A true "rom-quest" to adventure into. The characters are delightful and have enough depth to pull you in . The premise of the book is a quest completed but gone horribly wrong by losing a loved member of their team. We then come back to the story 10 years later to venture on the journey of healing. And of course a new quest! Can the team forgive themselves and each other and find a way back together? The second half of the book is where it picked up for me and more of the action ensued. It was the ending that I loved the best! Just when you thought it was a happy ever after the writers put the cherry on top! Pick this book up, it will be fun!

In "This Will Be Fun" by E.B. Asher, the once-renowned heroes of the realm (Mythria)—Beatrice, Elowen, and Clare—are summoned to the queen's wedding after a decade of estrangement, each bearing the scars of their past adventures. After arrival at their destination, they are asked to go together on a quest, despite their well-known avoidance of each other. While grappling with unresolved romantic tensions and the lingering guilt from their last quest, they must confront returning dark forces threatening the peace of the realm.
I found this story delightful. It pulled me right in and while it slowed a bit in the middle of the book, it ended in a way I enjoyed. It answers the question of what happens after the heroes save the world. Hint: It’s not all happy ever after.
The characters were each very interesting and funny, and I enjoyed the multi-POV storytelling so I could understand each of their motivations. I would absolutely read a sequel to this book and would hope to see the heroes on a quest again, though I would hate to see the realm threatened for a 3rd time in their lifetimes.

Big thanks to E.B. Asher, Avon, and Netgalley for the chance to read this book ahead of publication!

Can confirm, this was indeed fun. I saw some people compare this to Shrek, and I was like “say less, I’m in!” And I can see where they’re coming from in terms of the world building — it felt satirical in the way that Shrek is by including period-appropriate versions of things like Discord and Uber. But that’s where the similarities end, I think. I enjoyed the second-chance romances and friendships; however I think there was too large a focus on Clare and Beatrice hooking up again. Their romance overshadowed the quest, which I was hoping would be the bigger emphasis as the story progressed. In fact, I think the first half of the book was paced extremely slowly and I even struggled a bit to get past the 30-40% mark. Once the quest began, I was golden. Up until then, I was fighting for my life.
That said, Clare’s character development was top tier and I really enjoyed seeing how he grew as a person over the course of the story and found his way back to being himself. This was a character-driven story, and I think I was maybe expecting it to be more plot-driven, which is where the disconnect is happening for me.
Overall, I enjoyed this silly, cozy fantasy and will be recommending!

What a cool book. If I hadn’t read the description, I would’ve picked it up anyways because look how awesome the cover is.

A whimsical and witty take on a cozy fantasy, with two second-chance romances, reminiscent of The Princess Bride, Shrek, with a touch of Ella Enchanted. I would put this story as more romantic comedy forward with fantasy elements and plenty of yearning. The world is a feudal system with modern convivences, slang, and uncomplicated light magic. In concept, this story was fun and humorous, but at times the plot was repetitive and seemed to have an identity crisis- building up a quest but focusing on the relationships instead. The ending felt like a rush to resolve some plot points that were never actual fleshed-out in the first place.
I loved the quirkiness of modern elements reframed for a fantasy world and the characters are likable, but I struggled with the circular nature of their development and interactions. The lack of a decisive plot to move the story forward resulted in me taking much longer than normal to read this one. There is a group of people that will absolutely love this book, and I see a potential for a cult following, but I am unsure if it will appeal to the fantasy genre at large.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for giving me early access to this book! All opinions are my own.

This was a fun, lighthearted read that personifies the genre of cozy romantasy. I enjoyed the light romance, the character growth, and the overall setting. But, the anachronisms were a bit much. By the time I got to elevators powered by runes I was rolling my eyes. I think there were better ways to introduce modern concepts without it being tongue-in-cheek. That being said, I did still enjoy the rest of the story, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy romantasy! 3.5 ⭐️

The good:
Anachronistic fantasy realm setting, which I've found annoying in other stories was better done here- a little cutesy with the "definitely not an uber" carriage service and "definitely not starbucks" coffee chains, but not overly proud of itself about them.
The book advertises itself as a cozy romantasy, and that's absolutely what it is - it was easy to read, the romantic tension was pretty much the only tension in it, and the relationships were well developed with a long history that was fun to learn about.

