I fell in love with Lily in One Night in Hartswood and was so excited to be gifted an e-arc by NetGalley of Lily and Jo’s story.

While I already adored Lily going into my read I was delighted to fall in love with Jo and her journey of finding herself. I absolutely adored how cozy and beautiful All The Painted Stars was.
It’s packed full of self discovery, character growth, and queerness and what else do you really need.

DNF 25%

Great premise: A girl from the north finds out that her best friend is being offered in marriage to the winner of a tournament. The girl chops off her hair, disguises herself as a knight, and sets out to enter the tournament to win her bff's freedom.

Poor focus. And it might be poor timing given current world situations, but all the talk about expectations for women to marry, to be polite, to behave, and the men just mansplaining, even the little brother...100% put me off.

One of my favorite books of 2024—I couldn’t put it down! This reminded me of Tamora Pierce’s Alanna in the best possible way, only queer(er) and for adults. A delight from start to finish, this was one of the most delicious slow burns I’ve ever read. Rest assured the spice is well worth the wait. Lily, a sapphic cross-dressing knight willing to risk everything to save the woman she loves from an unwanted marriage, was so swoony that she instantly became my newest book girlfriend. I was smitten from the moment she cut her hair. Her lady love, Jo, was also immediately lovable, and I enjoyed her blend of innocence and strength. While the book took an unexpected turn by leaving the tournament behind, I loved the coziness of the new life they found together at the brewery.

A must-read for anyone who loves sword sapphics, I can already tell that this’ll be a frequent reread for me.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc. I rate this 5 stars and 2.5 chili peppers for spice. OMG I literally loved this book! I’m a regular queer romance reader but usually stick to m/m. Which is how I ended up reading the first book One Night in Hartswood and I loved that story so I figured I’d give this sapphic one a try. And wow, I literally fell in love with Lily and Jo. The vibe of this story is very A Knight’s Tale and Mulan but set in the Middle Ages. The slow burn totally worked for Jo’s queer awakening. I also love that we got a sibling reunion at the end. I also feel like we got some sneaky peeks at characters that will show up in the third book. Literally loved this book and can’t wait for the next one!

All the Painted Stars is a captivating historical romance that delves into friendship and loyalty. When Lily sets off to support her friend Jo, an unexpected twist forces them to flee the keep together. Their journey reveals new layers of each other’s personalities, deepening their bond as they assist a family striving to make a living. The slow-burn romance is especially engaging, offering a satisfying progression as Lily and Jo gradually come to terms with their feelings, making the relationship feel organic and deeply meaningful. Overall this is a lovely historical romance with royalty, knights, tournaments, and a love that lasts a lifetime!

This is a truly adorable story. The tension and romantic build up between the two leading characters should be applauded!
And Mabel’s character won my heart, when she talked about the midwife she had grown up knowing.
The only complaint I had about this book was the never-ending info dumping at the beginning. It was hard to get through the family trees being mapped out and hearing the tales of every family member all at once.

I love me some ✨gay medieval kissing✨

I was a huuuge fan of One Night in Hartswood, so I knew I had to see how Lily and Jo’s story ended. The sexual tension between them was palpable in One Night 👀

This was such a fun, sweet read about Jo being married off and hosting a tournament for eligible bachelors, and Lily disguising herself as a knight to come and rescue her. Never been one for the ‘knight in shining armor’ schtick, but this one worked for me cuz it, y’know, didn’t involve a man

Watching Jo find her voice throughout the story was cathartic, and seeing Jo and Lily’s love and friendship evolve in the safety of the brewery had me in shambles. Don’t even get me started about that plot twist 😭😭😭

Thank you, Emma, for another wonderfully queer medieval adventure!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this arc!

I loved the characters and the explorations of their sexuality/gender/gender expression. This was a really well written book, with great representation!

The premise of this story had so much potential, but I feel like it fell a bit flat in execution.

Lily finds out that her best friend, Johanna, is being offered in marriage to the winner of a tournament. So, she chops off her hair and sets out to enter the tournament to win Johanna's freedom.

The beginning of this story felt very slow to me, so I tried to stick with it to see if it picked up. Unfortunately, the plot stayed very slow to me. The story also felt like there was not enough and too much going on at the same time. This story felt like it was trying to accomplish too much at once, and not actually doing any of it. This one just wasn't for me in the end.

Fantastic medieval sapphic romance with so much heart! I really loved All the Painted Stars. The writing is fantastic, and I fell for both main characters immediately. I love the idea of women becoming knights so I'm always a sucker for that trope, and this one was written so well! As a bonus, you learn about medieval breweries!

Thanks to NetGalley, Emma Denny, and Harper360 for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own!

When I realized this book would be about Penn and Raff's sisters, I was so thrilled. We don't see them together in One Night in Hartswood but their chemistry was clear from the get-go and I wanted more from them. Thankfully, this book didn't disappoint and I enjoyed every second.

