Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

If I had to describe this book in one sentence it would be:
A group of friends that made a DND champaign go off of the rails and into the fire, all while lighting more fires on the way.
AKA. a very chaotic DND champaign and the dm is done.

Was this book groundbreaking In my opinion no. But it is a book that I'm happy that I read because it was a fun ride and a good experience. It was a fun book to read, it was a great premise with a great cast of characters they dealt with very human trauma and emotions. The characters learned, growth, and experienced life. The magic system was fascinating and rather unique. I think I would've enjoyed maybe more exploration into the magic system, but I understand this book was about the quest not the lore

In my opinion, the people who would enjoy this book the most are people who are familiar with DND campaigns and who like LitRPG. Classic fantasy and romance readers probably would not like this book. It is much more like a video game, where you deal with the quest and a bunch of side quest along the way rather than the standard linear structure that is commonly found in fantasy books. But I would definitely recommend to everyone to give this book at least a try.

This WAS fun! This book was a delightful romp, with lots of lightly masked pop-culture references and over-the-top ridiculousness. Old friends pulled apart because of grief, who have to come back together to complete a quest! My new, all-time favorite phrase that I will employ from now on, "in my humble but correct opinion..." Brilliance.

Thank you netgalley for the arc!
If you say something's like the Princess Bride mixed with People We Meet on Vacation, I'd be interested. I haven't read PWMOV but Princess Bride is an all-time favourite. I don't really see it in this. I requested this because I saw it would be apart of our monthly campaign at the store I work, so why not familiarize myself! I thought it was fun. A relatively mindless cozy-esque fantasy, pretty lowkey, and the characters all had a strongly defined personality. It's very much a character over plot book and although we've got some oddly modern talk mixed with a very renaissance fantasy setting, I don't think it goes too against the books favour. I think it works well as a monthly pick, especially for the customer base at my work, but I don't know if I'll ever read this again. After I read it I saw some people compare it to Shrek, which seems much closer than Princess Bride as a comparison, but still not living up to it. If you're going into this expecting the next best fantasy, you'll be disappointed but if you're going into it for a fun little read, it'll be chill.

I thought this would be a fun book based on the description and title, but it did not fit for me. It was slow moving and although the friendship part was nice, the quest was not as adventurous to pull me in. Thank you Avon for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

Thank you to the dream trio that make up E. B. Asher , Harper Collins, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC for This Will Be Fun. I snagged the audiobook at release, and it is one of my favorite of the year.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
🗡️I went into this without knowing the “author” is actually three authors writing under a pen name and never picked up on it at all until I hit the acknowledgments, which speaks for the skill of all three to weave the story.
☕️I have also never read anything by any of these authors, but that is going to change after this title.

Now, short explanation for the four star rating when this would have been a solid five for me. I didn’t vibe with the spice. It felt a little forced and like a tool to either make the story more adult or genre shift from Fantasy to Romantasy. I honestly felt the story would have been stronger without it.

PROS:
🗡️All the nods to modern day/ real world companies, products, etc.
☕️First time an Adventuring Party needing a coffee break didn’t make me cringe
🗡️That first Beatrice chapter had me cackling
☕️Solid world building
🗡️SAPPHIC REP 🧡🤍🩷
☕️Friends to Enemies to Lovers
🗡️Redemption quest
☕️Vandra is hands down the best character (to me)
🗡️Clare reminded me of Disney’s Hercules post fame. His face had to be on everything, he was the most popular man around, and he STILL was just an awkward guy who didn’t feel like he deserved any of it. He also got a little cocky and had to be brought back to Earth.
☕️Ride shares are the worst even in a fantasy world

CONS:
🗡️Elowen is obsessed with soap operas but doesn’t understand the meaning behind friends with benefits. 🤦🏻‍♀️
☕️Characters being too focused on their failures to see any growth for a decade
🗡️The bad guys are super generic, but they feel like early campaign adversaries
☕️The power growth felt like a Deus ex Machina

📱📱📱📱out of five dead spots of spellphone service

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

I liked the fantasy and romance aspects of this one. Overall, it won't live with me forever, but it was a fun read.

