I originally started this book quite a few months back, but ended up getting stalled somewhere along the way. That wasn’t necessarily the fault of the book (more my focus), but when it was finally my turn for the audiobook at my library, I jumped on it so fast! I often find that books I get stalled on aren’t necessarily bad books, but sometimes just books that work better for me in audio format. This was certainly true for this one, and I ended up enjoying the narration style a lot more once it was narrated by someone!

While it did take me a while to get used to the unique narration style, it did end up growing on me quite a bit. While I’m not sure if I necessarily like the extra distance it created within a romance book, I did like the quirks that our narrator brought along with them, and I had a lot of fun with it! However, it did make me feel a step outside the romance that the story often focused on, because we have this very obvious narrator with us every step of the way. It meant I couldn’t get as close to the characters themselves, or their romance, because I was constantly reminded I was basically spying on them from the corner. It resulted in me not really feeling the romance side of this story, though there were still plenty of other aspects I ended up being a fan of!

I really did like our main character, especially as she started coming into her own a bit more. I also felt like she was complemented quite well by the side characters, especially her best friend. It added this extra layer of absurdity, because of how silly her friend often was, but it made the fae/magic aspects of the book seem less out-there, and made our narrator seem a bit more normal as well!

I also generally did like the plot of this book, except for the part between about 70-90%. Basically, I loved the main plot of the book, but found the bonus end-game plot much less interesting, and almost frustrating at points. However, then I did end up how the story ended up wrapping up, especially how the narrator chose to end the story. I basically felt very mixed emotions by the end, because I was on a bit of a rollercoaster of enjoying the book, not enjoying it, and then enjoying it again right at the end.

I had a few issues with that chunk of the book between 70-90%, and I think it largely had to do with the pacing of the book. It had honestly felt like we had reached a potential ending for the book a few times over, except every time I checked where I was, there was still a decent chunk left to go. It was just really odd, because I felt like we were just waiting for something to happen again, right when a book usually has its climax. While the narrator did comment on this, and said a few times that they probably would have ended the story sooner had there not been a lot more exciting things still to come, it just kind of felt like the book lost its momentum for a bit. It seemed to just focus on the romance for a bit, but as I explained above, I never felt connected enough to that part of the book for me to enjoy reading a large chunk of the book focused only on them.

I also felt like our main character lost a lot of drive and energy in this part of the book, at least when it came to problem-solving later on. It felt like most of the answers were being handed to her rather than finding them herself, and it felt like she was sort of being carried along by the plot (despite having plenty of motivation to drive the plot herself). It made me start to like her less, which made aspects of the ending and final scenes less hard-hitting, even if I did end up liking them overall.

In the end, I ended up liking Mortal Follies, but had just a few too many issues to really say I loved it (though I did certainly love parts of it!) I do still enjoy Alexis Hall as an author, though, and will definitely keep reading more of his books in the future!