The bad
Deus ex machina robs our heroes of the final conflict and make it more or less such that we shouldn't have had a conflict in the first place, rendering the plot pretty pointless.
Everything was a little too easy for the questers, including admitting to ten-year-old lies and mistakes that destroyed their relationships initially.

Overall, definitely light, enjoyable second-chance romance reading, but not going to scratch the itch if you're looking for a compelling adventure story as well. I'll be recommending it to a few of my friends who really like this type of cozy read! Thanks to NetGalley for the advance access!

Some parts of this are absolutely brilliant and some parts are...not. This had such potential and it was that potential that kept me reading through the entire thing, but having actually read the entire thing I can confidently say that this book has major structural problems. The first 40% of the book was completely superfluous, enough that it made me want to scream because it was just people being miserable for pages and pages and pages. The other major problem with this was the three person/two love stories format. I realize that they had three authors and the three authors shared equally, but this would have been _so_ much better if it had moved Elowen's story to another book and just focused on Beatrice and Clare. As it was, just as soon as you got anywhere with Claretrice, you went to Elowen and Vandra and all the momentum of the story was completely lost. This is an Avon book; it is customary to have each couple have their own book, so I have no idea why they tried to cram so much into this book. Overall, it's utterly depressing to contemplate how much better this book could have been with some future planning. Oh well. *sigh*

vibes: Shrek (but with some angst and lots of romance), Dungeons & Dragons, second chances all around, "we were doing so good and then reality happened'

Heat level: 5/10

The basics:

The heroic Four--Galwell the Great, his sister Elowen, their childhood friend Beatrice, and mercenary-turned-friend Clare Grandhart--are on the brink of saving the kingdom. And then they do... at the cost of Galwell's life. Ten years later, Elowen, Beatrice, and Clare haven't spoken since the funeral. But now, they're all obligated to attend the queen's wedding. Clare and Beatrice, whose tension-filled bickering turned to loathing after Galwell died, are begrudgingly on the same path. And Elowen is roped into going when the queen hires Vandra, an assassin she had a thing with on the last quest, into bringing her to the wedding. When all four crash into each other--compelled to save the day one more time--they have to deal with allllll the unresolved feelings. Romance! Adventure! Friendship! Pet eagles! YES.

The review:

Dude! This was so fun!

I was a little skeptical about whether or not this would actually be a romance. Short answer: yes it is, and you get two for the price of one. Two second chance romances for the price of one at that, which is always great for someone like me.

I didn't shelve this as a book with a secondary romance because for all intents and purposes, Clare and Beatrice's romance and Vandra and Elowen's romance really get almost equal time. They both have issues, they both have heat, they both have grand love confessions. The only thing that makes Clare and Beatrice a little more prominent is that there are three POVs in this book--Clare, Beatrice, and Elowen. Vandra doesn't have a POV, and while I get that she wasn't a part of the original Four... I would've liked it! She's on the page as much as the other three, and I loved her and her relationship with Elowen.

That quick critique aside: point is, as a romance reader you get a lot of different things, and it's great. You get Vandra cheerfully offering to consensually kidnap the introverted, awkward Elowen, and Elowen being unable to resist because like... Yeah dude. Vandra is just hot like that. You get Clare and Beatrice's unresolved "one night stand turned questmates falling in love turned people who aren't over each other but haven't been able to deal with their feelings ever since the big bad thing happened". Unresolved horniness! Intense feeling! It's all the type of shit a romance reader will gobble up.

However, the world is also a really great part of everything. It's very much fantasy by way of Shrek. Some of our characters speak to "heart healers", who can help them analyze their feelings. One watches "shadow plays", and boy is she into fandom. A heroine who once helped saved the world is kind of a messy bitch fresh off a divorce nowadays.

It's all very tongue in cheek and snarky, but in a very WHOLE FEELINGS way. You can tell these authors fully love this kind of setting, things like The Princess Bride and Dungeons & Dragons. Fondness and emotion is a huge part of the story. So yeah, while there are antics, you never lost that sense of like... cuddly softness. I mean, Clare literally has extended inner monologues about how much he loves his pet eagle. It's the cutest thing.

Often, cuteness is used to dodge a need for plot and character development in recently published romance novels. Here, that's not the case at all. You can tell that a lot of love was put into differentiating these characters, sending up archetypes while also subverting them. These aren't perfect people. They fuck up sometimes. It's actually quite refreshing to me that Beatrice and Elowen in particular are kind of... poorly adjusted ladies in their early thirties who need to work on their shit. Appreciate that representation. But beyond that, survivor's guilt and PTSD somehow fit so nicely into what is ultimately a really funny and really sweet fantasy romance novel? My God, we really can have it all.

