It takes me A LOT to dnf a book I have an arc for - this book was a lot (derogatory). I have no idea what was going on, or where anything was leading. The four chapters I made it through all felt like chapter one of different books, and none of them were the book I thought I was supposed be reading.


Thank you to Netgalley and Bloom for the advanced copy!

# The Empress by Kristin Cast
★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)

Okay, let me tell you about this book that totally sucked me in! "The Empress" by Kristin Cast is this wild ride that mixes up some really cool elements. First off, don't let the YA-style writing fool you – our main character is actually in her 30s, which is such a refreshing change of pace.

Let's talk about what makes this book stand out: the magic system is super unique, and Cast has created this amazing interdimensional world that keeps you guessing. The world-building here is *chef's kiss* - it's different from anything I've read lately.

Now, I'll be honest – our main character starts off a bit whiny and immature (like, girl, you're in your 30s!), but stick with it because the character growth is worth it. Plus, the steamy scenes? 🔥 There are a couple of spicy moments that definitely push this out of typical YA territory. But what really keeps you hooked is the tension – Cast knows how to build up those moments and keep you on the edge of your seat.

The romance and chemistry between the characters is perfection. You know those books where you're practically yelling "just kiss already!" at the pages? Yeah, it's that kind of delicious tension. The build-up is real, folks!

Despite the main character's rocky start, the story itself is super engaging. The way Cast weaves together the interdimensional travel, unique magic, and character relationships makes for a read that's hard to put down. The writing style might feel YA-ish, but the adult themes and character age make it perfect for those of us who love YA-style fantasy but want more mature content.

Bottom line: If you're into unique magic systems, dimension-hopping adventures, and don't mind a bit of spice with your fantasy, this book is definitely worth picking up. Just push through those early chapters where you might want to shake some sense into the protagonist – I promise it pays off!

DNF @ 20%
You see, this one makes me very sad. I really wanted to like this one. I wanted to read about a cool tarot card magic world system, I wanted and hoped for something interesting. But I cannot for the life of me read about such an annoying main character who talks to herself constantly.
So far at 20% the main character has made her own life worse by the dumb decisions she makes. Instead of sympathizing with her all I feel is irritation and annoyance.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book. I wish I had liked it!

I really wanted to like this book. The premise immediately made me request this - a tarot card that transports the MC to another realm? Heck yeah!

The connection the tarot card felt like it was a last minute addition and did not connect with the magic in the story at all. I've also read quite a few books where the MC gets transported to another world, and this story doesn't really rank all that high in comparison. The love story between Hannah and Kane feels...weird. There's no reason for them to fall for each other and it comes out of nowhere. Hannah is also an idiot. She talks and acts like a teenager; much of the dialogue feeling immature. Some of the "feminist" language and the points made about how Hannah is a strong woman who "don't need no man" and must stand up to the patriarchy felt oddly placed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book and honestly review it.

This one just wasn’t for me. I like cozy romantasy, but this just felt too underdeveloped and more fantasy rom-com than anything else. I really don’t like characters who have insta love and I also dislike bad decisions that are used to move the plot along. Thank you for the opportunity to read this work in advance. I’m sure others will eat it up.

I have to say the idea behind the book is what drew me in but unfortunately the execution wasn't what I had expected.

I was hoping for a well developed magic system, an empress that actually had cards in the game, and a tower that would be more magically involved than i would have imagined for a building. But instead the magic system fell short and both the empress and the tower were just symbols in a traveling multiverse kind of story.

The MMC wasn't bad perse but the childish people that surrounded her made the story feel cheap and immature. The fantasy world building wasn't bad at all but the characters motivations in that same setting felt lacking. There could have been much more of a backstory and development of the animosity. It felt like no character knew what their role exactly was, they just existed and their motivations just showed that.

Thank you to the author and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book!

Hannah's life isn't going like she wants it to. She's losing opportunities at work, her boyfriend doesn't see eye-to-eye with her, and she doesn't talk to her family as much as they'd like her to. However, after visiting a tarot shop after a particularly difficult day, Hannah discovers those problems are nothing compared to getting magically transported to another world. But hey, at least there's a broody, sexy knight to help her figure things out...

