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The Courts of Fate and Fear #1
The Courts of Fate and Fear
In Sertra, where the daughters of the king manipulate magic to see the future, Adelyn is a princess without powers. With no magic, she is unable to fulfill the role she was born to—calling forth visions of enemy plans to help anticipate and prevent attacks on Sertra. With the threat of war from Prince Rohn of Lithya growing more dire by the day, Adelyn is sent by her father on a desperate quest to find the fabled Seer, in the hopes that she can teach Adelyn to use magic. Despite the danger, Adelyn agrees to go. If she can find her magic, Sertra might stand a chance of defeating Lithya for good—and she can finally prove to her family that she’s not useless after all.
But when Adelyn’s journey goes tragically wrong and she stumbles into the hands of the very enemies she hoped to defeat, they challenge her view of everything she had thought to be true–and Adelyn finds herself falling in love with the prince she thought was determined to destroy her homeland. When Sertra mobilizes for war, Adelyn must make the hardest choice of her life–siding with her family against the man she’s come to love, or betraying the family she still yearns to belong to for a kingdom she’s come to cherish.
From debut author Elizabeth S. Trafalgar comes a captivating, action-packed book that blends romance and intrigue into an unforgettable read perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer Armentrout.
But when Adelyn’s journey goes tragically wrong and she stumbles into the hands of the very enemies she hoped to defeat, they challenge her view of everything she had thought to be true–and Adelyn finds herself falling in love with the prince she thought was determined to destroy her homeland. When Sertra mobilizes for war, Adelyn must make the hardest choice of her life–siding with her family against the man she’s come to love, or betraying the family she still yearns to belong to for a kingdom she’s come to cherish.
From debut author Elizabeth S. Trafalgar comes a captivating, action-packed book that blends romance and intrigue into an unforgettable read perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer Armentrout.
315 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 6, 2022
204 people are currently reading
2321 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth S. Trafalgar
4 books53 followersElizabeth S. Trafalgar grew up writing stories—and then never stopped. When she’s not working on her next book, she spends her time reading all the fantasy she can get her hands on, trying new cookie recipes, and catering to the whims of her two enormous cats. She lives on the east coast with her spouse. Follow her on Instagram at @elizabethstrafalgar.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 7, 2024
I received a copy of this book via BookSirens. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
✅🆗 Pace
🆗 Characters
🆗 Plot
🆗 World-building
🆗❌ Romance (and mild smut)
I was expecting an enemies-to-lovers romance with politics and fights, but I was disappointed. Overall, it felt juvenile and rushed, and while the ideas are good, the execution is lacking.
Because she was born without magic, princess Adelyn of Sertra is an outcast, even in her own family. She is unable to fulfill the role of the crown princess and is stripped of her title. With her country being on the brink of war with Lythia, the only way for her to be useful to her country and her family is to embark on a dangerous journey to find the Seer, and ask for her help to unlock Adelyn's magic. Adelyn knows that venturing into the Dark Forest is most probably a death sentence, but without a choice but to obey her father, she leaves. When she ends up in the hands of the crown prince of Lythia a few days later, Adelyn is not sure how she will be able to survive and go back home.
In Sertra, an individual’s worth is based on their social status, but also on their magic. Adelyn might be a princess, but with no magic, she is worth nothing to her family. Nobody even wants to marry her because of that. I like it when there is magic in fantasy books, but in the case of this one, the magic system was pretty vague for the first half of the book. All we know is that Sertra’s princesses can usually have visions of the future, and other people also seem to be able to do magic such as heating rooms or controlling elements, but the "how" is not really explained at first, and even when it is, the part about who gets magic and what type of magic they can get still remained a little vague.
There is a lack of world-building and backstories in this book, as was the case with the other book I’ve read from this author. We know that Sertra and Lythia are enemy nations, but we have no idea why. Even the main character doesn’t know why. A map would have been great too because other countries are named in the book, but I had no idea where they were, and how their geography could impact their relationships with other countries. The king of Lythia also mentions a few times that he spent time with Adelyn’s mother when they were younger, but we have no idea why until it is explained many chapters later, and Adelyn does not ask any question as to why her mother would spend time with the king of Lythia. There is also a mention of “dangerous monsters” roaming the dark forest, but we see only one monster, and that’s it. I feel that there is a lot of potential that was not exploited. There are many other details that bothered me all throughout the book, and all added together, it made a book with good ideas, and potential, but sadly a weak execution.
The fact that Lythia's royal family trusted Adelyn so easily bugged me. It is not believable, even considering the fact that they can know when she is lying. The fact remains that she is the princess of an enemy nation, and there is a difference between being courteous and giving her a comfortable room, and being all friendly and letting her roam around the castle as she wishes. It’s admirable that they would hold no grudge against her, but it’s not very realistic to think that the royal family would let her in that easily, pay for everything she needs and more, and treat her like one of their own after knowing her for a few days only.
The romance was a weakness of this book. I started this book expecting a hate-to-love romance with magic and action, but I was disappointed. I would not call this romance a hate-to-love, because there is no real “hate” phase in the relationship development, and actually, there is no real romance either.
I honestly did not feel any chemistry between Adelyn and the love interest, it’s said that they spent time together with the rest of the “inner circle”, but we don’t get to read any of those interactions and discussions until the second half of the book, so when a character just casually mentioned that Rohn couldn't take his eyes off Adelyn, and that he hadn't look at someone like that in a long time, I was just shocked. Nothing Rohn said or did show any interest towards Adelyn beyond him being courteous and helpful when she needed it until he suddenly started to be all intense with her and would talk to her with his “husky voice” to let her know that he would “do anything” for her. It just came out of nowhere, there was no progression.
The “inner circle” of the crowned prince and the prince himself are honestly bland. They are distinct from each other because they have different names, but that’s about it. The love interest is boring, and he and his friends, while being nice, funny, cute, and playful, lacked depth. I honestly did not care very much for them.
The main character felt uni-dimensional, and her interactions with the other characters felt juvenile half of the time. The dialogues were also not the best… I honestly can’t say much about Adelyn besides the fact that she changed. She started off as a naïve princess forced to risk her life to gain her parent’s approval and discovered that what she was told about their enemies was not all true, and she even started to feel more at home in Lythia than she did in Sertra, but that's about it. Even after she changed and decided to get to know the royal family better, she still remained juvenile, and I didn’t really care about her either.
Princess Calista is supposed to be the annoying, callous princess who is also gorgeous (of course), but her character was just too much. She was such a superficial brat that it was annoying. I did not end up disliking her because of her character traits, I was just annoyed at her stupidity. I wished the author had toned down the stereotypical entitled princess a little bit.
Overall I was not impressed with this book. I think that it could be better with more editing, and more time spent on the world-building, the politics, and mostly on the characters and the romance. I would have loved this book 10 years ago, but as a grown-up adult, I was just annoyed by the characters, their juvenile behavior, and the forced romance.
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✅🆗 Pace
🆗 Characters
🆗 Plot
🆗 World-building
🆗❌ Romance (and mild smut)
I was expecting an enemies-to-lovers romance with politics and fights, but I was disappointed. Overall, it felt juvenile and rushed, and while the ideas are good, the execution is lacking.
My father was sending me to find a myth. I was more likely to find my death than my destiny. Never before had I been so acutely aware of just how useless my father thought I was. I meant so little to him that he would throw away my life on a sliver of a chance that I might gain him an advantage in his war. He would risk my death to aid his rule.
Because she was born without magic, princess Adelyn of Sertra is an outcast, even in her own family. She is unable to fulfill the role of the crown princess and is stripped of her title. With her country being on the brink of war with Lythia, the only way for her to be useful to her country and her family is to embark on a dangerous journey to find the Seer, and ask for her help to unlock Adelyn's magic. Adelyn knows that venturing into the Dark Forest is most probably a death sentence, but without a choice but to obey her father, she leaves. When she ends up in the hands of the crown prince of Lythia a few days later, Adelyn is not sure how she will be able to survive and go back home.
“I’m the prince of Sertra, Adelyn. And that means doing anything I can to defend my kingdom. Even if it means sacrificing my favorite sister for a small chance at an advantage in war. That’s what ruling is. Being strong. Risking everything to ensure your kingdom’s power.”
In Sertra, an individual’s worth is based on their social status, but also on their magic. Adelyn might be a princess, but with no magic, she is worth nothing to her family. Nobody even wants to marry her because of that. I like it when there is magic in fantasy books, but in the case of this one, the magic system was pretty vague for the first half of the book. All we know is that Sertra’s princesses can usually have visions of the future, and other people also seem to be able to do magic such as heating rooms or controlling elements, but the "how" is not really explained at first, and even when it is, the part about who gets magic and what type of magic they can get still remained a little vague.
There is a lack of world-building and backstories in this book, as was the case with the other book I’ve read from this author. We know that Sertra and Lythia are enemy nations, but we have no idea why. Even the main character doesn’t know why. A map would have been great too because other countries are named in the book, but I had no idea where they were, and how their geography could impact their relationships with other countries. The king of Lythia also mentions a few times that he spent time with Adelyn’s mother when they were younger, but we have no idea why until it is explained many chapters later, and Adelyn does not ask any question as to why her mother would spend time with the king of Lythia. There is also a mention of “dangerous monsters” roaming the dark forest, but we see only one monster, and that’s it. I feel that there is a lot of potential that was not exploited. There are many other details that bothered me all throughout the book, and all added together, it made a book with good ideas, and potential, but sadly a weak execution.
How they could be so stupid as to show me the entirety of their palace, I had no idea. My father would never have let an enemy walk freely through the castle.
The fact that Lythia's royal family trusted Adelyn so easily bugged me. It is not believable, even considering the fact that they can know when she is lying. The fact remains that she is the princess of an enemy nation, and there is a difference between being courteous and giving her a comfortable room, and being all friendly and letting her roam around the castle as she wishes. It’s admirable that they would hold no grudge against her, but it’s not very realistic to think that the royal family would let her in that easily, pay for everything she needs and more, and treat her like one of their own after knowing her for a few days only.
The man who was supposed to be my worst enemy now held a piece of my soul.
The romance was a weakness of this book. I started this book expecting a hate-to-love romance with magic and action, but I was disappointed. I would not call this romance a hate-to-love, because there is no real “hate” phase in the relationship development, and actually, there is no real romance either.
I honestly did not feel any chemistry between Adelyn and the love interest, it’s said that they spent time together with the rest of the “inner circle”, but we don’t get to read any of those interactions and discussions until the second half of the book, so when a character just casually mentioned that Rohn couldn't take his eyes off Adelyn, and that he hadn't look at someone like that in a long time, I was just shocked. Nothing Rohn said or did show any interest towards Adelyn beyond him being courteous and helpful when she needed it until he suddenly started to be all intense with her and would talk to her with his “husky voice” to let her know that he would “do anything” for her. It just came out of nowhere, there was no progression.
The “inner circle” of the crowned prince and the prince himself are honestly bland. They are distinct from each other because they have different names, but that’s about it. The love interest is boring, and he and his friends, while being nice, funny, cute, and playful, lacked depth. I honestly did not care very much for them.
In Lithya, I didn’t feel useless. I didn’t feel like an outsider, or a disappointment. I felt like I belonged.
The main character felt uni-dimensional, and her interactions with the other characters felt juvenile half of the time. The dialogues were also not the best… I honestly can’t say much about Adelyn besides the fact that she changed. She started off as a naïve princess forced to risk her life to gain her parent’s approval and discovered that what she was told about their enemies was not all true, and she even started to feel more at home in Lythia than she did in Sertra, but that's about it. Even after she changed and decided to get to know the royal family better, she still remained juvenile, and I didn’t really care about her either.
