Cover Image: Fortuna Sworn

Fortuna Sworn

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Fortuna Sworn is a paranormal romance that follows the protagonist, Fortuna, a girl that lives in the human world but she is a Nightmare, a special being with very unique powers.
Fortuna's brother is missing and she caught the interest of a powerful Fae, Colith. Then, her journey begins.
There are things I really loved in this book and things I didn't like too.
Overall, it was a good read, it was entertaining and I recommend it to people who enjoy paranormal romance, or fantasy romance;)

TW: Death, Torture, Slavery, Sex Scenes.

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This book was a lot darker than I expected but! In the best way possible.......

I read this until 1:30 am so I don’t have a lot to say other than I’m ready for the next book!

Wow that ending though......

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«Haven’t you heard?” Jassin leaned close. […] “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”


This book somehow pissed me off. I couldn’t tell you why, because it’s not a bad book. If you like the whole thing about faes and the unseelie court and that whole stuff, it’s very possible that you’ll like this book very much.

I loved the idea of Fortuna being an actual Nightmare. Not in the sense of she’s just fucking annoying, but as in literal nightmare species. Would’ve gone with the word Nachtmahr (sounds way more dangerous and is the German word for mare, which is a malicious entity that sits on your chest while you sleep and brings bad dreams (hence nightmares)), but that’s not the point here. She’s pretty bamf, all things considered, and has her goals set out and will not be stopped by anything.
That doesn’t happen often enough, imo, too often the heroine gets distracted by something glittery or a stupid love interest. Very well done, her powers were intriguing.

As you can see, it wasn’t bad. The book was actually pretty good. As I said, I don’t know why so many details (and it’s very miniscule details) bothered me so much, and you are allowed to call me petty, but I’m going to rant about every little thing that shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did.


Again. This book was not bad. It was quite enjoyable, even. I think I just went into this at the wrong time or maybe I am still mentally scarred from my short dabble with Sarah J. Maas books that I absolutely hated and didn’t recover from.
I really wanted to give this three stars, even if I personally didn’t enjoy it, but while writing my bullet pointed rant you can see below, I just got too annoyed, so two stars it is. Sorry ‘bout that.


Tl;dr: Fortuna Sworn was a pretty solid book with lots of things going on and a very interesting main character. I’m just being a bitch about small things that shouldn’t bother me.



Avert your eyes now if you don’t want to see me nag about every little thing now, thanks:
• Why does a Nightmare even feel fear? I feel like that’s an evolutionary flaw, since they’re basically fear itself. May not apply for descendants of angels, idk
• I literally read the sentence “[I] tightened my ponytail and went back inside” twice (p. 27 & 40)
• It is very clearly mentioned that the chambers door does not have a latch and will open even if only knocked on slightly (p. 59), and yet, Fortuna keeps slamming the door shut (p. 92, 176, 200, 246). If a door has no latch, it will not stay closed and slamming it will only make it awkward for all parties involved
• Fortuna keeps describing [spoiler]’s scent as subtle, and then in the next scene it’s the first thing she notices when he entered. Sorry, girl, but if you smell him before you see him, it ain’t subtle
• Another thing about smell: it makes no sense that he has this strong smell, but his skin tastes like nothing (p. 122)
• Another nice contradiction I found: “his skin was smooth and unexpectedly cold” (p. 34) and “I felt him there, a spot of cold” (p. 52), but described as “deliciously warm” (p. 122) later on
• Why does Fortuna mention she saw faes of Mexican, Indian and Chinese descent (p. 112), but literally all the important characters are your average white guy fae? You can correct me of this if I missed or forgot a description (Zara doesn’t count, she’s mentioned on three different occasions only)
• I don’t know who started it, but stop calling faes male and female instead of man and woman. A human automatically thinks of man and woman if they’re faced with humanoids that offer the same gendered aspects as humans do (say, boobs). Call them man and woman or have the balls to throw genders out of the window and refer to everyone as they. Thanks.
• Also, why does everything concerning faes have those weird and unfitting sex scenes? Is that from some source material I’ve managed to avoid?

I’m done now with my rant. All quotes (and sources) are taken from my own digital ARC, so those may not be in the same place as they are in your copy.



Thanks to the author and Netgalley for providing this ARC!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley to give a voluntary honest review. This review contains only my own thoughts and opinions of this book.

I was so ready to fall in love with Fortuna Sworn (both book and character) early on. The story had a very intriguing and unique starting point, with Fortuna being a personified Nightmare caged and ready to be sold. Her soulful personality and sorrowful life, as well as the appearance of the very mysterious and charming Collith completely drew me in from the get go. I found myself wanting to fall in love the story and characters immediately. However, as much as I wanted to there were just something significant missing in the story for me to do just that.

