Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫/5 (3.5 Stars)
Steam: 🌶️/5 (one scene with some description)

Out now!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the early listening copy in exchange for my honest review.

Narration: the voice actress was amazing! I loved how they narrated this and it kept me so interested. I highly recommend the audio format for this book.

No spoiler review 👇🏻

I enjoyed this book! It’s a mix of Pride and Prejudice, Bridgerton, and magic. Lots of things I love so much.

It’s a YA romantasy read, following Niamh, she’s a dressmaker that threads magic into her creations. She’s hired to make the season and wedding attire of the Prince and his bride to be. However as she works, she grows closer to the Prince…

It’s romantic and full of amazing banter. I loved the magic elements it added a lot to it.
It has hate to love vibes, and LGBT rep in some of the characters.

Reason for 3.5 Stars- it was slow in the middle, and I wish the magic system was a bit more flushed out.
Overall it’s a good YA historical romance fantasy read!

CW homophobia, class system, mention of suicide (past), alcoholism,
Terminal illness.

First off, thank you to Wednesday books and Netgalley for the audio copy of this book!

I adored Saft’s A Far Wilder Magic, especially in audiobook form, 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.

One final positive I will say: I LOVED the audiobook narrator for this one. She kept me engaged in the story when the plot itself did not, and characterized everyone on the page so well.

Thank you to Macmillan, Wednesday, and Netgalley for this arc copy!

While there were some convenient elements within the story, especially the romance, this was beautifully executed. The audiobook was stunning, the storyline was riveting, and I highlighted so many passages.

I was utterly entranced and felt transported to an alternate England/Ireland/Spain and the magic only made it better.

I’d love to see a sequel or even a prequel. I feel like there is so much more story that we could read in this world.

Niamh, a talented magical seamstress who sews emotions into her creations, journeys from her native country of Mackland to Avaland, where she has been commissioned to create the wedding outfits for Prince Kit and Infanta Rosa. Kit is immediately portrayed as crusty and rude, although handsome, and Niamh struggles to not be attracted to him. Rosa is polite on the surface, but there is much more to her than she lets on. Neither Kit nor Rosa desire their union, but they realize it is a political necessity. Also, while not immediately understood to the reader, there has been some discrimination between the two lands, and Niamh is approached by the mysterious gossip columnist Lovelace to be a spy in the castle.
A lot goes on in this tale, but it was an enjoyable read and not challenging to follow. The little bit of magic, the rebelling against norms, the gossip and romance all flowed smoothly throughout the story.

4 Stars

Well, that was just delightful. This reminded me of the classic Regency romance novels that I love but with magic. I adored the characters so much and all the tension between them. The angst and the push and pull between Niamh and Kit were delicious. Saft had me rereading some scenes because of it. The court and kingdom intrigue were very well done especially since I knew going in that this was a romance-centered story.

All in all, I enjoyed this book.

There are some details I would have wanted something a little different, but the plot was entertaining enough. The narrators were good, and the magic system was interesting.

This was an intriguing story. And if you're a fan of audiobooks, the audio for this one was great!

3.5 Stars!

I had a lot of fun listening to this book! It is a charming tale full of magic and romance.

The story follows Niamh, a woman from a working class of magical humans who can stitch emotions into fabric. When an opportunity opens up to design for the upcoming royal wedding, she heads to the royal city of Avanland. Once she arrives, she meets Kit, the groom and younger brother of the King Regent. She quickly learns that his upcoming nuptials are for a matter of convince, rather than love. The immediately have a connection and build a friendship that blossoms into a whirlwind romance.

While I actually enjoyed the low key nature of the world building, I still wanted a bit more. I was left with a lot of questions about how the magic system worked. I would have preferred to have some more background and details. I am also still curious about Niamh's illness. It was mentioned throughout the story but we didn't get much of a resolution towards then end.

The narrator of the audiobook was fantastic!

Overall, it was a fun and whimsical story. If you enjoy a light fantasy romance and the world of Bridgerton, I would definitely recommend.

*Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

Romantic fantasy fans will devour this tale of a dressmaker gifted with magic and chosen to design the wedding wardrobe for the royal family of Avaland. But things go awry when she and the groom, unhappily forced to wed, become close. Enchanting!

