3.5 /5 stars

At first, I had quite a hard time connecting with the book and for some reason I got more of a human x vampire vibe than a human x fae (not sure why tho).

Anyway, I pushed through and I really enjoyed the 2nd half. I really liked the characters and they really started to get more depth, I especially like that the FMC is confident and won't let anyone tell her what to do, but it's still a reasonable human and has enough logic to understand when or why some things have to be done in a certain way.

The ending however, it was great and now I really want to know what's gonna happen next. If the 2nd volume is gonna be as good as the 2nd half of this book, I can't wait to see what's gonna happen.

I DNF'd this at 40%. I really wanted to love this book. The blurb sounded amazing, human girl with a fae savior. I think the idea itself is great, I just don't think it was executed well. There were several grammatical mistakes. I can handle a mistake here or there but it felt like I was seeing them every other page. There were several times I had to go back and re-read something because there were extra words in the sentence, think "I want to go outside he she thought." It happened on multiple occasions. I understand that this is an ARC so there are bound to be some mistakes, but this was excessive. It feels like this book had no editing before being sent out.

The writing also felt stiff, which made it hard to connect with the characters. I felt no connection with either of the main characters so I didn't really care where their story was going. One of the main things that made me DNF was the FMC going right back to her profession after figuring it out, it just felt really unrealistic. There was no second guessing or hesitation at all.

I think if this had another round of editing and some minor changes to the reaction of finding out what her profession was this could be an amazing book.

This book sounded great just going off of the synopsis but honestly, I was a bit disappointed with this book. The world building was basically non-existent and needed a lot more details added. The plot didn't actually grab me at all, and there were quite a bit of plot holes, and I found myself not really caring about what happened at all and at some point I definitely started skimming just to get through it. The main romance was also a bit bland and most of the spice was due to the main character's profession as a sex worker. The ending of the book was also very weird to me with the direction that it went with Carra, and I can't say that I was a fan of this cliffhanger.

Really good plot, though i do feel like it was spread out a bit unevenly. The beginning was very detailed, maybe a bit too detailed, and relatively slow, and i feel like everything plotrelated happened in the last 20% of the book, though i should say it might have been intended to be slowly building up to that. I really liked the characters as well and their connections. There were good plot twists here and there as well. I've got to say i was not expecting the ending at all, and i wish i could have already learned more about it, but i guess now it's just waiting until i can read book 2, lol.

Thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

What an exciting read!! Just when you think you know what will happen, a big twist is thrown in.

When a mortal woman is running in a Fae area of town alone with no memories, she is saved from Fae guards when a saviour claims that she's his fiancee. Carra has no memories of the night she lost her memory, but being married to a Fae will save her from death.

Lord Straid, a Royal Prince, has been living in seclusion for the past 50 years after his mortal fiancee died. After meeting and marrying Carra, he helps her retrieve her memories and slowly falls in love with her. But soon others are disappearing and Straid needs to find out the connection between them and his new wife.

Someone he never expected to see again is orchestrating a sick game. Will he figure it out in time?

A must read!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀:⭐⭐
𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗲:🌶️🌶️.5

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 2/5
𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁: 2.5/5
𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 3/5
𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴: 2/5
𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 1.5/5

I wanted to like this one. The premise had potential, but the execution? Eh. I found the characters fell flat, and we didn't get enough backstory to feel anything for them. The pacing? Imagine a Tilt-a-Whirl that never slows down.
While the writing was decent enough to keep me from throwing the book, the worldbuilding had gaps big enough to drive a truck through—and yet, there was a lot of info-dumping at the same time.

Things that didn’t work for me but might for you:
• Carra's profession means she has intimate scenes with other characters. Don't get me wrong, the spice is there, but I wanted more emotional connection between her and Straid. Guess I'm a sucker for feelings.
• Carra and Straid’s relationship felt too surface-level for me. They barely interact for half the book, and when they do, it’s like watching two people politely nod at each other at a bus stop.

I didn’t realize this was the first in a series, so fingers crossed the next book

Thanks to NetGalley and F.A. Eden for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 10/10/2024. Here we have a mortal woman Carra who can't remember her past rescued by a fae lord Straid avoiding his own past. A by-chance rescue leads to a marriage of convenience which, of course, gets complicated. Not just by the participants, of course. The author also has decided to give us a magical mystery, possibly some murders, definitely Big Problems.