“I want to be clear,” Asa said, “that I would rather have to personally stop every shipment of whatever from Ricium to Sertra than have you marry that witch. She has no redeeming qualities. Her attitude is horrible enough that it’s totally impossible to be aroused by the fact that she’s walking around the palace wearing practically nothing at all.”
Princess Calista is supposed to be the annoying, callous princess who is also gorgeous (of course), but her character was just too much. She was such a superficial brat that it was annoying. I did not end up disliking her because of her character traits, I was just annoyed at her stupidity. I wished the author had toned down the stereotypical entitled princess a little bit.
Overall I was not impressed with this book. I think that it could be better with more editing, and more time spent on the world-building, the politics, and mostly on the characters and the romance. I would have loved this book 10 years ago, but as a grown-up adult, I was just annoyed by the characters, their juvenile behavior, and the forced romance.
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May 19, 2022
**I was given an eArc copy by Book Sirens for an honest review**
This was entertaining.
I was kind if bored at the beginning of the book and was exasperated with Adelyn and the way her family treated her but once she met Rhon and his friends things started getting better.
There was a big development in Adelyn character which I really liked and I loved "the ring". Ven, Asa, Ell and Rhon were the perfect group of friends for a found family troup. I loved everyone of them but specially Ell.
I liked the magic system in here and how it was so easy to understand. I enjoyed a lot the few chapters with Adelyn practicing and learning about magic.
What I didn't like is the romance in the book which may not be a big problem for some but for me it's important. I didn't see any sparks between Rhon and Adelyn and the chemistry between them was nonexistent, they didn't have a real conversation till halfway the book and even then it left me indifferent. I didn't care for them or how their relationship may grow.
There were also inconsistencies in the plot that didn't make sense to me and some things were unbelievable. Like when adelyn lied to their faces being the daughter of their enemy but still they sheltered her, were never hostile towards her, they treated her like one of their own no questions asked no animosity and that, that wasn't believable to me.
The ending was kind of rushed, I wished that the author took more time with it instead of giving snippets here and there about their new "normal".
All in all, a good fantasy book that I would recommend if you're looking for a quick and easy read.
This was entertaining.
I was kind if bored at the beginning of the book and was exasperated with Adelyn and the way her family treated her but once she met Rhon and his friends things started getting better.
There was a big development in Adelyn character which I really liked and I loved "the ring". Ven, Asa, Ell and Rhon were the perfect group of friends for a found family troup. I loved everyone of them but specially Ell.
I liked the magic system in here and how it was so easy to understand. I enjoyed a lot the few chapters with Adelyn practicing and learning about magic.
What I didn't like is the romance in the book which may not be a big problem for some but for me it's important. I didn't see any sparks between Rhon and Adelyn and the chemistry between them was nonexistent, they didn't have a real conversation till halfway the book and even then it left me indifferent. I didn't care for them or how their relationship may grow.
There were also inconsistencies in the plot that didn't make sense to me and some things were unbelievable. Like when adelyn lied to their faces being the daughter of their enemy but still they sheltered her, were never hostile towards her, they treated her like one of their own no questions asked no animosity and that, that wasn't believable to me.
The ending was kind of rushed, I wished that the author took more time with it instead of giving snippets here and there about their new "normal".
All in all, a good fantasy book that I would recommend if you're looking for a quick and easy read.
May 28, 2022
I received an ARC from BookSirens for my honest feedback.
In Sertra, the royal princesses have been born with magic that enables them to see the future, or have visions, that allows them to aid the kingdom against their enemies. Crow Princess Adelyn of Sertra, however, was born without these powers and has been unable to fulfill the role she was born to do.
Sertra's neighboring kingdom, Lithya is threatening war and Adelyn is sent on a desperate journey to seek a Seer to help her access her magic.
The premise of this story was good. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get into the story. There is a lack of world building and descriptive details to pull me into the story.
The main characters felt one-dimensional and I failed to care, either way, about them as individuals or as a couple. There was no chemistry between Adelyn and Prince Rohn; they pretty much had one conversation and then they were "in-love." The dialogue between them was wooden and dry.
This almost felt like a rough draft of a novel that still needs the descriptive language and details added.
In Sertra, the royal princesses have been born with magic that enables them to see the future, or have visions, that allows them to aid the kingdom against their enemies. Crow Princess Adelyn of Sertra, however, was born without these powers and has been unable to fulfill the role she was born to do.
Sertra's neighboring kingdom, Lithya is threatening war and Adelyn is sent on a desperate journey to seek a Seer to help her access her magic.
The premise of this story was good. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get into the story. There is a lack of world building and descriptive details to pull me into the story.
The main characters felt one-dimensional and I failed to care, either way, about them as individuals or as a couple. There was no chemistry between Adelyn and Prince Rohn; they pretty much had one conversation and then they were "in-love." The dialogue between them was wooden and dry.
This almost felt like a rough draft of a novel that still needs the descriptive language and details added.
May 26, 2022
The Courts of Fate and Fear, my Round 2 with Elizabeth S. Trafalgar, the first having been The Prince of Magic and Lies (👎)
I enjoyed this one much more than I did the first book of hers I read 😮💨
Okay, let's do it ✨️
Things I liked:
-Adelyn is a strong and yet so REAL MC 🤩 she's got trauma yeah, and she had to learn everything useful a little later than she should have, BUT she did not let anything stop her 🔥
-The CIRCLE ⭕️ that friend group is so f*cking strong, I'm jealous! They have such a realistic love for each other, playfulness, trust, empathy YES ❤️
-That story was really slappin y'all, fr 😏 a sadistic king, his three very different characteristic children, this other fearsome kingdom, the training and character building, the war, the ending that just OOP 🤫
Things I unfortunately did not like:
-I don't think the main couple had chemistry, in fact I don't think there was any chemistry in the book that felt like the romantic kind at all🤷♀️
-World building, come on man! I want to know if you're in the mountains or flatlands, I want to know how big these kingdoms are, I want to know about the creatures (not just the ONE! OKAY!) and how everyone interacts with them, want to know the history on why things are the way that they are. I want a whole world in a book and I kinda feel like I was skimped ✌️
-The plot holes and typos were just a little aggressive, part of the plot holes comes back to world building but still. What about the seer? What about this and this detail about magic? (Not wanting to spoil anything) And typos. Just. Seriously? 😤
Okay. Overall, a good book and very entertaining read ☺️
I enjoyed this one much more than I did the first book of hers I read 😮💨
Okay, let's do it ✨️
Things I liked:
-Adelyn is a strong and yet so REAL MC 🤩 she's got trauma yeah, and she had to learn everything useful a little later than she should have, BUT she did not let anything stop her 🔥
-The CIRCLE ⭕️ that friend group is so f*cking strong, I'm jealous! They have such a realistic love for each other, playfulness, trust, empathy YES ❤️
-That story was really slappin y'all, fr 😏 a sadistic king, his three very different characteristic children, this other fearsome kingdom, the training and character building, the war, the ending that just OOP 🤫
Things I unfortunately did not like:
-I don't think the main couple had chemistry, in fact I don't think there was any chemistry in the book that felt like the romantic kind at all🤷♀️
-World building, come on man! I want to know if you're in the mountains or flatlands, I want to know how big these kingdoms are, I want to know about the creatures (not just the ONE! OKAY!) and how everyone interacts with them, want to know the history on why things are the way that they are. I want a whole world in a book and I kinda feel like I was skimped ✌️
-The plot holes and typos were just a little aggressive, part of the plot holes comes back to world building but still. What about the seer? What about this and this detail about magic? (Not wanting to spoil anything) And typos. Just. Seriously? 😤
Okay. Overall, a good book and very entertaining read ☺️
June 15, 2022
3⭐️
This was enjoyable! A short, uncomplicated read with fun characters and an almost "fairytale" like storyline.
It's not quite an enemies-to-lovers, more of a forbidden romance story. I liked the characters, while they weren't extremely developped, it was done well enough for a short book. The pacing was very quick, no time is wasted on irrelevant scenes, but it does jump quickly from days to months within a couple pages. My favorite thing about this book was definitely the writing, there's a quality to it and I'm interested to read more of Trafalgar's work!
I do wonder what the rest of the series will bring, this very much felt like a HEA. Perhaps book 2 will take on another POV, so that would be interesting.
Overall, this is a cute and good read for a lazy Sunday afternoon with a warm cup of tea. When you want to feel the vibe of an epic fantasy romance with battles, passion and longing without too much emotional involvement. Also a good book to get you out of a reading slump!
Thank you to Booksirens for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review ♥️
This was enjoyable! A short, uncomplicated read with fun characters and an almost "fairytale" like storyline.
It's not quite an enemies-to-lovers, more of a forbidden romance story. I liked the characters, while they weren't extremely developped, it was done well enough for a short book. The pacing was very quick, no time is wasted on irrelevant scenes, but it does jump quickly from days to months within a couple pages. My favorite thing about this book was definitely the writing, there's a quality to it and I'm interested to read more of Trafalgar's work!
I do wonder what the rest of the series will bring, this very much felt like a HEA. Perhaps book 2 will take on another POV, so that would be interesting.
Overall, this is a cute and good read for a lazy Sunday afternoon with a warm cup of tea. When you want to feel the vibe of an epic fantasy romance with battles, passion and longing without too much emotional involvement. Also a good book to get you out of a reading slump!
Thank you to Booksirens for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review ♥️
July 12, 2022
The story was interesting, especially the beginning with Adelyn getting lost and ending up in the enemy kingdom and learning about them while realizing her own kingdom’s true colors but after a while, the pace slowed down in the middle and didn’t pick up until almost near the end when they tried to overthrow the Sertra kingdom to end the war and bring peace.
Even then, it felt like it was missing something, that spark that really pulls you into the story, that coupled with some typos here and there slowed my reading down and it took me extra time to finish. The ending can be seen as open ended but the epilogue is a good segue into the next book where hopefully Adrielle plays a bigger role and we get more information about her visions and if she has a change of heart after realizing the truth of how good the Lythians are and how bad the Sertra kingdom was. Also I hope she also gets the chance to find her own Rohn.
Even then, it felt like it was missing something, that spark that really pulls you into the story, that coupled with some typos here and there slowed my reading down and it took me extra time to finish. The ending can be seen as open ended but the epilogue is a good segue into the next book where hopefully Adrielle plays a bigger role and we get more information about her visions and if she has a change of heart after realizing the truth of how good the Lythians are and how bad the Sertra kingdom was. Also I hope she also gets the chance to find her own Rohn.
May 20, 2022
In Sertra, the daughters of the king use magic to see the future. Adelyn is a princess who cannot use magic. With the threat of war Adelyn is sent on a quest to find the Seer who everyone hope can teach Adelyn to use magic. On the quest Adelyn falls into the hands of the enemies. With the enemy, they start to show her that not everything she knew was true and now she has a hard choice to make, the man she loves or her family.
I could not get enough of this book because it was so good. I loved the characters and all their details especially the main character’s wit. I usually don’t enjoy enemy-to-lovers, but this one was so well done. This was a book I could not put down and I cannot recommend this book enough.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I could not get enough of this book because it was so good. I loved the characters and all their details especially the main character’s wit. I usually don’t enjoy enemy-to-lovers, but this one was so well done. This was a book I could not put down and I cannot recommend this book enough.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 21, 2022
I didn’t know what to expect with this book but I was pleasantly surprised.
