I really enjoyed this book! It started a little bit slower and was sad at times,
but I thought the Fae lore and magic side was very interesting. I really liked the authors whimsical writing. I enjoyed the relationship between the two sisters. I look forward to reading more stories from this author.

The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill is an absolutely charming fairytale set during the turn of the 20th century when old traditions and beliefs started going out of favor in exchange for more modern ways of thinking.

Delphine and Alaine are two sisters who have grown up making bargains at their family’s orchard, giving up trinkets, ribbon, glass, and feathers in exchange for small favors such as sunny weather for a picnic or a good harvest. Over time, however, both sisters find themselves in need of larger favors and find they have exchanged more than they thought they bargained for.

Full of beautiful writing, delightful characters, and a wonderful world of fairy magic, Rowena Miller spins a truly fantastic yarn about the lengths sisters would go through to protect one another. There is also a great underlying commentary on old traditions and values in the face of a rapidly changing world. I absolutely enjoyed every page and my only complaint was that I wish more time was spent in the fairy world.

Highly recommended for fans of classic fairytales and cozy historical fiction fantasy.

Huge thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and Rowena Miller for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

The vibes of this book could best be described as Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley meets Practical Magic, all with a Gilded Age veneer. On the surface the story is about two sisters as their paths diverge and how they keep coming back together. One who has climbed the social ladder, and one who has settled into the life she was born into on her family’s orchard.

Beneath that, though, is a story about the lengths people will go to for those they love, the allure of power, and ultimately community care. (Although I wish that final theme had more emphasis.) There were discussions of social status and pressure, folk tradition, and women’s suffrage. And it was also a surprise sapphic book!

While the beginning of the book was a bit of a rough start (some really WILD run on sentences), it eventually hit its stride for me. I’m not sure if the run on sentences were reined in over the course of the book, or if I just became immune to them, but the flow of the story greatly improved as it went on. The book is cozy and intimate, interspersed with some darker themes, which are pretty easy to see coming (and as they’re meant to be). Nothing is graphic, though.

The characters of Prospect Hill have a lot of life and personality, and I found myself wanting more of some of the side characters. There seem to be stretches where some are absent, which is okay for the narrative, but their presence could have perhaps enhanced it.

In the second a half of the book, the scope and tone of the story shifts dramatically, and was the most engaging part to read. It really shifted this from a 3 star book to a 4 star book for me. The stakes are raised and there’s more meat to the plot, which also picks up in pace.

All in all, this was a great book to add to your list of you enjoy a cozy fantasy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

You may have a different opinion on this book if you are a fan of "cozy" fantasy novels. Truthfully, I found the plot to this novel to be slow-moving and entirely predictable. I feel like the first 200 pages could have been omitted entirely and it would not have affected the story. Some interesting plot points I feel could have been explored further - the time period coincides with the women's suffrage movement, for example.
The last 20% of the book had some interest, though I had predicted all of the "reveals" early on. The book would have benefitted from a lot more time in the fairy realm.

The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill is a magical story of two sisters who would do anything for each other.

Decades ago, the Fairborn family struck a bargain with the fae granting them ownership of acres of land on Prospect Hill. Today, the family still resides there, taking care of their farm.

Delphine is about to marry into a wealthy and influential family and will soon depart from Prospect Hill.

Alaine and her husband, Jack, never intend to leave their home on the hill. While Delphine prepares for her future, Alaine quietly struggles to keep the farm afloat, making increasingly risky bargains with the fae to pay the bills.

Shortly after the wedding, Delphine realizes her husband is not the man she thought he was. And Alaine will go to great lengths to keep her sister safe.

This book is a magical, lyrically written feminist fantasy. It follows Delphine and Alaine’s perspectives.

It discusses domestic abuse, women’s suffrage, and classism.

While the writing was beautiful, it was a good way through the book before the plot took off. And while I don’t need to relate to characters, something about the writing style made me feel distant from the characters.

If you like fae stories, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. It goes over familiar lore about the fair folk, but effortlessly keeps it intriguing and even a bit frightening.

Thank you to Redhook for sending me a physical arc in exchange for an honest review.

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DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

Before the railroads came to the middle of the U.S., a man met a fairy and bargained for fertile farmland and good fortune. Two generations later, the bargain is still in place and sisters Alaine and Delphine are running the family orchard. While Alaine is hands-on with the daily work, Delphine sees herself as better-suited for the high society life she will soon marry into. There’s one thing both women know – their family thrives with the help of the Fae, but you must be careful when dealing with these magical creatures.