When you open a romantasy, you tend to expect certain things. Magic, romance, probably some kind of decently high stakes mixed in, some level of spice. I would never have said to expect respect for sex workers or rigorous adherence to consent and boundaries but I am DOWN with that. It's refreshing and should definitely show up more. In this case, too, it also adds a level of extra depth to Straid, the hero. A clearly powerful, rich, stunning fae lord who has clearly defined boundaries to what he will and won't do? Yes, please. He does have some emotional hang-ups, what with losing his mortal fiancé 50 years ago and still mourning, plus a Very Complicated Family Situation, but there is noticeable growth in his character through the book. He feels almost too good to be true in places but Eden puts in those little imperfections that feel natural, given his history and that baggage.

Carra almost suffers in comparison, to be honest! She is still well handled and has layers to her, even as she tries to uncover her past, but she feels strangely less human than the actual fae around her. I can't put my finger on it but it probably has something to do with still missing entire chunks of her history even three quarters through the book. (It's a growing process). She is likeable and sympathetic but Straid is just so very well done that the poor woman fluctuates more than she should.

The only real quibble with the book that I can put my finger on is at the very end. Warning, it's a very VERY slow burn kind of romance despite the frequent sex (but not between the main characters!) and then the mystery rightfully eats up a good chunk of real estate... But then you get a fantastic cliff-hanger and you're ready to close the book... But there is another chapter? That is another cliff-hanger and feels like it probably should have opened the next book in the series. So the actual last chapter does this strange backwards dilution thing to the second to last chapter and, oh, I wish we ended on that second to last one because it was extremely Just Right.

First off thank you to NetGalley for an Arc of this book, I appreciate it!

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I enjoyed it but I didn't. At first I had a hard to getting into this story and while I finally got myself to sit down and actually read it, the focus just wasn't there. There wasn't a whole lot of world building for me and to me fantasy books are all about the world building. It was a fast paced book though which helped me get through most of it quicker, but I just needed more for it. The ending had an interesting turn and I kind of want to know what will happen in the next book now.

I'm giving this a 3 star rating and am hoping to maybe go back and reread it a different time with a different mindset later.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, but this one wasn’t for me. I just never got behind the characters and couldn’t personally bring myself to feel invested in the plot. Maybe I read too much similar and it’s fae fatigue but I just don’t know if it brings anything new to the sub genre. It is not poorly written and I will say that it earned points for not stigmatizing sex work. I would still recommend this to the right person depending on what they’re looking for, but it it wasn’t right for me, at least at the moment.

First off, thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Secondly, I LOVE the cover of this book. So gorgeous.
This book has the potential to be really good. It just needs to go through another round of edits (spelling, grammar, incorrect names in places) and I think it could get there. The story line was interesting and I liked that the author didn't info dump on you as soon as the book started, but rather you kept finding out bits of information as you went along. I do wish that it was longer so the author could build up the characters a bit more and give us some additional details about..well...everything. Without giving any spoilers, I will just say that the author ended the book in a way that makes it obvious there will be a second book. Will I read it? Probably so.

“And he vowed to the universe, out loud, that he would not rest until he found her.”
.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 🌶️🌶️🌶️
.
From the very first sentence of this book I could not put it down. The mystery of the fmc’s identity drew me in, but the slow regaining of her memories kept me reading, ever hungry for more.
Carra’s a character I can see myself in a lot. Headstrong and ready to stand up for herself, but also soft and gentle when she wants to be.
Straid immediately joined my roster of book boyfriends. Watching his walls slowly come down, the ice in his heart slowly melt was so beautifully written. It felt so natural, nothing forced or rushed about the nature of their relationship.
Overall, incredible book! I read it front to back in less than 12 hours.

This book had a great amount of potential within the storyline and main characters. However, I felt that it deviated from the developing relationship between Anna (IYKYK) and Straid, and focused more on her career and interactions with the various other fae she interacts with. It then felt like the book suddenly ended with so many threads unraveled and twisted.

It was well written, and the premise was great, but I just couldn't connect with the way it moved forward.

Mortal Memories captured my attention from page one. It’s a fantasy book like no other I’ve ever read before and the ending left me speechless!
Sometimes I felt like things were a bit fast paced but nothing that actually bothered me that much.
In some ways you can compare this book to other fae+human books, but the story was very unique and why it was complex it was also easy to read. I hope there will be a sequel (I presume there will) and can’t wait to read it!

This novel throws you straight into the action!