It was a little slow to start with and I hated Adelyn’s family but as the story progressed I was hooked! I loved the magic and the world building. The character development was amazing and I’m already looking forward to reading the second book! I would definitely recommend if you’re a fantasy fan
I received an advance review copy for free from @booksirens in exchange for an honest interview
It was a little slow to start with and I hated Adelyn’s family but as the story progressed I was hooked! I loved the magic and the world building. The character development was amazing and I’m already looking forward to reading the second book! I would definitely recommend if you’re a fantasy fan
I received an advance review copy for free from @booksirens in exchange for an honest interview
June 8, 2022
This a such a fun read. You have two kingdoms on the brink of war and the princess finds herself in enemy hands. This is the type of book you would want to finish in one seating because you want to know, will they fall in love? Will there be a betrayal?
The story itself is well written with attention to detail done but the characters were so annoying at times you just want to shake them. Another thing I liked was the magic system that Lithya had, it’s a unique take on magical abilities.
All in all, it’s a good enemies to lovers book that has royalty, family ties, and character development so it’s worth reading
The story itself is well written with attention to detail done but the characters were so annoying at times you just want to shake them. Another thing I liked was the magic system that Lithya had, it’s a unique take on magical abilities.
All in all, it’s a good enemies to lovers book that has royalty, family ties, and character development so it’s worth reading
August 16, 2022
Thank you Elizabeth S. Trafalgar and BookSirens for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
⚔️ The story ⚔️
Adelyn is a princess of Sertra in name only; every generation of Sertra princesses has had the power of vision, but Adelyn does not. For this reason, her father sends her on an impossible quest, in the hope of her finding her powers. However, she finds much more than she expected.
I firstly must mention that I adore this cover. Besides that, I enjoyed this a lot. I must admit that I basically forgot what the book was about before I started it, which made it even more interesting to see where the story would go. There are some things that could’ve been done better, but I feel like with a good edit the story would become even better. For example, I really loved the story from the second that we met the Lythians, and I loved seeing Adelyn attempting to find her own place in the world.
I also want to mention the representation in this book; nearly everyone we meet is bisexual, which I liked. I really felt like it fit the characters since they seem to love people for who they are and not because of what gender they have. The LGBTQ+ representation thus didn’t feel forced, and I really liked that. I smiled a lot while reading this book, and I just really enjoyed it.
⚔️ The characters ⚔️
👁️Adelyn👁️
Although I enjoyed Adelyn and reading about her finding her own strengths, I was also a bit... Hesitant about her. I definitely think there’s more to her magic though, and I hope we’ll learn more about it in the next book(s). I do think she was really naïve and kind of stupid at times, Anyway, I liked seeing her find her own way, but I struggled with her at times too.
👑The Lythians👑
I literally loved every single Lythian that we’ve met in this story. First of all, obviously, there’s Rohn. I don’t really know how I felt about him. I feel like we got to know Ell, Ven and Asa more than we actually got to know Rohn, which was weird. I do think he was really cute, but we barely got any alone time with him, and it was thus a bit hard for me to understand why Adelyn would like him that much. There were definitely some cute scenes with him though, and I liked his flirty personality. Then there’s Ell, who once again, was lovely. I would’ve loved to learn even more about her because I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface so far. The same goes for Ven and Asa, I love them both, but I would love to get to know them even more. I need to know how everyone is doing, and I thus cannot freaking wait for the next book. I need all of my babies to be happy, I love them too much. I also enjoyed the king and queen a lot, and I loved how they treated Adelyn. They’re all just so great :’)
👥Other characters👥
So yeah, I detested her family. Seriously, they suck so much. I loved reading about her struggles with them though, and how she started to realize how much they sucked. I liked Nuria a lot, I was a little bit confused about Equen. He gave me some odd vibes, but we basically saw him for a second until So yeah, mixed feelings on the side-characters.
⚔️ The writing ⚔️
Important to mention is that there were quite a lot of mistakes in the writing. I bookmarked the ones that stood out to me, so please contact me if you want to know which ones there were. Furthermore, there were some mistakes in the plot as well, but once again, those are easily solved by some good editing! I personally don’t mind it that much, but there are some obvious mistakes.
⚔️ Overall conclusion ⚔️
I really enjoyed this book. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a steamier story than I expected, which I always love. I’m interested to see where the story will go from here, and I hope we’ll learn even more about the Lythians and the Sertrans, and their future together. I also hope we’ll see more of the Wilds in the next book(s) since I’m interested in the creatures that live there.
3.5 stars
⚔️ The story ⚔️
Adelyn is a princess of Sertra in name only; every generation of Sertra princesses has had the power of vision, but Adelyn does not. For this reason, her father sends her on an impossible quest, in the hope of her finding her powers. However, she finds much more than she expected.
I firstly must mention that I adore this cover. Besides that, I enjoyed this a lot. I must admit that I basically forgot what the book was about before I started it, which made it even more interesting to see where the story would go. There are some things that could’ve been done better, but I feel like with a good edit the story would become even better. For example, I really loved the story from the second that we met the Lythians, and I loved seeing Adelyn attempting to find her own place in the world.
“If everyone who was imperfect were unsuitable, there would be no suitable people left to rule anything."
I also want to mention the representation in this book; nearly everyone we meet is bisexual, which I liked. I really felt like it fit the characters since they seem to love people for who they are and not because of what gender they have. The LGBTQ+ representation thus didn’t feel forced, and I really liked that. I smiled a lot while reading this book, and I just really enjoyed it.
⚔️ The characters ⚔️
👁️Adelyn👁️
Although I enjoyed Adelyn and reading about her finding her own strengths, I was also a bit... Hesitant about her. I definitely think there’s more to her magic though, and I hope we’ll learn more about it in the next book(s). I do think she was really naïve and kind of stupid at times, Anyway, I liked seeing her find her own way, but I struggled with her at times too.
👑The Lythians👑
I literally loved every single Lythian that we’ve met in this story. First of all, obviously, there’s Rohn. I don’t really know how I felt about him. I feel like we got to know Ell, Ven and Asa more than we actually got to know Rohn, which was weird. I do think he was really cute, but we barely got any alone time with him, and it was thus a bit hard for me to understand why Adelyn would like him that much. There were definitely some cute scenes with him though, and I liked his flirty personality. Then there’s Ell, who once again, was lovely. I would’ve loved to learn even more about her because I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface so far. The same goes for Ven and Asa, I love them both, but I would love to get to know them even more. I need to know how everyone is doing, and I thus cannot freaking wait for the next book. I need all of my babies to be happy, I love them too much. I also enjoyed the king and queen a lot, and I loved how they treated Adelyn. They’re all just so great :’)
👥Other characters👥
So yeah, I detested her family. Seriously, they suck so much. I loved reading about her struggles with them though, and how she started to realize how much they sucked. I liked Nuria a lot, I was a little bit confused about Equen. He gave me some odd vibes, but we basically saw him for a second until So yeah, mixed feelings on the side-characters.
“It is infinitely easier to pretend as though the story of your life has been written out for you by the gods. It is far harder to know that every decision you make can change your life’s story. Everything you do or say, everything you believe, can alter your ending. If there is such a thing as fate, it is the power we each hold within us to write our own stories.”
⚔️ The writing ⚔️
Important to mention is that there were quite a lot of mistakes in the writing. I bookmarked the ones that stood out to me, so please contact me if you want to know which ones there were. Furthermore, there were some mistakes in the plot as well, but once again, those are easily solved by some good editing! I personally don’t mind it that much, but there are some obvious mistakes.
⚔️ Overall conclusion ⚔️
I really enjoyed this book. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a steamier story than I expected, which I always love. I’m interested to see where the story will go from here, and I hope we’ll learn even more about the Lythians and the Sertrans, and their future together. I also hope we’ll see more of the Wilds in the next book(s) since I’m interested in the creatures that live there.
June 5, 2022
I would like to begin by stating that The Courts Of Fate And Fear is not necessarily a terrible book. In fact, I am sure there would be many readers who would be drawn to this story, however, it just wasn't for me. Here's why.
For me, a great fantasy novel is one where the world-building is spectacularly immersive. Here, that wasn't really the case. While the magic systems and overall plot were intriguing, it was hard to really dive into the world of The Courts Of Fate And Fear, as there was too much of "telling" rather than "showing."
Secondly, I personally found our protagonist very weak and annoying, and quite silly even. The only reason why I kept reading the book was because of Rohn and Asa.
Perhaps readers who are new to the Fantasy genre might enjoy this book, but it just was not my cup of tea.
For me, a great fantasy novel is one where the world-building is spectacularly immersive. Here, that wasn't really the case. While the magic systems and overall plot were intriguing, it was hard to really dive into the world of The Courts Of Fate And Fear, as there was too much of "telling" rather than "showing."
Secondly, I personally found our protagonist very weak and annoying, and quite silly even. The only reason why I kept reading the book was because of Rohn and Asa.
Perhaps readers who are new to the Fantasy genre might enjoy this book, but it just was not my cup of tea.
Read
June 19, 2022*I was assigned this book for phase 1 of SPFBO 8*
The Courts of Fate and Fear has a lot to commend. Two neighboring countries, Sertra and Lithya, are facing high tension and mounting war. Sertra has a long history of magic users part of the royal family who can envision - that is, see into the future and plot the course of the country. Adelyn is a princess of Sertra, and she has no magic. Zilch. Nada. This, according to her father, makes her absolutely useless. She is mocked incessantly, forced to attend “training” sessions where every tactic known to man is tried, to try to bring out her envisioning. When it fails, she is sent into the Wilds - a forest bordering both Lithya and Sertra that is known for its bandits and monsters. She is to seek the Seer, to ask for help to bring out her magic.
But really, it’s a death sentence. She’s only sent with her handmaiden and a small escort of newly trained guards. Adelyn knows it, but still, she has no choice but to go along with it. It’s been ingrained into her to obey her father at all costs, and to “do what is best for Sertra”, even if that includes her basically being exiled and expected to die.
Through a series of events, she finds herself alone and on the run. She seeks refuge in what she thinks is an abandoned mansion. However, she finds that it is NOT abandoned, and meets four friends - Rohn, Ven, Asa, and Ell. Come to find out, they are Lithyan royalty, and she is escorted/forced into the Lithyan capitol.
Here, she finds the acceptance and kindness that she never experienced in her homeland. Although she is the princess of the enemy, the royal family extends grace and friendship. Adelyn is completely shocked - the kindness is completely foreign to her. Over the course of several months, she comes to love them. And she has come to realize that her own family is indeed the problem, not Lithya.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward - outcast princess with no magic, meets enemy family, falls in love with the prince (there are two pretty graphic sex scenes which I was surprised to find in a YA book). The characters were downright lovable, especially Asa and Ven. The romance was a little hard to believe - it seemed to happen quite quickly. Rohn goes from being courteous to Adelyn, then we are suddenly told he can’t keep his eyes off her. There isn’t much chemistry between them, due to the suddenness of it.
I wasn’t sure what to feel about the Lithyans being so kind to Adelyn. At first, it pulls at your heartstrings that she finally finds acceptance and kindness. But the fact that they gave her free reign of the palace, teach her to fight, and accept her into the family is a bit odd. The reason given is that the Lithyan royal family’s magical ability is to sense emotion, and they sense nothing nefarious in Adelyn. Still, it felt to be a bit too much of a stretch.
The magic system isn’t explained all that well. Towards the middle/end of the book it gets fleshed out a bit more, but even then, I was a little confused about how it worked exactly, given that sometimes it was explained as spells, sometimes you had to use words, sometimes you used hand motions, other times you had a string or thread that you sensed.
The worldbuilding was a bit dry as well. I didn’t get a good sense of anything, really, except the palaces and the Wilds. And when war does finally come, there were some things that just worked too well. All of the sudden, the Sertran palace is overtaken and boom, that ends the war. It didn’t make much sense. What about all the other towns and cities? Wouldn’t they have garrisons of soldiers, generals, supplies? Why would they just give up because the capitol city was taken? Why would the nobles go from loyalty to one king, and switch allegiance with the snap of a finger? Wouldn’t they have their own supplies, soldiers, wealth, influence? There is mention of the Sertran prince and the other princess, but only briefly. Wouldn’t the Sertrans fall behind one of them, and not a foreign king?