All right, let's get this disclaimer out of the way: It's not you, it's me. I don't like you. (Dang, I need to rewatch Farscape.)

Anyway, this book was well-written (to a point, obviously I don't think it was perfect, see below), had competent prose, a good structure, clear themes, and held together as a whole. It just didn't work for me. I'm giving it three stars because I would feel like a dick giving it two. Please, ARC gods, don't punish me for this review, but I think this is a one and done author for me, which will be good for both me and the author, because there is CLEARLY an audience for this one, judging by all the five star ARC reviews. Hopefully this review will be helpful to people on the fence. Maybe it will convince you to read it! Who knows.

Anyway, so briefly, the plot here is that on an alternate earth where magic exists and where all the countries have eyeroll-worthy new names, Niamh is a Macklish (read: Irish) seamstress who has been hired to make the wedding clothes of the youngest prince and his Castilian* bride the infanta Rosa. Her magical gift (which is slowly killing her, of course) is that she can weave emotions and intent into her clothes, giving the wearer memories or feelings, making others feel things when looking at them, even make them hard to perceive. She and the prince, Kit, clash right away, but of course it turns out that under his terrible behavior is a wounded soul. (Sigh.) And they fall in love. There is also some stuff involving fake Ireland having been devastated by Kit's father's magic, which caused a blight on the land, which in turn caused a rebellion. Now IrishMacklish servants are walking out of Avaland (seriously) houses and fighting for their rights. They are helped along by a gossip columnist who is using their fame to promote the Macklish cause. But the Prince Regent is ignoring all of this.

*fake Spain

So that's the setup. Here's what didn't work for me:

- The book takes itself SO SERIOUSLY. This is the complaint that has the most to do with personal preference. This kind of writing makes me want to rip out my hairs. No one is this serious ALL THE TIME. But these characters are. And even when they are "having fun", the writing itself describing the "fun" insists on being all poetical and overly descriptive, not an irreverent bone in its body. Just the same tone all throughout, no matter what is happening. I did not like it. This is the thing that most makes me think that this is just not an author for me.

- The author has the unfortunate tendency to rely heavily on well-worn phrases. This book is chock full of sentences and clauses and expressions that thousands of other writers have previously beaten to death.

- The main character, partly due to design and partly due to the author's style, just felt like an non-entity to me. She was basically a vessel for the reader to inhabit, a cypher, and the real show were all the characters around her. I can't help but feel that this needed a second POV point from Kit (the prince) or to be told from an entirely different point of view entirely (Rosa and Kit's friend Sinclair would have been extremely interesting). It reallly didn't help that her character arc was "selfless person learns to be selfish".

- This is going to sound very stupid considering this is a young adult book, but the way the ending wrapped everything up, including stating outright the themes of the book and What Everybody Learned, was geared way too young for me. Or rather, geared towards what someone thinks young people's books should be. We can have Kit doing something explicit to Niamh on page but we can't have subtlety when it comes to the resolution of the book?

- Again, why couldn't this have just been set in an alternate England/Ireland? The fake names felt way too try-hard to me.

So yeah, this was all right but it could have been great. I wish that I could have five-star loved it the way so many other people have, but now I know this author isn't for me, and I can spend my time on other books instead.

I was provided both a digital and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was a cute romantic fantasy set in a regency type of setting. Niamh is a talented tailor and dressmaker, who is able to enchant the items she makes with emotions and memories. She is one of the last of her line with her abilities, and her abilities have caught the eye of the aristocracy. She is surprised and thrilled when the Prince Regent calls on her to make the wedding wardrobe for his younger brother Kit and his bride to be. Determined to make a name for herself and support her family, Niamh is going to do her very best to make the young prince and his new wife look spectacular, unfortunately when she arrives the estate and city are not at all what she expected. She is thrown into a city full of unrest, all while trying to fit the prince for wedding garments he is not thrilled about. As she spends more time with Kit, she slowly peels back the layers of his unhappiness and a tentative friendship begins to blossom and eventually turn into something more. As their relationship develops, so does their desire to fix what is broken in their country and help the Prince Regent see the light.