It was so satisfying to see Lily and Johanna not only grow closer but grow as people because of each other. Lily goes from someone who acts first and thinks second to someone who realizes the dangers of recklessness. Johanna goes from someone committed to duty to someone who finally allows herself to choose for herself.

I also enjoyed the fighting and seeing Lily put all those powerful men to shame. There are not many romance books, even sapphic ones where I see women being unapologetically strong and I loved that this was the exception.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy stories about running away, powerful women and falling in love with your best friend.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an e-arc of this book.

While I haven't yet read the first one in this series, this one turned out to be wonderful, even without the information from the first one, and it just made me want to read it more!

Jo and Lily, our MCs in this book, are heartwarming, fun, and complicated characters that we get to know beautifully throughout the story. They have been exchanging letters before the story begins, and as they reunite early on in the book, the tension between them is obvious.

While this story has a bit of a slow burn, once our characters choose each other, they are firmly together, and there is no third-act breakup. The romance is SO sweet, and as they continuously have to make difficult choices, it's clear how much they care for each other and how it's disrupting their boring noblewoman lives. Lily's complicated feelings on gender are approached in a time-appropriate way as we see her wrestle with clothing, hair choices, and expected gender roles.

I loved the family drama we saw, hinting at what happened in the first book and revealed in this book. We really saw the chosen family and complicated family dynamics at play.

Plotwise, there are many plots here, the tournament and running away together, that are both dropped midway through, but in a way that works well, for an incredibly compelling look at the women's brewing business of the 14th century, and, of course, our love story. The author details this topic in her note, which is fascinating. It was great to learn that what happened in the story was reminiscent of a lost truth about women's agency in this period.

Altogether, it was a really interesting read!

Johanna’s father is finally dead, leaving her seven-year-old brother as Earl de Foucart. As clever as he is, a child cannot rule, so the collection of advisors overseeing his territories for him have decided to throw a tournament meant to mend some of the bridges burned by Johanna’s father and her older brothers. It is also meant to be the site of Johanna’s wedding, as it has been decided that one powerful and landed knight will be rewarded with Johanna’s hand.

Lily, Johanna’s best friend, is furious on her behalf. Jo isn’t meant to be handed off like a prize, isn’t meant to see her happiness taken from her, her every choice, her freedom. So, of course, Lily, comes up with a brilliant idea. She will cut off her hair, don her brother’s cast-off armor, and enter the joust! One, it’ll be fun. Two, if Jo doesn’t like someone, Lily can defeat them for her, making it hard for a braggart or a bully to stand a chance of marrying Jo. And you never know. Maybe Lily will find a way to win and claim Jo’s hand for her own.

All the Painted Stars is the second book in the Barden series, with the first book, One Night in Hartswood, following the adventures of both Jo and Lily’s older brothers. Fortunately, you don’t need to have read that book to enjoy this one, but I will say, having finished this one, I am now off to get the first book in the series because I enjoyed everything about this one. The writing, the characters, the setting, the research, the .. well, the all of it!

One thing I love about a good historical fiction and/or fantasy is how the characters react to and move within the constraints of their society, of the limitations and expectations placed on them by their family, their friends, by their duties and gender, and this book has all of that. Jo is the sister of an Earl, destined to marry for politics and wealth, to help her family recover from past scandals. She has to be the good child, the dutiful daughter, the obedient bride; she cannot do what her heart would have her do and flirt with Lily. She cannot be honest with her love, open with her true emotions, and the pining … oh the pining as she struggles to come to terms with her own sexuality, which she is just discovering, her deep and abiding friendship with Lily, and her growing love for the friend who came to her — to save her, to help her, to give her a choice, a chance, when her family took that all from her. And yet Jo never blames her family, or even the men vying for her hand. This is her world, this is the path many women within her world have taken. She may not want it, but she’s not angry at the people around her doing their best to make good decisions on her behalf.

Lily has always known she loves women, knows she loves her best friend, and delights in the game of dressing like a boy to enter the tournament. She knows she can’t win, even if she might wistfully dream that she might. Lily is skilled, yes, talented, certainly, but she lacks experience, she lacks the physical strength of a young man, let alone a grown and trained knight with years of practice coming from many tournaments, joust after joust, battle after battle. But that won’t stop her. As a man, she’s able to swagger, to boast, to be free of the restrictions of her femininity — while never not being a girl; Lily isn’t uncomfortable as a woman. But she’s having so much more fun as a man — and able to openly pine over Jo.

And yet, even here, society traps Lily in the customs of its time. Lily, entering as a landless man with no title, with no spurs or friends to speak for her, has no right to ask for Jo’s favor, no right — in their eyes — to have a crush, let alone to honestly wish for and hope for some return of affection. They make that clear to her again and again, causing the mixture of feelings and fears, wants and desires, and even the loneliness of the position she has ended up into rising into her thoughts.

When Jo and Lily have moments together, they both flourish like flowers in the sun. Jo becomes less reserved and shows her temper and her sense of humor; Lily becomes less guarded and is boastful, romantic, full of dreams. They are close friends who understand one another at a deep level. It isn’t, for them, simple lust. It’s trust, it’s understanding, it’s knowing that there is someone in the world who will stand in their corner, whichever corner that is — be it laughing at a joke, disliking a food, or wanting to save the world. It’s such a sweet romance, and every obstacle in their way only serves to make them stronger.

