A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft is a fantasy novel about a young woman, Niamh, who has a magical gift of embroidering emotions into clothing. She is hired to make clothes for the Avaland prince's upcoming wedding. She travels from Machland to the royal residence. She meets the Prince Regent, Jack, and his younger brother, Kit.

Kit is contemptuous of her, and her abilities. Jack is welcoming and gives her the details of her contract. Kit is engaged to infanta Rosa. Each country will gain from the marriage.

As Niamh works, she is drawn into political situations and her magic proves useful to reduce some conflicts. Kit's best friend, Sinclair, befriends Niamh, helping her navigate through the pitfalls and prejudices of the nobility.

My overall impression of the book is good. The characters are interesting, and the family dynamics clearly shown. As the book progresses, the relationships grow and shift realistically.

I gave the book 4 stars. I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

However, Niamh tells Sinclair that she fancies lasses, yet becomes enamored of a man. This niggles at me as the romantic relationship develops. Because the book seems to be set in the 1800s, some language is anachronistic.

I would consider this a romance book with a fantasy setting. The characters were interesting and likable, but I felt like the plot and writing style was too predictable and trite. The unknown Lovelace character who sends anonymous letters to the nobility was very reminiscent of Lady Whistledown in Julia Quinn books. This was a light romance read with some decent worldbuilding. The sex scenes in the book were not overly graphic. A Fragile Enchantment may appeal to YA readers.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars! I think the story was really good, but I believe that there’s always room for improvement. Certain aspects within this story were super unique. A Fragile Enchantment is about a girl named Naimh, who has the ability to weave emotions into thread and sew that thread into beautiful fashion garments. When people wear her pieces, the clothes themselves exude the emotions, so other people can feel the emotions that they’re trying to convey with the outfit. It was very intriguing to me to see how Niamh can make so many beautiful outfits with so many different emotions. In one instance, she makes a jacket sewn with the type of emotions that could hide a person in plain sight, so people’s eyes gloss over them and don’t notice them, which was really cool. I liked that whole aspect of the story, but I felt like the reason why I said that there was a little bit of room for improvement in this book was because it was a tiny bit predictable. So, Naimh has this magic power, she’s an up and coming fashion designer in her small town where everyone is poor/lower class as opposed to the kingdom where the royal family lives. Naimh gets hired by the Prince Regent to create an entire wedding wardrobe for his younger brother Kit and his future wife. There’s a pretty basic enemies to lovers plot in this book and its pretty easy to see where that’s going. So to me, that whole thing was a bit predictable, but besides that I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the royal aesthetic of it, it was very romantic, and it you enjoy fantasy books or cute romance books you will probably enjoy this. I recommend that you read this book because it is a book that is very enjoyable and it’s also not going to be one of those dark/heavy/traumatic fantasy books, its definitely a lighter/whimsical/romantic fantasy book and that is exactly what you need sometimes. I will be picking up a copy of this book once it’s released!

Another unfortunate ARC disappointment. I was excited about this one. They're marketing it as teen Bridgerton with magic, but it only really wants to be that. The plot is so dismally slow that I found myself actually thinking about other things while reading. (Hmmm.. I have to pay that bill, don't I?)

The magic system just is without much of an explanation. There are plot points I still don't fully understand. The characters are mostly flat (Kit) or over the top (Niamh). (I think most of her dialogue ended in an exclamation point. In which case I groaned each and every time.) There are one too many anachronisms to make the setting believable. And the clothing descriptions aren't even interesting. The premise of this book IS actually interesting, so I'm not sure where this went so wrong. I just didn't care about a single thing here.

I might need to lay off the ARCs for a while. Zzzzzz.

4.5⭐️ WHAT AN UTTER DELIGHT THIS WAS. I LOVED IT.

I am slowly but surely building a collection of the exact kind of romantic fantasy I love and this is well up there. Magic and romance, tension and banter, an authentically believable world and real stakes, and of course characters I love.

Allison Saft has done it again and proven why she's an instant auto-buy author.

This book was extremely tough to get into! Most of the names are absolutely ridiculous and make it even harder to get into.
Niamh Ó Conchobhai -irish (Prounced Nieve, Neve, or Neave--which I would NOT have gotten without YouTube.)
Caoimhe o Flaithbertaigh
Domhan Siorai
Then we're bringing in Rosa/Castilla - spanish
Cant forget Kit - the easiest proper noun utilized in the novel.

There was just such a lack of an interesting plot for SO long. And to get to it you have to muddle through these names. I think this definitely takes away from being a young adult book.