While there were many things that left me scratching my head, there were still good elements to this book. The writing was well done - although it could have used one more editing pass (there were missing words scattered throughout, or tense changes). There were characters you could root for, with engaging personalities. The idea that the main character could actually be on the wrong side and not even know it was interesting.
All in all, I feel this was a good book, generally, but could have used a lot more worldbuilding and some plot tweaks. For a YA story, though, I’m sure it will land well with some people looking for a quick, fun read with romance.
*This review originally published on Booknest.eu*
The Courts of Fate and Fear has a lot to commend. Two neighboring countries, Sertra and Lithya, are facing high tension and mounting war. Sertra has a long history of magic users part of the royal family who can envision - that is, see into the future and plot the course of the country. Adelyn is a princess of Sertra, and she has no magic. Zilch. Nada. This, according to her father, makes her absolutely useless. She is mocked incessantly, forced to attend “training” sessions where every tactic known to man is tried, to try to bring out her envisioning. When it fails, she is sent into the Wilds - a forest bordering both Lithya and Sertra that is known for its bandits and monsters. She is to seek the Seer, to ask for help to bring out her magic.
But really, it’s a death sentence. She’s only sent with her handmaiden and a small escort of newly trained guards. Adelyn knows it, but still, she has no choice but to go along with it. It’s been ingrained into her to obey her father at all costs, and to “do what is best for Sertra”, even if that includes her basically being exiled and expected to die.
Through a series of events, she finds herself alone and on the run. She seeks refuge in what she thinks is an abandoned mansion. However, she finds that it is NOT abandoned, and meets four friends - Rohn, Ven, Asa, and Ell. Come to find out, they are Lithyan royalty, and she is escorted/forced into the Lithyan capitol.
Here, she finds the acceptance and kindness that she never experienced in her homeland. Although she is the princess of the enemy, the royal family extends grace and friendship. Adelyn is completely shocked - the kindness is completely foreign to her. Over the course of several months, she comes to love them. And she has come to realize that her own family is indeed the problem, not Lithya.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward - outcast princess with no magic, meets enemy family, falls in love with the prince (there are two pretty graphic sex scenes which I was surprised to find in a YA book). The characters were downright lovable, especially Asa and Ven. The romance was a little hard to believe - it seemed to happen quite quickly. Rohn goes from being courteous to Adelyn, then we are suddenly told he can’t keep his eyes off her. There isn’t much chemistry between them, due to the suddenness of it.
I wasn’t sure what to feel about the Lithyans being so kind to Adelyn. At first, it pulls at your heartstrings that she finally finds acceptance and kindness. But the fact that they gave her free reign of the palace, teach her to fight, and accept her into the family is a bit odd. The reason given is that the Lithyan royal family’s magical ability is to sense emotion, and they sense nothing nefarious in Adelyn. Still, it felt to be a bit too much of a stretch.
The magic system isn’t explained all that well. Towards the middle/end of the book it gets fleshed out a bit more, but even then, I was a little confused about how it worked exactly, given that sometimes it was explained as spells, sometimes you had to use words, sometimes you used hand motions, other times you had a string or thread that you sensed.
The worldbuilding was a bit dry as well. I didn’t get a good sense of anything, really, except the palaces and the Wilds. And when war does finally come, there were some things that just worked too well. All of the sudden, the Sertran palace is overtaken and boom, that ends the war. It didn’t make much sense. What about all the other towns and cities? Wouldn’t they have garrisons of soldiers, generals, supplies? Why would they just give up because the capitol city was taken? Why would the nobles go from loyalty to one king, and switch allegiance with the snap of a finger? Wouldn’t they have their own supplies, soldiers, wealth, influence? There is mention of the Sertran prince and the other princess, but only briefly. Wouldn’t the Sertrans fall behind one of them, and not a foreign king?
While there were many things that left me scratching my head, there were still good elements to this book. The writing was well done - although it could have used one more editing pass (there were missing words scattered throughout, or tense changes). There were characters you could root for, with engaging personalities. The idea that the main character could actually be on the wrong side and not even know it was interesting.
All in all, I feel this was a good book, generally, but could have used a lot more worldbuilding and some plot tweaks. For a YA story, though, I’m sure it will land well with some people looking for a quick, fun read with romance.
*This review originally published on Booknest.eu*
May 27, 2022
TL;DR: A proper enjoyable right royal YA(ish) romance with a Maas-ian twist that's all about the bonds of friendship and found family. I loved the characters cozy relationships and flaws, but was a bit surprised by the sudden explicit steam level later on given that everything about the simple comfort-read nature of the story screams YA done right.
It's the story centers on Adelyn, Princess of Sertra, who by 19 should be ready to take up her place as advisor to her brother, king-in-waiting. The reason she can't: she is magicless. All royal women of her bloodline are supposed to have visions of the future sent by the gods, yet Adelyn's spells never summon them. Without these to guide his rule, who will protect them from their war-like neighbouring lands? With her younger sister now taking on her birthright, Adelyn finds herself being sent on a fool's errand to try and awaken her powers... Only to end up unwittingly in enemy territory. But when she's taken in by Rohn, crown prince of Lithya and supposed warmonger-in-waiting, she's surprised to find he's... Not that bad? In fact, the people of Lithya are nothing like she's been made to believe. With her father now looking more like the aggressor and her "captors" being better people than she's even known, how can she do what's right when her loyalties are so divided?
For me, both the simplicity of the plot and the characters where were this book really shone. It's a comfort-read sort of thing; you know where it's going but want to be there for the ride anyway. I did find myself wishing for more twisted twists than there were (), and sometimes things could seem a little easy or simplistic in how they were achieved, but it does a good job with what it has. It could be read as an open ended stand alone if you ignore the epilogue, but that hook (plus the sneaky one earlier on - mentions of cursed items and the like) has me salivating for a sequel. The pacing may drag a little towards the end, and there were many end of chapter moments that I assumed was The End... Until I turned the page and discovered more!
Adelyn's a good, balanced YA sort of gal. She's not insta-powerful or unrealistically talented. She does grow quite a bit in power as the story progresses, but it takes time and she doesn't become all powerful. The best thing about her is that she doubts herself but learns to overcome if through... The power of friendship. Not love, not training montages - friendship. Can we get a swoon please? You liked ACOTAR's little friendship/romantic group but wished they'd spend some time being nice rather than just getting snarky and X-rated? Meet Rohn's "Ring" (yes, they make the joke). I loved how for once in a YA novel characters can both banter and come across as good, nice people. There's Asa and Val's cute but not in your face relationship, Ell's possibly autistic spectrum forthrightness, and Rohn being the nice version of the YA bad boy. The villain of the piece can get a little caricature-like towards the end, but no more so than most YA novels.
The nitpicks I had were with world building (some things just didn't quite add up or were never explained - are visions real? How come Rohn's so powerful but never sensed Adelyn's feelings? How come she only learns magic so late on? Even the setting could seem a little sparse description-wise), the romance that lacked that certain chemistry (though I was so glad it was more akin to gentle a friends-to-lovers than the enemies-to-lovers I'd anticipated), and the sudden steam level ramping up out of what otherwise is a very good YA-appropriate plot and writing style (explicit, anatomical oral and full-on sex than felt a bit bluntly described compared to the rest of the writing). There were also a number of typos around.
All in all, good pacing, good standard plot that takes those old cliches and has proper fun with them, and a small but sweet cast who prove it's the power of friendship that can really change a person's life. Well worth a read if you know and love those YA royal romance tropes but want a new spin on them.
-I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.-
It's the story centers on Adelyn, Princess of Sertra, who by 19 should be ready to take up her place as advisor to her brother, king-in-waiting. The reason she can't: she is magicless. All royal women of her bloodline are supposed to have visions of the future sent by the gods, yet Adelyn's spells never summon them. Without these to guide his rule, who will protect them from their war-like neighbouring lands? With her younger sister now taking on her birthright, Adelyn finds herself being sent on a fool's errand to try and awaken her powers... Only to end up unwittingly in enemy territory. But when she's taken in by Rohn, crown prince of Lithya and supposed warmonger-in-waiting, she's surprised to find he's... Not that bad? In fact, the people of Lithya are nothing like she's been made to believe. With her father now looking more like the aggressor and her "captors" being better people than she's even known, how can she do what's right when her loyalties are so divided?
For me, both the simplicity of the plot and the characters where were this book really shone. It's a comfort-read sort of thing; you know where it's going but want to be there for the ride anyway. I did find myself wishing for more twisted twists than there were (), and sometimes things could seem a little easy or simplistic in how they were achieved, but it does a good job with what it has. It could be read as an open ended stand alone if you ignore the epilogue, but that hook (plus the sneaky one earlier on - mentions of cursed items and the like) has me salivating for a sequel. The pacing may drag a little towards the end, and there were many end of chapter moments that I assumed was The End... Until I turned the page and discovered more!
Adelyn's a good, balanced YA sort of gal. She's not insta-powerful or unrealistically talented. She does grow quite a bit in power as the story progresses, but it takes time and she doesn't become all powerful. The best thing about her is that she doubts herself but learns to overcome if through... The power of friendship. Not love, not training montages - friendship. Can we get a swoon please? You liked ACOTAR's little friendship/romantic group but wished they'd spend some time being nice rather than just getting snarky and X-rated? Meet Rohn's "Ring" (yes, they make the joke). I loved how for once in a YA novel characters can both banter and come across as good, nice people. There's Asa and Val's cute but not in your face relationship, Ell's possibly autistic spectrum forthrightness, and Rohn being the nice version of the YA bad boy. The villain of the piece can get a little caricature-like towards the end, but no more so than most YA novels.
The nitpicks I had were with world building (some things just didn't quite add up or were never explained - are visions real? How come Rohn's so powerful but never sensed Adelyn's feelings? How come she only learns magic so late on? Even the setting could seem a little sparse description-wise), the romance that lacked that certain chemistry (though I was so glad it was more akin to gentle a friends-to-lovers than the enemies-to-lovers I'd anticipated), and the sudden steam level ramping up out of what otherwise is a very good YA-appropriate plot and writing style (explicit, anatomical oral and full-on sex than felt a bit bluntly described compared to the rest of the writing). There were also a number of typos around.
All in all, good pacing, good standard plot that takes those old cliches and has proper fun with them, and a small but sweet cast who prove it's the power of friendship that can really change a person's life. Well worth a read if you know and love those YA royal romance tropes but want a new spin on them.
-I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.-
June 30, 2022
I read this because of the SPFBO Round 8. I am NOT a judge. This is one of many titles that caught my interest.
Review below synopsis.
Synopsis:
In Sertra, where the daughters of the king manipulate magic to see the future, Adelyn is a princess without powers. With no magic, she is unable to fulfill the role she was born to—calling forth visions of enemy plans to help anticipate and prevent attacks on Sertra. With the threat of war from Prince Rohn of Lithya growing more dire by the day, Adelyn is sent by her father on a desperate quest to find the fabled Seer, in the hopes that she can teach Adelyn to use magic. Despite the danger, Adelyn agrees to go. If she can find her magic, Sertra might stand a chance of defeating Lithya for good—and she can finally prove to her family that she’s not useless after all.
But when Adelyn’s journey goes tragically wrong and she stumbles into the hands of the very enemies she hoped to defeat, they challenge her view of everything she had thought to be true–and Adelyn finds herself falling in love with the prince she thought was determined to destroy her homeland. When Sertra mobilizes for war, Adelyn must make the hardest choice of her life–siding with her family against the man she’s come to love, or betraying the family she still yearns to belong to for a kingdom she’s come to cherish.
