A Fragile Enchantment

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A Fragile Enchantment is my first foray into Allison Saft's work. A Far Wilder Magic has been on my TBR for what feels like forever – maybe now that I've dipped my toes into the water, so to speak, I'll finally get around to reading that book. BUT REGARDLESS – I really enjoyed A Fragile Enchantment. It felt very low stakes throughout the whole book, which is exactly what I needed. I've been having a hard time reading anything lately – the world is awful, I have a toddler, I'm pregnant with baby #2 – there's a lot going on. But A Fragile Enchantment hit at just the right time for me. It's relatively easy to follow, written very simply without being boring, and has characters that make you feel for them.

All in all, it's a great read for anyone looking for an entry level fantasy romance. The spice level is almost nonexistent, but there are two scenes where something gets started, but we don't really see all the way to the end. It's a mostly fade to black, basically. Not my PREFERRED type of romance, but the rest of the story made up for that particular lack.

This seems to be based on the Irish potato famine, and Britain's involvement in it. It's all in a different world, but the way things are described, and the placeholder country names definitely seem to point this way.

Niamh is our main character (you pronounce this name as Neev) and honestly? She's okay. She just kinda blends into the background a lot of the time. Her personality is mostly ‘clumsy' and ‘interfering'. But you do grow to like her as the book goes on. Her love interest is Kit, a scandalous prince. This is mostly enemies to lovers. Or Dislike to Lovers, I should say. They aren't really enemies, ever. Kit's just an asshole for a good part of the book until you realize he's hiding some trauma.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. I think it will do well, but I can see parts where people are going to complain. But for me, this is a solid four stars!