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A review by bookish_clara
The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
The Courting of Bristol Keats is the first book of a duology and the authors first adult fantasy set in a world of Elfhalme with deadly faerie curses, dangerous secrets and a forbidden romance. I am such a fan of Mary E. Pearsons writing and storytelling so while this did take a few chapters to fully get into especially where the worldbuilding was concerned I ended up really enjoying it.
It is a book that has one main thing for the beginning and the ending: Sacrifice. At the start Bristol sacrifices to protect her sisters and provide safety for them making a deal to help in Elfhalme. At the end it’s about the sacrifices for the truth and how much she is willing to give up. The more she learns and realises that maybe she never really knew the whole story concerning her parents and that there is always two sides to a narrative.
The story is expansive and we follow along with Bristol as the author delivers the worldbuilding in detail, filled with every creature you could possibly find in a world like Elfhalme added in with a mixture of complex characters who as a reader along with Bristol are trying to figure out who we can trust and who has an hidden agenda for themselves.
The romance is very slowly built throughout the story with all the tension, angst and banter and delivers with some beautiful scenes between our two traumatised characters Bristol and Tyghan that also leads to some very spicy moments.
While it does take a little while to fully get into the story and some moments are a little slow paced especially in the middle and the change in POVs weren’t very clear and confusing at times. I still found myself enjoying the overall story as it brings a refreshing take on faeriand but it does end on a rather abrupt moment of a scene that is told from a side characters POV and I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this as it makes it feel like book two is needed immediately to find out what happens next.
If your looking for a refreshing take on a world of faerie land then I would recommend giving this a go but please be aware this is an adult fantasy and there are scenes of a darker element and descriptive sexual content.
It is a book that has one main thing for the beginning and the ending: Sacrifice. At the start Bristol sacrifices to protect her sisters and provide safety for them making a deal to help in Elfhalme. At the end it’s about the sacrifices for the truth and how much she is willing to give up. The more she learns and realises that maybe she never really knew the whole story concerning her parents and that there is always two sides to a narrative.
The story is expansive and we follow along with Bristol as the author delivers the worldbuilding in detail, filled with every creature you could possibly find in a world like Elfhalme added in with a mixture of complex characters who as a reader along with Bristol are trying to figure out who we can trust and who has an hidden agenda for themselves.
The romance is very slowly built throughout the story with all the tension, angst and banter and delivers with some beautiful scenes between our two traumatised characters Bristol and Tyghan that also leads to some very spicy moments.
While it does take a little while to fully get into the story and some moments are a little slow paced especially in the middle and the change in POVs weren’t very clear and confusing at times. I still found myself enjoying the overall story as it brings a refreshing take on faeriand but it does end on a rather abrupt moment of a scene that is told from a side characters POV and I’m still trying to decide how I feel about this as it makes it feel like book two is needed immediately to find out what happens next.
If your looking for a refreshing take on a world of faerie land then I would recommend giving this a go but please be aware this is an adult fantasy and there are scenes of a darker element and descriptive sexual content.