I was looking forward to this book after finishing Mortal Follies. I was excited to see what new predicament this friend group found themselves in. Mr. Caesar was more interesting in the last book compared to this one. There were some intriguing goings on, but I found my mind wandering a lot. I believe this was partly due to the language used in the story. It felt more formal and verbose than the last book. I enjoyed it at first, but it impeded the plot to the point that I stopped reading. I didn’t feel much chemistry between Mr. Caesar and Captain James either. I made it halfway through before I quit from lack of interest.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall! My first Alexis Hall ARC!

It’s time for gay, fantastical Bridgerton, y’all. Filled with Hall’s usual blend of wit and whimsy, it’s an amusing, chaotic, daring trip worth the read. Part romance, part familiar drama, all wild and entertaining.

John Caesar takes the responsibility seriously of finding his sister, Mary, a suitable match to marry, ensuring it will let him return to his life of leisure and freedom. This is easier said and done, and further complicated by fae troublemakers and the high standards of societal eyes. When plot-drama-bad choices cause Mary to be in distress and him to cross paths with Captain Orestes James, the two of them set off to rescue Mary and maybe find something more for themselves, too. Mary isn’t a side dish to the romance dinner, but a fleshed out character in her own right.

I’ll be honest - I’ve read a lot of Hall’s books and sometimes they hit just right and sometimes they just aren’t for me. But they’re always a good time, and there’s something comforting about reading them. You know you’re in for something silly, and charming, and gay - if a little disjointed at times. I was similarly charmed, befuddled and entertained this time around. Catch you for the next confounding, campy adventure.

Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall is an ambitious novel that attempts to blend humor, classic literature references, and a sprawling cast of characters into a single narrative. However, while the book has its strengths, it also has some notable shortcomings that may detract from the reader’s overall experience.

One of the most jarring aspects of the novel is the unexpected and graphically described animal sacrifice. The inclusion of this scene feels unnecessary and uncomfortable, disrupting the flow of the story and potentially alienating some readers. This is one of the awful things that mars what could have otherwise been a great read.

The novel also assumes a high level of familiarity with classic literature. While this might appeal to readers well-versed in the classics, it can be alienating for those less familiar with these references. The use of both first and full names for the characters adds to the confusion, making it challenging to keep track of who is who, particularly given the novel’s expansive cast. This, combined with the large number of characters, makes the story feel cluttered and difficult to follow. A more focused narrative with a smaller cast could have benefitted the novel greatly.

The narrator of Confounding Oaths is undoubtedly entertaining, but the witty and humorous narration sometimes creates a barrier between the reader and the characters. The constant asides and clever quips, while amusing, can prevent deeper emotional connections, leaving the reader feeling distanced from the characters' experiences and struggles.

In conclusion, Confounding Oaths is a novel with great potential, but it could have benefitted from tighter editing and trying to do less things. While the humour and literary references might resonate with some, the graphic content, large cast, and occasionally distancing narration may make it a challenging read for others.

A SOLID 4.75 stars from me! First things first- do you need to read Mortal Follies before Confounding Oaths? Strictly speaking, no. Mortal Follies was only 3.75 stars for me, but I know for a fact that I wouldn't have enjoyed Confounding Oaths nearly as much without the ground work from Mortal Follies. I loved the return of some of my favorite characters and ultimately the story and plot of this book was much more enjoyable than that of book 1. The only thing I don't like about this book is that I can't halfway turn my brain off because of the way it is written, but that's also part of the appeal. I would love to see how this reads as an audiobook! I sincerely hope this isn't the end of our journey with Alexis Hall and her quirky cast of characters.

I think I'm just not the right reader for this book. There were definitely aspects I enjoyed. There were lines that made me grin, plenty of clever writing, and some plot elements I really liked. Unfortunately the way it was written I never felt fully engaged. Even the plot points that I felt some excitement over never fully grabbed me, partly because of the pacing and partly because of the disengaged nature of the narrator. I did like the narrator, they brought a lot of humor to the book, but because of that distance from the characters, I never felt any emotion while reading. Since I never felt really engaged I ended up bored during large chunks. If you're looking for fantasy that's witty and a bit cutting, this might be your cup of tea. It just wasn't mine.

this looks like it's more of an "it's me, not the book" sort of issue. i've tried one of hall's books before and dnfed pretty quick in, but i was hoping this would be different. unfortunately, i just couldn't enjoy the book as much as i think i could have because i kept nitpicking at minor details. 3 stars for the humor and character depth though!

As a fantasy book, I really enjoyed Confounding Oaths, but the romance was really lackluster to me. It was lust at first sight, which is typical in romance books, but there didn’t seem to be any type of relationship development when it came to the two MCs. Actually, all the characters seemed pretty one dimensional with the exception of Robin and Miss Bickle. They are the only reason I haven't given up on this series entirely.

