Another satisfying free offering from the Rainbow Advent Calendar (https://jaymountney.com/2022/12/02/out-of-time-a-free-story/). I'm very much looking forward to checking out the author's other fantasy stories, because I really enjoyed this one! 

My absolute favorite part was the worldbuilding. The story starts with a young man from what feels like a ~19th century Earth stumbling into a portal that takes him to a fae world. The fairyland isn't exactly magical, but there are super interesting plays on the common fae tropes, such as the power of true names and the iron intolerance. It's connected with the human world through randomly appearing portals, and time flows differently across the two realms, which is how situations like "someone went to the land of the fae and came back seven years later thinking only a couple of days had passed" take place. It is also connected with another, more sci-fi/technologically advanced type of world that allows the fae to borrow stuff like indoors plumbing, long-distance communication devices, and electricity. It's a setting I would love to explore further from all angles and to see all the intersections between worlds.

As for the romance part: it was really sweet, and I loved how the fae character, the one who has more power thanks to his hypnosis tricks and is in a more privileged position thanks to being a well-adjusted native in his worls, ends up to be the one with the chronic illness. As someone who often has dizzy spells that result in fainting episodes, I found his condition relatable, and I enjoyed that it doesn't prevent him of being a master craftsman, having friends who don't immediately think of just his chronic condition when they interact with him, and building a happy relationship while being ill.

What I didn't enjoy is how condensed the romantic storyline felt. I understand the word count constraints here, but I'd so much love to read a full novel depicting more fully the way Kit and Rianthe came together. I'd love to read about more domestic moments between the two, to have more showing instead of telling. I also spotted some inconsistencies in Kit's narration that kind of knocked me out of the story for a bit. Such as: when he first witnesses a same-sex relationship in Rianthe's friends' circle, he mentions it doesn't surprise him to see two men together because during his life on the farm he's seen same-sex animals being affectionate with each other so he gets it's a thing that can happen. Next chapter, when he contemplates the possible attraction between him and Rianthe, he starts thinking about how he's always preferred man but never felt like society and church would allow him to explore this side of himself. So like... he's a closeted gay man, and the first things he thinks of when he sees two men in a relationship is, "Oh, right, I get this, I've seen male oxen being 'affectionate,'" and not, "It's the first time I'm witnessing people like me being happy!" or "other people like me? I'm not alone!" or "oh wow, this kind of stuff is actually socially acceptable here?" This... doesn't seem very plausible. 

This detail, and other minor things like, feels like it stemmed from the same word count constraints—maybe the author didn't have room to show just *how* closeted Kit has been, and map out his journey to admitting this to himself. But, well, this stuff did disrupt the immersion for me a bit, hence only 4 stars.