Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Collins Children's Books for providing me with an egalley of this title to read and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I loved the premise of this book. It seemed like it would be fairly unique. And if you've read Cruel Prince and The Selection, then you will enjoy this story just for those elements alone. Cruel Prince is one of my favorite fae stories so I had high expectations for this book being compared to it. The Bridgerton-esque setting was really fun and captured much of the feel of that show. And the characters were interesting enough with their backgrounds.  Plus the cover is absolutely gorgeous (yes, I originally chose the book because of it!). But that's really all I felt a pull to in this story.
What I didn't love so much was the execution of the story line. The world building was really lacking and the pacing dragged in many places making it hard to stay engaged in the story line. I was easily distracted while reading and not particularly pushing myself to dive back in once I did put it down for a break. The author chose to tell us what it was like rather than show us. And I needed more of the history. The prologue does give us a bit of this, but not enough to truly build what I expect from a fantasy. If you're going to write historical fantasy, you must show the elements that make it so. And if you're going to give us an alternate reality type historical world, then you need to make it real and believable. I needed more fae elements, more of how they were truly being integrated into 19th century England. And what of the back story between the humans vs. Fae?
The romance was flat and felt completely rushed. It didn't develop at all and then suddenly everyone is in love. I didn't feel much of a connection between the FMC and who she falls for as there was just no emotional weight to it. It seemed like they were just friendly. There was no tension there. No build up to the love we were told was happening. Stories where this happens never fully immerse me. I don't want to be told what is going on but rather shown in amazing prose. This lead to underdeveloped characters who I didn't feel connected to or feel any real empathy towards. To top it off, the end took a predictable turn, which I was hoping would not be where it went but saw it coming. It made the story less unique once it was revealed.
I was also thrown off by the insertion of chapters from other points of view. Most of the book is written from the POV of the FMC but here and there the author inserts chapters from other characters. I'll be honest and say I missed the title of the first chapter when this happened and it totally threw me off. I do believe almost all the chapters introduced in this manner were unnecessary. Those chapters took me out of the story. The author could have easily had the FMC show who these characters were through conversations and actions throughout the book. The only chapter I will say seemed to make sense was that of the FMC's sister, since she tells an important part of the story at the end.
The book started strong for me but I was ultimately disappointed in it's progression. I will say the ending captured my attention (cliffhanger), made me a bit more invested in the story line, and just this alone might have me reading the next installment.
Overall, it was just an ok read from me. I wanted to love it but it became a bit of a chore to read it and I found myself just pushing to get it done. I read a lot of well done YA and I just feel this one was lacking in so many elements that could have made it amazing. It lacked the tension, world building, character development, and historical accuracy I want to see in an epic fantasy. Overall comparing it to Cruel Prince set up very high expectations for me and the story did not meet those at all.
2.75 rounded to 3