Others may be able to get into this much easier than I could but it just wasn't for me!

Thank you for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a captivating journey through the depths of imagination. Its rich storytelling and well-developed characters kept me engaged from start to finish. With its thought-provoking themes, it transcends genres and offers something for every reader. A must-read for anyone seeking a literary adventure.

When I think YA romantic fantasy, this is what it should be.

Niahm is selected to move to the castle as a seamstress for the King and his brother. Unfortunately, meeting the second-born son, Kit, gets off to a rocky start, and the two start a bit of a dance to avoid each other as much as possible. As the story unfolds, the two break down walls to come together.

This is a story where the cast of characters are fun and likeable, even when they make poor decisions. There's some mystery, some intrigue, some action, and romance abounds.

Pacing was well planned and kept the story moving along easily. Descriptions were fitting and not overly flowery. It was a solid story through and through.

Overall: 4 stars
I'll tell my students about: LGBTQIA+, language, sex, alcohol, magic

**Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

A Fragile Enchantment follows Niamh Ó Conchobhair, a dressmaker with the magical ability to enchant her designs with emotions and feelings — the same thing that’ll eventually kill her. When Niamh is asked to design the wardrobe for Avaland’s royal wedding, she jumps at the chance to do so — A job like this doesn’t come often, especially with the promise of ensuring that her family will have a better life once she’s gone. But once in Avaland, Niamh is faced with more than she bargained for: a prickly groom, Kit Carmine, an anonymous columnist with a political agenda, and her own growing feelings for none other than the groom.

One of my favorite things about Allison Saft’s writing is how authentic her characters feel; they’re flawed, they’re traumatized, they’re doing the best they can. Niamh and Kit are no different; both of them are battling their own demons, and both of them feel so much like people I know in my everyday life. Both Niamh and Kit are struggling with many things, but at the very core of their character arcs is the idea of allowing themselves to be happy — and what they owe to other people, whether that’s each other, their family, their country, and lastly, themselves. I loved watching Niamh and Kit’s story unfold and how their feelings for each other encouraged each other to finally put themselves first for once. It was incredibly easy to root for them; both as individual characters, and together as a pairing — the pining and yearning was simply impeccable.

🧵 LGBTQIA+ Representation
🪻Magical Bloodlines
🧵 Bridgerton Vibes
🪻Forbidden Romance

This was such an adorable, magical read! The world was very interesting, and we get a bit of history and politics as we read. The characters and their decisions are very impacted by the politics and issues within their countries.

The brotherly relationship between Kit and Jack was great. The side characters are very well developed, and I loved getting to know them.

The romance between Kit and Niamh was so frickin cute. I love them.

There is a lot of Bridgerton vibes, but with magic. I enjoyed the magic and how families had a specific magic that was passed down.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes YA fantasy romance!

I thought this would be right up my alley but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I struggled to stay interested in it.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this early arc.

A Fragile Enchantment, Allison Saft: 2.75⭐️
I wanted to love this, but did not. It’s a historical fantasy romance following a dress maker commissioned to make the outfits for a royal wedding, but she ends up falling for the prince she is making the wedding cloak for. The main character drove me insane and the plot pacing just felt off. There also seemed to be too many loose ends with many things in the world not being explained enough. Even the bickering in the romance annoyed me and I did not find it cute or enduring at all. The best thing about this story was the side characters, who we did not get enough of. I really struggled through this one. That being said a lot of people seemed to like this one so maybe it just wasn’t for me.

Wow. This book exceeded my expectations and then some. This was a FIVE STAR read for me!

This was the first book I’ve read by Allison Saft, and from the cover art to the summary, I was intrigued. But once I started reading, it just blew me away. Saft has such a gorgeous way with words, it was truly like poetry on every page.

The way eager to please, magical seamstress Niamh and prickly, secretive Prince Kit reluctantly fall for each other was just exquisite. They each had such intense and heartbreaking backstories on their own that I not only fell in love with them as a couple, but also with each of them as their own character. The supporting characters in this book as well as a sub plot involving political unrest gave this story even more depth than I anticipated (in a great way), and the world-building and descriptions of the magic and settings made me feel fully immersed in the story.

This book felt like the exceptionally gifted and beyond beautiful YA love child of the Bridgerton series and The Last Binding series. I can honestly say this was my favorite book I’ve read this month, and now I need to read Saft’s backlist ASAP!

