thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sending me an arc of this book in exchange for an honesty review!

If you enjoyed Bridgerton or Howl's Moving Castle (particularly the sewing scenes!), I highly implore you to read this book, and I hope it will bring you the same giggles, tears, and unbridled joy it brought me.

I think A Fragile Enchantment is one of those books that was the right person at the right time, because I do understand why some people who prefer romance subplots to heavily romantic storylines may have not enjoyed this book as much as they enjoyed Saft's previous works, especially A Far Wilder Magic. I would consider myself someone who generally prefers the same, but this book wounded and then healed my heart in a hundred different places that I was not expecting.

I genuinely think no one but Allison Saft could have written this book and felt it resonate with me in the way it did. Saft's signature atmospheric, witty, and romantic prose fits the tone of A Fragile Enchantment like a perfectly fitted glove. After two young adult novels, Saft has balanced the genre expectations with the voices of her characters near perfectly. And oh, goodness, was there much character to express. Niamh's character is immediately loveable, and even watching her thought process feels like being enveloped in a warm hug. Saft perfectly balances the "sunshine" character trope without talking down to Niamh's perspective or treating her as unreasonably naïve, immature, or unaware of the suffering around her. Niamh's good cheer is woven into the generational trauma she has inherited, and it's a perspective on the "sunshine" character I feel we are severely lacking and why Saft is a master of the trope.

There is the other half of the "grumpy/sunshine" trope as well-- Kit Carmine-- whose character development brought tears to my eyes. Saft once again upends the common understanding of the "grumpy" character as someone who cares for little but their partner and adds a depth to the trope of someone who has thought through this character in a nuanced and meticulous manner. Kit is one of the most charmingly-uncharming love interests I've had the pleasure of reading about in YA literature in quite some time.

The aspect of this book that took me the most by surprise were the nuanced discussions surrounding chronic illness and mental health that the characters shared. Allison Saft never shied away from the often gloomy reality of living with either of these conditions-- that you feel, baselessly, that every day is a race against time, or the unhealthy behaviours that people partake in during the lows of mental illness and addiction. However, A Fragile Enchantment, ultimately, does not ask its readers to despair for Niamh or Kit, though, but asks them to empathize and hope. It asks its readers to see a world for the characters and for themselves that sees the reality of the world, and allows them to be kind to themselves with the lives that they have.

A Fragile Enchantment, after all, is an incredibly hopeful book. Hope radiates from each scene, even in the characters lowest moments, and it is the simplicity and nuance with which Allison Saft handles these themes that I think will resonate with many readers and make this a romance to remember.

A historical romance fantasy I mean what more could a person ask for? And man did it live up to that. It was so perfect, I was so giddy reading this book. It was exactly what I needed: a romantic whimsical love story.
I have to admit that, this was my first read of Allison Saft’s work, and it won’t be my last. I look forward to reading her previous and future books. This book is exactly what I needed.

A Fragile Enchantment follows magical dressmaker, Naimh Ó Conchobhair, as she journeys to Avaland to become the primary dressmaker for the upcoming royal wedding of Prince Christopher Carmine. There, she becomes inadvertently entangled in controversy as her friendship with the groom grows, and politics threatened to ruin Avaland.

Allison Saft has stolen my heart once again with her lyrical writing. She made me feel a spectrum of emotions ranging from longing, to anger, and to warmth. The magic system woven into the Regency inspired setting transported me into a different world, and is what I loved most! This story is perfect for Bridgerton fans, and lovers of Olivia Atwater novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for a chance to read and review an advanced copy of this book!

4.5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced copy! You can pick up A Fragile Enchantment on January 29, 2024.

I loved this! It was wonderfully sweet and whimsical, with stunning magic and an adorable romance. Niamh was a raw, relatable character, and I loved seeing her relationship with Kit blossom despite the odds against them.

Saft wove the politics of this society into the story so well, giving the plot more than your typical romantic substance. You sympathize with so many characters (even ones you’re meant to dislike), which shows how complex Saft crafted them to be!

Highly recommend this if you’re looking for a cozy, adorable romantasy book!

