Unfortunately I DNF this book. I couldn't get on board with the Tal/Elodie romance, the premise in execution fell flat for me.

This was such an exciting, turn-paging read filled with a lot of drama, betrayal and a hell load of hatred!!

I went into this book thinking that it was going to be just like any other read, but boy was I wrong!! There was LGBT representation, race and more and I loved every second of it. I always love when an author includes diversity within its characters and Naomi did it superbly!

The entire plot for this book was so intriguing. I could not put the book down, which may have open a few arguments between me and my partner...I love how the story gripped me right from the beginning, and before I knew it I was hooked, the claws to the story too deep to pull away.

Shall we talk about world-building for a moment? WOW!! For the length of the book, I totally wasn't expecting much but Naomi once more surprised me and immersed me in a world which I could step into and explore.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. It was fast-paced, super intriguing and one hell of a read. I will definitely be sharing this with friends that are into Fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the first page, I got hooked to this wonderful story that surprised me because I really enjoyed it and could not put it down when I got in it. The characters were strong and had each their own well-developed personalities, I liked Tal so much.
It was well-written and so much captivating even if it was short. The idea was original and the author knew how to conduct such a twisty plot. Actually, I was so happy that it wasn't a first in a series but a stand-alone.

This was my first book from Naomi Hughes and I will be happy to read her next books if they are as good as this one.

A decent YA fantasy. It kind of fell flat for me and I didn't get that depth I wanted in the characters even though they were well developed. Not my favorite and also not the worse thing I have read. It was interesting having the metal magic system and I would have loved it so much more if it had more world building to set up the story.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

Finally, a book like this is written in third person! I have come across so many multiple-POV books like this that I've wanted to read, but they're almost always in first person, which I personally cannot stand.

On to the actual book! I really enjoyed Mercurial. I loved all of the main characters and wasn't entirely ready to let them go at the end of the book. I'm a sucker for a good guy, so I really enjoyed Tal and seeing his journey and getting to follow him. Nyx was super awesome as well--I love a badass girl intent on saving the world!

As a fairly new fantasy reader, the world and its magic wasn't super complicated either-- enough to be interesting, but not too much to be unfathomable.

And the writing. It's written so, SO well. The pacing is perfect, you absolutely fall in love with the characters, and there are perfect unexpected twists. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Naomi Huges! (Possibly even in this same universe!)

Unfortunately I wasn't able to go through with this. I might come back someday.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.ing me a chance to read this!

I am writing this honest review after reading a digital ARC (advanced reader copy) I received from Netgalley.

This book had a very unique theme of metal and smith magic which I really enjoyed reading about. The plot was very unique and I really liked that it was kind of unpredictable. The two main characters were very well developed but the romance scenes could have been written better. Elodie and Tal had very unique personalities and meshed well together. I was able to sympathize and understand both of them.

The writing was unclear at times so it was hard to understand those parts until I read it a few times. I wish it was edited more for a smoother read, but it was very good for a self-published novel.

First of all thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book early.


I just want to say I love the art on this book. It's one of the reasons I decided to request this book. the book plot was simple yet good, so it is probably one of the more easier reads and the book isn't too long either so it's quiet easy to keep on reading it. The pacing of the book is also good with the plot always moving forward. The author did a really good job and I look forward to see what she does next

This one is a good 3.8 stars for me!

A boy was told by his God that his fate is to guard the Destroyer of their land, their people.

Okay, okay, to be honest I picked up the book because of its beautiful cover (I do that sometimes, sorry!). I never had an idea of what this will be all about but still decided to dive into it. Worth my time? Hell yes! The story may be a little different from mainstream fantasies but it is just as beautiful if not better. There may be times when I had to still google what they were trying to say (not a native English speaker), only to find out that they may have said it in a way little more easy to understand?

I find it so slow when it was just starting and just started to enjoy it when the "I lost my memory" part started. Still, I enjoyed it but did not like that the romance seems like it was being rubbed to my face.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

I have to start out by saying that I feel like I am in the minority with my opinions on this book, but I did not enjoy Mercurial. The synopsis sounded promising, but I could not get into this book. I really struggled with reading more than a few pages at a time.

I didn't feel invested in the characters and there seemed to be little world building beyond the basics. I wanted to know more about the religion, the government, and the magical system. I also was not invested in the romance between Tal and Elodie.

I did enjoy that there were plot twists that I did not see coming. Those added to my enjoyment of the story a little, as well as the relationship between Nyx and Helenia. I love that LGBTQ+ representation is becoming more common in Fantasy/YA Fantasy books.

