2.5⭐️

I knew This Will Be Fun was a must read when I saw it marketed as The Princess Bride meets PWMOV - these are two of my most favorite things - and I can definitely see the comparisons. I’m feral for friends to lovers and a second chance (and we get two!) and was looking forward to these seeing these tropes woven in with a quest. Unfortunately, for me, the pacing of this story was very uneven and the quest storyline was muddled with the “will they or won’t they” drama.

I love a fantasy that is brimming with quirky and whimsical elements, but I was a bit confused by this world, especially since the world building was nonexistent. The magic embraced all things whimsical, but the inclusion of more modern technology and speech felt very out of place - think Ella Enchanted the film. The tv shows, magical message tapestries, elevators, and holograms, to name a few, left me baffled. It was a bit odd and I struggled with the marrying of medieval and modern.

It’s always fascinating to read stories with multiple authors and this book has three. I was intrigued how multiple voices would translate on the page with the characters and overall story. Beatrice and Clare’s POVs felt similar in tone, but their voices overshadowed Elowen and the story became heavily focused on their fighting and relationship drama. I was very invested in Elowen’s and wanted more of her and Vandra, the sexy assassin.

I think the authors had an excellent premise and I really enjoyed the beginning of the story and seeing the characters heal and mend their friendship, but ultimately, I think there were too many competing storylines which led to the uneven pacing - and said quest didn’t even start until well over the halfway mark and then the drama of the defeating the villain was over in the blink of an eye.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Trope: Magical/Romantasy
Spice: 🔥🔥

Synopsis: Imagine "The Princess Bride" meets "People We Meet on Vacation" in this romantasy tale. A decade ago, a group of friends—Beatrice, Elowen, Clare, and their valiant leader Galwell the Great—saved the magical land of Mythria. Their heroic deeds became legendary, but the cost was high, and they haven't spoken since. Now, they're brought back together by an invitation to the queen of Mythria's wedding, setting the stage for an unexpected adventure.

Thoughts: I felt like the world building was lacking in the book. The world was essentially the 1600s with castles and castles with people who can wield magic sporadically missed in. The book focused more on the characters and how they handled the previous quest and how they reacted afterwards. They all went on their own journey and we see this with the 3 POVs. Miscommunication was a big part of this book, which is my least favorite. I did enjoy the rekindling of the relationships.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the advanced Reader e-proof for my honest review.

This Will Be Fun is an interesting concept with good humor that failed to grab me like other fantasy comedies such as Princess Bride or elements of D&D.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early e-copy!

*3.5 rounded down*
I loved the idea of this book! The low-stakes/cozy vibes were pretty spot on, but for a story that depends so much on the characters, I think I was just expecting more- more to make me truly care about them and more information on the world that they’re in.

I would definitely suggest this to any cozy fantasy reader, and I do think I would read it again.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC. It was a fun fantasy read that focused heavily on relationships. Though a slower read, the plot was very character driven with a lot of great depth and growth. We see life after loss with their first quest, and then rediscovering how to process emotions and repair both friendship & relationships in their second quest. The mental health representation was excellent which I think is rare for a fantasy book. If you’re looking for simple world building and an easy to follow magic system, with characters who will make you laugh, this book is for you.

This was a fun, low stress, rom-quest! A story of friendship, fresh starts, and defining what it means to be a hero. I loved the quirk characters, but also discovering their back stories and emotional issues - particularly pertaining to their quest to save the realm 10 years in the past. They've since parted ways and have their reasons for not speaking to each other. However, when the Queen needs them once more, they put their issues behind them to journey once more. I loved the silly "modern" aspects thrown in, the funny towns and festivals, and the romances sprinkled in. It felt a little slow at times and the quest was almost too low stakes. Overall super enjoyable and cozy!

*3.5 stars*
I had a hard time getting into this book. It’s more character driven than plot driven, which wasn’t quite what I was expecting. For the first half, it felt like not a lot was happening, and there was a lot of eluding to past events without completely revealing what exactly happened (until around the 40% mark). Things did pick up a bit maybe around the halfway mark, but I wasn’t really feeling either of the romances. The magic in this world led to a lot of modern-world parallels – chain coffee shops, riding sharing, tabloids, social media, video streaming, etc. It made the story a bit quirky, though for me this magic almost felt a little too convenient at times. In the end, this book didn’t capture my interest as well as I thought it would, but I could see how others might really enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager for the review copy of This Will Be Fun! All opinions in my review are completely my own.