I feel like there was a great balance between like... quest plot, relationship plot (both romantic and platonic, no bond is neglected) and funny little sidebars and quotes that had me bookmarking pages for later. Balancing between saving the world, kissing, and a character saving the day by autographing swords kind of creates a great palate-cleansing blend.

The Sex:

You only get two sex scenes in this book, one for each couple, and while they're explicit they're still a light touch in that sense. However, I found both of them sexy, and there's a ton of chemistry and tension in both romances. You get "questmates with benefits" on one side, and "man doggedly pursuing woman who pretends she doesn't give a shit" on the other. We all win.

I loved settling into this world for a romp. You get a strong voice here, great characters, romcom antics, and yeah, a lot of heart. I'd love to read another book in the same world--and hell, I'd love to see a miniseries made out of this one. It's just a really good time without being stakes-less, and that's not always easy to find. Go on the quest, I'd say.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found the book's premise to be intriguing. I adore reading science fiction and fantasy novels, and this one seemed like it might be enjoyable. The narrative, characters, and writing style were all appealing to me.

As contained reading, I did not enjoy it very much. The ending was abrupt, and it made no sense to the storyline. I felt like it was very rushed to the rest of the book. I loved the concept for the book, but was not executed very well. It started out fun but felt receptive in nature.

I hate to be one of the few to write a negative review, but this book was not very good. I wish I could have dnf it. This book took me longer to finish than it should've because I had to keep pushing myself to keep going. Overall a good, but not great, read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A group of four, leader Galwell, sister Elowen, her best friend Beatrice and ex-bandit Clare, had joined forces
to save Mythria ten years ago. While successful, it ended with Galwell's death. Since then the three have not
spoken or kept in touch. Called to attend the queen's wedding, the queen's betrothed has been kidnapped and Mythria
is again threatened. As the three venture forth to the rescue, discovering what drove them apart will aid in accomplishing their mission.
Character driven story with magic.
#ThisWillbeFun #Avon #HarperVoyagerV#NetGalley

This book was cozy and fun, and goofy in the best way.

We follow 3 former heros after a tragic end to their first quest. The horrible ending of their realm renowned quest tore what used to be a very tight group apart. Fast forward 10 years and the reader gets to follow along how these old friends, now estranged, regroup, and learn who they are all over again.

Following 3 different POVs, this book is refreshing in each individual persona. How they each have dealt the with the results of the first quest and have revelations along the way in this new story is fulfilling to watch.

The magic system in this book is so silly, I found myself giggling more than once. This is a supposed middle ages story, but there are magics that give it a modern play. There are so many nods to pop culture and modern technology but built around magic as it could be considered in a far off time, and then connecting those two things was so fun.

I found the characters to be endearing and heartfelt, likeable but flawed.

If you want a silly Romcom/fantasy with lots of modern twists mashup, this is definitely a read for you.

Overall: recommend!

I thought the premise for this book was interesting. I enjoy sci-fi/fantasy books, and I thought this sounded like it would be a fun read. I liked the characters and the story and the writing style; the thing that kept it from receiving an extra start was the out-of-place use of profanity. While it was not excessive, it did not fit with the tone of the story, and the carefully-crafted use of regular language. Each instance was very jarring, and felt like it pulled me out of the world that had otherwise drawn me in. If the authors have a chance to edit before publication, my first recommendation would be just to remove the profanity since it felt unnecessary (e.g., it did not feel like it was central to the characterization of any one person, and was used by several); failing that, if the authors believe it is critical to keep it, perhaps they could spend some time crafting creative words/phrases that would fit more seamlessly with the rest of the writing style(s) that seemed to be intentional. The “F-bombs” truly felt like bombs in this instance, and detracted from an otherwise interesting read. (I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for my unbiased review.)