A True Enchantment (Warning: Be Prepared to Swoon)

"Her, heart twisting itself into lovesick thorns. Him, impossibly out of her reach for a hundred different reasons."

Thank you to netgalley for the eGallery! A Fragile Enchantment, narrated by our beloved Niamh, follows her and Kit Carmine, a roguish prince, as they navigate a Season full of drama, friendship, and unexpected attraction, one that might lead them, and perhaps the entire country, to ruin.

Honestly, I expected this novel to read as a fairytale. However, beneath Saft's lush writing and whimsical tone, it was an honest love story, if such a thing exists. Both Niamh and Kit were flawed (and endearingly foolish), and it was their vulnerability that stitched them together. Their love was as intricate and delicate as Niamh's beautiful creations, and just as divine. I adored them.

The women were the best part of the story; we follow not only the flowery Niamh, but have the pleasure of meeting Sophia (the queen), Rosa (the infanta and Kit's fiancé), and Miriam (Rosa's chaperone). I also must mention Sinclair, who made this story feel like a fairy dome.

I recommend the story for anyone who loves grumpy x sunshine romance, Bridgerton, and for all fellow swifties, for this novel was a whole damn Taylor Swift playlist. If I were to describe it only through songs, it would be: "speak now," "willow," "gold rush," and "I can see you." I am delighted to give it very shiny four stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday books for the chance to read this ARC.

First I love this cover, very cute and simple.
Second I was hooked from the start and could barely put this book down, the main characters grew depth as the story went on which is important to me.
Third I wish that Jack and some of the other side characters got more depth, Jack's attitude was important to the story line and at the end I felt as though we barely skimmed the surface of him. Rosa also could have used more too, she was an important character and I think it really would have added to the story.
Overall I did love the book and 100% recommend it making into your tbr piles!

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

Tropes & Rep: grumpy x sunshine dynamic, queer characters, chronic pain rep from MC

CW/TW: homophobia, mentions of alcoholism and parental abuse

I really liked the writing and was very entertained by the story in the beginning half. I liked Niamh a lot and found myself relating to her in some ways. Some of the things I liked about her was how she would speak up for herself and how she was able to acknowledge her flaws. I also liked the disability rep that we got from her. The character relationships were really good and the romance was developing nicely. The worldbuilding wasn’t necessarily bad but I did keep on getting pulled out of the world by how the characters mirrored certain ethnicities and nationalities from our world. We even got to hear some Spanish in the book, which I liked but found weird.

Now on to the second half of this book. The writing really started to decline for me. Things became more dramatic and unrealistic. The slow burn between Niamh and Kit, quickly turned into insta-love. The Lovelace plotline became utterly frustrating. Most of my frustration comes from Niamh because of how much I started to dislike her. The anonymous columnist is seen as some sort of antagonist or villain to Niamh, which I didn’t understand. Lovelace was rallying up the people of Avaland to protest against the royal family, who have seemingly been ignoring them. They’ve been suffering from famine and Niamh is constantly making excuses for the royals. At one point, when she thinks she’s found out who Lovelace is (with no proof but her gut btw), she is on a mission to find evidence and put them behind bars. Her motivations just didn’t make sense. She comes from a working-class family. She comes from a country that independentized themselves from Avaland. Her stance on this made it feel like she lost her self-respect, which I feel is the opposite of the girl we met in the beginning of the book. The ending was rushed. I was hoping it wouldn’t be but I expected it because of how everything else turned out.

Also, just to keep on ranting, as someone who comes from an immigrant family, I was infuriated for Niamh when people kept replacing her surname for something easier to pronounce to them. No one attempted to pronounce her name right. The topic was never pointed out. We don’t even have Niamh acknowledge it herself. It’s just something that happens the entire book.

Overall, this started out promising but turned into such a disappointing read. I wouldn’t recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read an advanced eARC!