Diving into a high fantasy world where our human FMC, Carra, suffered post trauma amnesia, stumbling into Fae quarters but is discovered by a fae lord and well...there goes the neighbourhood.
This is a spicy romantasy between Carra and said Fae lord, Straid, fighting to regain her memories before *insert spoiler here* ;)

I feel this novel needed some more world buliding but IT ENDS ON A CLIFFHANGER!!!!

I wanted to like this book but honestly I struggled to get through it. The premise of a human in the fae realm with amnesia was an interesting premise. However I felt like the usual turn for a marriage of convenience trope never played out. I didn’t feel a strong connection between the two main characters.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book, and I was pleasantly surprised.

The story follows a human woman with amnesia as she seeks to piece together her life and the events of the night that led to her memory being wiped. On the night of the incident, she is found in the Fae Quarters alone, a crime punishable by death for a human, where she is rescued by Straid - the enigmatic Fae who offers to marry her to save her life.

I enjoyed unlocking parts of Anna's life throughout this book, and found her fieriness (mostly) admirable. I also like that she's portrayed as a plus-size POC, rather than the typical Fantasy FMC! Also, plenty of sex-worker positivity in this which was fab.

Straid is the typical fantasy man; attractive, aloof and brooding. He has plenty of secrets and we only find out about most of them in the latter half of the book.

The tension between the FMC & MMC was great, and I found myself really wanting them to finally give in. It was, however, painful knowing they both wanted more but neither would relent (!) Such is the pain of dual POV in this instance. Saying that, I appreciated being able to read this story from both sides as it built on each characters' background and motivations really well.

I liked the Fae bonds and contracts lore in this. It helped to portray a sense of trust and closeness between characters when they used phrases such as 'I swear' or 'please'.

I really enjoyed the ending and I can't wait to see what happens next! This was a quick, easy read, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the sequel to see how the Epilogue is resolved/explained?! We love a cliffhanger!

There were a few grammatical errors, and in a couple of places, the wrong name was used, which was confusing. I understand that this can happen in an ARC, so hopefully this is resolved prior to release.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

⭐⭐⭐/5

🌶🌶/5

Mortal Memories is a different take on the Faerie subgenre that has overtaken the realm of Fantasy in recent years. With fae reminiscent of Holly Black fae, different color skin and animal-like attributes, the characters world building feels fresh, although not without the stereotypical “everyone is absolutely gorgeous” story line.

Mortal Memories starts out by following a mortal woman that is on the run alone from something that has terrified her and taken all of her memories in a non-mortal friendly fae sector of the city. After a guard spots Carra and starts asking her questions, Straid, a fae lord with baggage of his own, decides to do a good dee and claim Carra as his wife to dissuade the guards from carrying out her punishment- death. Now forced to marry one another, because the guards will check-in to make sure they are married, Carra settles in to her new life and begins the journey to recover her memories.

When beginning Mortal Memories, I thought I was being led stray by the “slow burn tagine” because there was an immediate attraction between the two main characters. However, the romance between the main characters does stay in the “slow burn” realm because of the trauma both characters have gone through, BUT the book does not remain spice-less and sex-less. Carra discovers that her career was in prostitution, and Straid honors her wishes to continue her career and THAT’S where the spice comes into play.

I do want to give props to the author for the pro sex work story line in an era where sex work still gets criticized and hate.

I appreciated the switch-up to have the male main character experiencing heaving emotions, depression, and grief, whereas I feel like I usually see the female main characters taking the brunt of those emotions.

One of the biggest drawbacks of this book was the grammar and spelling errors. As someone who will re-read a sentence for comprehension and doesn’t tend to skim or read quickly, this really threw me off guard and took away from the overall effect of the story for me.

I found that I liked the writing style but I couldn't really connect with the main characters and couldn't really get into the story/mystery of it all.

Hi Book Besties!💕🌻
I am so excited to share my review with you guys for Mortal Memories😍 By @faedenbooks
A Giant thank you to @Netgalley for the gifted eARC! This is Book 1 in Wylder Tales series. It does have some pretty dark themes so you should absolutely check out those trigger warnings before jumping in! Your mental health is always more important than a book.
This was a fantastic book, a human with no memories of herself and a Fey who comes to her rescue in an area where she should be killed for being unescorted in. However the only way to save her is to agree to marry him. Death or Marriage are her only two choices. But what does being married to this fey really mean…
I loved this entire world! Straid is the ultimate grieving romantic and I love him for it and Carra is just so amazing!I can’t wait to see what happens next!

F.A. Eden is AMAZING! This world they've created is lush and beautiful while the plot and characters are so vivid. I found it hard to step away from! I can't wait to read what they come out with next bc this book is a must read!