This is described as The Princess Bride meets People We Meet on Vacation, and while I’ve never seen The Princess Bride, I did not get People We Meet on Vacation vibes from this. If we’re being honest in a weird way it sort of felt like Shrek 😂😂😂 like no ogres, but there’s a magical realm and magic is just a thing and we don’t need explanations and there’s relationship drama and quests. Also there’s like things in pop culture like the gossip magazines are pamphlets.

Overall though, for me personally, I felt like this was just okay. I had a hard time getting into it, which is a bummer because normally I like fantasy without too much explanation and details and instead have it more character focused. But I think this sort of lost some of its story, and the three character POV was too much.

Then the ending was SUPER rushed and the one part at the end really threw me off and I think the author should have kept that out.

If you like cozy fantasy romance, I think you’ll like this one.

Thank you @avonbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I love the premise of this, the band, minus the foundation gets back together after things went sideways. Drama, intrigue, and some laughs. But I got taken out of it too many times. A MC has a power that lets them see exactly what happens and another can feel out true emotions, rendering the inter party conflict moot if they stop for 1 second.

Join a quartet of retired adventurers as they come out for one more quest. I would have loved more adventure and world exploring. The relationship status updates were heavy handed in my opinion. Thus my 4 star review.

Loved the humor throughout the book! There's spice for those who are interested and not interested. LGBTQ friendly. Overall a fun and lighthearted read.

Similar feel to can't spell treason without tea.

Unfortunately I chose not to finish this title. The writing did not draw me in and felt fairly simplistic for my taste. It was not what I expected and therefore I chose to move onto another title that was a better fit for me.

This charming “rom-quest” has the same vibes as the movie version of Ella Enchanted, that one scene in A Knight’s Tale where they sing “We Will Rock You”, and dare I say a bit of Buffy the musical?? (With a smidge of Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold.) It’s bonkers and funny and wonderful. I truly hope it gets a sequel. Also, this book proves that more romances can and should have multiple romantic storylines going at a time.

Really cute story. I absolutely loved it. It was light-hearted and just made me feel good while reading it.

I enjoyed this. I really loved that all of our heroes were in their 30's. It was really nice to read about them repairing their friendships over the course of a second great quest. All of the different characters played a role and I loved all of their perspectives individually. Where this flounders just a bit is in the world building for me. I didn't feel completely immersed in it and wished that the fantasy elements were expanded on.

Overall, I enjoyed this and it was fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager|Avon for the e-arc of this book!

A clever tale, This Will Be Fun follows three heroes a decade after they've saved their magical realm—but in the process, lost the glue that held them together. The story finds them each in the midst of personal unhappiness: Beatrice has just gotten divorced and is now destitute, Elowen is grappling with loneliness, and Clare is trying his hardest to fill the hole the death of their friend Galwell left. But when the queen summons them to her wedding, each decides that they should go—only to discover upon their arrival that the groom has been kidnapped and the queen needs them to once again be the heroes of the realm.

The story is full of banter and hijinks as the heroes (mostly) put aside their grievances to come together once again, and though nothing in the plot will necessarily surprise you, it's still a fun and entertaining time. I particularly enjoyed Beatrice—who has the "power" of being able to recall memories in vivid detail—and her journey both to find personal happiness and forgiveness, and was thrilled with the way the trio of authors here worked together to create a fantastical and sweet happily ever after for everyone.

So when you're in the mood for a cozy little adventure that's pretty low stakes, give This Will Be Fun a go!

I am not a fantasy girly but when my fav authors under a pen name write a book compared to shrek, I’m game.

Unfortunately while I can understand what they were going for; this book felt so disorganized and hard to follow. It was a medieval esque story with a lot of modern day terminology. I was totally indifferent to the characters and overall felt like I just didn’t care what happened in the story.

I think lots will like this but not me

I’ve been stalling on posting this review. I read this before it came out back in October, but I just had to force myself to finish it. I wanted to love this. I love the Princess Bride. Like, wore the VHS tape out loved it. I was so excited for this book!

And…it’s nothing like the Princess Bride. Where did that description even come from?

There’s a lot to be said about how this book starts. It’s a fantastic idea, and seriously it’s a great point. What does happen after “The End,” so to speak. This book starts the night before a Big Battle. Think Avengers ending battle, think Troy, think of whatever epic battle you want to. But, what happens to everyone after? And more importantly, what happens to the warriors after a huge battle that’s been won and brings peace to the nations? Seriously, that’s a great idea! The very beginning is right before the Big Battle, and we get tiny snippets of the heroes through the perspective of one man, one major hero. This is not much. It’s tidbits. I think it’s supposed to be unbiased, but it’s just not enough.