4/5 ⭐

A Fragile Enchantment follows Niamh who is a lowly seamstress from Machland who is tasked to sew enchanted garments for the Crown Prince's Brother's Wedding. In order to support her family she takes this opportunity and travels to Avalon for this job. Once she's there, there is more to Avalon than meets the eye and boy is she in for a surprise, this job is not as easy as it seems.

Niamh and Kit's love story starts off super rocky, and they clash right off the bat. Niamh is all positivity and happiness, while Kit is negative Nancy and grumpy. Your typical grumpy meets sunshine trope. But she ends up wearing him down over time. Their forbidden romance is entangled with complex politics and challenges. Allison Shaft does a great job of interweaving the characters and making us fall in love with not just Niamh and Kit, but also Sinclair, Princess Rosa, and Princess Sofia. This was such a cozy and endearing read, the political intrigue and mystery made the book hard to put down.

***I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to the author/publishing company and netgalley for this opportunity!

A FRAGILE ENCHANTMENT follows a magic seamstress hired to make the garments for the royal wedding—only to fall for the groom. A YA romantic fantasy with a Bridgerton style scandal sheet, A FRAGILE ENCHANTMENT is for readers who love:
✨Forbidden Romance
✨Forced Proximity
✨Grumpy/Sunshine
✨Court politics
✨Fluff

Not for you if you dislike third act break-ups and miscommunication.

✨Available January 23, 2024 ✨

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

3.75/5

Niamh (pronounced NEEV), a commoner with a unique ability to enchant her work, has been hired to work on the wedding outfits of the king's son, Kit. The enchantments on the clothing she creates makes the wearer and the people around them feel and remember different things based on the emotions and memories she magically infuses her work with as she is sewing.

Niamh has always wanted a fairytale story with romance and love, but she knows that is not something she will ever get the chance to experience. She is a Machlish commoner with an illness that she believes will take her life before she will have a chance at love. When she comes to the castle to work though, she finds herself falling in love with the last person she should, the soon-to-be wed Kit Carmine.

I really thought I was going to love this book based on the premise and the cover. It is a historical fantasy romance with a unique magic system, but it fell a little flat for me. However, this is my first novel by Allison Saft, and I may give one of her other books a try because I did love the beautiful written descriptions of the world and magic. I believe this book will be well received by many people, but in the end it was not for me.

What I did enjoy:
-Secret letters
-Beautiful descriptions
-Intriguing magic system
-The gorgeous cover
-Supportive and fun side characters

What I did not enjoy:
-Too much like Instalove
-Felt like there were a few things not fully explained at the end
-How the love interest was hot then cold over and over with the FMC

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-arc copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

I loved Saft's previous books and had high hopes I would love this novel as well. A Fragile Enchantment fell short for me and I ended up not finishing it. I did not feel like I was as attached to characters and their motivations as I wanted to be. Our library will still likely purchase this book but personally I would recommend Saft's prior titles instead of this one.

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft is a captivating novel that skillfully intertwines the allure and ardor of a romance with a touch of enchanting magic and whimsy. This delightful tale is achingly romantic, brimming with heartfelt emotions that will surely captivate readers.

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has taken it upon herself to defy fate. She will not allow her family to starve in their war-torn homeland of Machland and works herself to the bone making a name for herself as a dress maker. Her gowns, thanks to her magic of imbuing clothing with emotion and skill as a designer, become so highly sought after she is commissioned by the Prince Regent of neighboring Avaland to create the wedding wardrobe for his younger brother, Kit Carmine. After her journey to the new land, Niamh has only one plan-- make it through the wedding season with her health intact and her pockets lined with enough coin to open her own dress shop and support her family. However, Niamh soon finds herself in over her head as she starts to look past the shiny veneer of both Avaland and its Prince Kit.

Brimming with delicious longing and magic, A FRAGILE ENCHANTMENT captures the spirit of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle with all the frothy delight of a regency era romance. Its representation of the queer community and mental health is commendable, and Saft did a marvelous job of creating a truly stunning and enchanting world rife with political intrigue.

This was such a good story, and it was the first one that I have read by Allison Saft! First, the cover is just gorgeous! More importantly though, is the wonderful tale by the author. It is a forbidden love trope (a prince and a commoner) with some magic woven into it. The beginning was a bit slow for me, but it quickly picked up pace and drew me in so that I didn’t want to put it down. I have to say that I’m looking forward to reading more from Saft and I think you will too!

A big “Thank You” to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, Wednesday Books and Allison Saft for allowing me to read an advance copy in return for an independent, honest review.