Okay, I might have been a bit generous with the 3 star rating. Kane is hot, but generic in this world of morally grey/grumpy love interests. He might as well have discovered his mastery over shadows. He wasn't as mean to Hannah as most of the "book boyfriends" are, so that's a check in the positive category.
Speaking of Hannah, I was not a fan. She reads a lot younger than she is (I don't remember if her age was brought up, but she's obviously graduated college and is working in corporate America) and felt very immature. At every turn, she fought against what Kane and everyone else suggested she do in order to fit in. She constantly spoke without thinking and was doing nothing to stay safe. I'm sorry, but if I ever find myself in a magical kingdom in another world, I'm keeping my mouth shut and quietly planning my escape.
The side characters did their job at pushing the story along. It's the antagonists I didn't get. Ivy was really only there to mirror Hannah's issues in her world. And Four, he gave nothing! There was little to no background, there wasn't really interaction between him and Hannah until the end. There was no lead up, no second act confrontation. It just didn't feel like he was a fully developed character.
This book fell a bit flat for me, and according to a friend who is very into tarot, "The cards representing Hannah and Four weren't the best picks. Also, why didn't the other characters have card representation?"

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the eARC! Projected publishing date: January 7th, 2025

"I can't find a balance between who I am and who I'm supposed to be. Honestly, I've never gotten the balance right. I'm always too much of myself or too much of someone"

Aside from having one of the most gorgeous covers I have ever seen, it was an absolute delight to be back in the world of Kristin Cast's writing again! Overall I enjoyed myself with each page, there were just a handful of things that added up that didn't make it a five star read for me--end result being a 3.5 in my mind. Loved the idea, the world building, the magic(k) system, and the characters-- it was just I wish we had a bit MORE of said characters. There were a lot that made it hard to keep track of, and in turn, I feel we didn't get the full DEPTH of them and even with that, I feel like Hannah could have done a bit more to blend in initially. Now, this is COMPLETELY a me thing... nicknames. I am not a fan of nicknames and when they are used as constant as they were in this book, it irks me.
All that to say, I did enjoy it and felt heartache and break in all the places Kristin planned us to feel it. Whew! Tears were in my eyes and I was about to call my therapist. Thank you to those who approved me to read this book and I cannot wait to read more from Kristin in this series.

A mix of tarot, magic, and historical romance? Sign me up. The Empress is based on a tarot card that magically transports Hannah to Towerfell, destined to save Pentacles (not just the pagan symbol, nor the suit of tarot cards, but the kingdom). She's been sort of floating through our world - not easily, mind you, but just generally going with the flow and not looking for a challenge. A bad pitch at work, a boyfriend named Chad, and inadvertently being a peeping tom of a sex magic ritual all leads her to eventually finding this card which transports her into a room with Kane. As per what you'd expect from any good regency romance, he's dark and brooding and well muscled and is also trying to keep her from getting them both killed.

I enjoyed the premise of this book even if it felt a little contrived at times. I feel like it could have been a bit longer to develop some of the characters a bit more but overall it was a fun read. If you aren't a fan of Regency romance, magic, or a bit of smut, this might not be 100% your jam, but consider checking it out anyway. It was a quick read. Thanks to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy!

Fantasy book that is tarot card inspired first book about Hannah who is stuck in a life in Chicago that she’s just not happy with in any level. When she acquires a mystery tarot card her whole life is turned upside down. Hannah is thrown into a different realm where the handsome Kane saves her life over and over again. Hannah’s sole goal is to return home while Kane wants to save his kingdom and best friend the king who doesn’t seem like himself after banishing Kane from court. This was a fun read that was a super fun unique story. I really hope there is a follow up book to add to the adventures and characters started in this first book!

Amazing book I remember reading PC case when I was in school. Kristen cast is pretty awesome. Thank you for letting me read this. It was very well written book.

I loved this book. I wasn't sure how I felt about the first couple chapters and I can't put into words why, but once I got a few chapters in I was invested. The writing makes you feel like you are there in Pentacles and seeing what the characters are seeing. The descriptions are detailed without being too much. I can't wait until the next book!

This was not a favorite for me. The FMC seemed a bit immature and more along the YA realm than adult romantasy.
The cover was beautiful and the blurb sold me, but the book sort of let me down. I expected a book about a FMC that enters a tarot-inspired magic kingdom. It fell short of that.

I often want to finish a series, regardless how I feel about the first book, but this isn’t the case here. I wasn’t a fan and will not be continuing the series.

Thank you to Bloom Books for providing this book for review via NetGalley.

This one just wasn't for me. The cover is stunning and the premise very intriguing. Perhaps it was just my headspace and I will revisit later.

DNF at 30%

This book is just not for me and I did not want to keep reading. I didn't connect with the writing style and I found the FMC to be very juvenile. This book is meant to be an adult romantasy, but the FMC comes off immature and I would say her inner dialogue and decisions lean much more towards young YA. I know that this author’s previous works were YA and I think a lot of that leaked into this novel.

