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.

I wanted to like this book sooooo bad.

And I did for the first quarter. A poor seamstress with magic sent to work in the palace and work for a prince! My catnip, an absolute sell. The Cinderella trope at its best until the glitz and glamour began to fall away. Too many side characters and subplots that did not hold my interest. Perhaps I just don't have the patience to get through it all, but I found myself getting frustrated with the characters' motivations. A lot of talking and not enough doing for my taste, so it's a sad DNF. May this book find its way to the appropriate reader because it wasn't me!

A Fragile Enchantment tells the story of Niamh, an enchanted dressmaker who is selected to craft pieces for the prickly Prince Kit's wedding. Quickly, their stories become intertwined with friendship, political intrigue, love and a dabble of magic. In a word, A Fragile Enchantment is perfection! Saft kept this reader on her toes, while also making the whole thing feel dreamy. I loved it!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for the ARC of Fragile Enchangment.

The cover of this book is beautiful and drew me into the story. Niamh was commissioned to create a wardrobe for the royal wedding. She has a unique ability to sew emotions into her clothing.

I enjoyed the start of the book, it did take me a bit to get used to the names of the characters and places. I did start to lose interest mid book. I figured out what would happen and it seemed to be kind of slow. The book is beautifully written, I can picture the clothing that Niamh created as well as the grounds of the royal castle. The ending though... I won't say much as it would be a spoiler, but it was just so unbelievable.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Fragile Enchantment was well titled because “enchanting” is truly the word that best encapsulates my feelings towards this book. This was my first book by Allison Saft and her writing is nothing short of beautiful. She does such a wonderful job of balancing whimsy and relatability when describing and developing her characters and as a reader, I could not help but fall in love with them. From a King to a commoner they all felt so perfectly imperfect and I found myself rooting for each of them as if they were the main character. I highlighted more lines in this book than almost any other and I am a little sad now to not be able to share them on goodreads since I was not reading the finalized copy. I was a little underwhelmed by the ending but that could have more to do with my love for a good series. I always want more or the characters I love and Niamh and Kit definitely fall in that category. I waffled between 4 and 5 stars but ultimately landed on 5 because of the way this book made me feel. I know I will look back fondly on this one and it will be a story that stays with me. Looking forward to reading more of Saft’s work. ✨

🌷A Fragile Enchantment Review🌷

A Fragile Enchantment is Allison Saft’s latest release. It is a fantasy romance with a Regency England inspired world. Niamh is a magical dressmaker who has been commissioned for the royal wedding in a neighbouring kingdom in Avaland. Her magical abilities allow her to stitch emotions and memories into fabric, though using this magical ability will eventually kill her. She is determined to spend the little time she has left making a better life for her family which is why she has accepted such a large commission. Avaland isn’t necessarily the fairytale she pictured as unrest brews amongst the working class.

Allison Saft’s lyrical and lush writing instantly transports the reader into this beautiful world where reality and magic intertwine seamlessly. I really felt like I was in Regency England and could vividly picture the kingdom of Avaland. I enjoyed her attention to detail and her ability to both capture the wonderful setting and her character’s emotions. I also really enjoyed the way that she takes the reader on a journey through the underlying mystery which is at the heart of the story. I enjoyed the various twists and turns of this compelling story.

Niamh was a strong and interesting main character. She is very self sacrificing and I enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the story. Kit was mysterious, prickly and intriguing. I would have loved the addition of his POV. He reminded me a bit of Prince Corrick from Defy the Night, just a tiny bit though. I would be remiss to not mention that the side characters were also interesting and well developed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one! I look forward to reading more of Saft’s work in the future!

Thank you to @netgalley & @wednesdaybooks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. A Fragile Enchantment came out earlier this week so you can get your hands on it now!

⭐4/5 stars⭐

I went into this book really wanting to love it, despite some reservations, but sometimes a book is simply Not For Me, and I'm trying to be okay with that. I tried reading this at various stages and in various moods, and we just never clicked, so I'm confident in saying it wasn't an issue of mood or timing - this book and I are just not meant to be.

On the pro side of the column, this book has a good setup, and Saft is, as always, great at describing the world so it feels like you're there with the characters. I would love to see the places these characters visit because it reads so beautifully.

But on the con side, I never connected with the characters themselves. There were interesting facets that didn't quite feel fleshed out and motivations and traits drop out and reappear when it's convenient for the plot. Likewise, I struggled with the overall plot and tone. There are elements of frothy romantic fantasy and grim political intrigue/oppressed people fighting for justice, which could all work very well together by either committing to a stark juxtaposition of the two tones or by making it predominantly one with a dash of the other. Here it was a little to0 muddled to work. At least for me.

There are many people who will enjoy this as a light read (or may even find more meaning in it than I did), and if it appeals to you, I encourage you to give it a try. But if Bridgerton-Netflix-inspired fantasy that's just as hit-or-miss about the real historical inspiration isn't your cup of tea, you may want to go ahead and give it a pass.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I adored Saft’s A Far Wilder Magic, so I was extra excited for this release. However, it missed the mark for me in a lot of ways.

Let’s start with the good: I thought the magic and whimsy of this one was definitely fun. Niamh is a great and unique MC, she is tripping over herself and her words at every turn, and I enjoyed watching her struggle between her sense of duty and doing things that make her happy. I also adored Sinclair, who was a funny and charming addition to this cast.

I think there are a number of things that went wrong for me. I never connected with Kit, and I still dont like how frequently he and Niamh made excuses for Jack’s behavior, especially toward Niamh’s people. I also generally disliked that Kitt didn’t much care about the plight of the Machlish people until it was convenient for him. This took away a LOT from
The story for me.

Second, and this is a personal thing, this felt all a bit too Bridgerton for my tastes. The stakes never felt very high, which I realize may just not have been the point of this tale, but this combined with my disconnect from the MMC really made it quite difficult for me to get into. The political conflict frequently felt imbalanced, and Niamh spent a lot of time internally spouting the woes of the royal family, but not seeming all that concerned about the poor treatment of people from her homeland. The ending came very quickly and conveniently, and I ultimately felt like I was just anxiously anticipating it being over.

I will continue to go back to Saft in the future. I think this just didn’t end up being for me. I’m sure many will enjoy the court intrigue, the coziness, the forbidden love, and the subtle magic.

Thank you to Wednesday books and Netgalley for this arc copy!