crothe77 's review for:

A Forbidden Alchemy by Stacey McEwan
5.0
emotional tense slow-paced
 
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

A Forbidden Alchemy by Stacey McEwan is a mixed third and first person dual-POV fantasy romance. As children, Nina and Patrick met on the way to the Artisan School to see if they can pass a test to be granted magic and help them escape a life of labor mining the material needed to create more magic. When Nina takes a vial of this concentrated material, she becomes an earth Charmer and her dreams come true while Patrick leaves to return home. When they meet again years later, Patrick is running the Mining Union in his father’s absence and is heading a revolution to bring the Lords down and Nina is caught in the middle. 

There’s a lot of very cool things that are happening on the page. This is a fairly stripped down Romantasy that allows the handful of worldbuilding details to breathe and be explored more fully. Nina and Patrick coming from mining towns and how it impacts their world view yet Patrick wanted nothing to do with the Lords and wanted to come home while Nina wanted to stay and that causes their separation is compelling on its own. It’s ramped up by acknowledging the dangers of mining as an industry, the psychological impact it has on miners and their families, and how poverty is a cycle that is incredibly difficult to escape and adds so much more to the world and themes. Even the references to how this kind of stress can contribute to domestic abuse and addiction and the cyclical nature of it all that exists in a community helped make the world feel real and flawed and yet it is easy to understand why Nina wants to escape and Patrick wants to save it. 

Patrick and Nina’s sexual tension is very obvious the moment they meet each other again after years apart. The two never really forgot each other despite their time apart and finding other partners (Patrick sleeping with many nameless women while Nina formed a relationship for more than a year with another Charmer named Theodore) and there is unfinished business between them even if they were two young to understand what their initial feelings as children could become. Patrick is a lot more open about his desire for Nina but he also has a lot more self-control and he holds back a lot until Nina goads him far enough to finally act on those feelings. I was definitely here for it. 

This is both enemies-to-lovers and not. Nina and Patrick are definitely on opposite sides of this issue and they have irreconcilable differences because of it as Patrick holds Nina hostage and makes her help his cause, but Nina is also never really the Mining Union’s enemy no matter what. She is a daughter of the mines, just from a different town. She understands it and where Patrick is coming from even if she disagrees with the methods. What makes it even more complicated are the reveals that happen throughout the book and add layers that show everyone is keeping secrets but Nina and Patrick are, at their core, really on the same side even if they are different views of how to get there.

Content warning for mentions of domestic abuse and sexual assault

I would recommend this to fans of Romantasy that takes the time to explore the implications of the worldbuilding and readers looking for a fantasy romance with a lot of sexual tension

 
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