This book was so underwhelming and I really struggled to finish it. I was excited by the cover, the promise of caberet, sapphic friends to lovers romance, fae mystery, and a heist adventure but it was such a slog to read through. I think there was so much potential but some of the bigger plot threads were sped through and not enough time was spent on developing the characters into people and their romance felt very predictable. I really struggled to connect to the them and even though I was intrigued by the mystery elements of the plot, I didn't feel like the payoff made me care enough.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

The Absinthe Underground is a slow burn, YA, Fae, Historical Fantasy Romance.

As you can picture with so many things going on this novel had a high bar it set for itself, and it almost hit every note.

The setting for this novel was 1920's-ish Severon, Paris with a bit more magic and a bit less dirt, where our leads Sybil and Esme are living in a tiny apartment and struggling to get by. We very quickly come to see the Sybil is adventurous and head strong, while Esme is more reserved and bookish. The main thing they share in common is a love for the arts and a deep love for the other that goes unspoken.

When Maeve finds them stealing and selling posters for her club, the titular Absinthe Underground, she sends them on an adventure in both our world and the Fae realms that takes up the remainder of the novel.

The thrilling heist of this novel is well written, if a tad rushed, the first half of the heist felt well timed and plotted out, if almost a bit slow at points. That changed when we entered the Fae Realm and the pacing of the novel speed up the a breathtaking pace. I found the second half to thrilling and it went from a slow burn vibe to a page turner that had me rushing to see what happened next.

As for our main heroines, Sybil and Esme, I found them both to be charming, sweet, and utterly smitten with one another. I kept waiting for them to come together, and this is one place where the slow burn remained through the entire novel.

I would recommend this novel to you if you like:
- Queer YA Romance
- Historical Fantasy
- Heist Stories
- Slow Burn
- Fae in Historical Settings

I received an advance review copy of this book and I am leaving this review voluntarily and all thoughts and opinions are wholly my own and unbiased.

Unfortunately a DNF for me. I loved the set up and the characters but was not interesting enough to care to finish

I loved the opening of this book and the main characters (and their passel of 7 French cats!). Once the story engine fully kicked in around the one-third mark, though, I felt like the writing quality dropped off a bit, and the plotting itself seemed a bit silly and required the MCs to be very gullible and not-at-all savvy. That made it a slog to get through despite all of the action.

I was so thrilled to receive an ARC of this gorgeous book! Not going to lie, I was initially drawn in solely by the cover and title, after just returning from a trip to Las Vegas where I saw the Cirque du Soleil show "Absinthe" and this book seemed to have very similar vibes.

If I could describe this book in one word, it would be "enchanting". From start to finish I was drawn in by the settings, art inspirations from Belle Epoque Paris and Art Nouvaeu, cozy touches, and characters. The Absinthe Underground is a wonderous blend of campy, cozy, and fantasy with a sapphic love story of friendship at the center. The magic and world building was clear and well thought out, and a delight to read.

Already feel this will be one of my go-to cozy fantasy comfort books that I will return to in the same vein of "Flowerheart," "A Study in Drowning," and so many other.

Fun sidethought: Maeve will forever live in my head as a faerie incarnation of Chappell Roan and no one can convince me otherwise!

03/06/2024 || The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton || #TheAbsintheUnderground #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley, Jamie Pacton, Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink, Peachtree Teen for making this e-ARC available!
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author and myself.

All of my thoughts are my own~

4.5 Stars !!!
Gorgeous sapphic historical fantasy with fae and other magical delights!

The Absinthe Underground follows Sybil and Esme as they navigate the harsh world around them. Just trying to survive and pay this months rent (so relatable), Sybil tries to steal illustrated posters but Esme just rather stay in, drink tea, pet her cats, and tinker (ridiculously relatable omg????), and all the while both girls secretly pine and yearn to hold their best friend as more.

I related so much to both girls, their yearning, both of their shared and not shared interests and what made each of them unique. I loved all the character growth, twists, turns, and reveals as the story progressed.