This was such a fun cozy read. I enjoyed the characters and their world.

Thank you to netgalley for my advanced copy, my opinions are my own.

This is a “rom-quest” by three authors: Bridget Morrissey, Emily Wibberly, and Austin Siegemund-Broka. I have read and enjoyed books by all of them! This is their first collaboration and first fantasy book, and I think it’s fairly easy to tell. I had a good time reading this one, but it felt like a fantasy book written by people who’ve read very few fantasy books. The writing was in many places kind of clunky. I enjoyed the characters themselves, and the plot had a lot of very good (and funny) moments, but overall it just felt like a caricature of a romantasy book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Oh my god - this was so pleasantly surprising as a novel. It just fulfilled all the cozy fantasy/questing vibes that you might want, and the way in which the author weaves in elements of their shared adventure and past is just enough that I have enough information without needing to write a whole prequel quest book. And I must say, I so enjoyed this unique choice of timeline - I love that we aren't delving into the details of the "save the world" but rather in this unhurried, after-the-story timeline, where we pick up with our heroes and how they've suffered from their quests.

We have 3 POVs, heroes who have completed their quest to save the world, reeling from the loss of their leader and figuring out what life might look like 10 years later. Each one of our heroes is suffering from different impacts of their fame. One suffers from immense guilt; the other from hatred for the world for taking away her brother; the final from imposter syndrome. All of them have gone their separate ways in isolation, despite the fact that Clare and Beatrice have this yearning and second-chance romance to them, and Elowen has her own little sapphic love story grumpy-sunshine thing going on.

For any fans of the Hart & Mercy series and their world, this book will absolutely satisfy that cozy adventurous itch, while simultaneously addressing incredibly serious topics without being overwhelming or heavy handed.

What happens after the quest is done? In This Will Be Fun we find a group of former friends forced back together. They saved the world, but haven't spoken since. Now, as they journey together to a wedding their past feelings and miscommunications are brought into the light. This story is part fantasy, adventure, and romance. It doesn't take itself too seriously and the world rules are a bit gray, however, I found this added to the fun. I enjoyed the group's exploits more than the romances. The story leans into the characters hiding their feelings and isolating themselves. As a reader, this is a frustrating trope and what I liked the least about the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is interesting. It is a very heavy character driven book but the 3 main characters are okay. They aren't very "loud" personalities so it comes off as dull and hard to really get into the book. The characters are trying to navigate grief and old history when given another quest that brings them together. The quest is a side plot but their interactions is suppose to be the star of the book. From the 3 povs I didn't really care for any of them, they each have interesting magic and own personal conflicts but again they are very meh personalities that nothing really stood out and the plot was so minor and nothing major happens to make it super compelling. Overall the book was okay. I do love that all the characters are in their 30s and not in their 20s and with them being older they aren't parents. The story started off wonderfully but as it went on it started to fall off.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the opportunity to read their E-ARC. This is my honest opinion.

I enjoyed the idea of this book. The concept of a group of adventurers reuniting for one last adventure is a sitcom waiting to happen. The world inside this novel was also creative with a sprinkling of modern technology in fantasy. It's very tongue-in-cheek and I found it amusing. The plot itself just felt very slow and repetitive in information dumping. It was written by three authors and I think this attributed to some of this problem.

Quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. Terrible characters, zero plot, nothing happens. Even the intense battle scenes lacked any action.

Thank you to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and EB Asher for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This Will Be Fun is truly that, fun. The translation of modern concepts (paparazzi, tv shows, Las Vegas) to versions appropriate to the time are so creative.

The history and camaraderie amongst the questors is a fun dynamic that brings its own conflict AND enjoyment.

