Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > A Fragile Enchantment

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

Part Pride & Prejudice, part Bridgerton, and a very generous dollop of fairy tale magic is the stuff A Fragile Enchantment is made of. That’s a problem, because it just feels all so derivative.

Normally, this wouldn’t bother me so much. Genre fiction of all kinds is beholden to the paths trodden before it. I can see the influences from authors as disparate as Jane Austen and Naiomi Novik inside this book. In my opinion, it becomes an issue when I (as a reader) keep thinking about other authors’ works as I’m reading the book in front of me instead of being completely immersed in the book I’m reading. For instance: While reading many scenes in this book involving Kit, I shouldn’t constantly be comparing him to Mr. Darcy. I should be fully invested in Kit as a character all his own instead of saying, “My, how very Darcy-like of him”. At one point, in the third act, there was another strong P&P correlation that actually made me groan aloud. That isn’t something I can applaud.

What saves this book is Allison Saft’s compelling and beguiling sentence composition and her elegant word selections. Her prose is absolutely beautiful when given free rein. When A Fragile Enchantment isn’t concentrating on being so rigid in its period restraints, the prose absolutely glows with loveliness. That’s what kept me reading to the end. I wanted to gobble up those beautiful sentences. It shows that Saft truly has talent as a writer. That was worth sticking around for.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Fantasy/Romantasy/Historical Fantasy/LGBTQ Fantasy/Standalone Novel