SPOILER ALERT TERRITORY DO NOT LOOK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK
Some of the things that didn't work for me, and affected my rating, and I wish were ironed out a bit more is what happened to all the side characters? I really hope with as much loose ends were left that means Pacton plans to write more about the world of The Absinthe Underground as I felt there was so much left unsaid that could have been said to make this book a lot longer and a lot more detailed:
I wanted to know Maeve's fate a bit more in detail and desperately wanted to see her healed or just anything. What about Lucien? I wanted to hear more about his adventures and see him and Sybil reconnect. I wanted to hear more of the Fae lore in general (the snid-bits we got as Esme explained or figured things out was so neat but i want more)! Where did Chloe come from and will she ever get back there? What IS her relationship with Hyacinth exactly? Were they enemies to lovers or starting on the path? The vibe was there (maybe I'm just projecting tho). I wanted to know more about the Fae realms and Severon as well (the hierarchy system was so unique and interesting).

Loved TF outta little Oliver just being such a star and everyone loving him (as they should, he's perfect)!

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

This was really challenging for me to get through. There would be hints of brilliance in the story, but it never quite materialized enough for me to stay engaged and get excited over the plot. I found the characters frustrating. Sybil was incredibly rash in a way that would have gotten her killed a million times over in any other fantasy story, and it felt that there were very few repercussions for her poor decision-making. Esme was very sweet. While I think her being obsessed with clocks reflects how she likes orderliness and rigidity, especially considering her relationship with her mother and her time in an orphanage, I felt like the author was overly reliant on this fact about Esme in a way that started to feel like a parody. A lot of Esme’s analogies, internal monologues, and her banter with Sybil revolve around clocks in a way that felt emblematic of poor or weak characterization. After a while, this usage of clocks in this story just became annoying.

I also feel that Esme barely grappled with the fact that she had been financially supporting someone who came from generational wealth without her knowledge. I think she spent essentially no time at all processing this realization when she found out about it, which felt very strange to me. I understand that this is likely because the characters were operating on a strict timeline, but I would have expected her to be way angrier after this realization, even if she loves Sybil very much.

Honestly, I was much more excited to read about Chloe and Hyacinth’s relationship as definite “nemeses” rather than the story of Sybil and Esme, which was disappointing. This was unfortunately a miss for me. 2.5/5 stars

Also, it needs to be remarked that the formatting of the eARC I received was horrible. There were no indentations on any of the paragraphs, random images breaking up the pages, random capitalizations for any of the chapters, etc. It turned the pages into unreadable blobs of text. I waited until I could read the published version in order to review this book because I found it so unreadable, and I don’t know how this got pushed through to advanced readers in this state. I don't want to sound ungrateful since I received a free copy of this book, but the author's work deserves more respect and I felt that this was a disservice to their craft for the publisher to push out a book looking like this to advanced readers.

Despite being such a short book at around 300 pages, I struggled to get through this quickly. It just felt like it was missing something, that spark that grabs you - I found myself not connecting to the characters. I believe that if this book had had another 50-100 pages, we could've had a lot more development and this book would've been a lot stronger. The worldbuilding needed some serious exploration especially in terms of the Fae side, and despite that being where the majority of the girls' quest takes place, we don't actually get there until halfway through the story. I think this had a great concept and great potential, but the final product doesn't live up to that. I did like Sybil and Esme, however, and I enjoyed their friendship developing into romance - I just wish that we'd had more of a development for their friendship.

Two sapphic thieves get themselves involved in a heist stealing from a fae queen. Set in a world that is vibrant and unforgettable, with characters who feel real and fully fleshed out. The added historical references give this story an extra layer of depth.

I was looking forward to reading this book, because the cover had me hooked from the first moment I laid my eyes on it and I saw that it was supposed to be a sapphic romance. That's why it makes me so sad to say that it was a big disappointment. I found it really hard to connect with the characters and immerse in the plot. The world building was interesting at times, with all the faeries and folklore (it reminded me of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, which I didn't love but it definitely had a distinctive atmosphere). The plot was too slow at the beginning to actually have me hooked. At the same time I was not expecting for it to lean towards "cosy" end of the spectrum that much, and because I prefer more action in my fantasy, I may not have been the perfect audience for this story. But for me the romance was too boring and plot - utterly unoriginal.

I'm a fan of cozy fantasy, and this fit the bill perfectly. The story moved slowly in some places, but it worked well.

Thank you to Peachtree Teen and NetGalley for the ARC.

