpy/sunshine. They are very cute, I love them.🥹🤍
Also the group of friends that are them, Niamh, Kit, Sinclair, Rosa and Miriam, ARE BEAUTIFUL, even though “they couldn't stand (some of) each other” haha, it was very nice to see how they developed.🥹🤍
In conclusion, I loved it and I HIGHLY recommend it!! I love you Regency Fantasy.🛐

Lgbt rep
Regency/Historical fantasy
Grumpy-Sunshine
Royalty / commoner
Slow burn
Young Adult
Dressmaker / Prince

Thanks netgalley for the arc

This was an enjoyable read, my first of Allison Saft’s, but it had a few ups and downs. Let me explain.

Let’s do bad news first. Cons: this book starts SLOW, and I mean really slow—other reviews echo this sentiment, but it truly did not pick up or get interesting to me until about 50% of the way through, which feels like a long way to read for the book to get good; at times, the whiny self-loathing of all of the protagonists got a bit old. I understand the need to have messy and imperfect characters, but the reader needs to be able to root for them, and there were moments where I was almost praying on the characters’ downfall, because they were so eager to deny and actively hurt themselves. Come onnnnnnn.

Pros: intriguing fantasy and deity worldbuilding, related to Irish and Spanish lore. I don’t know much about either, but loved the way they were both represented through the setting and the characters’ backgrounds. There were also a slew of queer characters, ranging from lesbian to bisexual to potentially pansexual identities—the text never names any of these labels, obviously, but the representation of different romantic interests with such regularity was refreshing and lovely. Lastly, the intriguing twists and turns, including a Lady Whistledown-like character, added some good plot shocks throughout the novel that kept me invested.

Given all of the above, this gets 3.5⭐️, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads. I enjoyed it, and would read another of Saft’s novels, but a preparation for a slower read seems to be a requisite prior to sitting down with one of her texts.

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Thank you netgalley for the arc! Shut up. I love this. I was so worried we were gonna have a sad ending but I can safely say this is a HEA. I love these characters. GAYS FOR EVERYONE! I loved A Far Wilder Magic but this may be my new favorite of Saft's. I love her worldbuilding. It's not so farfetched that you can't parse it out and you can easily see the parallels to the real world but the way the magic is just makes me happy. It's not overly convoluted. It's just fun and charming and lovely.

Allison Saft delivers yet again. I was captivated by this story from start to finish. I had so many "but wait, what if..." moments throughout this story. The twist had my jaw on the floor. The writing, as usual was beautiful and the romance had me hooked from the very beginning.

Allison Saft truly writes romance like no one else! The intensity of it really leaves me breathless with every book she writes, and this was another BANGER!

A magical spin on "Bridgerton", which is one of my favorite shows. Overall I had a fun time with this book, but there were too many unanswered questions at the end of it for me. I would've loved to see more world-building and background on the different characters. I couldn't quite grasp some of their motivations. While I enjoyed Kit and Niamh's growing relationship, it felt like that was the only thing that had the true Happily Ever After. Nothing else was resolved, and if it was, it was off-page and in some hypothetical future.

3 our of 5 stars. If there's a sequel to this I'd jump right on that. I think Kit and Niamh have so much more to accomplish.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to read and review an early copy of this book. A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft was released on January 2nd, 2024.

Do you like romance? How about fantasy and history? Do you absolutely love Bridgerton and found yourself thinking nonstop about Divine Rivals while waiting for the sequel? If you said yes to any of these (honestly, even if you said no to all of them) then you need to move this book to the top of your TBR immediately.

Allison Saft crafts a world of magic and romance in the absolute most coziest way. The writing is almost lyrical and while you read you will just feel....content. The story is beautiful and the characters are easy to empathize with. Some parts of the book annoyed me (like the clumsiness of Niamh - it was just a bit too much) and, like with all stories, I did find myself questioning why the characters would make the choices that they did.

All in all, A Fragile Enchantment is a good book. It's comforting and entertaining and I don't think anyone will regret picking this story up.

This book was so good up until the ending. It was so rushed and for what? Just to make it a few pages shorter? I know the third acts of fantasy books are usually kind of rushed, but this one was just, “Omg look at that! Ah, now another 4 things are happening at once! Oh sorry you missed it book's over!” Which frustrated me to no end. Loved the writing style and will probably pick up more books by this author

I absolutely adore this book with everything in my being. As far as I am concerned, regency fantasy is the perfect genre, and this is an absolutely perfect addition. I love how Saft blends whimsy and political and social turmoil so well in every book of hers I have read this far. It's not entirely clear from the brief, but I do love that it feels like almost every character in the book is at least vaguely queer, and I am very much here for that. The characters in this are such adorable traumatized little things, and I really like both the hints of world-building that are here and the amazing magic of the main character (Niamh is absolutely everything and I would do anything for that sweet, stubborn child). I am so incredibly happy with this book and particularly enjoy that it seems to know what and when it is much more so than A Far Wilder Magic, and I am so, so excited to read more of Saft as soon as possible.

I simply just couldn’t keep up with what was going on in this book. I kind of felt like my head was spinning all reading this. I don’t know if it’s the authors fault or it just because of what my head has been up. I tried to pick up this book multiple times, but I just couldn’t get into it.

