Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This was so super cute and such a fun read. I'm a theatre girl at heart so loads of this story really resonated - there is such joy in being on stage and this shone through in Ahmed's writing. The community of characters built up throughout the story felt fleshed out and I loved the way they interacted with each other, always with love even when holding each other accountable.

I'm not usually a fan of the whole fake dating trope, but the way Farah and Zayan continued to re-evaluaute how they saw each other felt so genuine and heartfelt. They were just so cute!

A lot of the power of this story for me was in how it manages to take complex issues like racism, colourism, and cultural identity, and not shy away from grappling with them through a YA fiction lens. 

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a sweet, easy to follow romance full of books, bookshops, and booksellers. As a reader it is almost impossible not to root for the cause in this book, of course we want to save the bookshop and for everyone to have their happy ever after - so there were a number of positive elements there.

I didn't love the pacing and structure of the actual relationship itself, maybe I'm just a romantic but getting told (pretty firmly) to get out of someone's bed and go home first thing in the morning with no chance to communicate isn't really my cup of tea (and there's a lot of tea drinking in this book). For me, I think their romantic arc was slightly less than convincing - was it really rivals to lovers, did we need to repeat the same monologues over and over?

However, did really love the piano lessons plot line. I found it really refreshing to have a character who is so clearly wrapped up in so much (work, relationships etc) manage to find time for a newly discovered passion. As someone who loves to champion hobbies and arts whenever she can, I couldn't get enough of this.

Quite a mixed bag for me overall! 

 Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

If you're really into Bridgerton at the moment, this book is probably going to be up your street. It has numerable similar aspects including the time period, genre, emotional character monologues etc and makes use of phrases such as 'the mamas' and 'the ton' which if you're a Bridgerton fan, will allow you to pick up where the Season 3 break has left off!

This was a new genre for me in terms of a period drama-style romance. I'm not usually a historical fantasy/fiction girlie to begin with so this was an interesting experiment. Ultimately, I don't think it's for me, but I loved the sisterhood of the girls in this story. I felt that they leaned on each other when they needed support and I was rooting for them the whole way through even if I was less interested in the plot.

I also (no spoilers!) loved the ending, it was exactly what I was hoping for for our brave and opinionated fmc. 

 Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book had so many things going for it! It had a gorgeous misty coastal-town setting that made me think of Curious Tides but some of the mind/vision fantasy aspects woven in with all the art history which made me think of Call Down the Hawk.

As someone interested in folk and British mythology, there was so much to get excited about. The story kept all the beauty and magic found in traditional tales, but also gave the whole plot a sharp edge with the viciousness of the world of the Empyreals.

This was also one of the best slow-burns I've read in a while, a perfect combination of 'I don't trust you' and 'there actually is so much plot going on that it would be impractical for us to get together now' which only made the eventual relationship more potent.

I was really impressed by this over all and think it makes for a fantastic debut. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future books in this series! 

 Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I was pleasantly surprised by this one! Although it didn't do anything particularly groundbreaking, the almost dystopian opening setting was completely unexpected and added a really interesting layer to the story.
Instead of being immediately thrust into a fantastical world, we first spend some time in the White House - and the descriptions of the people waiting outside the gates to be healed definitely had an apocalypse-style feel to me. As we continued from this into the fantasy aspects, I was cautious at first. We were introduced to two princes right off the bat and I had a horrible feeling we were setting up for a 'vying for her love' situation. Once I realised that wasn't the direction this book was going to head in, I was able to relax and actually found that the majority of these characters had some real depth to them.
One love-hate aspect of this novel for me was all the cultural references. I loved Riel's general confusion and demonstration of how fluency in a language doesn't equal full understanding of a culture, but also so many of the phrases and expressions in here already felt a little forced and dated - as is the nature of internet-based discourse. 

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

 This was quite a mixed bag for me, so I'll start with the positives:
I am a huge fan of nature and the way authors incorporate it into their stories, so the idea of a honey witch, and their magic being tied to the land was immediately a win. The idea of escaping to a little Scottish (?) island to learn magic from my grandma and a big old grimoire sounds pretty perfect to me (besides the whole cursed to never be in love thing).

Plot wise I felt like maybe we tried to cram too much in to one story: we had two primary locations, in the city and Innisfree, and I felt like neither of them got explored enough to really feel at home in them. I'm also personally not so much of a fan of travelling plots, and because the two locations were so far apart, this was kind of unavoidable.

A sweet story (haha, get it?) that I think regency-era fantasy lovers should certainly give a go 

 

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

To be completely honest, I was not impressed with this. Sure, we had a continuous plotline which was good - and our characters had personalities that didn't chop and change at will. But we didn't have enough detail in anything!
This book was just under 300 pages, and tries to cover a lot in that time. Our fmc crosses continents to start an elite boarding school, is swept into a hidden world, and fights in a prophesised war all in that time. I just felt too much like the story was listing plot points one after another like in a first draft, rather than crafting a narrative. I do think though, that with some tightening up and some more developed writing the underlying story had potential!
My only other caveat is with our fmc who was almost insufferably 'not like other girls', and who promptly forgot her parents and her brother when she crossed worlds (who she specifically said was incredibly important to her right at the start of the book). I think maybe either you should mention them and they be important to character development, or just not mention them at all.

 

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

For me, this was an entirely average fantasy. It had all the key pieces - fmc, love interest, best friend, nemesis turned ally etc, and the plot did all it needed to do, so it read smoothly and there were no unnecessary scenes. However, I don't have anything particularly more glowing to say than that! There was no real backstory to any of these characters that made you root for them, Jasmine's 'living in the gutters' tagline can only do so much. One character suffers his whole family being murdered and seems to continue on with their life with no issues? And the spicy scene in this book also came out of absolutely no-where, that was probably the most off-putting element of the novel.
This was a quick fantasy read that didn't do much for me overall! (Also think I must have missed the significance of the title because I don't remember any scarlet petals?)

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a perfectly lovely fantasy novel, where the Mage of the Ages and a ex-palace guard set up a tea and book shop! If you're looking for a gentle examination of small-town friendships but with a little more drama and action than you would perhaps expect from a cosy fantasy, I would highly recommend this to you. 
For me, it was a little lackluster in the end, but I can't really complain because I was well aware going into it that there wouldn't be so many highstakes moments.

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. 
This book was so much darker than I was expecting and definitely one of those stories where there may be a very impressive detailed plot and a lot of worldbuilding, but really the most important part is the way the relationships and characters are portrayed. There is such a beautiful portrayal of the love between friends, of the way people are prepared to lay down their lives for each other and for causes they believe in, The casual intimacy and care that all of the group show for each other was perfect. On the other hand this book also offers characters who are so vile that just seeing their name on the page send shivers through you, people are wretched and broken and vile, who keep pushing for what they want at the detriment of all else.

One of my absolute favourite things is when a fantasy novel tackles religion. This was beautifully done here, with an examination of power structures, and personal faith, and glory and awe of the divine versus the quiet prayers whispered at night. It just really brought this whole story to life for me in a way that nothing else could've done. 

Ultimately, I feel that this was a novel about unhealthy relationships, escaping them, and how we can forge forward to find people who will love us in the ways that we really deserve. My heart broke continually from the first page of this book right until the end!