Everything in this review is solely based on my opinions.
I’d like to start by saying that the blurb of this book drew me in an the cover of course is beautiful also. I really wanted to love this book as its been recommended for fans of Sarah. J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout. There are probably people out there who will absolutely love this and are just diving into this genre. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations and fell flat. This book felt rushed and not thoroughly flushed out.
We’re following the Princess of Sertra, Adelyn. She doesn’t have magic and her father ultimately dislikes her for it, as it doesn’t bring anything to the table for the upcoming war they are preparing for. A war for which we as the readers have no clue what it’s even over. Adelyn is then sent by her father into the wild to search for a myth and only to come back once she has found it and her magic.
I found most of the scenes and reactions to be unbelievable. For instance, when Adelyn finds herself in the hands of her enemy and she’s welcome with open arms and friendship and a “home” I just can’t believe something like that would just happen.
Another thing that bothered me about this book is that we had so many time jumps. Days and weeks would pass, and in those time jumps the main character would learn things and get to know the other characters more and make connections with them but we wouldn’t get to see it. The next page we would just be told that it happened and we’re to just go along with. I find that those are the parts every story needs to build up characters and plot and connections between the reader and the characters. Because of this I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters at all and didn’t really care about what happened to them.
As for the “romance”, were led to believe that it’s enemies to lovers and we did not get that at all. Not once were the love interests enemies and honestly I don’t even know how they become lovers. Nothing happened for me as a reader to believe in this relationship.
However, I did like that the author incorporated LGBT relationships into this book with side characters.
The magic falls under pretty much everything. The main character doesn’t have it and then during a time jump she gets. The magic isn’t really explained and a lot of the time I felt like the characters could do whatever they want with it.
Overall, this book was promising but did not live up to what I hoped for. This book needed more meat to it in the areas I mentioned above. I think this book needed more time to be thought out and also could have used another round of edits. I found plenty of errors throughout and it would take me out of the story at times. I appreciated what the author tried to do but this just didn’t work for me.
Review below synopsis.
Synopsis:
In Sertra, where the daughters of the king manipulate magic to see the future, Adelyn is a princess without powers. With no magic, she is unable to fulfill the role she was born to—calling forth visions of enemy plans to help anticipate and prevent attacks on Sertra. With the threat of war from Prince Rohn of Lithya growing more dire by the day, Adelyn is sent by her father on a desperate quest to find the fabled Seer, in the hopes that she can teach Adelyn to use magic. Despite the danger, Adelyn agrees to go. If she can find her magic, Sertra might stand a chance of defeating Lithya for good—and she can finally prove to her family that she’s not useless after all.
But when Adelyn’s journey goes tragically wrong and she stumbles into the hands of the very enemies she hoped to defeat, they challenge her view of everything she had thought to be true–and Adelyn finds herself falling in love with the prince she thought was determined to destroy her homeland. When Sertra mobilizes for war, Adelyn must make the hardest choice of her life–siding with her family against the man she’s come to love, or betraying the family she still yearns to belong to for a kingdom she’s come to cherish.
Everything in this review is solely based on my opinions.
I’d like to start by saying that the blurb of this book drew me in an the cover of course is beautiful also. I really wanted to love this book as its been recommended for fans of Sarah. J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout. There are probably people out there who will absolutely love this and are just diving into this genre. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations and fell flat. This book felt rushed and not thoroughly flushed out.
We’re following the Princess of Sertra, Adelyn. She doesn’t have magic and her father ultimately dislikes her for it, as it doesn’t bring anything to the table for the upcoming war they are preparing for. A war for which we as the readers have no clue what it’s even over. Adelyn is then sent by her father into the wild to search for a myth and only to come back once she has found it and her magic.
I found most of the scenes and reactions to be unbelievable. For instance, when Adelyn finds herself in the hands of her enemy and she’s welcome with open arms and friendship and a “home” I just can’t believe something like that would just happen.
Another thing that bothered me about this book is that we had so many time jumps. Days and weeks would pass, and in those time jumps the main character would learn things and get to know the other characters more and make connections with them but we wouldn’t get to see it. The next page we would just be told that it happened and we’re to just go along with. I find that those are the parts every story needs to build up characters and plot and connections between the reader and the characters. Because of this I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters at all and didn’t really care about what happened to them.
As for the “romance”, were led to believe that it’s enemies to lovers and we did not get that at all. Not once were the love interests enemies and honestly I don’t even know how they become lovers. Nothing happened for me as a reader to believe in this relationship.
However, I did like that the author incorporated LGBT relationships into this book with side characters.
The magic falls under pretty much everything. The main character doesn’t have it and then during a time jump she gets. The magic isn’t really explained and a lot of the time I felt like the characters could do whatever they want with it.
Overall, this book was promising but did not live up to what I hoped for. This book needed more meat to it in the areas I mentioned above. I think this book needed more time to be thought out and also could have used another round of edits. I found plenty of errors throughout and it would take me out of the story at times. I appreciated what the author tried to do but this just didn’t work for me.
May 29, 2022
Wow this is an amazing new fantasy! I LOVE this book!
This story follows Adelyn, Princess of Sertra. She was born without any powers or magic, which is unheard of for a princess of Sertra who always have the ability to conjure up visions to see the future and help their kingdom thrive and survive. Her younger sister Adrielle has this ability and basically has taken on the role of next heir with their brother Haden. Adelyn's father decides, based on a vision Adrielle had, to send Adelyn into the Wilds to find the Seer who would grant her magic. However, no one ever survives the Wilds, especially if you are sent with only a handful of guards. Adelyn goes, though, because it is her duty. While in the Wilds, her and her guards are attacked by bandits, and Adelyn barely escapes and finds a house in the forest where she thinks she will find help. She does, but from her enemies, the Lithyans. She travels to their land with them pretending to be her lady's maid and while there, thinks she can spy on them and get info back to her father. But while she lives amongst them, she learns they are not quite what she was led to believe about them, and may turn out they are not the monsters, but her family are the monsters.
I just loved this book! The world building is well done, as well as the character building. The magic system is unique with the visions, but also elemental and mind magic and abilities. I get the impression that some have either no abilities, or others are able to access all magic, but some have more of an affinity with certain types of magic/abilities than others are.
The characters are amazing and all so unique as well! I really liked Adelyn, she made me think of myself in that she lacked self confidence. I loved watching her grow in this book and becoming her own person and having her own thoughts and opinions and voicing them, rather than thinking she's not allowed to have a voice, especially as a woman. The way the Lithyans helped her was so sweet and kind-hearted especially after you learn more about what she went through as a child trying to conjure visions. Her family is just terrible, I mean they are awful. And so for her to experience kindness and love, from her enemies no less! was quite an experience for her. She didn't know whether she could trust them or not, she thought it was a way to bring her guard down and then they would betray her, and so she had to learn that may be her enemies are really not that bad.
There are a few side characters, and I love when they get really involved in the story and you learn about them! There's Rohn(who is the male MC), Ell, Ven, and Asa. But you also really get to learn about Adelyn's family like her sister Adrielle and her brother Haden, and the different kings and queens and how unique each person is. I adored Rohn's little band of family who included Adelyn into their little unique family. They reminded me of the Inner Circle from ACoTaR, but different and definitely different in personality and as a people.
The romance was also well developed. A sweet slow burn(my favorite) with a dash of enemies to lovers in there and a little heat.
I truly loved and enjoyed this story! I can hardly wait for the next one! If you love ACoTaR like me, then you will love this new fantasy! I received an advance review copy for free(thank you to BookSirens and the author), and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This story follows Adelyn, Princess of Sertra. She was born without any powers or magic, which is unheard of for a princess of Sertra who always have the ability to conjure up visions to see the future and help their kingdom thrive and survive. Her younger sister Adrielle has this ability and basically has taken on the role of next heir with their brother Haden. Adelyn's father decides, based on a vision Adrielle had, to send Adelyn into the Wilds to find the Seer who would grant her magic. However, no one ever survives the Wilds, especially if you are sent with only a handful of guards. Adelyn goes, though, because it is her duty. While in the Wilds, her and her guards are attacked by bandits, and Adelyn barely escapes and finds a house in the forest where she thinks she will find help. She does, but from her enemies, the Lithyans. She travels to their land with them pretending to be her lady's maid and while there, thinks she can spy on them and get info back to her father. But while she lives amongst them, she learns they are not quite what she was led to believe about them, and may turn out they are not the monsters, but her family are the monsters.
I just loved this book! The world building is well done, as well as the character building. The magic system is unique with the visions, but also elemental and mind magic and abilities. I get the impression that some have either no abilities, or others are able to access all magic, but some have more of an affinity with certain types of magic/abilities than others are.
The characters are amazing and all so unique as well! I really liked Adelyn, she made me think of myself in that she lacked self confidence. I loved watching her grow in this book and becoming her own person and having her own thoughts and opinions and voicing them, rather than thinking she's not allowed to have a voice, especially as a woman. The way the Lithyans helped her was so sweet and kind-hearted especially after you learn more about what she went through as a child trying to conjure visions. Her family is just terrible, I mean they are awful. And so for her to experience kindness and love, from her enemies no less! was quite an experience for her. She didn't know whether she could trust them or not, she thought it was a way to bring her guard down and then they would betray her, and so she had to learn that may be her enemies are really not that bad.
There are a few side characters, and I love when they get really involved in the story and you learn about them! There's Rohn(who is the male MC), Ell, Ven, and Asa. But you also really get to learn about Adelyn's family like her sister Adrielle and her brother Haden, and the different kings and queens and how unique each person is. I adored Rohn's little band of family who included Adelyn into their little unique family. They reminded me of the Inner Circle from ACoTaR, but different and definitely different in personality and as a people.
The romance was also well developed. A sweet slow burn(my favorite) with a dash of enemies to lovers in there and a little heat.
I truly loved and enjoyed this story! I can hardly wait for the next one! If you love ACoTaR like me, then you will love this new fantasy! I received an advance review copy for free(thank you to BookSirens and the author), and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 26, 2022
Unless I could kill someone by throwing a book at them, I was worse than useless.
Thanks to the author and booksirens for this copy in exchange for an honest review
Welcome to Sertra, home of Princess Adelyn Valrobar and her family. This is a kingdom of magic, and a kingdom of war. Adelyn is the older sister but she doesn’t have any magic, so after a vision from her sister she is sent into the wilds to find a mythical being capable of awakening her magic control visions and helps in the war to come against Lythia.
In her adventure through the wilds her guards and friend died, leaving her completely alone in the middle of nowhere with a big animal chasing her. She runned and ended up in a cabin where a man helped her. What she doesn’t know is that he is Rohnard Anora AKA Rohn for friends, the heir of the Lythian crown and who is supposed to be her mortal enemy. I know what happened, you know what will happen, everyone knows that Adelyn and Rohn will become closer, but I won’t say anything more because I won’t spoil the book.
So let’s move on and talk about the characters. I love Adelyn and Rohn but I also love Ven, Asa and Ell, the inner circle of Rohn. This crew is amazing together but individually they’re awesome too. Focusing on the main characters all I can say is that Adelyn is one of the strongest women I’ve read recently in a fantasy book, she has a lot of things to deal with and her journey was really epic to become the woman she is destined to be.
Rohn on the other side, gods I love this dude, he is loyal, funny and a cinnamon roll ready to kill an army, and even with all his power he is kind and a good prince, he isn’t the horror story that has been told to Adelyn and I love how much he loves his people and his family. I wanted to protect them from everything. Especially in such a dangerous world full of intrigue and magic.