The wit of the narrator is the only reason I am giving the book three stars. I need Alexis Hall to give us a book where Robin is the main character.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House-Ballantine for the ARC of Confounding Oaths.

This sequel to Mortal Follies was even better than that first book in the series. The humor and fantastical elements were again out in great force, with really intriguing fantasy worldbuilding this time around—instead of all the fantasy elements seeming like a bit of behind-the-scenes, semi-private skulduggery, out of the view of polite society, this time the magic was right at the center of everything. It was fascinating to see how fairies and magic fit into this slightly ahistorical, wonderfully madcap version of Regency England. While the central romance was important to the story, more central were the family dynamics and the question of how to resolve the issue of a sibling disdained by society for racist reasons being turned into bewitching, living glass by a malicious fairy—and this whole plotline was amazingly fun.

This sequel to Mortal Follies was even better than that first book in the series. The humor and fantastical elements were again out in great force, with really intriguing fantasy worldbuilding this time around—instead of all the fantasy elements seeming like a bit of behind-the-scenes, semi-private skulduggery, out of the view of polite society, this time the magic was right at the center of everything. It was fascinating to see how fairies and magic fit into this slightly ahistorical, wonderfully madcap version of Regency England. While the central romance was important to the story, more central were the family dynamics and the question of how to resolve the issue of a sibling disdained by society for racist reasons being turned into bewitching, living glass by a malicious fairy—and this whole plotline was amazingly fun. I'd love to see a romance for Mary next!

I think I read this book at the wrong time because I didn't fully enjoy it as much as I think I would have, if I picked it up at another time. I have liked Hall's works in the past, and knew that I liked their writing style and stories. However, this story was just kinda slow and more plot heavy that I was vibing with.

I like the world and I liked the characters, the story and romance were just too slow for me right now. i'll have to pick this up another time because I'd like to give this another chance. If you like Hall's works, then give this a chance too!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for a copy of this ARC.

3.5 stars, and I'm still wavering on whether that adjusts to 3 or 4. Currently rating 3 because I know Hall can do better. There are some really brilliant moments in the book, but I got tired of (most of) Puck's commentary pretty quickly, and in trying to balance between a fantasy plot and a romance I'm not sure if either got the focus and depth they deserved. I liked John Caesar's characterization and growth over the course of the book, but Captain James's depiction often felt fairly shallow, as did the relationship between them - one exception being a pointed conversation between Orestes and John toward the end of the book, which I think did a lot to illuminate both the captain's character and the relationship between the two.

I didn't read the first book in the series, and was annoyed enough by Puck that I'm not sure I ever will, but I think this book stands fine on its own.

Overall I found the story enjoyable, and it had just the right amount of humor and heart that I would expect from Alexis Hall. That said, I really struggled to get started and get into it. If I could give it 3.5 stars, that would be what I would give it. It started off very slow - and maybe because I haven't read Mortal Follies I was more confused than I would have been. If you are the kind of person who has to be sucked into a book within the first few chapters, this one probably won't do it.

Once it got going, I really enjoyed the silly, ridiculous, but extremely entertaining run of the story. At times it felt like diving into the way my ADHD brain thinks with the random asides and what I would call plot side quests. It wasn't as much of a romance as I was expecting it to be, but the way it told a story about all the kinds of family that you have in your life made up for that. If you're expecting bodice ripping spice, this ain't it and that's okay. Sometimes you just need an actual story.

I liked the way that it was told from the narrator's perspective. That's not something that would be enjoyable for everyone, but it worked for this. Overall worth the read!

(I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for my review)

3.5 stars. I enjoyed Mortal Follies, albeit with some reservations, and was excited to see Alexis Hall (an overall favorite) continue the series with the escapades of the Caesar family, narrated again by the hobgoblin Robin (also known as Puck, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream), in Confounding Oaths. The narration here is a bit tighter than in the first, still full of sarcasm, snark, and silliness, and was delightful once again - this voice really sets Hall's series apart from other fantasy romances. Confounding Oaths is more of a family and adventure story, following John Caesar, his sisters, and his parents as they deal with a wish made by one of John's sisters, as well as a group of soldiers nicknamed the Irregulars and led by Captain Orestes James. This wide cast of characters was quite fun and had a range of personalities and roles, from the variety of soldiers to the abolitionists and interracial couple Mr. and Mrs. Caesar, and back to returning characters from Mortal Follies (I'm always amused by Lizzie Bickle).

