Loved it since I saw the gorgeous cover
I thorughly enjoyed this book. as it's well plotted, fascinating world building, and entertaining. . I liked the good storytelling
Highly Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished The Courting of Bristol Keats, and while it didn’t completely blow me away, I did enjoy it. The story follows Bristol Keats, who, after losing both her parents, discovers that her father might still be alive and embarks on a journey into a realm of gods, fae, and monsters. The blend of romantic fantasy with elements of danger and dark secrets kept me engaged throughout.

What stood out to me was Bristol's character, strong, smart, and emotionally complex. Her evolution as she navigates this new world and uncovers family secrets felt authentic and compelling. The romantic tension between her and the fae king, Tyghan, added depth to the narrative.

However, some plot points felt a bit predictable, and certain developments unfolded too conveniently. While the story was enjoyable, it didn't leave a lasting impact or offer a "wow" factor that some other books have provided.

Overall, The Courting of Bristol Keats is a solid, well-crafted romance that’s easy to enjoy. If you're a fan of character-driven romantic fantasies with a touch of danger and intrigue, it's worth a read.

“The only thing in this world or any other that can stop me now ... is you.”

Bristol Keats and her two sisters are struggling to make ends meet in their small town of Bowskeep, following the deaths of their parents. She's suspicious when an 'aunt' she's never heard of offers her a gift that will save them all. Curious, she agrees to meet and learns that everything she's ever believed about her parents is a lie. Her father might be alive, and he grew up in the world of the Fae.

Bristol makes a deal with the king, Tyghan: she'll help him close a magical portal while he helps her to find out what happened to her father. But Tyghan is misleading her – he knows exactly what happened to her parents because he's responsible for their fates.

I really liked the premise of this first book in a new romantasy duology, but I expected more. It's become quite difficult for me to articulate exactly what I mean when I say this about romantasy, but I sometimes feel like I'm reading the same stories over and over. Bargain with a fae who is an enemy who becomes a lover while keeping secrets.

The beginning was really rushed. Bristol is very quick to accept that the world of fae and other magical creatures exists. There's very little questioning on her part, no grappling with the madness of being told there is another world. This, in part, made me struggle to connect with her.

Even the romance felt like it happened really quickly. It's obvious that Bristol and Tyghan will end up together, which is fine, after all, it's romantasy. But I feel like if an author is going with a staple enemies-to-lovers trope, there needs to be more tension, more questioning and maybe a bit more time that passes before the FMC and MMC throw caution to the wind and get together.

Overall, I kind of enjoyed this book – it was engaging enough to keep me reading, though I'm in two minds about whether I'll read the second book.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for accepting my request to read and review a copy of this book!

I adore fae, magic, fantasy and magic and had super high hopes for this book.

And I did enjoy it, particularly the magic system, I felt it was unique and the author had spent time putting it together and working out the logistics. I also just felt like the writing in general was very lyrical and kept me interested, I highlighted many passages.

Also the 'he falls first' enemies to lovers vibes were great - but the relationship did develop a little too fast for my taste. And i hated the miscommunication trope thrown in.

My biggest complaint with this book is the size, and that I felt the characters were lacking a bit of depth. This meant I was struggling at times to stay invested, and felt a little disconnected from the events happening to the characters.

The ending is not what I expected at all.

I was really excited to read this book—
The premise, while somewhat familiar, definitely had potential. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite work for me. The frequent POV shifts and vague, sometimes disjointed scenes left me more confused than intrigued.
It’s possible this just wasn’t the right fit for me, and others might connect with it more—but overall, it didn’t quite deliver what I was hoping for.

For fans of „The Folk of the Air“ series

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.


"The Courting of Bristol Keats" is the first book of Mary E Pearson's new book series of the same name. In this story, we follow Bristol as she is drawn into the world of the elves in search of her father.

Bristol has been looking after her two sisters since the death of their parents. She is very responsible and does everything she can to make ends meet for her family - with difficulty and hardship. When she sees the possibility of not only making ends meet for her two sisters, but also that her father may not be dead, she makes a deal with an elf who draws her into a conflict that Bristol may not be up to.

The story is definitely rich in fantasy. I really liked the premise, the setting in the elven world. However, the pace of the story was too slow for me, so it just dragged on for me. What's more, I simply missed the suspense and quickly lost interest in reading on.

I give "The Courting of Bristol Keats" 3 out of 5 stars.

While the writing and concept was incredibly compelling and drew me in to begin with, unfortunately as the story progressed the book was just not the right fit for me and I did DNF. This would be the perfect fit for someone who enjoys a more Young Adult story and a romance where they fall for each other fairly quickly.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, I hope to try more of this authors work in the future.

The Courting of Bristol Keats was everything I hoped it would be! Ver much looking forward to reading book 2 when it comes out!

A compelling, intriguing, and engaging novel that kept me glued to the pages from beginning to end, without a moment of boredom or heaviness. I appreciated the world building, followed the story with great interest, and loved the characters! The only thing that didn't fully convince me was the romance, which I found too quick in its development!

This book was starting off good, I liked the mystery and intrigue around Bristol’s past and I liked getting interspersed chapters from the fae. My issue is that there was absolutely no signposting which is a really big bug bear of mine (maybe this was corrected in the final version) I want a chapter to clearly state who’s pov it is when switching so i’m not thrown and confused for half a page before reorienting myself. I was also getting even more confused because there were more and more characters being introduced before I had settled in and got to know the core characters. Anyway i’m 10% in and having less and less clue about what’s going on so I gave up. I was liking the writing though so I will try more by this author

🎧 Audiobook Review 🎧

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I want to thank NetGalley for approving me for an ARC of this book. I previously enjoyed the author's duology so I was excited to get to this one.