I’ll start off saying A Fragile Enchantment was whimsical!
I hardly read regency inspired books but I loved this one!
Niamh and Kit’s interactions made me giggle. I loved the grumpy/sunshine and enemies/lovers vibes they were putting out. Two of my favorite tropes!
The magic system was interesting. Although I was a bit confused why Niamh’s Magic sucks the life out of her but no one else’s magic seems to do the same. I’m assuming it’s a rare symptom that Miriam mentioned.
The mystery was a bit obvious but I still loved the reveal and the resolution.
This book is great for Bridgerton fans and romantasy readers!
Let this lovely regency romance sweep you off your feet!

"I can't be your mistress Kit"
"Then be my wife."
Allison Saft imbues her stories with the same heartfelt charm that Niamh does her clothing. Full of warmth and angst more than a touch of inter-generational trauma, A Fragile Enchantment was a magical regency experience.

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this story about a young dressmaker who can sew emotions into the clothes she makes. I also really loved the ending and thought it tied everything up nicely. However, there were a few things I didn’t like. First, the male love interest smokes like a fiend 😝. I also didn’t like the Lady Whistledown knockoff. It never really accomplished very much or was very interesting. Third, the main characters are both bisexual even though it had no bearing on the story at all other than to randomly throw that in. Overall, I liked it but it had more potential than it delivered.

I loved the magic woven throughout this story! The romance definitely gave me Kate and Anthony vibes from bridgerton and I was LIVING. the pining was so good!!! My only wish is that Allison Saft would consider writing adult novels because I love the lush prose! And I generally just love when fabric can be enchanted in books haha!

The story itself is kind of okay, but there's a hand ful of f-bombs and and some other swear words. Don't much appreciate that sort of stuff. But as I said at the start, the story isn't too bad, so I'll give this 3 stars

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC and for the opportunity to this book. I am voluntarily leaving this review.

Pretty sure Allison Saft wove enchantments into this book because I am obsessed. Truly, I've loved her books, but she outdid herself with this one.

If your favorite Bridgerton couple is Kate and Anthony, this is the book for you.

From the first page, I was invested in Niamh's desperation to impress the Avlish royal family, so she could save her mother and grandmother from poverty back in Machland. And wow, Saft wasted no time setting up the conflict with that goal from the first second we met Kit. Rude, aloof, and undeniably hiding more beneath his thorny exterior, I was right there with Niamh needing to learn all his secrets.

As with all her characters thus far, Saft excels at writing their "emotional baggage" in a way that gives them incredible depth (even the side characters), so you can't help but feel their pain as you get to know them. Even our "sunshine" Niamh is carrying some dark (and truly heartbreaking) clouds below the surface, which brings me to my next point.

I loved how she wove the limitations/costs of Niamh's magic into a chronic illness/disability rep (read to me like Niamh has RA). It was seamless (haha, see what I did there?) in how it logically fit within the world instead of feeling like she inserted it solely for the sake of adding diversity. There's also a very diverse LGBTQIA cast (I think most of the characters fit under that umbrella, including Niamh and Kit).

The world she created was very interesting too, with its chief tension point based on the Irish-English conflicts in the 19th and early 20th century (to include the uprisings, potato famine/immigration waves, and fight for home rule). Again, that she includes themes to give her books more of a historical fantasy feel isn't new, but I love how well she does it.

My only complaints? I want more! Like her other books, I feel like there are enough not-fully-wrapped-up ends that could easily lead into a sequel, which I, of course, would devour. Even if it's something short along the lines of what Margaret Rogerson did with Mysteries of Thorn Manor, I would inhale it.

The second thing–I was dying for Kit's POV. She gave us POVs for both Margaret and Wes in A Far Wilder Magic, so we got to cackle along once they entered the "idiots to lovers" phase, and my goodness I wanted to be in Kit's head when he started to realize how unhinged he was for Niamh.

All in all, one of my favorite books I've read this year, which will absolutely be on my shelf when it's out in January. Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley for making me literally do a happy dance with the advance copy!

I read Saft's debut back in 2020 and didn't like it. This one is an improvement, but I still think it's boring.

It's just nineteenth century fantasy Britain and Ireland. Besides changing British/Britain to Avlish/Avaland and Irish/Ireland to Machlish/Machland, everything was the same regarding history and socioeconomics (i.e. the Avlish colonizing the Machlish, Avlish people calling Machlish people "lazy", renaming the Great Famine as the Blight, etc.) There's nothing clever, no twists, nor any elements that made Saft's made-up ethnicities distinct from their real-life counterparts apart from people having magic. I probably would have been more behind this book if they were British/Irish but kept the magic system. It still would have worked.