This story was amazing! I love fantasy stories, and this did not disappoint. It takes the perspective of what happens to heroes AFTER they've saved the day? The Four, Galwell, Elowen, Beatrice, and Clare, stopped an uprising and saved the day, unfortunately losing Galwell in the process. Unfortunately, this trauma caused the other three, Elowen, Galwell's sister, Beatrice, her best friend, and Clare, the mercenary, to lose contact with each other. Ten years later, Elowen is hiding away in the trees, Beatrice just got divorced from her noble husband, and Clare is touring the country lapping up adoration when they receive a invitation to the Queen's wedding. Her prospective is kidnapped, however, and who could possibly save them? The remaining Three certainly don't want to, but reluctantly take up the quest. Will they be able to save the day again?

The characters are well developed and very likable-the reader will be rooting for them to reconcile while eagerly anticipating the continuing action. You find a lot of stories about heroes and quests, but you don't often see what happens later. I thought that it was a novel idea, and I really enjoyed it! I would definitely recommend this for fantasy readers.

This book both followed standard tropes and managed to find the balance in humor and alternative storytelling that brought it above a basic tale.

World Building 4*
Characters 4*
Plot 4*
Writing 4*

I really appreciated the world building that went on in this book. I love the parallels the author drew between medieval fantasy and modern. It was fun to imagine the other shops that might exist.

The characters were both relatable and interesting. Each had their own issues, as you would expect from heroes 'after the adventure.'

The plot was fun and while it was predictable, it was so in only the most delightful of ways. Sometimes that contract is what really matters.

The author's writing was engaging and easy to read.

I enjoyed this quest story of friendship, courage, grief, and romance. Several laugh out loud moments. I preferred the friendship storylines to the at-this-point-somewhat-formulaic dual straight and queer romantic storylines.

DNF @ 20% - three coauthors is perhaps too many. It felt messy and weirdly flat all at once, and I feel like the (many, many) old timey fantasy versions of modern conveniences didn't work for me in print. To me they're fun as a visual gag in a fantasy spoof movie/show but felt off to read about so frequently/in depth here. I also found zero of the three POV characters engaging enough to want to stick with this to see if it improves. Disappointing, but ultimately not surprising after learning who the three authors are.

The title sums up the book-

Fun, very reminiscent of Meg shafer’s sort of story telling/ which is amazing, we need more whimsy for adults!!!!


I enjoyed this one, the multiple stories, the background/ the survivors guilt and trying to move past that- deeper topics, yet still fun.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

The modern update to a fantasy realm didn't bother me one bit.

What DID bother me was when we could have plot moving forward, we instead rehashed (several times, sometimes just paragraphs apart) either the past, the recent past or just inner monologue. Honestly it took a lot of time up and had me just wanting to move on.

For what the book is - a romantic fantasy wrapped in a quest - it's fine even if the ending left me like wait what? But for cosy romantasy lovers that want a quick read, then yes this will be fun. Enjoy! 2.5 stars rounded up.

tl;dr
A cozy romantasy that spotlights two second chance romances. World building flounders a bit.

Thoughts
Dang. Gonna have to file this one under "not for me." The world is tongue-in-cheek modern: there are cell phones, video calls, web boards, streaming TV, Uber, and fandom conventions, all painted over with the thinnest veneer of magic explanation. (Other reviewers liken it to Shrek.) And while I don't mind a playful nod, it mostly made me wonder why there weren't magical analogs for other modern things. In a world with internet, why is everyone still fighting with swords? Why are they still riding horses and camping in a forest instead of using a magical flying "not airplane?" Why can't they track down the villain after ten years? Shouldn't they also have magical satellite imaging or CC TV by now? Am I overthinking this? Of course I am! But I prefer world building in a fantasy story to hold a certain amount of consistency, and no amount of coy winking at the camera about fantasy Amazon deliveries is going to make me stop wondering why the queen didn't kit out our heroes with a fantasy GPS tracker they could stick on the bad guy. I'm well aware I'm the curmudgeon here, and I am sorry. But the flippant approach to the world sure did make it feel like the part about the world ending doesn't matter that much. Fight scenes feel perfunctory compared to the time and energy spent on lovemaking scenes. One of the biggest wins happens off screen and is summarized in a single sentence later. And perhaps that's the point. Sure the world may end tomorrow, but what about the relationships? What about the people? What about the LOVE? We've got two second chance pairings here, with plenty of history, drama and a quick hit of spice. They're all likable characters, so your enjoyment will hang entirely on how you feel about second chance romance. Unfortunately, I am ambivalent, so it's another miss. But if you love firey anger that melts into firey passion, or pages upon pages of sexy yearning, there's plenty in here for you.