Reviews with content warning for Blood - Mortal Follies

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

just_one_more_paige's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I believe I'm on a journey to slowly read through all of Alexis Hall's books - or at the very least all the ones that I can get access to through my US-based library system. I'd been looking forward to this one since pre-publication (that cover!, the witchy-fae vibes, the sapphic historical - regency, victorian, idk? - romance...all in all, yes please).

When suspiciously magical and not particularly enviable things start happening to Maelys Mitchelmore, like a dress unravelling as she's wearing it to an evening party and dessert turning to maggots in her mouth, her best friend, Miss Bickle, suggests that perhaps the cause is...supernatural. With very few alternate explanations, and no direct experience dealing with curses themselves, they turn to "less desirable" persons for help. In particular, the Duke of Annadale (the Lady Georgianna), reputed to be a witch because her family all died quickly and conveniently left her heir to a very large fortune. But as the women work together to find out more and break the curse on Miss Mitchelmore, they find out that perhaps the Duke of Annadale is unfairly accused. And in the process of facing down terrible magic and angered deities and all manner of other not-fit-for-ladies situations, Maelys and Georgianna must also face down their own feelings for each other.

If I'm being honest, this was a *little bit* of a mixed bag for me. First, the good stuff. Starting with the Prologue, and rolling all the way through the Acknowledgements and Author Bio, this is absolutely and without a doubt the most uniquely narrated book I’ve ever read. Robin, our disgraced and exiled hobgoblin narrator, was straight up hilarious and observationally sarcastic, but in a fantastically unreal/magical sort of perspective. Hall really took his normal (high quality) smart, sarcastic writing tone and stepped it up to an 11 here. #iykyk If I'm being honest, it was a lot. Like if you start reading this and the narration isn't for you, go ahead and stop. It doesn't let up. Personally, I thought it was great; the perfect type of eccentric. Plus, the combination of Hall's normal phenomenal banter, added to the pomp and properness of the historical language, made for fantastic dialogue all the way through. I also loved the creativity in all the forms the Robin takes while staying on the trail of this unfolding and dramatic story of love and magic and revenge: dust mites, candle flames, smoke wisps, mouse, a bird, etc. That was one of my favorite little details.

My biggest issue, and really the primary (and possibly only) reason for my lukewarm-ish response, is that I just never really bought into the relationship between Maelys and Georgianna. And to head off any misinterpretation, no, it is not because it was more "fade to black" than I would have liked nor because of the more straight-laced-ness of the time period it's set in. Hall met (and exceeded) my expectations on both those fronts with A Lady for a Duke. I just never really got invested in them ending up together. I think there's a chance it was related to the narrator, who (as I've said) was entertaining AF, but that style of story-telling kept the characters themselves at a bit of a distance from the reader, so I never got as emotionally invested in the outcome as I would have wanted. Also, and this is more of a me thing, the vibes from both were not really my style. I was much more here for Miss Bickle, tbh. The whimsicality and flightiness of her character is one of my favorite kinds to read. It's just so light and fun, which is perfect for what this novel was. And I do love that that same trait of loving the magical and fairy tale-based, that was generally just tolerated like one would for a child, ended up being instrumental to the HEA...don’t knock something just because it isn’t immediately important to you!

But anyways, the point I was making is that the adventure and curse-breaking and general entertainment level of this novel were great, but the romance, a fairly central aspect, never grabbed me. I think I would have been happier with a general tale of historical, slightly off-kilter (by societal standards), leading ladies taking on those magical adventures and melodramatic curse-breaking. Take from that what you will. But, just know that I still stan Hall's writing and recommend this one if it sounds like your vibes.

“I have a fondness for scenes of mortal misadventure, especially those that befall preposterously…”

“…I’ve always found strangers rather fascinating. They have such a wonderful habit of turning out to be beautiful, unexpected, deadly things.”

“I suppose that depends on what you think a witch to be. It might be better to say that I have needed, over the years, to learn a number of things about the world that other people seldom need to learn.”

“Gods are, in many ways, like sharks and, in many more ways, like cats. They are drawn to blood, and love to toy with the wounded.”

“…for her own part, was rather less sure. But it was, she was finding, a sweet unsureness. An uncertainty grounded in the hope of better, rather than the fear of worse. And that, she allowed herself to believe, made it worth pursuing.”

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not my favorite of Alexis Hall's books, but this was still a fun time! I enjoyed the overall format of the book, and the inclusion of the fantasy/magical elements along with the romance. If you enjoy authors like Freya Marske, you'll definitely enjoy this book!

The romance at the core of this story definitely takes center stage, and I loved how it evolved throughout the book around all of these different curses and such. The pacing of the book does get a little weird by the end, but since we have a narrator telling us this story, she actually acknowledges that. Which I actually found to be fun!

If you like historical fantasy romance, this is definitely the book for you. Plus, it has an absolutely gorgeous cover!

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ladythana's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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jencolumb0's review

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adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This is a bit darker of a tale than I am used to from Hall, and without the more intense periods of emotional struggle/growth endured by the main characters (so more on par with Something Fabulous). Nonetheless, Hall carries it off in their typical hallmarks of deliciously layered tales, classical references, delightful subversion, and deft honesty. It’s also not the typical kissing book with magic, by any stretch of the imagination, but well worth exploring.

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hrtlss_grl's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This is such a weird romance but it suits me so perfectly. I really enjoyed the story itself and the blending of regency and fantasy, but honestly my favorite part was Puck. It's such a fun device that adds a lot of comedy and also watching them actually grow to care about them when they are supposed to be objective was really fun. I think without it some of the characters could be thin but since it's coming from a third person POV that doesn't really get humans it works. I had a lot of fun and would love to see more of this.

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atlastheninth's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5 Stars

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall is a romance between two young ladies in the 19th century, but wicked men, curses and goddesses are standing in their way.

The story is told from a (sarcastic) hobgoblin who is observing our MCs secretly, which is fun and inventive, especially in the begging. But it did feel tedious after a while.

The story was fun, the characters were more or less cute (I don’t think I can describe them any differently, really) and the writing was fine.

But because the story is being told from this (non-human) outsider POV, I just couldn’t connect to the characters at all. I could only really guess what they were thinking, let alone feeling. And from what they were described as doing, they all seemed to be a bit stupid frankly.

It was all just very shallow.

The book has this kind of 4 part structure where the first half of the book felt like your average book: characters are introduced, things happen, climax, end. And then there is another quarter of just romance and another quarter of again things happen, climax, end. That did irritate me a bit while reading, but looking back I suppose I didn’t really mind it.

In short: Nice read, but nothing more.

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displacedcactus's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I don't know why I keep reading Alexis Hall books! I always love the idea of them, but inevitably there's something lacking in the execution, something different each time. I think I have to concede that he's a perfectly good author, but just not right for me.

In the case of Mortal Follies, my issues with the book can be summed up in three points:
1. It's incredibly slow-paced and repetitive, and could have been tightened up by about 20-30%.
2. It wants to be light-hearted but also involves sacrificing animals to old gods.
3. Having Robin Goodfellow narrate the story from a distance would be GREAT in a short story or novella! He's an entertaining narrator! But having him narrate a full-length (slightly over-long) romance novel was a poor choice, IMHO, because he puts a real distance between the reader and the main characters. We never truly know what they are thinking or feeling, which makes it hard to buy the romance.

Btw, this distance also extends to the love scenes. Very low spice level here.

It does get points for depicting the fae folk in a way more in line with traditional lore than with the current genre tropes of smexy faeries.

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yourbookishbff's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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aileron's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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