And talking about the world, I really enjoyed this magic system and the worldbuilding in this book. It was very well written and it’s easy to understand how this world works and how these characters are trying to survive it. But one thing I didn’t enjoy was that I missed more epic battles, because this is a book about war and when this came we didn’t saw a lot, and also I think everything was “easy” for them and don’t misunderstand me, I was in pain reading the last part of the book, it was hard reading some events that I won’t tell you dear reader because I still have a heart.
I gave The courts of Fate and Fear 4.5/5 stars because it is epic but as a fantasy reader I missed the battles that are only telled but not read.
Thanks to the author and booksirens for this copy in exchange for an honest review
Welcome to Sertra, home of Princess Adelyn Valrobar and her family. This is a kingdom of magic, and a kingdom of war. Adelyn is the older sister but she doesn’t have any magic, so after a vision from her sister she is sent into the wilds to find a mythical being capable of awakening her magic control visions and helps in the war to come against Lythia.
In her adventure through the wilds her guards and friend died, leaving her completely alone in the middle of nowhere with a big animal chasing her. She runned and ended up in a cabin where a man helped her. What she doesn’t know is that he is Rohnard Anora AKA Rohn for friends, the heir of the Lythian crown and who is supposed to be her mortal enemy. I know what happened, you know what will happen, everyone knows that Adelyn and Rohn will become closer, but I won’t say anything more because I won’t spoil the book.
So let’s move on and talk about the characters. I love Adelyn and Rohn but I also love Ven, Asa and Ell, the inner circle of Rohn. This crew is amazing together but individually they’re awesome too. Focusing on the main characters all I can say is that Adelyn is one of the strongest women I’ve read recently in a fantasy book, she has a lot of things to deal with and her journey was really epic to become the woman she is destined to be.
Rohn on the other side, gods I love this dude, he is loyal, funny and a cinnamon roll ready to kill an army, and even with all his power he is kind and a good prince, he isn’t the horror story that has been told to Adelyn and I love how much he loves his people and his family. I wanted to protect them from everything. Especially in such a dangerous world full of intrigue and magic.
And talking about the world, I really enjoyed this magic system and the worldbuilding in this book. It was very well written and it’s easy to understand how this world works and how these characters are trying to survive it. But one thing I didn’t enjoy was that I missed more epic battles, because this is a book about war and when this came we didn’t saw a lot, and also I think everything was “easy” for them and don’t misunderstand me, I was in pain reading the last part of the book, it was hard reading some events that I won’t tell you dear reader because I still have a heart.
I gave The courts of Fate and Fear 4.5/5 stars because it is epic but as a fantasy reader I missed the battles that are only telled but not read.
May 4, 2022
Just finished reading Elizabeth S. Trafalgar's book "The Courts of Fate and Fear". Overall impression: a very fun read!
In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm not generally a fantasy reader. The last fantasy book I read was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which I considered necessary reading so that I could nod my head when people made references to Hogwarts or Muggles. Prior to that, the only fantasy books I recall reading as a kid were "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which I absolutely loved. As a teenager and adult, I gravitate to science fiction and historical fiction rather than fantasy. I mention this because my lack of experience with fantasy writing probably did influence my opinions to some degree.
I enjoyed the characters that Elizabeth developed in her book. Adelyn's transition from a helpless, insecure girl to a confident and capable young woman was well chronicled and believable; she was easy to relate to and like. In fact, pretty much all of the characters that were intended to be likeable, were likeable. Most of the characters in the book were nuanced enough to see them as real people, including some of the less-savory characters.
The world of TCoFaF was well described and easy to envision. I particularly loved the descriptions (albeit brief) of some of the fantastical creatures that inhabited the Wilds. It would have been fun to see more of them!
I think my unfamiliarity with the fantasy genre made it more difficult for me to suspend disbelief when it came to the magical elements of the book. Not that they weren't well-written, because they were; but I would find myself thinking things like, 'if they can clean the dirt out of bathwater by magic, why couldn't they use magic to clean the dirt off their body without needing a bath?' But for the most part I was able to set aside my inner insistence on explainable phenomena and just enjoy the story.
There is some gore (I think a bit more than I was expecting), and I'm not a huge fan of 'steamy scenes,' but those things are entirely subjective, and so I've set them aside in my rating.
I've come away from my read with great respect for Elizabeth's story-telling skills. And even though fantasy isn't my preferred genre, I have no hesitation in saying that I would read more books from her - including the sequel to this one!
In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm not generally a fantasy reader. The last fantasy book I read was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which I considered necessary reading so that I could nod my head when people made references to Hogwarts or Muggles. Prior to that, the only fantasy books I recall reading as a kid were "The Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which I absolutely loved. As a teenager and adult, I gravitate to science fiction and historical fiction rather than fantasy. I mention this because my lack of experience with fantasy writing probably did influence my opinions to some degree.
I enjoyed the characters that Elizabeth developed in her book. Adelyn's transition from a helpless, insecure girl to a confident and capable young woman was well chronicled and believable; she was easy to relate to and like. In fact, pretty much all of the characters that were intended to be likeable, were likeable. Most of the characters in the book were nuanced enough to see them as real people, including some of the less-savory characters.
The world of TCoFaF was well described and easy to envision. I particularly loved the descriptions (albeit brief) of some of the fantastical creatures that inhabited the Wilds. It would have been fun to see more of them!
I think my unfamiliarity with the fantasy genre made it more difficult for me to suspend disbelief when it came to the magical elements of the book. Not that they weren't well-written, because they were; but I would find myself thinking things like, 'if they can clean the dirt out of bathwater by magic, why couldn't they use magic to clean the dirt off their body without needing a bath?' But for the most part I was able to set aside my inner insistence on explainable phenomena and just enjoy the story.
There is some gore (I think a bit more than I was expecting), and I'm not a huge fan of 'steamy scenes,' but those things are entirely subjective, and so I've set them aside in my rating.
I've come away from my read with great respect for Elizabeth's story-telling skills. And even though fantasy isn't my preferred genre, I have no hesitation in saying that I would read more books from her - including the sequel to this one!
May 26, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and I liked the cliffhanger at the end. I am excited to see where the story runs off to next.
At the beginning of the book (and this is going to sound severely honest and blunt), I didn't like it. I struggled through it until she meats with the love interest. Even after we meet him, I struggled a little bit. It got better by half way through though and I ended up really enjoying the book. I don't hand out 4/5's to books I wouldn't recommend to someone else by the way. I do in fact recommend this series and I believe book 2 will be 1000% better now that the story has wings. I fully expect the second book to be a 5/5. I have questions and I want them answered. I think that is the best part, the story was interesting enough that I truly do want the answers to my questions and I don't want to wait for them. I wish I didn't have to.
Things that I thought could be improved - their are typos and grammatical errors throughout the text. I just look past those and they don't bother me but I know that other people are big about that. I am sure that (since this was an ARC) the author will have editors look into those and fix the mistakes. I also think that, like I mentioned early, the story building at the beginning took a while. Not something I would change necessarily because I do think it was important to understand Adelyn but all the same, I wanted more, something, I guess and it wasn't there. It was there later though! I think that this would have been better as a multiple POV book. I really wanted to understand the other characters in The Ring more. Adelyn is always second guessing and that is part of why the romance in this book kind of slaps you in the face. It felt like it was added as secondary to the story at first and then at the end, it came to the forefront. This was possibly the authors intent but, I would have liked to have more interaction at the beginning that fostered the idea of that relationship more. I love the relationships in this book though! I loved that most of the characters were basically gender fluid. It was cool and added substance.
I can't wait to read more from this author and this series! It's going to be great!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. The viewpoints are my own and I take full credit for them.
At the beginning of the book (and this is going to sound severely honest and blunt), I didn't like it. I struggled through it until she meats with the love interest. Even after we meet him, I struggled a little bit. It got better by half way through though and I ended up really enjoying the book. I don't hand out 4/5's to books I wouldn't recommend to someone else by the way. I do in fact recommend this series and I believe book 2 will be 1000% better now that the story has wings. I fully expect the second book to be a 5/5. I have questions and I want them answered. I think that is the best part, the story was interesting enough that I truly do want the answers to my questions and I don't want to wait for them. I wish I didn't have to.
Things that I thought could be improved - their are typos and grammatical errors throughout the text. I just look past those and they don't bother me but I know that other people are big about that. I am sure that (since this was an ARC) the author will have editors look into those and fix the mistakes. I also think that, like I mentioned early, the story building at the beginning took a while. Not something I would change necessarily because I do think it was important to understand Adelyn but all the same, I wanted more, something, I guess and it wasn't there. It was there later though! I think that this would have been better as a multiple POV book. I really wanted to understand the other characters in The Ring more. Adelyn is always second guessing and that is part of why the romance in this book kind of slaps you in the face. It felt like it was added as secondary to the story at first and then at the end, it came to the forefront. This was possibly the authors intent but, I would have liked to have more interaction at the beginning that fostered the idea of that relationship more. I love the relationships in this book though! I loved that most of the characters were basically gender fluid. It was cool and added substance.
I can't wait to read more from this author and this series! It's going to be great!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. The viewpoints are my own and I take full credit for them.
May 6, 2022
What a read!
Adelyn and Rohn are the princess and prince of their respective and warring nations. This seemingly makes them enemies but a chance meeting changes the course of an impending war and also changes their assumptions of one another.
I’m always the most happy when a fantasy book gives me adventure, a diverse plot, romance and an interesting magic system! This book definitely delivered on all those fronts.
The found family trope was also included and I adored that. Adelyn, Rohn, Ell, Ven and Asa would do anything for each other and it gave me alll the wholesome feels.
I loved these characters and their roles and relationships with each other, it definitely added to this book and made it all the more enjoyable to read.
This book not only had lgbt+ representation, it also highlighted neurodivergent disorders such as autism with the character Ell and I loved the inclusivity of it all! Mental illnesses like intense anxiety and depression were also discussed a bit with regard to the main characters. Seeing these sorts of characters with real life issues in a fantasy setting felt like a breath of fresh air. No one is perfect in real life and seeing this emulated in a fantasy book was amazing.
I loved the slow build of the romance between Rohn and Adelyn, they know that they have duties to their kingdoms and finding the balance between responsibility and what they both want was definitely prevalent within the book. Their relationship happened organically and didn’t feel rushed and I loved how Rohn definitely had to choose himself at one point in starting a relationship with Adelyn
There were a few grammatical errors and I also wished the magic system was explained a little more but regardless, these didn’t take away from the read.
With the ending, I’m super excited to see where the next book takes these characters! The author definitely created an interesting and promising world to explore. I definitely look forward to seeing Adelyn grow into herself and her role as well as the development of her relationship with Rohn.
I received a free ARC of this book through BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Adelyn and Rohn are the princess and prince of their respective and warring nations. This seemingly makes them enemies but a chance meeting changes the course of an impending war and also changes their assumptions of one another.
I’m always the most happy when a fantasy book gives me adventure, a diverse plot, romance and an interesting magic system! This book definitely delivered on all those fronts.
The found family trope was also included and I adored that. Adelyn, Rohn, Ell, Ven and Asa would do anything for each other and it gave me alll the wholesome feels.
I loved these characters and their roles and relationships with each other, it definitely added to this book and made it all the more enjoyable to read.
This book not only had lgbt+ representation, it also highlighted neurodivergent disorders such as autism with the character Ell and I loved the inclusivity of it all! Mental illnesses like intense anxiety and depression were also discussed a bit with regard to the main characters. Seeing these sorts of characters with real life issues in a fantasy setting felt like a breath of fresh air. No one is perfect in real life and seeing this emulated in a fantasy book was amazing.