This was cute, but Kit and Niamh were a little too "woe as me" at times. Both of them willing to sacrifice themselves at every turn "because it is their duty" and was a bit overdone throughout the book, especially since they were both fairly hypocritical about it. I feel like the author had a real opportunity to talk about social issues here but only just touched the surface of the very real historic issues and the very real current issues with class, privilege, and race/heritage. The social issues were glossed over for the sake of the other plot elements of which I felt there were too many.

I thought the audio narrator did a wonderful job with the narration of the book. She did different voices and accents for the various characters which was important seeing as how their was civil unrest based on class and heritage/race. I believe in this case this was a take on the disdain the English had for the Irish which was a very real issue.

This was a FANTASTIC opposites attract, forbidden historical fiction/fantasy romance that sees a magically gifted tailor, Niamh commissioned to help make a recently engaged Prince's wedding wardrobe. Right from the start Kit and Niamh get off to the wrong foot.

Kit is disgruntled about being forced into a political marriage of convenience but is determined to go through with it in order to help make up for his past mistakes and make his brother happy. However, the sparks fly between these two who couldn't have been from more opposite worlds and in no way make sense.

Full of action, adventure and the swooniest romance. I fell in love with these characters right from the start and absolutely devoured this story. Allison Saft was a new to me author and I can't wait to gobble up anything else she writes next!! Good on audio and highly recommended! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I was drawn in by the gorgeous cover, which I think captures the mood of the book perfectly. I loved the magic system and how the different characters’ abilities were incorporated into the story. The story emphasizes the importance of family and friendship while also featuring a grumpy-sunshine forbidden romance. Although the main romance is MF, there is lots of queer representation, with gay, lesbian, and bisexual characters.

The story is told entirely from the perspective of Niamh, who is hired to design and sew wedding garments for a royal couple in a neighboring country because of her magical ability to imbue emotions into the garments she creates. Niamh is a commoner, clumsy, awkward, and impulsive, very much out of her element at court. Her choices sometimes disappointed me, but it was interesting to see her repeatedly get herself into trouble. She succeeds because of the strong relationships she forms with other members of the court, and I enjoyed getting to know these other characters.

The story works very well as an audiobook. The audiobook production was excellent, and I loved the narration by Fran Burgoyne, which definitely added to my enjoyment of the story. She has a pleasant voice and accent, good pacing and pronunciation, distinctive voices and speech patterns to suit each character, and she is able to convey mood and emotion effectively.

I recommend this story to lovers of historical fantasy, fantasy romance, forbidden romance, grumpy-sunshine pairings, and fish out of water stories.

I received a free advanced review copy of the ebook and audiobook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners from Wednesday Books for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this audiobook narrated by Fran Burgoyne. A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft is a young adult regency Romantasy set in a world with magic and strife.

Niamh is a skilled seamstress, whose magical abilities sew emotions into her garments. She become highly successful and invited to make the garments for the upcoming wedding for the Avaland Prince.

Theres a nod toward historical elements, Irish potato famine, of political strife between the MFC Niamh home country of Maclish and the MMC Kits country of Avaland. I wasn’t expecting the political plot line to be as heavily involved with the story but I throughly enjoyed it as it played into the world building. Along with the political plot, there’s forbidden romance, chronic illness, regency gossip, a nod towards substance abuse and recovery.

I did feel as if the pacing was slightly off at times and that there were a few plot lines that made me feel lost at times. Theres a fair amount of LGBTQ+ character representation. Regency stories are not typically my thing but overall I enjoyed this one and looked forward to picking it up daily.

I am in shock at how much I enjoyed this book. I chose this book because of the cover. It is stunning. However, I was wary, as I am not your typical romantasy fan. Most of the time, the genre does nothing but frustrate me. I typically find that the characterization, worldbuilding, and plot suffer significantly with romantasy, and thus, my enjoyment of the book suffers. Yet, A Fragile Enchantment led me to believe there is hope for me with the subgenre. Seriously, Allison Saft, where have you been all my life? This book was an utter delight.