When Delphine’s new life in the city is not what she thought it would be, she and Alaine will make unprecedented deals with the Fae to get her life back on track. But will the price the fairies extract be one they’re willing to pay?

This book had beautiful details about nature, the Fae world, and the complex relationships amongst family members and within one’s self. Without giving too much away, the dilemmas the characters face are relatable and heart-wrenching, the world of the Fae is both beautiful and sad, and the history of fairy bargains interwoven throughout is something new and interesting for me. Any fan of magical, whimsical, fantastical tales will be delighted with this book!

When I first read the description of this book, I thought it would be right up my alley. There is something so enticing about fairy bargains, especially how they can tie or affect multiple generations. While I certainly enjoyed the second part of the book, the first half left me wanting something more.

I can appreciate what the author intended to do in the first half of the book. It was a genuine attempt to weave the overarching themes of sisterhood and family with the backdrop of family land that had been established through a fairy bargain. For me, however, this wasn't quite achieved. For almost the entirety of this first part, I found the relationship between Delphine and Alaine to be characterised by underlying feelings of jealousy, envy, and sometimes contempt. In trying to emphasize the differences between these two sisters, the author ends up alienating the reader from each of them. I have both a younger sister and a younger sister-in-law, and struggled to connect with our main characters. Add to this (negatively) competitive relationship a plot that was just transparent, and the first half of the book had me considering whether I should drop it.

But all of this changed in the second half, and I am glad I kept reading. Now, we have sisters who respect and cherish their differences, who support one another in the face of unthinkable stress and trauma, and who, instead of resenting the other's skills, recognise their own strengths and admire those of the other. I think had their relationship been characterised like this from the beginning, I would have enjoyed the first half of the book much more.

The plot also improved in the second half of the book. Without giving anything away, we get to watch Delphine really come into her own as she navigates bargains and attempts to outwit the fae. It was tense; the stakes were high, and the atmosphere felt both oppressive and whimsical at the same time. I really appreciated that the villain was not necessarily one-dimensional (though she appears to be until almost the end), that there was more than meets the eye to her motivations.

Overall, an enjoyable read. 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this upcoming novel.

<i> “Ah. A wild animal. A creature, begot from—what? Its dam and sire?” She shook her head. “Now that is magic. And your plants—they sprout, from seeds in the ground? That, too, is magic.”</i>

I debated between 3 and 4 stars for this one, but I went with 4 stars obviously.

This one was interesting because the first half is more historical fiction and the second half is more fantasy. It starts out as historical fiction, set during a time when women were scorned for taking on leadership roles and not keeping to their “place” in society blended with old folktales and superstitions about fairies (except the fairies are real).

I enjoyed the relationship between Alaine and Delphine. They are very different but love each other very much. They are both trying to find their place in a society that doesn’t want to them to have a place except one that keeps them at home, raising children, and taking care of their homes. Alaine’s ambition leads her to bargain with fairies, which is going a little too well. Meanwhile, Delphine marries a wealthy, local businessman and moves to the city to become more. Her fairytale ends when she discovers who she really married.

The second half of the novel is where this novel becomes more fantasy. I enjoyed what the author did with the world of the Fae and how she brought the threads of the story together for a really touching ending.

I do wish there was more about the women’s rights movement. It was less of a feature than the synopsis led me to believe. I thought it was going to tie into the fairy bargains somehow, but it really didn’t. I also wish the author included a year and place at the beginning of the book to give me a better sense of context. Other than that, I really enjoyed the book.

Thank-you Rowenna Miller, Redhook, and Netgalley for providing this free arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Redhook books for access to this arc.

I would describe this book as lush. It’s filled with characters who are described in detail, we get a lot of information about their motivations, there are tons of historical details, and yet it takes a long time to really get going. At times it reads more like a plain historical fiction book except for – oh, yes I almost forgot – there are fairies in the story. Parts of the plot are fairly easy to guess, although I will admit that there are no glaring neon signs flashing “PLOT POINT, PLOT POINT.” Then just after things pick up, they slow down again before a coast to the end.

I like this book. I do. But I have to agree with several other people who say that for long stretches, not much really happens. Alaine is passionate about the orchards and wants to lead the local Agricultural Society – and also rub her successes in two men’s faces. She will do a few long standing bargains for good weather, a little luck, great harvests but yeah, that’s kind of it.

Delphine loves the farm, loves the harvest, but has never seen herself as being as happy there as Alaine is. Delphine knows there is more to the big wide world and that’s what she wants. After a long and meandering lead up to her wedding, she leaves and discovers that life out there isn’t the bowl of cherries she thought she’d get. But she’s a dutiful woman in a world where women are supposed to be dutiful and she tries damn hard to be the perfect Society Hostess.

