Genre: Magic

Falling somewhere in the area between being creatively genius vs a festivity-induced fever dream, The Nightmare Before Kissmas is light-hearted and cute dramedy that hits all the right beats one would expect for a holiday romance novel. Personifying popular holidays as magically inclined individuals reminiscent of Rise of the Guardians paired with the familial expectations and burdens of royalty akin to Casy McQuiston’s Red White and Royal Blue, the Nightmare Before Kissmas is constantly a lot of fun and a feel-good escapism read. And while it’s frequently cheesy and often tap dances on the line between being endearing and cringy, the plot is solid, featuring surprisingly ambitious commentary on the materialism and purpose of holidays as well as holiday politics in this fantasy-leaning version of the world. Despite initially being a bit of a box office bomb, the 2012 animated film Rise of the Guardians and its source material The Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce have since become sleeper hits thanks to the creative and charming way they personified popular holidays as magical beings and culture associated with said holidays. The Nightmare Before Kissmas features a lot of similar concepts but utilizes them for an adult romantic dramedy…

Necromancers, cavaliers, copious amounts of magic and challenges, oh my! Tamsyn Muir’s debut novel and the start of her Locked Tomb series, on paper Gideon has everything going for it. While featuring many hallmark elements of fantasy epics such as an emperor with numerical houses/factions, pseudo magician + knight pairings, and an unknown challenge for representatives to ascend to the “Lyctor” status, Gideon the Ninth separates itself from the rest of its genre firstly by setting the series not in the traditional fantasy-realm past, but instead in an interstellar futuristic expanse. Secondly, this novel’s reputation featuring “lesbian necromancers” proceeds itself and has that instant hook for booktok and social media recognition (though important to note, while having a wandering queer eye, this is not a romantasy novel). While technically being classified as fantasy and sci-fi, Gideon’s second half functions more as a whodunnit survival thriller meshed with dark academia elements and is very compelling when Muir gets it just right. Unfortunately, despite the ambitious plotting and creative ideas found throughout the story, Gideon the Ninth is held back by a few but very notable flaws with its approach to storytelling as well as its confusingly vague and messy world-building. Additionally,…

Normally I start reviews with a brief recap and overall impressions before getting into my general thoughts and impressions, but you have to be living under a rock to be unfamiliar with Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series’ first novel Fourth Wing. Also, quite a few of my book friends have been dying for me to read this series and to hear my thoughts on it. Having heard very mixed receptions and reviews for the series (Iron Flame in particular being the most polarizing) and being a fairly inexperienced romantasy reader, I went in preparing myself to be disappointed. While I did find myself agreeing with many of the common criticisms highlighted in other far more detailed reviews for the book, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the ambition and generally great plotting of the story (apart from when the story goes a bit astray at the two thirds mark). If there’s one thing that’s consistent in Fourth Wing, its the entertainment value and accessibility of the story for all sorts of readers, romance and fantasy alike. An early note I had written down said “Sure I can critique and nitpick the book and call out its lack of details and world-building,…

Desert dystopia, war-waging fae courts, hordes of the undead, metal-crafting and a dark, snippy otherworldly savior, Callie Hart incorporates a lot of appealing elements from all-across the fantasy genre and melts them together into the romantasy epic Quicksilver. Featuring a strong-willed and resourceful FMC cast into a magical multi-dimensional and vast world, there’s a lot to like in Quicksilver and the intertwined fates of its main characters paired with steamy scenes feel directly catered to what most romantasy readers are looking for. Unfortunately despite being full of ambition, demonstrated through its overarching plot, the actual execution of its various fantasy elements doesn’t feel connected and at times, the rules of magic and world-building to be quite wild and unhinged. With less than graceful transitions between its fantasy and romance scenes and near incoherent magic rules towards the end of the story, Quicksilver was unfortunately a miss and an overhyped booktok influencer pick for me. Depending on how you look at it, Quicksilver can either feel like a nod to many popular fantasy books that came before it, or a manic combination of everything trendy thrown together haphazardly. Taking the romance element out of the equation temporarily, the fantasy-filled story of…

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a curious case of a lot of great ideas implemented in a slow and laborious manner. Incorporating aspects of historical fiction, fantasy, light romance and folklore, the elements were there for what many positive reviewers have describe as a cozy and enchanting read. Unfortunately the narrative and tone was not for me and I alternated between struggling to stay interested in the story and being baffled at seemingly random lurches in unexpected directions. The main highlight for me and the area Heather Fawcett was consistently strong in was the folklore aspect layered into the story. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is full of lengthy and detailed stories told by the villagers of Hrafnsvik, encounters with the Fair folk, and even recapped from Emily’s own research. These stories placed in self-contained chapters are often longer than non-folklore chapters given that the story is presented via Emily’s written journal, some entries being extremely short and uneventful. These stories all have some sort of theme that connects to whatever Emily is experiencing at the time, and the imaginative quality of these tales often surpasses the novel’s actual story itself (like modern Grimm fairy tales). The interest within…