I loved the slow build of the romance between Rohn and Adelyn, they know that they have duties to their kingdoms and finding the balance between responsibility and what they both want was definitely prevalent within the book. Their relationship happened organically and didn’t feel rushed and I loved how Rohn definitely had to choose himself at one point in starting a relationship with Adelyn
There were a few grammatical errors and I also wished the magic system was explained a little more but regardless, these didn’t take away from the read.
With the ending, I’m super excited to see where the next book takes these characters! The author definitely created an interesting and promising world to explore. I definitely look forward to seeing Adelyn grow into herself and her role as well as the development of her relationship with Rohn.
I received a free ARC of this book through BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 10, 2022
The Courts of Fate and Fear by Elizabeth S. Trafalgar was such a brilliant book!
Adelyn is a princess of a magical kingdom, with no magic. As such, she is the outsider and treated horribly and even pushed out of her home due to it. She has to go on a journey to find the seer, who is a mythical creature that hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years, and train with her to gain her powers. She’s completely untrained in protecting herself and being outside of the kingdom, so, good luck with that.
I loved how there was so much reality and sociological problems we face in our world, intertwined within this world. Things like mental health disorders were mixed with magic and became essentially a superpower rather than a hindrance. That is something people can utilize to start shifting their perspectives of others.
In addition to the themes of cognitions, there was also identity, fitting in, finding yourself in a sea of criticism telling you you’re worthless because you don’t conform. It also dealt with the idea of positive vs negative reinforcement and how it can shape or misshapen a person. Stepping into your own power and being authentically yourself. Thank you Elizabeth for the creative way to speak on things we see all of the time, yet tend to ignore.
I’m so ready for book 2, The Courts of Hope and Heartache! Elizabeth set up the sequel with ease. It kind of reminded me of the end of season 1 of Avatar Last Air Bender when Azula appeared for the first time. Any lingering questions were all answered prior to closing the book and I’m sure it will continue in the next. I can’t wait to read it!
I’d recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good hero’s journey, fantasy, and a bit of romance.
*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of The Courts of Fate and Fear from Elizabeth S. Trafalgar via BookSirens.
Adelyn is a princess of a magical kingdom, with no magic. As such, she is the outsider and treated horribly and even pushed out of her home due to it. She has to go on a journey to find the seer, who is a mythical creature that hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years, and train with her to gain her powers. She’s completely untrained in protecting herself and being outside of the kingdom, so, good luck with that.
I loved how there was so much reality and sociological problems we face in our world, intertwined within this world. Things like mental health disorders were mixed with magic and became essentially a superpower rather than a hindrance. That is something people can utilize to start shifting their perspectives of others.
In addition to the themes of cognitions, there was also identity, fitting in, finding yourself in a sea of criticism telling you you’re worthless because you don’t conform. It also dealt with the idea of positive vs negative reinforcement and how it can shape or misshapen a person. Stepping into your own power and being authentically yourself. Thank you Elizabeth for the creative way to speak on things we see all of the time, yet tend to ignore.
I’m so ready for book 2, The Courts of Hope and Heartache! Elizabeth set up the sequel with ease. It kind of reminded me of the end of season 1 of Avatar Last Air Bender when Azula appeared for the first time. Any lingering questions were all answered prior to closing the book and I’m sure it will continue in the next. I can’t wait to read it!
I’d recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good hero’s journey, fantasy, and a bit of romance.
*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of The Courts of Fate and Fear from Elizabeth S. Trafalgar via BookSirens.
July 25, 2022
I love this book.
(Unspecific and gentle spoiler warning)
Guilty pleasure sorta book. This is not a book that will shake the literary world, there were actually a few editing errors in the copy I had (don't know if they have been corrected since then). Some of the narrative is simple and the politics are two dimensional. None of that is important.
For me, this book does everything right. The baddies are sufficiently bad, but complicated enough to understand. The good guys are good because they are just nice people, humble, approachable, and kind. The world is deep, rich, and believable. There is commerce, logistics issues, friendships and social pressures, hurt feelings and friendly jibes. It's a world this lives and is populated by people (and animals) with lives, and needs, and garbage, people who sweat.
I LOVE the magic. It's not box standard 'I cast fireball' sort of stuff. It varies, and her description of the process, effort, feeling, and effect is brilliant.
I LOVE the casual bisexuality, which came as a surprise for me (and is the reason for the spoiler warning). It was so refreshing, not just to see it included, but that no one in the story thinks it's in anyway unusual. It's not noted, it's not grudgingly accepted, its a normal, reasonable, and actually expected behavior. I might have wept.
The POV character grows in perspective, as well as physically, mentally, and emotionally, and you learn and grow with her, fall in love beside her, and suffer when she does.
Also, you can see the threads for the second book being woven into the story, without it being unfinished and wholly unsatisfactory, like some books.
I read it, more or less, in one sitting, and have the worst book hangover I've had since I read the last Discworld book. There is a second book coming, and I can't wait.
I received a free copy of this book through Voracious Readers Only.
(Unspecific and gentle spoiler warning)
Guilty pleasure sorta book. This is not a book that will shake the literary world, there were actually a few editing errors in the copy I had (don't know if they have been corrected since then). Some of the narrative is simple and the politics are two dimensional. None of that is important.
For me, this book does everything right. The baddies are sufficiently bad, but complicated enough to understand. The good guys are good because they are just nice people, humble, approachable, and kind. The world is deep, rich, and believable. There is commerce, logistics issues, friendships and social pressures, hurt feelings and friendly jibes. It's a world this lives and is populated by people (and animals) with lives, and needs, and garbage, people who sweat.
I LOVE the magic. It's not box standard 'I cast fireball' sort of stuff. It varies, and her description of the process, effort, feeling, and effect is brilliant.
I LOVE the casual bisexuality, which came as a surprise for me (and is the reason for the spoiler warning). It was so refreshing, not just to see it included, but that no one in the story thinks it's in anyway unusual. It's not noted, it's not grudgingly accepted, its a normal, reasonable, and actually expected behavior. I might have wept.
The POV character grows in perspective, as well as physically, mentally, and emotionally, and you learn and grow with her, fall in love beside her, and suffer when she does.
Also, you can see the threads for the second book being woven into the story, without it being unfinished and wholly unsatisfactory, like some books.
I read it, more or less, in one sitting, and have the worst book hangover I've had since I read the last Discworld book. There is a second book coming, and I can't wait.
I received a free copy of this book through Voracious Readers Only.
May 9, 2022
The Courts of Fate and Fear, a Teen-YA novel, is the first in the Fate and Fear series. All I can say is AMAZING!! We start with Adelyn, a princess of Sertra, who is the only one in her family without magic. Under normal circumstances, we’d think this was okay, but in her world, it is like a curse. She is sent on a mission from her father, to go find the seer, who has not been seen for hundreds of years. Once she is found, she is to train with them and learn how to access her powers. So, completely unprepared, she goes off to face her journey.
I really loved this novel!! From the start, I was pulled into Adelyn's world and felt for her. It’s tough being the odd one out and additionally being hated for it. We’ve all seen it in society, the groups that don’t quite fit in with everyone else, but want to so they feel like they have a space and purpose. This is the root of Adelyn. She’s a strong, powerful, and caring heroine who went through a lot just to find herself.
When a writer can portray themes so clearly while not being straight forward and in your face, it’s the perfect balance. Elizabeth did just that with this beautiful story.
There was constantly something happening which kept me totally engaged. I wanted to continue to find out what’s next. When a story starts to suddenly slow down, so do I and this did no such thing. It was nice seeing the shift in Adelyn’s world, some expected and others totally unexpected.
I’d recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good hero’s journey, fantasy, and a bit of romance. The Book Dragon awards this 5 stars.
Eunhye Necee
Official Reviewer
The Book Dragon
https://www.thebookdragon.co.uk/
I really loved this novel!! From the start, I was pulled into Adelyn's world and felt for her. It’s tough being the odd one out and additionally being hated for it. We’ve all seen it in society, the groups that don’t quite fit in with everyone else, but want to so they feel like they have a space and purpose. This is the root of Adelyn. She’s a strong, powerful, and caring heroine who went through a lot just to find herself.
When a writer can portray themes so clearly while not being straight forward and in your face, it’s the perfect balance. Elizabeth did just that with this beautiful story.
There was constantly something happening which kept me totally engaged. I wanted to continue to find out what’s next. When a story starts to suddenly slow down, so do I and this did no such thing. It was nice seeing the shift in Adelyn’s world, some expected and others totally unexpected.
I’d recommend this novel to anyone who loves a good hero’s journey, fantasy, and a bit of romance. The Book Dragon awards this 5 stars.
Eunhye Necee
Official Reviewer
The Book Dragon
https://www.thebookdragon.co.uk/
June 13, 2022
[ 𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 ]
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙗𝙮 𝙀𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙝 𝙎.𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙜𝙖𝙧 🥀
(★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ )
.
𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 : 𝘈𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘺𝘯 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘳 & 𝘙𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘢
𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦 : 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺
𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦 : 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦
.
🥀 Adelyn, Princess of Sertra has no power of magic. Without power, she can't have power of foreseeing the future as in the form of visions. According to Adrielle (younger sister of Adelyn), Kingdom Lithya was going to attack Sertra. As Adelyn doesn't possess any powers, her father sends her on a quest to find Seer (a mythical being) to learn how to produce visions. While going through the wilds, assassins attack Adelyn and the four men with her. But she escapes and somehow ends up in a sewer that connects to a house of Lithyan Prince, Rohn. What would happen to her when she entered into an enemy territory? If the enemy country is hospitable, is she going to betray her own country?
.
💭 This story was captivating from the beginning. I really enjoyed it throughout the read and there was quite a suspense maintained in it. I certainly felt some elements were missing like chemistry between Rohn and Adelyn, also there was no romance between them (I get it, they're on the brink of war) there was a little smut in this.
.
💭 I didn't knew why Adrielle's visions stopped in the midway or why Adelyn couldn't produce visions, mayhe the second book will answer it (I hope so). So why 3 stars? It's due to lack of chemistry between MCs & not enough information about magic or powers of characters. And there was gore, a lot of it.
.
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 @𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝙰𝚁𝙲.
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙗𝙮 𝙀𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙝 𝙎.𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙜𝙖𝙧 🥀
(★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ )
.
𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 : 𝘈𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘺𝘯 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘳 & 𝘙𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘢
𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦 : 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺
𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦 : 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦
.
🥀 Adelyn, Princess of Sertra has no power of magic. Without power, she can't have power of foreseeing the future as in the form of visions. According to Adrielle (younger sister of Adelyn), Kingdom Lithya was going to attack Sertra. As Adelyn doesn't possess any powers, her father sends her on a quest to find Seer (a mythical being) to learn how to produce visions. While going through the wilds, assassins attack Adelyn and the four men with her. But she escapes and somehow ends up in a sewer that connects to a house of Lithyan Prince, Rohn. What would happen to her when she entered into an enemy territory? If the enemy country is hospitable, is she going to betray her own country?
.
💭 This story was captivating from the beginning. I really enjoyed it throughout the read and there was quite a suspense maintained in it. I certainly felt some elements were missing like chemistry between Rohn and Adelyn, also there was no romance between them (I get it, they're on the brink of war) there was a little smut in this.
.
💭 I didn't knew why Adrielle's visions stopped in the midway or why Adelyn couldn't produce visions, mayhe the second book will answer it (I hope so). So why 3 stars? It's due to lack of chemistry between MCs & not enough information about magic or powers of characters. And there was gore, a lot of it.
.
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 @𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝙰𝚁𝙲.
June 19, 2022
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
For disclaimer, this book has: enemy to lovers, found family and family drama tropes.
