I always love a good regency switch up, the magical elements seamlessly flow into the plot (as usual, thank you Allison for existing). The tension, the gentleman who is not gentle all the time, thorny man that he is. In love with this story and cried many times as an oldest daughter I get this in the core of my being.

I love Allison Saft’s debut and sophomore novels, Down Comes The Night and A Far Wilder Magic, so I was highly excited when I received an ARC for her newest release, A Fragile Enchantment.
Saft’s prose is, as it’s title, enchanting and luscious, perfectly encapsulating a magical atmosphere that is prevalent throughout A Fragile Enchantment. I would say Saft’s writing is definitely a strong factor, perhaps even better in this one.
When it comes to writing characters, Saft writes them with care and sensitivity, and I couldn’t help but love them. The characters are lovable and the romance is fantastic.
However, despite praises, I was left a bit unsatisfied by the plot and world building in A Fragile Enchantment. Truth be told, I can’t even distinctly pinpoint what exactly is the main plotline other than the romance plotline.
The world building is the weakest factor in Saft’s novels, and, unfortunately, it’s not the best aspect in this novel.
Despite that, I enjoyed A Fragile Enchantment, and I would still highly recommend!

3.5 stars. A very sweet YA Regency fantasy romance between a magical seamstress and the prince whose wedding she’s been hired to create garments for, with a Bridgertonesque Lady Whistledown subplot.

This was full of coziness and yearning, and while Niamh worried constantly, I wouldn’t quite call it anxiety and it didn’t make me want to throw the book against the wall as so many romances with anxious protagonists do.

The writing was truly lovely, too, with a truly excellent first kiss scene that is the perfect culmination of all the tension and longing of the story up to that point.

The main thing that felt off to me is that this is set in an alternate world, but the author is so clearly basing the locations on real countries. Aveland is imperialist England. Machland, with its Blight and names like Niamh Ó Conchobhair and the derision its inhabitants are held in by the Avlish, is Ireland. Castilia, whose citizens literally speak dialogue in Spanish, is Spain. It was strange to be reading about a fantasy world when the real-world counterparts were so obviously being referenced. Why not set it in the real England/Ireland/Spain or go all in on creating a high fantasy world? The in-between setting which wasn’t the real world but not quite NOT the real world kept pulling me out of the story because I kept wondering whether events and people referenced in the story were made up or real.

This so was freaking charming and sweet! I adored it. This book has great character, and good pacing, and was such a fun time. I recommend if you are looking for a fluffy fantasy romance.

Here’s my summary of this book: Gossip Girl meets Bridgerton except it’s boring and the scandal is predictable because everyone is bi.

While this book had some potential for interesting plot points, everything felt underdeveloped. Sadly, the characters really weren’t endearing and I found myself disliking most of them, aside from Sophia and Miriam.

The romance between Kit and Niamh felt forced and was very cringey. While I understand what the author was trying to do with those characters, it was overall a 🚩 relationship. I felt that he was very disrespectful towards Niamh because he didn’t have any respect for himself, and she deserved better—prince or not.

I wish we had gotten more insight about how the characters got their magic or learned how to use it. I understand they had “divine blood”, but is there more to that?

Some moments were sweet, but it definitely didn’t peak my interest until the halfway point. I thought the overall concept was interesting, but the execution left much to be desired.

Thank you to the author and Wednesday Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 40%

the narrator was fantastic. i really enjoyed her voice and it helped to listen to this with the gaelic names. i was really enjoying the story overall, but then it got to a certain point and i realized that i’m just not the audience for this book. i also wouldn’t recommend this as YA. it’s definitely new adult and should be treated as such.

thank you to wednesday books and macmillan audio for advanced copies. my thoughts are my own.

Magical and delightful all in one, Allison Saft takes A Fragile Enchantment and weaves olden-time romance, royalty, duty, and magic beautifully.