I was surprised, though, that the romance took quite a backseat in this book. John and Captain James get together very early on and spend the book figuring out what they are to each other and what they want in the future. While Hall is so gifted at developing relationships, we don't see that in this book, in which we get very little about why the two care about each other or much about Captain James. In its place, the book is much more of an fantasy adventure, with the group trying to fix the situation that John's sister Mary has ended up in. That was entertaining, but I wish it had been balanced out by more of the romance, which we know Hall can write so well.

Thanks so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

Alexis Hall is a must-read, must-buy author for me. In this series, he takes bolder chances and tries things out in his writing style. While this wasn't my favorite of his recent publications, I still loved his signature humor and how he wrote the narration of this book.

In Mortal Follies, the characters and their story were my favorite part, but in this one, I was much more intrigued by our narrator (the fairy from A Midsummer Night's Dream) and his adventures throughout the moral world. He's flitting between all of our characters here and offering hilarious and interesting quotes like "history is won by the writers," which I thought was quite profound for a romantasy!

This book was very plot-focused with less focus on our characters' romance, which was fairly easy as historical gay interracial romances go. There was a lot going on with the fairies, and the wishes, and the sword fights (a LOT of sword fights)! I had some trouble telling our characters apart since we were dealing with a family, particularly with Mary and Anne.

I think Hall is doing some very exciting things with his work, and I'm always looking forward to more!!!

Puck, the deliciously unreliable narrator of "Confounding Oaths" and its predecessor, "Mortal Follies," hopes we're reading "primarily for the cruelty," which is fair warning that the upcoming comedy will be well mixed with pain and bloodshed. (And also, since Puck is unreliable, that spritely narrators may not be quite as heartless as they'd have you believe.)

The Mortal Follies books are what you might call reality-based fantasy romances: our protagonist, John Caesar, is of mixed race and also is the grandson of an earl, so he and his family are privileged while also being subjected to the expectable racist nonsense. John's love interest, the dashing Orestes James, is a captain in the British army -- but he didn't buy his commission, rather being elevated to his present rank because he saved Wellington's life. He grew up in the slums of St. Giles; plus, he's Black. So he has the privilege of rank and the -- un-privilege, let's say, of race and class.

The plot and the perils here are set in motion when John (ineffectually) punches a snotty, racist major for insulting his sister and thereby incurs the major's book-long thirst for vengeance. Meanwhile the sister, Miss Mary Caesar, who has been (equally ineffectually) trying to live up to a slender, straight-haired, fair-complexioned ideal, makes a fervent wish for beauty -- which is granted. At, of course, a deadly price.

Mind you, "Confounding Oaths" is very funny; it's also coldly clear-eyed about its themes. John Caesar isn't a bad person at the outset, but he's trying to be the elder brother who knows what's best for his sisters, and he doesn't quite see either Captain James or the captain's men as fully valuable in the way he and his family are valuable. It takes some time, some sharp words from Captain James, and some humbling events for him to change. And there is, eventually, a happy ending of sorts -- but, as Puck reminds us, life is precarious and a soldier's life especially so.

Though the love stories in the Mortal Follies books end well (for a given value of "end well") and the curses are undone, high prices are paid. Gods and fairies demand blood sacrifices. Our world also kills. For my money, both books are underrated, I suspect owing to the combination of pretty covers with genre expectations about supernatural romance. You don't have to read primarily for the cruelty, but plan on it. Plan on being unsettled.

Thanks to Random House / Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF at 20% - I could not get into this one and I’m really not a fan of insta-love/lust that happened a few chapters ago

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I didn’t 100% love Mortal Follies, but I’m an Alexis Hall stan even when they write stuff I’m not a fan of, and this was one of the better books in that department. So, I decided to go into the next book, Confounding Oaths, with an open mind. But somehow, this book was both more of the things I really enjoyed and yet a major step down.
Once again, I loved the narrator, although the narrator was also the source of my grievances. Hall has this quintessentially British humor that really runs wild with these books in particular, and I enjoyed Robin’s delightful quips, the most memorable being one of dramatic irony, highlighting how “scandalous” a marriage between an aristocrat and POC would have been in the Regency England setting of the book (even a fictionalized version), while pointing out sarcastically that such an occurrence “in the enlightened twenty-first century” was “wholly unremarkable.” This book continues in a similar vein of having Robin both narrate and play a role in the narrative, and it’s still weird, but I’m more used to it this time around.
But once again, there is a distance from the other major players of the book, to the point of me not caring about them. I can’t tell you a single remarkable thing about John Caesar or Orestes James, beyond that they have really epic names, and their romance was incredibly tepid, even more so than the first book’s romance.
Additionally, even considering that Hall writes longer books, I felt this one was too long, given the general lack of much of interest beyond this tepid romance and Robin’s quirks to carry the book. I don’t know where the two books in this series land word count wise, but I sighed when I saw this one had 448 pages in the final copy, compared to Mortal Follies’ 416, as while the first book had some of the same issues with characters, it at least felt more light and evenly paced.
This was a disappointment, and while I still love Alexis Hall, I don’t know if I’ll continue this series if there are more books. But if this more detached style of romance storytelling works for you, and you enjoy lighthearted and whimsical fantasy, perhaps you’ll enjoy this more than I did.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Confounding Oaths was just as fun and engaging as Mortal Follies, if not more-so. I absolutely adore the whimsical nature of these books with an outside faerie narrator.