For lack of a better explanation the book lacked personality, both story-wise and character-wise. I guess both of them kind of goes hand in hand though since a really good story needs complex, emotional and realistically flawed characters to give the story some soul. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as saying that there was no soul or zero personalities. In the beginning I actually really did feel for Fortuna and I could easily relate to her as a character being in a scary situation she had no control over. Collith being so mysterious was very interesting and had a bit of a sass to him. Both were in fact very enjoyable character to read about. When deceit and drama was thrown onto the mix I was one hundred percent invested.

I don’t know what happened after that though. It was like the book had reached its peak and had nowhere to go but downhill. All that drama and loose ends I expected Fortuna to deal with was just left in the air unacknowledged. She never really confronted Collith or showed any true anger towards him after what he let happen to her. There was perhaps some resentment and distrust, but that was it. She just let it go and focused on the trials and saving her brother instead. Building up such drama in one chapter only to completely let it go the next was so unsatisfying, but even more so when she treated Collith as an ally after what he had done.

From then on most of what made the main characters interesting and real sort of disappeared in the background. I was mostly disappointed with Collith. I really thought ... no, actually I really expected him to have a bigger part and bigger impact to the story. He became almost a sideline character instead. There, but not really there and that charming sass he displayed in the beginning were nowhere to be seen. He didn’t show much of any emotion other than what we readers had to be told he felt. Fortuna on the other hand went a different way. From being slightly sorrowful but compassionate she became vengeful and cruel, exacting revenge on anyone who had wronged her, even just slightly. In a nutshell she became a typical case of the bullied becoming the bully. I don’t think I’ve ever gone from loving a character to being annoyed with said character so fast. Fortuna however managed it.

Do not let me mislead you though. The book was still much enjoyable despite all that and I really enjoyed all the mysterious “are they real?” characters such as Oliver and Laurie. There is also a lot of mystery behind Fortuna and Collith as well and because of the issue above I feel a bit deprived of a real romance between them. I am hopeful that the next book will clear up a lot of the unanswered questions and that a bigger and more impactful development will take place. I am looking forward to continue with the series.

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This was a fun and quick read. I enjoyed how the author incorporated all the mystical creatures together. I look forward to reading more stuff from this author.

Rating 3.5

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I loved the concept of Fortuna being a nightmare as we're having an over saturation of fairies, fae vampires and other in the YA market.
The cover is absolutely stunning, it's a fairly quick read, but I didn't connect with any of the characters at all and I wanted a more fleshed out world.
The ending gave it a bit of a lift, but not enough for me to wanting to continue the series.
I can recommend Fortuna Sworn if you like cruel fae stories a la Cruel Prince (which I also disliked) maybe, but this one isn't what I am looking for in a book.

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I will start with what I liked about this book. The author used a unique supernatural creature, Nightmare, for the main character. It was a refreshing change from an overpowered werewolf or vampire. However, what I liked ended there.

The main character Fortuna Sworn has been hunting down her brother for the past 2 years after he went missing. She ends up meeting some fae, who she marries in 2 minutes and goes through some adventures in the Unseelie Court that lead her closer to her brother. Fortuna immediately comes off as someone with a weak understanding of people, and not in a way that positively furthers the book. She has a friend who exists in her head who she cruelly uses for sexual pleasure and someone to rant to about how sad her life is. Her brother, from the way he was written by the author, seems genuinely in love, but Fortuna just tries to selfishly ruin it for him.

I enjoy reading how different authors interpret Unseelie Courts in their book, and I was sorely disappointed with the way this one was done. There was not a lot of world-building, which meant I was not very invested in the events that occurred in the court. The ordeals that Fortuna went through felt really easy and like a knock off ACOTAR. The character growth was non-existent yet her position had changed greatly, so her victory at the end felt cheaply won. In addition, the relationship between herself and the fae was 2d and I felt nothing for them.

This book bummed me out because although it was rife with cliches, I could still see where the author could have rewritten it to be even better. There was a decent cliff hanger at the end of the book so I have hopes that if the author continues this series, the books will get better.

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I really enjoyed this book, I’ve never met a character quite like Fortuna. Fortuna is very different, she wants to find her brother and in the meantime finds a great guy.

The book ended on a cliffhanger and I am excited to see what else happens...
I was given this book free from NetGalley an exchange for my honest review.

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3🌟———————————-
this was a quick and easy romantic fantasy story.

So, what’s this book about?
This book follows Fortuna, a Nightmare, who is still searching for her long lost brother. When a strange fairy appears and tells her he knows where he is she will do anything to get to her brother even if it means marrying a stranger.