I loved watching Kit and Niamh lives interwine in the best way possible. Kit calls himself “all thorns” because at first and through most of his encounters he comes off that way. He has a very prickly disposition and uses his words as weapons. However, I loved watching him grow. On the other side, Niamh is very much our “sunshine” in the grumpy x sunshine equation we see. She has a gift that can make anyone feel so many things simply by weaving them into clothing. Yet at the heart of it, she truly cares about other people and how she can help them. These two were simply enchanting to watch together.

There are so many wistful feelings throughout A Fragile Enchantment. The story is set in older times with royalty, duty, and prejudices and our characters long to do the right thing while navigating the world’s difficulties. I will say in the beginning it was a bit tough to gather all the information and get the names down. However, once you start connecting everything the story takes off tenfold and I adored this magical story.

2.5 Stars
One Liner: Disjointed and scattered

Niamh Ó Conchobhair is a commoner but a gifted seamstress who can weave enchantments into the dresses she makes. This gets her an invitation to make dresses for the royal wedding in the kingdom of Avaland, a neighbor who has been oppressing her country for generations. Still, Niamh is not willing to let go of the chance to earn money and give her mother and gran a better life.
Soon, Niamh realizes things aren’t great in Avaland. The groom, Prince Kit (Christopher) is rude and is nothing more than a pawn in a political wedding. As Kit and Niamh spend time together, friendship and love bloom. However, someone knows or suspects it and is now blackmailing them to reveal some crucial secrets.
What will Niamh and Kit do? Fight for love, sacrifice for the kingdom, or find a way out to solve all problems?
The story comes in Niamh’s third-person POV.

What I Like:
The cover of this edition is beautiful. It is whimsical and has an other-worldly feel, which suits the premise.
The bare bones (intentions) are good, be it the conflict between the oppressor and oppressed countries, rich vs. poor, or a magical setting.
Kit’s magic is well done. It’s the only part of the magical system that was detailed to an extent. Niamh’s talents show promise, but that’s it.
Some descriptions are beautiful and paint a vivid picture of the setting.
Infanta Rosa, Miriam, Sofia, and Sinclair have great potential.

What Could Have Been Better for Me:
Yes, I know this is YA romance. However, I can’t help but feel that the premise has been wasted and diluted. The book could have been more intricate and compact if it was written for an adult audience. (On that note, I’m not sure if Kit’s excessive smoking and the beginning of the love scene are suitable for younger YA readers.)
Niamh reminds me of Bella from Twilight. A comparison I would have liked in my early 20s but not now. Despite the narration not being her first-person POV (thank god!), there’s a lot of rambling. We need Kit’s POV to balance the narrative.
The political conflict and all that is so messy! Even if the conflict is meant for the lead couple to ‘overcome’ the obstacles, it should be streamlined. It’s apparently a fantasy take on England vs. Ireland history, not that it would make any difference. There isn’t a proper resolution, either.
The side characters are way better than the main ones. They should have been more fleshed out.
The romance between Niamh and Kit is okayish. We don’t really know what Kit thinks. We only know what others tell Niamh what Kit thinks/ feels. Convincing? Nope.
I wish we had seen Niamh work. I mean work-work like the seamstress she is- delegating jobs to the staff the prince gave her, choosing between different materials, etc. However, we are told she is overworked and killing herself in the process coz she is so selfless and needs to learn to be selfish. She spends more time with her ‘friends’ and poking her nose into the internal matters. (Yes, there are scenes of her sewing, but I want her to do more than stitch and hurt herself with the stupid needle coz she is overworked.)
The book has themes like class differences, political conflicts, civil unrest, political marriage, parental abuse, alcoholism, forbidden romance, a chronic, life-threatening illness (very vague stuff), etc. But none manages to make an impact.
And… why do we have so many adverbs? 5-6 per Kindle page are too many for my poor brain to ignore. Lots of ‘golden’ light too. *sob*

To summarize, A Fragile Enchantment has a fantastic premise but flatters in execution. Even for a YA read, it could have been better. It is just too disjointed to make an impact.
Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s (Wednesday Books), for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
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Due to the lower rating, the review will not be posted on Amazon.