I was very excited to read this when I read the blurb which led me to expect an adult romantasy book where the FMC is swept away from the real world to a magical tarot-inspired magick kingdom. I love this premise and what the author was going for, but I do not think it was executed well. The plot and dialogue is very surface level and not very fleshed out. The characters, especially the FMC, come off cringy and unlikable. I was also a bit put off by the amount of trendy romantasy tropes/details I felt the author was trying to cram into her writing. Overall, I am not a fan of this book and I will not be finishing the book or the series.

Thank you to Bloom Books for providing this book for review via NetGalley.

I have been reading from the Cast family for decades and Kristin writing alone by herself is just as fabulous as writing with her mother! I love this family of writers and their energy. Their books never disappoint!

1.5 stars

It’s not often that a book accidentally makes me mad. Unfortunately, <i>The Empress</i> made me mad through a series of poorly used tropes, confusing misogyny and feminism, and a main character who needed a couple more brain cells.

My first issue was the contradiction of the main character. She starts out failing at a massive presentation and then seems to be shocked when failing at your job has consequences. After receiving a magical tarot card, she gets transported to a poorly defined fantasy kingdom where she immediately falls in love with her rescuer who just happens to be a hot banished knight. Rather than adapt to her new situation, she proceeds to complain. Constantly. It doesn’t matter that people are literally starving around her; she misses her life in Chicago—the same life that she actively despises and complains about.

The main love interest was a shadow of a character. I could tell you that he was dark and broody and had really nice abs. Do I know his backstory or his emotional depth or his personality? Nope. Those things didn’t seem to matter, so they weren’t included in the story. He also wasn’t romantic. All he did was tell the main character that he would protect her and that she was pretty a couple of times. I didn’t believe they were in love (or even in lust). What I was supposed to believe about the love interest is that he magically made the main female character more self-confident by rescuing her a bunch, calling her a girl, and having mediocre sex with her (obviously all the things women need to feel empowered).

This book was an odd combination of misogynistic and feminist. It only took 200 pages for the main character to learn the valuable lesson that misogyny is indeed bad. She had this brilliant realization after dissing other women and almost getting sexually assaulted (which was massively glossed over because apparently her attacker having a submission kink means consent is irrelevant). Despite the sexual violence she encountered, she still managed to hate the other woman who happened to be good at their jobs, therefore making them evil monsters. Once she became a feminist, she was super radical and went as far as to say that women have value beyond their romantic partners (gasp).

Beyond the weird preaching/problematic gender role commentary, the side characters in this novel also sucked. We had the evil ex named Chad, the minority best friend who had to be taught to love herself, the crazy other woman who happened to be just too pretty, the brooding love interest who did the bare minimum, and the main character who was mousy until the love interest “discovered” her beauty. I thought we left those tropes back in the early 2010s, but apparently not.

As for the plot, the main characters witness the brutal murder of foreign dignitaries and decide that the best plan is to be the brutally murdered people (but don’t worry, that never seems to have real consequences because collateral damage doesn’t exist in this world) and sneak into the hostile palace. Part of the wonders of fantasy romance is fantasy. To me, that means swords and masquerades and complex politics, and large-scale conflict. You won’t find any of that here. Instead, get excited to read about a woman failing in the corporate world, so she gets transported to a fantastical world where she can fail at saving the kingdom, but it’s fine because she is randomly the chosen one and the love interest can see how “special” she is.

I know this review is harsh. I recognize that I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I had been a young teenager who hadn’t read extensively in the genre. I would’ve also liked it more if I wasn’t coming at it from a critical angle. At least the cover is gorgeous?

I really liked the book. It was written really well! I loved and routed for the hero and the heroine of this story.

Thank you NetGalley and SCOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for giving me early access to this book! All opinions are my own.

I’ve been a longtime fan of P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast since I first stumbled across the House of Night series in 2007, but this is my first time reading a book that Kristin Cast has written herself. While this is very different from those, I had a really fun time with this! My biggest complaint normally about their books is how juvenile the main characters seem to be, but I felt like the character of Hannah was pretty on par for a 20-something year old. Yes she was immature, but she grew as the story progressed, and her character growth made sense. I think my only complaint about this book was actually the epilogue and the chapter before…it felt like the ending came out of left field, and was a disappointment. But, overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book! 4⭐️

oh i absolutely ate this up. from the get-go, i loved the writing, as it was very diaristic teenage girl (although she certainly is NOT), and from there i was fully entertained with her theatrics beginning to end. the plot was so interesting and the romance- a lil open door moment, mind you- really topped it off. i cant wait to see where this series goes!