Mercurial by Naomi Hughes is a young adult novel. Everyone in the Alloyed Empire fears the Destroyer. The metal in her blood gives her incendiary powers, and the coldness in her heart makes her the empress’s perfect weapon…until a rebel attack leaves her with no magic and no memories. Tal is a royal bodyguard who has long since regretted his idealistic hopes of changing the Destroyer. Now that she’s powerless, he plans to finally end her reign of terror—if he can stop himself from falling for the wicked, funny, utterly unfamiliar girl she’s become. Nyx was furious when her brother, Tal, abandoned her to protect a tyrant. Now, she hones herself as a rebel assassin until she can kill the Destroyer and rescue Tal. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes the entire empire hinges on the decisions the three of them will make.

Mercurial is an adventure story told from multiple points of view, with a great deal going on. I found myself quickly engaged in the feelings and motivations of the characters. Readers get to see the hows and whys behind choices and actions that they might never otherwise understand- and get a better understanding of the idea that we are all the heroes of our own story even though we might play the villain in someone else's. The exploration of doing the right thing, faith, love, and sacrifice is woven into every page. There were moments that it was almost too much, because so much was riding on every emotion and decision, but it all balanced itself well in the end. The characters were each complex, with good and bad aspects to their personality and doubts about themselves and the world around them. I think that the world building was also very well done, and I am rather hoping to return to this empire and find out what happens with our main characters next.

Mercurial might be labeled as young adult, but like many YA novels, I think it will also appeal to older audiences as well.

Really good read! I love the plot, the storylines and the wonderful characters! This was so up my alley and I enjoyed it immensely. R solid stars!

A breathtaking story of finding your own way despite abuse, religion, and frankly, just what everyone else is doing, Mercurial is truly unlike anything I've read lately. Set in a world where magic metal runs through people's veins, very unlikely friendships and relationships bloom, and all of this wrapped together makes for an amazing book.

Following a boy named Tal, who's sworn his life to protect a woman he despises for her violent and frankly just evil actions, The Destroyer herself, telling her own story after losing her memory in a disastrous train accident, and Tal's sister Nyx, who's fighting every day doing all she can after losing her brother to his oath, these characters are truly amazing in their own rights. Very different from anyone I've ever know, and gone through horrible traumas themselves, they really blossom in this book, and mixed together with the enchanting setting, I really couldn't get enough of this story.

Not only were the characters amazing and the setting amazing, but the actual plot of the story just drew me in immediately. It wasn't boring for a second, and even in the downtimes where most of what was happening was talking, or a vision, or something like that, I was hooked. I finished this book in two days, and it's just one of those stories where I wished I could read slower, because now it's over way too soon and I'm left with a hole inside me where this book fits perfectly. The ending was not my favourite, but only because I wish there could have been more, but it was satisfying enough to not let it knock down my rating.

Overall, my favourite character was probably either The Destroyer herself, Helenia, or Tal, but because I can't choose between them all, it's impossible to pick one. All of these characters were very different from each other, but each brought very different and important things to the story and I'm very thankful for them. I would recommend this book to anyone who's a full fledged fantasy addict, someone who likes stories with very light romance, but still packed full of action, or even someone just starting out in the fantasy genre. I think it's perfect for anyone over the age of sixteen, because there are some graphically violent parts. But most of all, I think if anyone picked this beautiful book up with it's beautiful cover, I think that they would enjoy it. Because I know I did, and I need it for my own collection.

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This is book was an excellent surprise and a solid YA fantasy.

Set in a magical world of The Alloyed Empire, it follows three different characters all with verifying qualities. It is a story of love, friendship, and destruction.

The characters are well developed set in a descriptive thought out world as well as a little romance.

The writing was good, written in third person and well paced throughout, full of twists and turns.

Mercurial was a fast-paced YA book, with a good worldbuilding and magic system. The characters were interesting too and I liked their relationships, and the whole story kept me captivated until the very end.

I have complicated feelings about this book.

On the one hand, I rather liked the idea of Metal magic and the whole hierarchy of different Metal wielders. The enemies-to-lovers trope is one of my favourite.

On the other hand, the plot was a bit tedious in places and the development of the characters' relationships seemed a touch too fast for me. Another thing that bothered me was that it's a standalone novel with such a complex magic system. The resolution felt slightly anticlimactic -- I would have liked the story to span more than one book and have a wider scope.

Otherwise it was a really enjoyable read.

3.5
Overall, this was an enjoyable book with an interesting plot, world, and themes. I really enjoyed the discussion of religion that took place here, especially the different interpretation of scripture by different characters, and the Tal's struggles with his faith in a god he knows is real. It was fast-paced and kept me turning the pages to find out what would happen.