But so little information is given out throughout, and it takes forever to get those bits, that it’s hard to get to know who the characters were. That’s important because very few of them are likeable now, ten years later, so a lot seems to be dependent upon who they were. Yet we don’t know. We get very little backstory and it’s not well-done.

So the adventure begins! And the anachronisms that bothered a lot of the reviewers didn’t actually bother me. However there’s very little world building for that sort of thing, it just is there. It exists and we suspend belief. Cool, annoying though. I didn’t even mind the magical horse drawn Uber they can call, totally fine. The magical tapestries that worked like the internet, and had fan message boards for their favorite actors, a little weird, but fine. But again, no worldbuilding. It just…was. Okay. I can work with that, I guess.

But the personalities of the characters just all kind of suck. And with 3 separate authors? It’s obvious. The book feels disjointed at times. I wonder if each author just took a couple and ran with it, rather than all of them working together. And speaking of each couple, this was very Big Misunderstanding of them.

Short version: After the battle that they did win, they were recognized as heroes. But the man from the beginning, the “best of them all,” was killed in the battle. This is part of what broke up their friendships. One of The Four died, one became a hermit, one became a celebrity and reveled in it, and one married into a bad marriage and when she left her husband, that’s where our story starts.

The Four are brought back together when the queen requests them at a ceremony. They go out of obligation, but this is where the “adventure” begins. I found them frustrating. I wanted more. I wanted them to be heroic, I wanted them to less…whiny.

I kept waiting for the fun. I kept waiting for the romance. I kept waiting for the excitement. This was not, in fact, fun.

2 stars

***ARC courtesy of Avon Books

I'm sad I didn't love this one as much as I was expecting to! This novel is a blend of cozy adventure and romance that focuses on the characters rather than the plot. The past relationships, the hurt and unresolved emotions—all make these characters feel real and makes their pain easy to emphasize with. 

I think this is a wonderful addition to the cozy fantasy genre. If you don't like modern anachronisms in your fantasy, or enjoy plot over character development, this may be a pass for you.

4 Stars

The title is perfect for this book! It was such a fun book to read. It almost felt like a book 2 in a series. I would love to read a book about their first adventure. I thought the story moved along nicely and had just the right amount of adventure and romance. Even though this was a light read it also dealt with grief and had LGBTQ representation which I loved.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyage and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 3 stars

Advertised as a frolicking adventure compared to the whimsy of Legends and Lattes, Princess Bride, or Shrek I was excited to read this book. The cover instantly captured me in with the description as well. Four friends are heroes in Kingdom of Queendom.

Fast forward to 10 years later when 3 remain and they have fallen apart. Soon enough, the group begins to reunite composed of three main POVs. Beatrice, Clare, and Elowen.

Tropes and vibes:
⚔️ found family
⚔️ second chance romance
⚔️ sapphic romance
⚔️ cozy fantasy

This will be fun is a book that started with so much promise for me. The biggest problem I had with this story was the lack of plot, and the fact that we learned about the past of these characters throughout the story. I would have almost wondered if it would have been a more enjoyable book if it focused on ten years prior. The ending also made little to no sense, but we will let it slide because it was cozy fantasy. One could tell the writing style made it apparent that multiple people had worked on this story. Overall, it was a fun journey with likable characters, but there was no real driving plot for a book like this to be over 400 pages. It felt choppy at times and I got lost along the way asking … what are we doing and why— all too much.



Thank you NetGalley, Avon, and E.B. Asher for this copy of This will be fun!

Beatrice, Clare, Elowen and the late Galwell The Great have been know as the Four, heroes of the realm. But since their great victory a decade ago, the group has disbanded and relationships severed. But when Princess Thessia summons them to find her missing betrothed the three reluctantly decide to work together once again. As their journey through Mythria progresses secrets surface and relationships slowly mended. But Will Beatrice, Clare and Elowen be able to find and save Sir Hugh?

This was a fun and entertaining read! I haven’t read much medieval since my teenage years so this was a nice change of pace. Full of dynamic characters, magic and of course a quest I was thoroughly entertained!