The Absinthe Underground

This was a sweet and really good book and I'm not mad that it's friends to lovers! I have to either really like the author or the trope has to be done well (to like the trope/book) – luckily both applied here! What I like most about Pacton's books are her characters. She writes them so well you can tell she loves them and had fun writing their journey. That makes it easier for me to like the characters. They're also easy to love! Well, most of the time. With The Vermillion Emporium I took a while to start liking the characters. With this book I almost instantly loved Sybil and Esme. They had fun personalities and they worked well with each other. You could tell they were real friends and not just friends because they roomed together.

I loved how easy it was to believe they're friends and then when that changed to romance that too was very easy to believe. I definitely rooted for them to be together long before they actually were and that is... rare with friends to lovers because I don't like how the trope seems to set up the idea that you can't really have friends. That you're bound to have crushes on them and that'll ruin the friendship. Although, most of the books I've read that have that trope are m/f relationships so maybe that's the problem/solution (solution being don't read m/f friends to lovers haha).

The descriptions absolutely made me feel like I was in the book and there's nothing more that I like when that happens. It's something I hope that could happen in all books but unfortunately that isn't the case. Pacton, however, is always so amazing with that so it's easy to feel like I'm in the novel. I wanted to spend more time in this book – in either realm – so I was sad when the book ended! Pacton certainly doesn't slack when it comes to her plots. It's always well-written and I wasn't bored while reading (always a pleasure when I have that). Plus the descriptions really just added to the plot, elevated them to a point where (at least I felt like) you couldn't not be entranced by the book.

I've really begun to like Parker's narration! I definitely want to see what else she's done (I already have my eye on a reread of Alison Cochrun's newest release – peep that review soon I hope). I love how you can tell that she's passionate about the characters and the story. Even sped up it's clear to me, which I love and that's what I look for in audiobook narrators. I want to hear you're enjoying it and it's not just a job for you (looking at you dude who does Game of Thrones audiobooks).

I cannot believe that I, a romance disliker, actually enjoyed a Romantasy.

I loved this little book sm and will definitely get it physical once it's out! It's a quick read so I flew through it.

It's a shame that, because of the way this Arc is formated, some parts of texts where just...deleted tho which made some parts a little confusing