Read if you like:
-3 POVs
-Sapphic love
-Cozy Fantasy
- Second chance romance x2
-Saving the realm

This Will Be Fun is indeed fun. Memorable characters on a quest while dealing with the fallout of their previous outing takes current details and places them in the context of this undefined, rather-medieval time. Twists and turns while we are taken back and forth between the different character's perspectives from the past and now.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for an E-ARC of this book.

This Will Be Fun was a book that piqued my interest when I first started to see the arc's circulating social media. The description sold me as soon as I read it was The Princess Bride meets People We Meet on Vacation. But after finishing this book I think it's a bit more than that. This reminded me of Shrek, Ella Enchanted, The Princess Bride, and many other movies that held that "traditional Fantasy" setting with quirky and fun representations of the modern world but "medieval-ized".

We follow 3 different POV's of former friends and realm "heroes" 10 years after their greatest and last adventure together to save their realms Queen. Reunited to attend a royal wedding, they never thought to speak again but happen to find themselves on a new adventure.

This is classified as a cozy fantasy and I would say that it leans more in this direction despite the plot running around an adventure. This is much more of a character driven story than a plot driven and while I enjoyed myself it took me at least halfway through the book before I could become fully invested.

It normally doesn't bug me when we jump into the center of an already existing story where all the characters have history and a backstory but I still feel like this book just scraped the surface level of the depth it could've gone. I love a cozy fantasy, I don't even mind character driven stories instead of plot based ones. But, while I enjoyed this book I had pre-set my expectations lower after reading a couple reviews before starting my own arc. This focuses almost exclusively on the 2 separate second chance romances in the story and while there is action and adventure it is very much glanced over or solved relatively quickly. The romance is also almost exclusively pining and sometimes repetitive in their fretting over the same things. I was also left a bit unclear on how the magic system actually functioned, at times it felt like magic was extremely common but then at the same time only a select few possessed it and it was rarer.

Unlike a few others the modern day ideas but made medieval didn't bother me, I enjoy this type of tongue in cheek humor and thought they had achieved that well. It was a cute story, I was surprised to find out it was written by 3 different authors and I think that may have been part of the reason some ideas didn't quite connect for me. Maybe a couple more passes, or even a prequel novella would've helped me connect a little deeper.

I do recommend this book, especially for those who are looking for a character driven cozy fantasy that has very minimal spice and light adventure.

<i>This Will Be Fun</i> is a tale about three ex-friends who once saved the realm. It features incredibly lovable characters (both main and secondary), a lot of character growth and healing, and some hilarious scenarios and timing. But it's also accompanied by poor pacing, a plot that isn't well laid out (or perhaps thought out), and a questionable ending. I'm having the hardest time rating this book because while the character work was top notch, and the cozy fantasy vibes were on point, the storyline really struggled, which made it hard for me to stay focused.

A cozy romantasy novel about a group of heroes after their heroic deeds, This Will Be Fun is an enjoyably-contemporary work of magical fiction. The novel starts just before the heroes save the city, and then jumps a decade into the future, where they are grappling with fame (or infamy) and the messy parts of life. I particularly enjoyed the stand-ins for technology in this world, with their own Uber-style chariot services, magical text message alternatives, and so on. In all, it was a thoroughly clever novel.

Content warnings: divorce, grief, past loss of a sibling, kidnapping, violence

Elowen, Beatrice, and Clare are heroes of the realm -- three quarters of the mythical Four that saved the kingdom of Mythria. The fourth who didn't live to see their success was Elowen's brother Galwell, who sacrificed himself to save the world.

But what happens when the quest is over and the heroes have to return to regular life? The novel joins the heroes a decade later, with each shouldering the burden of the past in different ways. Clare is a celebrity who's often voted as the Sexiest Man Alive, Elowen lives as a hermit with her online friends for company, and Beatrice is witnessing the end of her marriage to a nobleman.

When they cross paths again, a new threat is growing and our antiheroes are the ones most equipped to save the day once again. They must also face their shared loss and the past that drove them apart.

The novel reads like a fantasy set in modern times; you can hire an Uber (wagon), magazines are published, there's an online community, and shadow plays are like modern TV. The modern-but-not world gives this book a very different feel from typical sword and sorcery fantasy novels. Recommended for fans of contemporary fantasy and humorous fantasy.