I was more interested in the atmosphere of the book as that seemed to have been one of the strengths of the book. The description of the world was one of the strong elements. I found myself loosing interest here and there, but powered through. It was an entertaining read and somewhat cozy, but no wholly cozy.

This book had its ups and downs. I related to Esme a lot, with her being a people pleaser and afraid of taking big risks. I loved all the cats, but never really understood her fascination with clocks. I thought it would be relevant later in the book but it never was, it was just one of her little quirks.

I liked the fae world and a lot of the book reminded me of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. This could just be because they both involve fae with similar characteristics and with Lucien researching fae as well.

I found the plot to be a little slow at the beginning and I lost interest and the connection to the characters after a while. I don't know what it was, but I cared more about Oliver the cat than Esme or Sybil.

This book was fine, but I don't know if I would really recommend it.

Thank you to Holiday House, Peach Tree, Pixel+Ink and NetGalley for an Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sapphic friends-turned-lovers romantasy with beautiful world description and intriguing and mysterious characters. Sybil is a poster thief trying to pay her portion of rent when her and her roommate Esme, who has a tendency to take in strays, cats and humans alike, are presented with a well paying heist opportunity which takes them on a journey through Fae and back.

This book had beautiful descriptions of the world that you could picture easily as you were reading. The character development was more than I anticipated from a 300-ish page book which I liked a lot. If you are a fan of beautiful prose you will enjoy this story and where it takes you.

It is my understanding that this is a standalone and there were a few plot points that I felt could’ve been tied up a little better but I wasn’t all that mad about them and it didn’t take away from the overall story telling. Overall I had a very enjoyable time with this story and the characters.

This book was the warm cup of tea I needed! I have read Jamie Pacton’s other books and know I already like her writing style and that was the same in this book! Absolutely love the author’s style as well as the plot and vibes of this book! The main characters were super cute and I loved the slow burn, secret love. This fantasy book was exactly what I needed to relax, unwind, and escape to a world of fae, magic and heists! Loved this book!

Esme & Sybil are flatmates who’s secretly in love with each other from the very beginning. But Sybil has another secret: she’s secretly half fae. They live on a very tight budget to the point that they’re willing to steal posters to get extra money from poster collectors. It’s a very risky activity so Esme made Sybil promise that that night would be their last time stealing posters.

That’s their last night all right, because one of the poster owners caught them at their transaction with a buyer and hired them to steal something from fae.

So this story is leaning heavily on heists, but it irritated me so much how they pine for each other in every chapter. Just get it over already my God. the plot isn’t too original but at least it’s bearable to get through.

I've been a fan of Jamie Pacton's book for a while, so when I saw she was writing an art nouveau era friends-to-lovers sapphic fantasy, I knew I had to read it! I loved the world-building in this, and the chemistry between Esme and Sybil was slow-burn and super sweet.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🧚🐈‍⬛🕰️💎🐲

The Absinthe Underground is a cute quick read about two best friends who end up on a heist to steal the Fae Queen's jewels after being caught stealing a poster of the model. The world dabbles in magical creatures, Fae, and keys that unlock doors to other worlds.

Best friends, Sybil and Esme are best friends and roommates (and are totally in love with each other, but too scared to say anything) and are in dire need of rent money hence why they agree to go on this heist, even though it's dangerous, in a world of the unknown and there are plenty of things that could go wrong. I enjoyed the storyline and how the mission played out. Lots of twists and turns that keep you wanting to know more.

I feel like this was written in a way that there could be a book two coming, but even if there isn't, I recommend this book. If you like fae, magic, dragons, sapphic friends-to-lovers, and heists, then this book is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley for the copy of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

This had a lot of potential but ultimately, it fell flat for me. I was really excited for the sapphic romance, but I couldn't get invested in the characters and their struggles. I think that this book will ultimately find its audience, but it just wasn't my cup of tea and was, overall, just very forgettable (hence the short review).

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

The Absinthe Underground is a lighthearted sapphic fantasy that has the magical feel of a Disney or Hayao Miyazaki movie. In fact I would love to see either of them tackle this story because I can envision the art deco inspired animation. If you like magic, lgbtq stories, Paris, or art history you should definitely give this book a try.