I enjoyed the first half of this book better than the second half, which left me wishing this had been a duology in order to have the world and relationships a little more fleshed out. I felt like the characters were fully realized and developed, but I didn't fully buy the relationships between them. Particularly for Tal who flipped from hate to love of Elodie very quickly with no explanation of how he got there. Elodie's love felt more realistic to me, as I could see hints of it from the beginning.

I also wish we had gotten to see more of the world and magic. It seems like the author had a clear understanding of how it worked, but didn't include a lot of background in the actual book. I think more time spent in the two years between the prologue and chapter one could have fleshed some of this out more and helped us to understand the motivations of the characters a little more.

Actual rating: 4.5 / 5

"Once, there was a boy who believed."

In a world created by The Unforged God, some humans (known as Smiths) are born with the seeds of divinity; an element of metal flowing through their blood such as copper, silver or gold, and have divine magics as a result. Tal is one such Smith, born with silver in his veins and visions in his dream, he has a deep faith towards the Unforged God and is willing to sacrifice almost anything in order to see his visions through to fruition and save (view spoiler)

"Once, there was a girl who was afraid."

The Destroyer is the heir to the empire, and someone with Mercurial veins, having the incendiary powers of mercury, and the personality to go with it. Having dealt with the struggles of the empire (including assassination attempts!) for almost as long as she can remember, Elodie is quick to anger and dangerous at the best of times. From the get-go she was a fantastically layered and dynamic character, and the amount of character growth she went underwent throughout this novel was truly incredible.

"Once, there was a girl who believed only in her brother."

Nyx is the younger sister of Tal, and has stewed in anger since her seeming abandonment, training with a rebel faction in the hopes of assassinating The Destroyer and ending the regime. She's fierce, takes no prisoners, dedicated, and has an unwavering faith in her brother despite not exactly being happy with some of his choices...

When the girl woke, a gray snow was falling, and the world was silent in the way it only ever was in the aftermath of a great cataclysm.

This is a very character-driven story, and the relationships that develop are what truly make it, but honestly everything about it was brilliant; the plot was action-packed and fast paced, the world building was well fleshed out, and the secondary romances worked perfectly with everything else that was going on. I also really appreciated the fact that there was LGBTQ+ representation with well written and strong characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and thought it was super well balanced; the characters, the world building, the plot, the representation, everything! It all flowed super well and was very natural, and whilst there were some aspects that didn't quite work for me, they were very minor and did not in any way detract from my enjoyment of the novel. All-in-all, a fantastic book, and one I would highly recommend.

Please note, there are multiple trigger-warnings for this book, best described in the author's review, if you're worried about certain topics, I recommend reading their review before delving into the story.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Everyone in the Alloyed Empire fears the Destroyer. The metal in her blood gives her incredible powers and makes her a cold-hearted weapon for the Empress. That is until a rebel attack leaves her with no magic and no memories of herself. Tal is her royal guard and has sworn to protect her. Now that she’s powerless he can finally end her reign of terror—if he can stop himself from falling for the wicked, funny, utterly unfamiliar girl she’s become.

Fantasy is my favourite genre and I‘m glad that I really enjoyed this book. It took me a few chapters to get into Mercurial, which is pretty normal for a fantasy book because I needed to understand the magic system and world building first. But then I read through the whole story within a day!

I love the enemies to lovers trope, so I knew I was going to like this one. Blood magic is nothing new but the book is still unique in its own way. Lots of things happened that I didn’t expect at all, which made me want to keep reading. I also love that there‘s LGBTQ+ rep in this book, the relationship between Nyx and Helenia was one of my favourite parts of the story! I also thought it was interesting that religion plays an important role because that‘s not as common in fantasy novels.

The more I read, the more I was invested in the story. I hope there‘s going to be a sequel because I would love to read it! Mercurial comes out on the 16th of March.

Amazon review: https://www.amazon.de/review/R10GGQN0SYW6GC/ref=pe_1604851_66412761_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Mercurial is reminiscent of classic medieval fantasy novels but also felt surprisingly fresh with its unique magic system. The book's exploration of faith, redemption, and the power of love was compelling and kept me reading to the end. The exploration of religion is especially integral to the plot with Tal's struggling over his decisions and their consequences as the platform for this analysis. Rather than view it as inherently good or bad, it is a more analytical approach, questioning such things as what it means to adhere to one's faith. While Tal is interesting, I was mostly invested in Elodie, who ultimately became my favorite character. The book kept me riveted, trying to guess what would happen next. I had a difficult time suppressing the urge to flip to the end. I had not heard much about the novel before finding it on NetGalley, and I am thankful I was provided the opportunity to read it. I look forward to reading more from Hughes.