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A review by clairetrellahill
A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft
slow-paced
This book...frustrated me, and I'm not sure how much of it was the book or my preconceived notions that I brought to the book. I started it on a day when I was really grumpy (not great), put it down half way through, and finished it a week later. Take this review with a grain of salt.
A Fragile Enchantment is billed as a fantasy regency a la Bridgerton where a seamstress that can enchant clothing is hired to make the wedding ensemble for the prince. Niamh is Machlish (fantasy Irish) and Kit is Avlish (fantasy English). Because the author took real world parallels and a broad historical time frame (Regency/England's colonial period) to create her fantasy world, I expected certain historical accuracies that were not present. A character wears socks where they would have worn stockings. Characters say "wow" and "yeah." The Prince Regent, Kit's brother, is referred to throughout the whole book as Jack and all the other characters call him Jack. He is personally doing staff payroll. His wife, Princess Sofia, is snubbed by Society Nobles. Niamh is hired help but just casually hangs out with the prince and his buddy and the prince's fiance. This could entirely just be me having read a lot of historical romances and expecting something more along the lines of what was the class rules of the period instead of what is clearly fantasy.
But also what I wanted from the book--cool sewing magic, a fairytale meet cute, more about Niamh's family and mystery illness--just wasn't present. I wish I could have seen a version of this book where Kit was not the prince of fantasy England, but just a noble. I wonder if it would have worked better if we had his POV as well. This book does have a lot to say about the tensions between the English and the Irish during this period, There are a lot of big emotions on the part of Niamh. It just wasn't what I wanted from the book, and I really couldn't say how much of my dissatisfaction was me and how much was the book. Take this review with a grain of salt because I know a lot of people really will like it.
A Fragile Enchantment is billed as a fantasy regency a la Bridgerton where a seamstress that can enchant clothing is hired to make the wedding ensemble for the prince. Niamh is Machlish (fantasy Irish) and Kit is Avlish (fantasy English). Because the author took real world parallels and a broad historical time frame (Regency/England's colonial period) to create her fantasy world, I expected certain historical accuracies that were not present. A character wears socks where they would have worn stockings. Characters say "wow" and "yeah." The Prince Regent, Kit's brother, is referred to throughout the whole book as Jack and all the other characters call him Jack. He is personally doing staff payroll. His wife, Princess Sofia, is snubbed by Society Nobles. Niamh is hired help but just casually hangs out with the prince and his buddy and the prince's fiance. This could entirely just be me having read a lot of historical romances and expecting something more along the lines of what was the class rules of the period instead of what is clearly fantasy.
But also what I wanted from the book--cool sewing magic, a fairytale meet cute, more about Niamh's family and mystery illness--just wasn't present. I wish I could have seen a version of this book where Kit was not the prince of fantasy England, but just a noble. I wonder if it would have worked better if we had his POV as well. This book does have a lot to say about the tensions between the English and the Irish during this period, There are a lot of big emotions on the part of Niamh. It just wasn't what I wanted from the book, and I really couldn't say how much of my dissatisfaction was me and how much was the book. Take this review with a grain of salt because I know a lot of people really will like it.