Well, it’s pretty clear that both women will have issues with what they want. But Alaine takes the harmless bargains up a notch. When she tries for much more, she gets herself, and Delphine, in far deeper than she ever dreamed. I knew what the ultimate price was going to be and that no matter how real the need was and how much Something Needed to Be Done about it, the price would break the women.

Then things got interesting. The sister who had been seemingly the stronger one almost wilted under the pressure while the one who had been fairly passive up until then showed a backbone. What they needed to do to obtain what they wanted was not going to be easy but this sister strode forward and engaged the enemy.

Oh but after that, despite the even lusher descriptions – and everything was described seemingly down to its toenails – the action in the final quarter of the book just dragged. It dragged in both places which I won’t detail to avoid spoilers. For one sister, there was a lot to learn and pieces of a puzzle to put together to get what she wanted but for the other, every day was a lot of the same again. Had all this been earlier, I might have not been able to push through but the end was in sight. And, yeah, the epilogue was a bit ho-hum as well.

I enjoyed the sisterly bonds, that each sister accepts that her dreams are not her sister’s dreams, and how each was willing to fight for the other. But there really wasn’t that much to their characterizations. Some social justice issues get layered in but they are also more window dressing than anything else. The fae world was richly drawn and imaginative but just went on far too long. If the book had been edited down and tightened up a bit, I think it would have worked better. C+

Thank you @netgalley & @redhookbooks for early access to this book. Its pub day is in just a couple of week on March 28th.
 
I was drawn to this book because of its beautiful cover and intriguing premise. Fairy bargains? Count me in. Unfortunately, I found it to be too long and frankly… boring. If it weren’t for the fact that this was a NG read, I may not have finished it at all.
 
The first 50% was like slogging through mud. There were barely any traces of Fae until about halfway through. It mostly revolved around one sister, Alaine, running the family orchard and the other sister, Delphine, regretting her marriage to a wealthy, yet cruel businessman. A lot of repetitiveness and very minimal action.
 
The second half got more interesting with a larger Fae presence and magical elements, but it still did not delight me enough to make up for the first half, especially since I was able to predict all of the “twists.”
 
I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy this one more, but if you enjoy cozy Fae stories (and don’t mind a much slower build), you might have more success with it than I did.

A slow read that delves deep into that belief which we carry magic and how it can help and aid in times of true distress. A family tale that works well with the historical genre, would've liked a little more magic but hey, still a fun read.

I’ve read enough fantasy, and met enough sneaky fairies to know that one should never strike a bargain with the Fae. Something always goes wrong and you end up with a pink hare instead of pink hair, or something much worse.

The residents of Prospect Hill don’t have any of these qualms. After a rare successful fairy bargain, they ended up acres of land for the cost of a piece of fabric. Similar trades continue throughout the generations, and now we find sisters Alaine and Delphine making bargains for higher status, gender equality, and in Delphine’s case, a husband.

But when Delphine’s husband turns out to be abusive, and his family indifferent, Delphine takes extreme measures to rectify her situation. Delphine is predictably fooled by the Fae, and loses something incredibly valuable.

This is a great, engaging story, with amazing characters. I loved getting to know Alaine, Delphine, and their family, and finding out how the Fae had played a part in huge areas of their lives. I also enjoyed the fairy lure, which is both agreeable and completely nonsensical at the same time.

One of the things I loved about this book is how it ties the realities of female oppression in the early 20th century, with the more magical aspects. Alaine meets a lot of opposition while trying to establish herself as a successful business woman, and Delphine is consumed by shame at the prospect of divorce. Their belief that they will get more help from the supernatural world than their fellow humans speaks volumes.

I love my dark and weird fiction, and I feel like this book had the potential to be a lot darker. Don’t get me wrong, there were some really harrowing moments, but given how tricky Fae Folk can be, things could have been a lot worse for Delphine et al.

The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill is a very enjoyable read, with notes of fantasy and feminism.

Argh, this is a hard one for me to review. (free book from netgalley and publishers by the way, thank you very much!)

On the one hand, it is written very very well, and for me part of the problem was that I didn't want to read how things would go terribly wrong, which you know from the beginning. I was kinda expecting it to be around the third fairy bargain, but the book DOES do something a bit different in that regard. I liked the characters and the setting. The fae world was cool, and their reasoning behind the bargains was interesting when it was finally explained.