My thoughts
this was fun. The romance is a very central part of the story so if that’s not your thing i wouldn’t recommend it but if you are okay with that i definitely recommend it. One of my favorite aspects of the story was definitely fortuna herself. She’s a badass.

this was entertaining
fortuna is cool
i’m happy i read this while traveling
it was easy to digest

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I really enjoyed this book, the world building was fantastic, I’ve never met a character like Fortuna, I how different she was and how she was always just unapologetically herself.

The book ended on a cliffhanger and I will definitely be looking out for book 2!

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Fortuna is a nightmare, literally. She’s the last known of her kind. With a single touch, she knows your fears and can trap your mind in a living nightmare. Getting close is no problem because a nightmare appears differently to each person, depending on what they find most desirable in another person. Her brother, also a Nightmare, disappeared two years ago and she’s been searching for him ever since. All her leads have run dry until a mysterious and powerful Faerie appears named Collith. He’s willing to lead Fortuna to her brother for a price. He wants her as his bride. Desperate times call for desperate measures. She accompanies him back to his home at the Court of Shadows where she soon realizes freeing her brother is more complicated than she thought. Survival is the name of the game in a court where distinguishing the truth from the lies is a full-time job and danger lies around every corner. Freeing her brother may just cost Fortuna her heart and her life.

I initially picked up this book because other reviews compared it to A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. I’m glad I did. I was pleasantly surprised by Fortuna Sworn. I struggled initially in the first chapter or two to really connect to the story, but was soon swept up and couldn’t put it down. I love the idea of a Nightmare as a magical character. Fear is a powerful weapon that few are immune to. It’s a double-edged sword though as she has a hard time getting close to other people because when she touches them she sees their fears. I find much more substance in stories where gifts also have an element of a curse to them. There is light and dark in all things in life and it adds a bit of needed “reality” in a fantasy.

Another aspect of this story I really enjoyed was Liam, the man she visits in her dreams while she sleeps. Is he imaginary, or is he real somewhere out there in the world waiting for her to find him? Guess you’ll have to read to find out. As she becomes more entwined with
Collith in the fairy world, her bond with Liam becomes more tenuous. It’s a very unique love triangle because Liam is so removed from her life as he is literally the man of her dreams. I look forward to seeing how that much plays out in future books which the ending certainly implies are to come.

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October Daye meets A Court of Mist and Fury in this captivating urban fantasy novel! I've read a lot of fantasy novels, but never one about Fortuna's particular bloodline (breed?) of fae. The story starts out with a bang, showing us the full extent of Fortuna's power, and continues strong from the very first page.

Sutton definitely knows how to draw on the full range of our emotions; I laughed, I definitely cried (that was so sad!!!), and I'm dying to find out what happens in the next book!

As with any book, there was lots of loved and a couple things I didn't care for/get quite so much.

Things I loved:

- The worldbuilding and setup
- The characters - even side characters were so real!
- The romance and "situation" - I need more!
- Super sad awful scene(s) that made me cry
- A certain character that I had LOTS of suspicions about that was confirmed at the very end!!

Things that I didn't love so much:

- Oliver???
- Damon, sort of?
- Sometimes Fortuna was really...not very smart

I can't wait for the next book to be released! Trust me, you'll want to dive into this series head first!

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This book follows Fortuna Sworn and her journey through a danger Faerie Court! Fortuna is kidnapped by 3 men while out looking for her brother, who was presumed dead 2 years ago. After they arrive at a blackmarket a dark male gains her attention and strokes a ‘deal’ with her. What happens when he shows up at her work a day later? I really really liked the world building and how all the characters had flaws. It made it seem more realistic. This ending will definitely hit you. I’m kinda in shock right now...

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This has been one of the most enjoyable fantasy novels I've read in the last year or two, and I've read several dozen. When Fortuna (a Nightmare and perhaps the last of her kind) starts up a reluctant relationship with one of the Fae, I thought this was an unlikely pairing to be sure. But Sutton weaves a convincing and delightful tale with this curious pair. Neither Fortuna or Collith come across as very likeable at first, but there are lots of surprises in store, and a rich world full of magic and misunderstood creatures whose struggles against common foes start to bring them closer, against all reason.

I would have liked to have known more of their history (Nightmares and the Fae) and how their magic works and how they interact with the world, but I enjoyed the story so much I can overlook it. I felt immersed in their world and thought about the characters long after I had finished the book. I really couldn't put the book down, and found excuses to pick it back up whenever I had any free time.. Recommended.