Such a cute read! I couldn’t get enough of it. The characters were fun and cute and I just loved it after reading such a heavy fantasy book. Definitely would recommend to anyone even if they normally don’t read historical romance books.

This had so much in it! Political unrest, colonization by magical folks, bitter resentments from a past dealt with badly.
The romance between the two mcs was slow and built brick by brick. They were different classes and couldn't be together. He was getting married and she was designing their clothes for goodness sakes. I will say I loved the idea of being able to imbue magic and ideas and feelings into clothes. I would love an outfit that gave me courage, self confidence and make me feel unstoppable some days.

"Bridgerton" and fantasy collide - a charming regency-esque romance with a dash of magic. Alison Shaft weaves a beautiful story of love, longing, magic, classism, and intrigue, with lovable characters that you can't help but root for. I also wasn't expecting such strong queer rep, chronic illness rep, and representation for alcoholism/addiction, all of which was handled really nicely. There's also a great message within about how people-pleasing serves no one and how important it is to steer your own destiny whenever possible. Beautiful and touching, this one is definitely worth a read.

This was such a great read. It had a sweet MC with a bitter love interest. A Regency inspired romance. Magic. Chronic illness rep. The tension and longing between Niamh and Kit was stupendous. The descriptions were beautiful.

This book definitely gives you Bridgerton vibes. I LOVED all of the LGBTQIA representation in this. Unfortunately the politics aspect of this just fell short for me. It felt like it was only in there for that third act conflict. I did not enjoy the how it ended (the duel). I really enjoyed the characters I just felt the plot was missing something.

A magical read to start the beginning of the New Year.

This book gave me all the sunshine grump tropes I love, there was drama and intrigue. There was bi for bi representation and it felt very similar to Bridgerton but with magic.

I could not get enough of this book.

Truly captivating!!

The forbidden love story between a noble prince and a labor girl from a lower class, who have been financially and morally taken advantage of by the aristocracy, is an intriguing idea that embellishes my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers and grumpy meets sunshine.

I would've liked to see more aspects of the magic system/world-building because I feel it wasn't explained enough. But I loved every minute of this!!

A Fragile Enchantment is a story of Niamh, a young woman with the power to make magic by her threading and weaving of fabric. Niamh gets an opportunity to work for the royal family of Avaland making a magical wardrobe for the upcoming wedding of the prince himself.

This is a fun, whimsical story. I love the imagery and the magic elements the author gave the characters.

I think the story is a decent read but more so for adult rather than YA. The romance was swoony with great chemistry but I found the intimacy scenes too much for a YA book. The fade to black/open door ish scene felt out of place for the pace of the story. This book would have been much better as closed door. Plus a love story between and engaged man and another woman is not my thing.

I did enjoy the audio. I felt the narration was done well. Overall, this book had a lot of potential but could have been executed better.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Wednesday books for my audio copy and physical arc. All thoughts and words are my own.

This was a very slow burn and hard to get into. Once the leads finally fell for each, the plot picked up and the romance was palpable between the two. The family drama felt realistic and relatable. Overall it just moved too slowly.

Another wonderful novel by Allison Saft! I adored the setting and the characters and she is SO GOOD at building romantic relationships. The amount of pining and yearning in her books revives my soul every time. I loved the aesthetic of the novel and the prose and just everything!

An auto buy author for me always I can't wait for everyone to read this book!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

I adored this book! This book had so much positive going for it...grumpy/sunshine, lower class/royalty, forbidden love, politics/arranged marriage, chronic illness, family drama, tense political intrigue, scandal, magic...true love.

Niamh and Kit, so loyal and sacrificing. Both always putting the rest of the world first. But watching their walls slowly crumble as they even dare give in to a personal want of this deep connection with the other...oh, my heart. The side characters also captured me along with our main couple.

This was a brilliant fantasy that absolutely enchanted me!

5 stars

This was dreamy, whimsical and full of quite interesting and unique world-building and magic systems that I hadn't seen in YA before. I find Saft's writing to be really immersive and A FRAGILE ENCHANTMENT was no exception.