It's that lingering dread while reading that bothered me the most, knowing how badly things were probably going to get. I read a few books in between while avoiding picking this one up. >.< It was much better for me after that midway-ish point where the full ramifications were revealed to the characters. Also I didn't find the book did too much that was unique; I could pretty much tell exactly what was going to happen a mile off, and it felt like it took the mcs a while to catch up even though they knew as much as me, if not more. Maybe I've read too many fairy stories. (!)

Overall if you think you'll like it, give it a try, there's a high probability you will enjoy the book.

I genuinely enjoyed this book. I’m the type of reader that loves faerie books, so of course I was enticed by the title. It was obvious that the author did a ton of research about faerie lore and sprinkled that throughout. I also enjoyed that the plot didn’t follow the typical faerie book plot where human girl gets whisked away and falls in love with the faerie prince etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed that plot but I appreciate how the author tried to write something different here. I thought the main characters were very likable and easy to root for.

I didn’t give this book 5 stars because I felt that the plot did drag at some points especially in the beginning. I also did find the main conflict and the resolution predictable. Overall, this is a fairly easy and light read. If you enjoy faerie lore I think you will like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for my arc in exchange for my honest review.

"The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill" was such a surprise for me! We follow two sisters, Alaine and Delphine Fairborn, who are the daughters of one of the oldest families of Prospect Hills. Generations ago, the first farmers to the Hill learned to bargain with the Fae to make lives a little bit easier. This is a tradition that is alive and well within Alaine and Delphine as they use the bargains for everything like a better yield at harvest, some control with the local farm union, and other little things. When Delphine confides in Alaine that her new marriage to Pierce Grafton, the son of a wealthy and influential industrial family, is not everything she'd hope it to be, the Fae bargains become bigger.

I enjoyed this one quite a lot. The relationship between Alaine and Delphine felt real and relatable. Both women are quite different with different dreams and desires for their lives and it was lovely to see that and the ways in which they were similar. All of that made for a really intriguing dynamic. I will say that when things with Delphine and Pierce started getting rough, it got a bit hard to read those scenes and see Delphine blame herself for not being "better" and basically blaming herself for the emotional (and sometimes physical) abuse she experienced from Pierce and his family. At the center of all of that is the love between Alaine and Delphine and man do they really love eachother. For all their miscommunications and misunderstandings, their love is central to the story.

On the Fae and the bargains? I loved it. The bargain system was interesting and at the beginning of all the chapters were quotes from faery folk tales, songs, poems, etc. with advice on how to deal with the Fae which I thought was a very nice touch. I thought what we see of the Fae and what insight we're given into their world was also really interesting and different from most Fae-centered stories I've read in recent years. Also, the antlered Fae that bargains with Delphine was such a wildly cool character. She sounded so attractive and terrifying and I absolutely would have folded so props to Delphine for being a stronger woman than I.

I will say that it is a bit long in some places which is fine given the different spheres we encounter, but I know it can be a bit draggy for some people. We spend a lot of time with sociopolitical issues that both of the sisters encounter and have to maneuver within and although I enjoyed reading about that in contrast to the rules of the Fae, again, it got to be just a bit too long.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I would absolutely recommend this to anybody who loves Fae stories and sister bonds.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for access to this ARC.

This is more of a 2.75 for me. I really wanted to like this, but I thought the book was just a little slow and predictable. The writing was great and I liked the characters but there was nowhere I was truly drawn in. I had a good enough time that I didn’t DNF, but I could’ve and still would’ve been able to guess exactly what happened. I also wish we would’ve gotten to know more about some of their other characters at the end. I really wanted to know more about Ida and I wish she wasn’t completely discarded towards the end.

Love all fantasy books and especially anything about ical creatures. The far are one of my favorites so I was so excited to read this book.

The setting was done satisfactory, but the first half of the book dragged. Nothing happened. I was almost ready to submit my first DNF ever. About half way it picked up, but the lack of character development and unlikeable male characters had me shaking my head. Needs a good editor and a rewrite

Just can not recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A story of two sisters and their relationship. After Delphine gets married, her husband is not what she expected. She turns to her sister for help. Alaine turns to her family's lore of striking bargains with the fairies for help although it might come at a steep cost.

I think the setup for this one was too long. There was not enough of the mysticism and whimsy I was expecting early on. I think it could've flashed back to fairy bargains made by their family in the past as a way to weave in some of that magic in the setup.

This was slow going for me. I just couldn't get sucked into the story. I did DNF at 28%. It just wasn't for me right now. I will hopefully pick it up again one day.