I found the concept of this book and its takes on magic are interesting. The world-building and heroine character introduction is a slow-paced one, but it's understandable to get where and what happened next. Though I find it quite boring at the first quarter part, the moment the heroine meets the other characters is the moment I started hooking up to this book.
I love all the characters, they all interesting and I can sense their closeness towards each others/in their circle of friends. I also love the main character and the love interest. There's so much more to dig at them! Though I found it's a little bit confusing because in my opinion, their interaction is still not enough and their connection is a little bit vague for me. Tbh, I'm more interested in Equen when he was introduced later. Overall, I like it, but there's some things that kinda missed to me:
1. How the Lithyans Royal Family can trust and easily their supposed enemy of daughter instantly without any suspicion (Though it explained by their magic later, but I found it odd)
2. I wish there would be more interaction between Adelyn and Rhon. I thought it would be more interesting to get the narratives between them and not just being explained or told by their friends, because so far we only get Adelyn's monologue and second-guessing.
The cliffhanger at the end of this book literally made me want to read the second one ASAP!
For disclaimer, this book has: enemy to lovers, found family and family drama tropes.
I found the concept of this book and its takes on magic are interesting. The world-building and heroine character introduction is a slow-paced one, but it's understandable to get where and what happened next. Though I find it quite boring at the first quarter part, the moment the heroine meets the other characters is the moment I started hooking up to this book.
I love all the characters, they all interesting and I can sense their closeness towards each others/in their circle of friends. I also love the main character and the love interest. There's so much more to dig at them! Though I found it's a little bit confusing because in my opinion, their interaction is still not enough and their connection is a little bit vague for me. Tbh, I'm more interested in Equen when he was introduced later. Overall, I like it, but there's some things that kinda missed to me:
1. How the Lithyans Royal Family can trust and easily their supposed enemy of daughter instantly without any suspicion (Though it explained by their magic later, but I found it odd)
2. I wish there would be more interaction between Adelyn and Rhon. I thought it would be more interesting to get the narratives between them and not just being explained or told by their friends, because so far we only get Adelyn's monologue and second-guessing.
The cliffhanger at the end of this book literally made me want to read the second one ASAP!
June 6, 2022
Thank you to BookSirens for the free ARC I used for this review. All opinions are my own.
Another book in the same world as THE PRINCE OF MAGIC AND LIES, and I believe the one written first. While it's still a good read, especially in the latter half or so, it's fairly apparent that there are elements of Adelyn's plot that occur to characters in the latter book as well. If you do read in the same order I did, despite the two books being from different series, you'll probably find yourself wishing that the characters and the relationships between them had the same nuance. However, I can't really count it against an author for improving between one book and another; quite the contrary. However, as much as I raved about PRINCE, I would suggest you start with this series so you do see the improvements in a more positive way.
I personally think what kept this from being a real page turner for me was that there wasn't the sense of urgency there throughout. Though it does appear at the climax of the book, it ends rather abruptly, which may be less than satisfying for a lot of readers, especially if there's a wait between books.
That said, though, it's still a solid offering, and I still want to know what happens enough to read the next one--and hopefully she's just saving the really sexy character development for when the political intrigue gets saucier as well.
Another book in the same world as THE PRINCE OF MAGIC AND LIES, and I believe the one written first. While it's still a good read, especially in the latter half or so, it's fairly apparent that there are elements of Adelyn's plot that occur to characters in the latter book as well. If you do read in the same order I did, despite the two books being from different series, you'll probably find yourself wishing that the characters and the relationships between them had the same nuance. However, I can't really count it against an author for improving between one book and another; quite the contrary. However, as much as I raved about PRINCE, I would suggest you start with this series so you do see the improvements in a more positive way.
I personally think what kept this from being a real page turner for me was that there wasn't the sense of urgency there throughout. Though it does appear at the climax of the book, it ends rather abruptly, which may be less than satisfying for a lot of readers, especially if there's a wait between books.
That said, though, it's still a solid offering, and I still want to know what happens enough to read the next one--and hopefully she's just saving the really sexy character development for when the political intrigue gets saucier as well.
May 22, 2022
This was a great book and a huge thanks to the author for being so kind when we had trouble with emails!
l loved the characters and their developments. I really loved Ven and Asa and Elle. It was great to see Adelyn grow and I'm glad I was proven wrong when I thought I wouldn't liked her at the beginning which did seemed a little flat. It did got picked up when Adelyn met Rohn.
I loved the world building; it was easy to "see" and imagine it. And the powers seemed cool; hopefully we will get to see them more in the future.
Before seeing the sequel, I honestly thought it would be a standalone just because of the way how it ended but until I saw the epilogue, my view had been changed so I'm eager to see what will happen in the sequel! Also, something that caught my interest when Rohn was explaining what happened to Asa *spoilers beware* was how the poison stripped off Asa's powers. I wonder if that would somehow be incorporated into the next book. And I do slightly wish that Adelyn would have been in the battlefield but I still liked how the plot went regardless.
Regardless, this book was great!
l loved the characters and their developments. I really loved Ven and Asa and Elle. It was great to see Adelyn grow and I'm glad I was proven wrong when I thought I wouldn't liked her at the beginning which did seemed a little flat. It did got picked up when Adelyn met Rohn.
I loved the world building; it was easy to "see" and imagine it. And the powers seemed cool; hopefully we will get to see them more in the future.
Before seeing the sequel, I honestly thought it would be a standalone just because of the way how it ended but until I saw the epilogue, my view had been changed so I'm eager to see what will happen in the sequel! Also, something that caught my interest when Rohn was explaining what happened to Asa *spoilers beware* was how the poison stripped off Asa's powers. I wonder if that would somehow be incorporated into the next book. And I do slightly wish that Adelyn would have been in the battlefield but I still liked how the plot went regardless.
Regardless, this book was great!
July 3, 2022
In short, simple terms I think of this book as an uncomplicated fantasy that's easy to follow.
I thought this book was well written, had nice development and character growth. The world building was excellent and believable. My only criticisms (that are completely personal opinion) was that I really wasn't feeling the chemistry between Adelyn and Rohn. All of Rohn's friends and family knew that he liked Adelyn but I'm not sure why. Honestly, in the first half of the book they didn't even really seem to have many interactions and I didn't get a feel of instant love or anything. Yeah, Adelyn thought he was handsome right away, but that's all that was really described. I do feel like towards the second half of the book this improved, but for the first half I personally wasn't getting a sense of their romance or connection.
Overall, it's an easy read definitely worth the time. I thought it was nicely executed and I adore watching Adelyn's progress through the book. It felt realistic and organic.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I thought this book was well written, had nice development and character growth. The world building was excellent and believable. My only criticisms (that are completely personal opinion) was that I really wasn't feeling the chemistry between Adelyn and Rohn. All of Rohn's friends and family knew that he liked Adelyn but I'm not sure why. Honestly, in the first half of the book they didn't even really seem to have many interactions and I didn't get a feel of instant love or anything. Yeah, Adelyn thought he was handsome right away, but that's all that was really described. I do feel like towards the second half of the book this improved, but for the first half I personally wasn't getting a sense of their romance or connection.
Overall, it's an easy read definitely worth the time. I thought it was nicely executed and I adore watching Adelyn's progress through the book. It felt realistic and organic.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 20, 2022
***I was given this ARC by BookSirens, my review is my own thoughts on this book***
I really liked the characters Elizabeth created in her novel. From the first chapter I could see into Adelyn's family dinamics as well as her character.
The world building was great, it was vividly described and I could pictureit as I was reading. My only wish is that we could see more creatures from The Wilds. The ones she described, although briefly, left me wanting to see more.
Adelyn's transformation from a weak, insecure girl to a confident, capable young woman was well done and believable.
I love the rag tag team from this story. Almost every character who was supposed to be likeable ended up being likeable. The same that those who were more on the unsavory sort came up just like that. I could relate with the main character and that made the story work for me.
I was intrigued and immersed in this story. I would definitely continue with the next book.
Hats off to Elizabeth on this book.
I really liked the characters Elizabeth created in her novel. From the first chapter I could see into Adelyn's family dinamics as well as her character.
The world building was great, it was vividly described and I could pictureit as I was reading. My only wish is that we could see more creatures from The Wilds. The ones she described, although briefly, left me wanting to see more.
Adelyn's transformation from a weak, insecure girl to a confident, capable young woman was well done and believable.
I love the rag tag team from this story. Almost every character who was supposed to be likeable ended up being likeable. The same that those who were more on the unsavory sort came up just like that. I could relate with the main character and that made the story work for me.
I was intrigued and immersed in this story. I would definitely continue with the next book.
Hats off to Elizabeth on this book.
June 10, 2022
** I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily **
When I read the summary for this book, I knew instantly it was right up my alley and that I was going to love it. I was right, the story didn't disappoint ; I was immediately hooked by the characters and by Adelyn!! She's a strong and intelligent protagonist, even though she can't have visions or access her magic yet 🔮 I really enjoyed that the book was from her POV and being able to see her grow as the story unfolded. This book is full of things that I love to see in fantasy : adventure, friendship, love, magic, plot twist/betrayal, and it had no moment that was dull or slow!! ✨
I always love the beginning of a good romance, the tension between the characters, especially if it's an enemies-to-lovers trope. And OMG that this book really hit the spot for me with this 😍😏🔥 with a bit of spice added, it was the perfect balance!!
Overall I really, really had a good time reading this fantasy adventure and it gave me all the feels!! I just need book 2 in my hands right now, haha 😆😄
When I read the summary for this book, I knew instantly it was right up my alley and that I was going to love it. I was right, the story didn't disappoint ; I was immediately hooked by the characters and by Adelyn!! She's a strong and intelligent protagonist, even though she can't have visions or access her magic yet 🔮 I really enjoyed that the book was from her POV and being able to see her grow as the story unfolded. This book is full of things that I love to see in fantasy : adventure, friendship, love, magic, plot twist/betrayal, and it had no moment that was dull or slow!! ✨
I always love the beginning of a good romance, the tension between the characters, especially if it's an enemies-to-lovers trope. And OMG that this book really hit the spot for me with this 😍😏🔥 with a bit of spice added, it was the perfect balance!!
Overall I really, really had a good time reading this fantasy adventure and it gave me all the feels!! I just need book 2 in my hands right now, haha 😆😄
May 2, 2022
I love a good medieval fantasy novel. Give me badass princesses, clever magic and insurmountable quests, and I will lap it up in a single sitting. There’s something really satisfying about picking up a book you know you’ll love.
After reading the ACOTR series and then being disappointed with the Crescent City series, I was on the hunt for a book/series just as satisfying as ACOTR. This book totally fit the bill, I can’t wait for book two to read what happens next!
TCoFAF is told in first person, past tense, single POV. This, coupled with Adelyn’s voice, made it feel like she and I were sitting fire side, sharing a cup of tea, while she regaled me with her life’s tale. The novel as a whole is very well written and paced, and explores some of my favorite tropes without feeling stale. There’s also some spicy love scenes ;)
If you’re a fan of Sarah J Maas, medieval fantasy, political intrigue, and enemies to lovers, you will love this book!
After reading the ACOTR series and then being disappointed with the Crescent City series, I was on the hunt for a book/series just as satisfying as ACOTR. This book totally fit the bill, I can’t wait for book two to read what happens next!
TCoFAF is told in first person, past tense, single POV. This, coupled with Adelyn’s voice, made it feel like she and I were sitting fire side, sharing a cup of tea, while she regaled me with her life’s tale. The novel as a whole is very well written and paced, and explores some of my favorite tropes without feeling stale. There’s also some spicy love scenes ;)
If you’re a fan of Sarah J Maas, medieval fantasy, political intrigue, and enemies to lovers, you will love this book!
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