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The premise is unique. The autistic character was well written and no point became the Hollywood version. That was nice coming from someone on the spectrum. Certainly an adult with steaminess and dark moments

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This was an enjoyable book. I read it a month ago and I still remember it. The emotion of everything with her brother was there. I felt that. I enjoyed the twists and turns, even the predictable ones. The author keeps that dark fae world and brings in her own twist with Nightmares. I would recommend this book and look forward to the next one.

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Well KJ Sutton, for your first 'adult' book, you sure did kick butt! I think your imagination was very creative and it really shined through in your writing. My only complaint is that I think more time needs to be spent watering and caring for the relationship between Fotuna and Collith. I want to see it grow with more chemistry, more hard to get acts of flirting, more...more.

I loved the story line, loved Fortuna's character, and loved loved loved the magic in it. I just wish there could have been more angst in the romance department instead of the 'I'm taking you as my mate'...'Okay, fine. If you insist.' thing.

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I had a lot of fun reading this book, it had a unique premise and delivered on that interesting premise. The characters were great and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

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WOW! I bloody adored this book.
Fortuna Sworn snuck up on me catching me completely unawares.
I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this quite as much as I actually did, mega impressed here.
My only issue with this as I didn't want it to end when it did.
It is so going to kill me to wait for book two but needs must and I will be eagerly anticipating it's release like yesterday.
So Fortuna Sworn (totally digging her kick-ass name) a nightmare is last of her kind.
Whilst out searching for her younger brother on the anniversary of his disappearance she is snatched by goblins and taken to be sold on the black market.
There she is assisted by an unknown faerie in escaping her jailors.
Striking a bargain with the mysterious Callith for his assistance in rescuing her sibling sets off a chain of events that will change Fortuna's whole life.
A set of circumstances that will take her deep into the intrigues and dangers of the Unseelie court where all have a hidden agenda and she must watch her back at every turn.
As this story unfolds the transformation that Fortuna undergoes is both brutal and merciless.
Strengthening her inner core into the pure steel she will need to go head to head with the fae courts cold cruelty and game playing.
This also had some many diversely intriguing players: characters like Laurie and Oliver.
Both adding their own unique spin on the ongoing proceedings.
Also, Collith himself is so much more than what he originally appears to be his character so much deeper and empathetic than what he outwardly portrays to others.
There is also somewhat of a slight love triangle: I say slightly as that is what in essence it is.
I myself am not a lover of this trope and it didn't bother me one bit so if you are not a fan of this just know that it does not play a pivotal part in this book.
I also managed to read this in one sitting no breaks as I was that invested here.
This is told from Fortunas POV and though I do prefer dual this didn't bother me too much.
It would have been nice to maybe get some insight from Collith to but no biggie I was so into this I could deal with this small flaw.
This really was such a page-turner of a read and I want to read the next book like right now it is really going to be a feat of patience to wait for its release.
A new author for me here but a definite keeper for sure: I do so love it when I get surprised like this.
Highly recommend this its such a fantastic book.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of Fortuna Sworn.

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Fortuna is one of the last of the Nightmares, a type of creature who can find a persons’ greatest fears by touching them and use it to torment and even kill. She has a brother, Damon, who disappeared two years prior and since then has been set on finding him and returning him home. She meets a Faerie who knows where her brother is and makes a deal with him in order to get her brother back. Fortuna didn't realize there's a whole lot of important information that the Faerie failed to mention, but regardless once she set down to rescue her brother, she would risk everything, even her life, to have him safely returned home.
I loved how strong of a character Fortuna was, but without being overbearing. I get really frustrated when the main characters are portrayed as strong willed and hard-headed and they fail to hold their tongues and get themselves into all kinds of trouble that could have been avoided. Fortuna was strong willed, stubborn, but knew when to shut the hell up and just silently seethe in her mind. That small detail really meant a lot to me and made her a much more realistic character, because no sane person goes around acting all tough and crazy no matter the circumstances.
I love books with faeries and other magical creatures, and the addition of this new mythical creature, Nightmare, was really fascinating to me and I enjoyed the authors creativity. Fortuna develops her power as the book goes on and learns how to properly harness and use it to her advantage.
Some of the characters were a little confusing, like Fortuna's brother...had no idea what his motivations were but I will not go into further detail as it would have to contain spoilers. Just know that you may also love this book but fail to understand why her brother was so spineless and stupid.
The slight romance factor was entertaining and engaging and did not get in the way of Fortuna's strong will and power. She was not a hopeless girl waiting for some man to save her. She was set on getting her brother with or without the help of the Faerie, Oliver, or Laurie, but would accept the help she could get if the chance arose. I really liked that about this book.
Overall, great start to a series and I am pretty interested in the direction the author will take this, especially with the ending that leaves so many questions that demand and answer!
3.5/5- Solid entertainment!

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