HOW ROMANTIC! The atmosphere for this book was incredible and the way that Allison writes?! I was hooked to this story. I absolutely loved the idea and how fast the plot went. Once I started, I couldn’t put this down. ALSO the tension!!!! I highly recommend this swoon-worthy light fantasy romance.

Although I did enjoy this I felt it was a little slow moving. It took me a while to get into it. I did love the plot overall and thought it was cute. I do like YA books but felt like maybe it could have had a little more chemistry with the main characters.

Reviewed on Goodreads: Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an early access copy of this title.

I found this book a little bit confusing honestly. I think that this amount of fantasy is just not my thing. The plot lines also felt a little bit not planned out fully. There was a lot of information that felt not digestible due to this. There was a lot of different names for things and a lot of information that was just hard to keep track of. The world building was also pretty confusing for me. I was unable to finish this book because of how confused I was.

I think this book would be good for people who are fans of high fantasy and like to get really in depth in the lore of different fantasy worlds.

Rating it 3 stars for the potential it had and the fact that it just wasn’t my cup of tea but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad book because I can see high fantasy readers really enjoying this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Massive information dump in the beginning along with flowery language so it was a lot to grasp all at once. The author was introducing so much but not fully expanding upon the fantasy world! the concept of this sounds magical but the execution wasn't the best! I felt like the book is trying to be too much all at once: historical romance fantasy with a magic element with two rival hierarchical countries with a subplot of an anonymous gossip column. Overall, the writing style didn't match my preferences and it was hard to get through.

I could not and did not want to put this book down. I think is this a true grumpy x sunshine story throughout the entire novel. I thought our main couple were very sweet, and I am glad it was more of a slow burn romance. I really enjoyed the friendships that Niamh was able to develop but I wish we saw her interact more with the other servants that were supposed to be helping her make the dress and coats. She spends quite a bit of time alone it feels like. The story takes it time to I was not really surprised by who Lovelace was, but I did enjoy how it was revealed. I really enjoyed our main characters talents and how it was explored in this fantasy world. While it is a romance, I was very entertained by the politics this world was facing and am really interested in seeing if we will get a follow up book on how our dear prince regent will handle the current social and political challenges. Even if we do not, I think the story can stand on its own as a novel it just felt a little rushed towards the end for me. The pacing overall was so well done that you could read it in one sitting. It never had a slow moment to me and was evenly paced. I overall really enjoyed this story though and will be convincing my friends to read it too.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for the eARC

Review: 4 stars

A regency romance with a Bridgerton spin to it is definitely enchante!

I was enchanted by the story and found it to be a fun read. I do love the fact that neither leads are perfect and there was representation of mental health issues, chronic illness, LGTBQ representation, monarchy ruling and civil unrest on the fairness of treatment of their rights and fair wages.

The story begins with Niamh, a seamstress known for making enchanted gowns, is hired to design the wedding attire of the royal wedding of the year. This is further complicated as the person who hired her is also the same family that caused a blight in her land which her people fought their hard-press independence from. Reluctantly, she accepted the role as she was the main breadwinner for her family of three. During this process, she meets the reluctant groom who is marrying out of duty and sparks fly! It is not surprising how they detest each other on sight as she finds him rude, prickly and insufferable while he finds her annoying, self-sacrificing and putting others first instead of herself. However, the more they get to know one another…the harder they fall, but of course, him being a royal prince and her being a commoner, this is forbidden. Also, the longings, the secret glances and the sweet angst - sooo good!

The theme of found family is also heavily presented here as the supporting characters play a very dynamic role with their own problems and side stories which adds to the complications of the main plot and brings it all together. The world building itself with magic present adds a fun element to the story weaving the plot together. The writing style itself makes you fall in love with the characters and cheer for them as they go through their ups and downs.

Overall, a great read if you are looking for something regency with some political intrigue and romance thrown in.

I love A Fragile Enchantment with my whole heart! It has everything you could ever want in a romantasy book, with a beautiful setting, enchanting writing, relatable characters, and more! From the very first page, I knew I was going to love it. We're immediately thrust into the magical world of Avaland with Allison's enchanting writing style that grabs your attention and never lets go. Much like Niamh's creations, the prose of this book was full of emotion and heart! Reading this book took me through so many emotions. I was constantly smiling throughout this whole read, but I also really appreciated the serious topics and discussions within it. The descriptions of the settings fully immersed me into the story right away. I felt like I was right beside Niamh and Kit, experiencing everything with them.

We have to talk about the characters! I related to Niamh so much. I loved the kindness and care she showed to everyone around her. But I also couldn't get enough of her character development. Seeing her grow and learn what it means to take charge of your life was inspiring. Her selflessness and determination were a few of the characteristics I admired most in Niamh. But I also loved her imperfections, her clumsiness, and her stubbornness. And Kit! His grumpiness complimented Niamh's earnestness perfectly! He's definitely a bit rough around the edges but I loved that about him! Plus the banter between the two of them was pure gold! The romance was perfectly paced and I was constantly rooting for them. All of the side characters were brilliant also! Each had an in depth background and unique personality. The elements of found family in this friend group were fantastic and definitely added to the cozy vibes of this book.

A Fragile Enchantment is one of those books where after you finish it, you close the book and stare at the cover for a while to process it all. The action was exciting and the plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat! It was an all around perfect read, I wouldn't change a thing!

This is without a doubt another all time favourite of mine! Everyone drop what you're doing and read it!