This book followed John Caesar, cousin of the first books protagonist, his romance with Captain Orestes James, and his younger sisters dealings with the faerie world.

I really liked the relationship between Caesar and James. It was unconventional and neither seemed altogether suited for the other and yet they fell for each other anyway. I loved that they were entangled with each other from the start, both helping save the other, both ensuring their lives are forever entwined.

I really liked the way race was handled in this. It truly broke my heart that Mary was made to feel less beautiful because of her African heritage and therefore her African features. But I love that she owned who she was in the end, that she wanted to connect with that side of herself, after so desperately wanting to throw it away.

The magic and inclusion of the faerie world was a lot of fun, as always. Turning a woman into glass because she asked to be beautiful? I would expect nothing less from the fae.

All in all, a great second addition to this world. I’d love to have Miss Bickle’s story next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for this honest review!!

Another beautiful and magical Alexis Hall book with Ana amazing cover. Whoever does this art deserves a raise. I also am a sucker for a good historical fantasy and I’m loving this series!

How do I explain just how much I loved this book?

I have not read Mortal Follies, but I need to go back now to catch up. I was hooked from the prologue when our impish narrator asked why I hadn’t read the first book yet and if I was determined to see him suffer. And then a few pages later, I became absolutely obsessed with Miss Bickle as she explained the concept of Jane Austen fanfiction to her friends without using any of these words: fanfiction, fandom, Jane Austen, Austenverse, or draft. I, too, am an “avid reader of the words of the anonymous lady author of Sense and Sensibility.”

I think that Lizzie Bickle and Catherine Morland would make excellent friends. Someone please write this fanfic.

So unfortunately Miss Bickle is not the main character of this book, but I hope that that is soon remedied in a later novel.

The actual MC is Mr. John Caesar, a biracial, 19 year old Regency dandy who is regretting his role as the older son who must marry off his younger sister, Miss Caesar. (There are two Caesar daughters, but remember: in this period, the eldest is Miss Caesar and the younger is Miss Anne.) At the ball, he spars with his ex, then gets in a fight with a guy who makes racist comments about his sister, and that’s when he meets the ~handsome~ Black soldier named Captain Orestes James. And…. then Mr. Caesar and Captain James must team up to save Miss Caesar from a very ill-advised bargain with a fairy. Our narrator, by the way, is a sprite who serves Oberon and hates Titania’s fae. He also hates Shakespeare.

The only other book I’d read from Alexis Hall was A Lady for a Duke, which was another very lovely, queer Regency romance. I’m usually cautious about Regency romances, but having read both of these books, I can trust Hall to write a Regency romance that doesn’t feel like it’s justifying colonialism or bigotry.

I knew this was a gay romance, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that race featured prominently in this! Lady Caesar is a white woman who married a Senegalese man, and the family is not always welcomed by the white gentry. The ball at the beginning of the novel is explicitly thrown by a French Indian, who has a tricky social position because he is rich but has to fight harder to prove his English patriotism due to the current war against Napoleon. Mr. Caesar and Captain James also have a discussion about how their different social positions put them in the company of people who either do or don’t accept them as they are.

The 10th Kingdom taught me to love any fairytale that teaches, “be careful what you wish for,” and this book delivered. I appreciated the character growth that each of the Caesar siblings had to learn, and I was happy to find a happily ever after that acknowledged that life would be hard but our lovers could endure. I mean, this is a series where fairies are always listening and Napoleon has not yet been defeated at Waterloo. The setting has constraints, and I like having those constraints. They ground the story.

If you have not read the first book, neither have I, so you will be able to catch on. We see the lovers from Book 1 a few times, but you will not be lost or confused having missed their story. It’s perhaps more important to be familiar with Midsummer Night’s Dream, since Puck might be our narrator. I’m not sure if a non-Shakespeare fan would be confused by the Titania/Oberon mentions.

In any case, this was a very lovely book that I plan to buy. It’s sweet, but the spice is not graphic because the narrator doesn’t care to watch. Mr. Caesar and Captain James are surrounded by good friends/family, and I laughed a lot.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine for this ARC.