As for the primary aspect, the romance, I didn't care. I found both Niamh (Who I kept calling Nimh like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH) and Kit (The worst nickname for a Christopher, in my opinion) equally bland and stale. There were so many moments in the beginning where Niamh forced herself to stand beside Kit despite how uncomfortable it was. I just don't get it. If I was Niamh, I would've walked away so fast. I also don't really like hate-to-lovers romances, either, so there's that.

All in all, this wasn't for me. From the look of the other reviews, this book has its audience; I'm just not one of them.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

4.5 stars. Easy read with season two Bridgerton vibes that was hard to put down.

Allison Saft has absolutely done it again!!! I loved her first two books, and this one is no different.
First of all, her characters. There are a few main ones to know, mostly Niamh, a magical seamstress in charge of the wedding garb for the wedding of Kit, the usually-reserved prince. I loved them both and the friends they made, and both seemed to tower off the page. I really got a sense of everyone's motivations and what made them tick to the point where I felt the blows that were aimed at them.
In terms of relationships, there are a couple major friendships and romantic relationships. I absolutely adored Kit and Niamh, and they were so sweet that I was swooning whenever one of them spoke to the other. With the others, I really got a chance to look inside each friendship or romance and see what was keeping them apart yet drawing them together. Some of the background relationships got less attention, but everyone still seemed to get their moment in the spotlight.
With plot and world-building, this is mainly inspired by British history a bit and historical romances from what I can tell, which brought both fun and some plotlines related to politics. It had hints of those period drama elements we all love and scandal, but also brought forth conversations about rebellion, the ignorance of royalty in the face of the plight of others, and more. I really loved the balance here, and the politics were pretty easy to follow in their sensibility, which was nice since I was in romance mode for most of the reading process.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the genre more than A Far Wilder Magic, so this might be my favorite Saft book now? Either way, this is such a great book for fans of media like Bridgerton or other period romances, and general YA romance and historical romance fans won't be disappointed. Give me the next Allison Saft book ASAP!!!

A magical dressmaker is invited to create wedding wardrobe for a thorny prince but when her tender touch melts his hostile demeanor, the secrets they both hide threaten to upend their lives.

Written in lyrical and expressive prose that never falters, Allison Saft's newest YA is another heartfelt and romantic story that focuses on the power of kindness, vulnerability and the courage it takes to truly open your heart to someone

Such a unique book, I loved the plot, and oh my god the characters were so amazing!! I definitely will be recommending it!!

Omg. 4.5 enchanted stars.

Between illustrious writing, a moody love interest, and fairy tale vibes, this had me kicking my feet and giggling. And in awe at the writing style!

Not only did I love the writing but I LOVED THE CHARACTERS. Kit, our prince (yet not princely) love interest; Rosa, the stoic princess of Castilia (I LITERALLY LOVE HER), Sinclair my love. Niamh also made for a wonderful protagonist, and I loved her role as a tailor. In this world, some people have the power to use enchantments--Niamh's power is to be able to infuse her clothing creations with emotions! It's rad.

I did have a few small issues which is the reason I knocked off .5 star... mostly because I felt like there was something about Niamh that wasn't resolved by the end. I also enjoyed the first half much more than the second half, but I don't know if that's the fault of me orrrr idk!

I really wanted to love this more than I did. A fantasy version of Bridgerton? What is there not to like? However, it was a bit too heavy on the court politics for my taste. I wanted more of a focus on the romance. I also never started liking Kit. He was an arrogant jerk and never really got better. It just seemed to drag for me. I found myself wanting to skim and hurry to finish. The whole weaving spells into the wardrobe was an interesting aspect, but I found myself not really caring about all the little tiny details of fabrics and all that. I related to Kit in that aspect. I'm sure if you like fantasy that is pretty heavy on the politics and scheming and drama, you'd probably like this. But it just wasn't my style.