Saft manages to create a wonderfully atmospheric world with an intriguing magic system, all while seemlessly exploring mental and chronic illness, classism, racism, and homophobia. Her writing is lyrical and lush. The romance made me swoon. I loved their banter and undeniable chemistry. Saft's side characters are fully developed and add much to the story. They were fantastic. This book was such a lovely surprise. Excuse me while I go and read Saft's entire backlist.

I listened to this via audio. Fran Burgoyne's narration is spectacular. She brings each character to life.

Perfect for fans of:
Young Adult
Enemies to lovers
Banter
Found Families
grumpy x sunshine
political intrigue
Bridgerton Season 2

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Macmillan Audio, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Fragile Enchantment unfolds as a sweet, gentle narrative with profound lessons in self-love and selflessness. The spotlight is on our protagonist, Niamh, who possesses a captivating form of magic—she can weave emotions into her clothing. Summoned for the royal wedding, she anticipates that this opportunity will secure her family's future, even if it means sacrificing her own life. However, complications arise as she develops feelings for the Prince, and revelations unfurl, putting the entire kingdom at risk.

This book is incredibly charming! The enchanting magic and the delicate character of Niamh create a heartwarming experience. I don't know how I fell for Kit Carmine but I did! He is witty and tender while carrying genuine pain. Both main characters embark on a journey of discovering that they deserve love.

The story does drag out a bit, it’s quite repetitive since the characters need constant push to learn self-love. For those familiar with Allison Saft's pacing, they'll understand what I mean, but it's notably swifter than her other popular book I read last year, (A Far Wilder Magic). This improved pacing made me enjoy my overall reading experience.

Above all, I couldn't help but yearn to wear one of Niamh’s creations. Imagining emotions woven into garments—dresses of longing, coats of nostalgia, and the embodiment of love—evoked a sweet longing. I want my own Niahm creation!

If you love enchanting, fairytale-esque narratives, this book is a must-read!

I did not finish this book but the parts that I read I absolutely adore. I do not like that narrator though, she was kind of ruining the experience a little so I am definitely going to pick up a physical copy of this and finish it because the story so far is wonderful

NetGalley provided Audiobook ARC in exchange for honest review.

Allison Saft created a Bridgerton-like story for teens while weaving magical elements into this fantasy world. Niamh is a lovable main character who is determined to use the life she has left to secure a future for her family by using her magical talents to stitch emotions into fabric for a royal wedding. But a friendship develops with the groom, Kit Carmine, who is much like a weed with thorns. Tension grows, while rumors take off, family secrets are uncovered, and a wedding is to be had. A Fragile Enchantment is a romance with many twists and turns.

I absolutely loved this listen! The story is great, the characters are amazing and the world building is good. The pace is perfection and the narrator was an overall joy to listen to. I will be recommending this audiobook with everyone I can! Great book!

I loved everything about this book and hope there are more books. The way the magic worked was so interesting and made me love Niamh even more. Don't even get me started on the romance aspect of this book, I swooned. The ending was perfect and it gave the perfect, happily-ever-after ending.

When Niamh Ó Conchobhair is hired to make the prince of Avaland’s attire for the celebrations surrounding his royal wedding, she sees it as a chance to make a difference in the lives of herself and her family. She doesn’t expect the prince, Kit Carmine, to be grumpy, sullen, and even prickly about the entire experience, but as she soon discovers, the marriage is not a love match. The wedding is a political union.

Still, Niamh is there to focus on her work, on using her magical gift to imbue the garments she creates with emotions and memories. And as she grows closer to Kit, she’s able to tailor his garments more and more to what he needs.

But there’s political unrest in Avaland, and Niamh finds herself being used as a pawn in more ways than one.

The world-building at the beginning was a bit slow for me, but I was impressed by the world Allison Saft creates using the framework of Regency England. She uses this fantasy world to explore political and social unrest, discrepancies between classes, colonization, and what that cost the coffers of the monarchies.

I loved deeply-feeling Kit and how what he creates with his magic reflects what he is feeling. And the love story between Kit and Niamh is tender and sweet.

I also appreciated the queer representation interwoven into the story.

I found Fran Burgoyne’s narration to be very soothing. I especially enjoyed how she captures all of the different accents in play.

I received an advance copy of the audiobook from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.