Mary E Pearson certainly creates a detailed and thought through fantasy world for us. I will admit that I did lose track of some of the characters from time to time (other than our mcs).

Bristol and Tyghan were interesting MCs. From their first meeting you could see where these two would end up but boy did they make work of getting there.

Bristol's family history is complicated and interesting, I feel like we could have a story just about her parents. I never knew who to truly trust and everyone seemed to have a cloud of suspicion hanging over them

I will admit that this one did drag in some places, hence why it's lost a star, but the ending has made me intrigued enough to read (or listen to) the next one.

I unfortunately was not the biggest fan of this novel. The romance was very insta-love, and Bristol, the main character immediately annoyed me. The writing felt quite juvenile -- like this was a young adult novel in disguise, posing as an adult fantasy read. I unfortunately won't be continuing on with the series.

This is book one of a new series and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Filled with forbidden romance, deadly faerie curses and pulse-pounding action it had me hooked from page one with its descriptiveness, characters especially Bristol Keats. This book is a story that will have you believing in fantasy, you won't be able to put it down.

The setting, the characters and the story itself is brilliant, there is romance, there is danger, intrigue, suspense and so much more. And here are just enough questions left unanswered to have me hanging out for the next book in the series to arrive. Loving this book and hope that the series will continue to bring more depth and character to the next chapter in the lives of Bristol, her family and all the other characters that are so intriguing.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was the messiest thing I've ever read, and oh lord, why was it THIS long? Nothing happens. Nothing caught my attention. The characters were as flat as pancakes. The plot was so slow for no reason. Nope

Although I did enjoy this and aspects of it kept me entertained, there was just something off about it that didn't click with me. Maybe the constant miscommunication and the way we found out the betrayals in advance, the slightly inconsistent pacing and roller-coaster of priorities? I'm not sure. I did enjoy the more traditional take on the Fae and the training/battle exercises, the mmc, also the magical creatures, always here for the enchanted animals. I did mostly have fun and I'm intrigued enough to find out what happens next.
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the arc, all thoughts are my own and left voluntarily.

I was really looking forward to this release, even more so because it was a monthly book box pick. It was actually one of my anticipated reads. I was excited to see Mary E. Pearson writing an adult book after her highly popular Remnant Chronicles trilogy and the Dance of Thieves duology which is a fan favourite. I have also loved seeing authors I read as a teen progress into adult novels as I’ve grown older as well. It’s fun not leaving authors behind in memory (yes, I know you can read YA as an adult, which I do) but it’s fun as my tastes in books shifted I was still finding interest in their latest work.

For me this book had its ups and downs. At certain points I didn’t want to put the book down and was desperate to see what came next. On the other hand there were points where I was bored and had no idea what was happening. The idea of humans stumbling into the fae realm is not original and plenty of authors have done this before. The idea of a woman, seemingly normal, becoming some powerful immortal being has been done time and time again but there was something about this book that made it different. Whether it was the two sisters that she left behind, or the unsolved murder of her father, even the potential that she would bring to a world that was seemingly in danger. The world building was tricky for me. There are points where I felt like I understood the dynamics and then there were other times where I felt so lost. I didn’t understand the royal structure at all. There was actually a point near the beginning of the book that I mistook Eris for the love interest. The plot became predictable with Bristol having secret powers had been kept hidden for decades through a power hungry monster than clung to her body. It appeared as a birth mark and grew as the entered Elphame. Her father having a deeper history with the king and the really strange royal structure and the different realms meant that I just gave up trying to keep up with the variety. The book felt a lot longer than it needed to be and if you broke down the core plot and the core points it could have been at least 200 pages shorter. Overall I think this had potential. I’m definitely interested in reading the second book but I did find the ending to the first one really bizarre in the way it ended. There was no cliffhanger as such but it felt very sudden. There's still a lot of unknowns with this plot and characters I think this might be intentional to kind of keep the reader engaged but it definitely didn't live up to the anticipation I had in my head beforehand but all in all it was interesting and kept me entertained long enough to keep me interested in the second book when it comes out.
Thanks for the eARC!

Pure gothic perfection! I just loved this book
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ARC Review

Such a fantastic book!

I loved the characters, the world building, the angst and the twists and turns of the plot.

Bri is a fab FMC, who puts everything on the line for her family. She has such integrity and strength and it was a pleasure to join her on her journey so far.

I can’t wait for the second installment so I can dive back into Faerie & Danu.

Themes/Tropes:
High Fantasy, Romantasy, Good vs Evil, Dark Lord, Chosen One, Band of Misfits, Magical Artifact, Sword & Sorcery, Hero’s Journey, Trials, Dark Secret, Tragic Backstory, Emotional Scars, Enemies to Lovers, Witches, Monsters/Fantastical Creatures, Merpeople, LGBTQIA+, Multi POV & Multiworld.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3/5 🌶️ rating

DNF at 14%

Ahhhh, I really hate not finishing copies that I’ve so kindly been given permission to read by the publishers, but this book just really didn’t do it for me, and I knew that I would be struggling to get through it. I’ve kept trying to go back to it over the last few months, but I just haven’t been able to get into it.

I think the dual narrative harmed this book - rather than discovering everything first hand with Bristol, we’re getting information thrown at us from all angles before she’s even realised fae exist. I’ve glimpsed other reviews and I’ve seen that this apparently doesn’t improve at all throughout the book so just - it’s a no from me.

I’ve have seen other people absolutely love this book though, so don’t let this put you off - if you love a fae romance book this might be right up your alley.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

I love Mary's writing and was so excited to start a new series from her! This story was unique and I loved these characters! The world building was intriguing and well done! I can't wait for book two!