This book feels lived in. The way camps are set up, the way people act and react, the scenes of brewing and buying and selling ale, all of it just feels real and it adds a wonderful flavor to the romance because Lily and Jo are living in this world, a product of it, and it’s just all so very good. The writing is strong and the pace is good, though there are some moments where things fell into a drowsy holding pattern and the confrontation at the end fell a little flat for me. However, I had so much fun with the characters and the world that I am able to overlook the pacing issues.

This is definitely recommended for people who want pining, romance, two women who are truly each other’s person, and historical fiction. This is just a good book and worth the read.

What a cozy read!

Lily and Jo are great characters going through a journey of discovery, both with each other and themselves. Their friendship shines alongside the romance.

This was an enjoyable historical romance. I didn’t realize this book was a sequel which was my mistake. As a result, I was missing some of the world and character building that was likely covered earlier in the series.

If I had any feedback, it would be that the “event” involving Lord Adam and Lanval in the last quarter of the book seemed somewhat unrealistic. But it added a lightness to the whole plot which wasn’t unwelcome.

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

What a blast! Got the same feeling as when I watched Heath Ledger in the 2000s jousting around for the first time. Definitely anachronistic in the best way. Emma Denny has outdone herself. Highly enjoyed.

Thank you to Harper 360 | HQ and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

The cozy fairytale for grownups I didn't know I needed
ALL THE PAINTED STARS is the perfect book to read on a chill night by the fire with plenty of blankets and hot coco. The lush setting and characters had me whisked away with all the nostalgia I had for reading the King Arthur legends as a kid for the first time...except this time gay :)
The perfect comforting read, I highly recommend!

3.5 stars. Reading this was like a trip to RennFair: lots of historical inaccuracies, full of queer people, and an overall good time. Both the romance and the plot were sweet but a little bland. It all felt a little to easy and wrapped up a little too neatly, but I'd still recommend it to people.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced copy. It has not impacted my review.

3.25 stars

I did not read book 1 of this series so I could truthfully answer whether you need to or not; while it is not necessary to read book 1 to get the full story, you will absolutely be aware the whole time that you're missing some context for things. It is possible to read this book as a standalone, but they'd be better together.

This story is A Knight's Tale, but make it Sapphic and also way more cozy. Lily hears that her penpal friend, Johanna, is going to be married off at the conclusion of a tournament in her kingdom, and she thinks she can somehow save her by entering the tournament as William Dale and making it far. This whole driving force/setup was the weakest element of the plot to me because even the characters themselves cannot rationalize their own decisions, particularly Lily. She has no real basis for having joined thus tournament except that the author needed her there.

At the tournament, Jo realizes almost immediately that William Dale is Lily and when Lily gets injured, the two run off, away from Jo' newfound engagement, to nurse her back to health at brewery in a nearby town. From there it becomes mostly a self exploration story for Jo as she learns what she's been repressing her whole life.

This is very cozy, low stakes, not much driving force behind the plot. But it's sweet and the setting is rich and I loved the author's note about women and beer brewing because I didn't know that, and it provided a layer of nice context. The characters were likeable, the romance and spice were believable, if not a little repetitive after awhile, and I really liked that the author took the time to clarify if Lily was trans/non-binary in a way that didn't pull me out of the 1300's. I do not know if I can consider this a true historical romance, though, as it felt more like a contemporary romance set in a historical setting. But it was nice!

4.25 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice mix of cozy, sweet romance with a little bit of drama and some stakes. Jo and Lily were both strong independent characters living in a time when that wasn't what was expected of women. I loved how they were both on a journey to find what they wanted in life and how to escape what was expected of both of them.
Mixed in with the drama of Jo running away from the man she was supposed to marry, Jo and Lily trying to figure out their feelings for each other, and the general stress of being queer in the 14th century, you get lots of fun moments, like Lily pretending to be a knight to fight for Jo's honor, running a brewery, and a cameo from Penn and Raff.
This was all around a fun book with a really sweet romance and I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a historical romance to check out.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the ARC!

Sapphic medieval friends to lovers romance? How cute! Lily Barden and Johanna are best friends who are also pen pals, yet when Johanna's latest letter informs Lily that she is to be wed off as the main prize a a tournament Lily decides the best way to save Johanna is to fight for Jo's hand herself..., even if it means entering into the contest. But things are never easy and things escalate and now its up to Lily and Jo to find a way to get out safely... but what they don't expect is that they are also falling for one another, but can they really be together in a world where they've never really had choices. This was a sweet slow burn read and overall I thought it was okay. It could be better but honestly, it just felt okay to me. I love reading sapphic romances and I do think that this would be a fun read for anyone who enjoys slow burn friends to lovers romances that is light.

Release Date: November 5,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Harper 360 | HQ for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*