I am utterly obsessed with this book. The writing, the world, the characters…. Pearson is back with a phenomenal book, one that I can’t wait to see out in the world.

Thanks Net Galley for fhe ARC audio.

Bristol Keats finds herself immersed in another world to help find her father. Can these new beings be trusted? Bri finds out the truth of her roots, her family and her new friends.

While much of the writing style was simple enough to follow, I felt that some side characters didn't add to the plot. I also struggled to understand the magic logic. The development of the world and the plot were not discovered by the reader/listener until far too deep into the story. I had considered DNFing this one but decides to go thru it anyway. I can't say I'd recommend the book as it's left us with the world's largest cliffhanger and yet I don't care one bit about it...I guess I couldn't connect with any of the characters enough care.

This was quite an adventure! I enjoyed this romantasy story. It gave me ACOTAR feels and I devoured that series!

Unfortunately I have decided to DNF this book. It's just not for me. Far too many tropes being utilized in one story and I'm only 50% of the way through. It also was a bit cozy feeling for me and I don't like cozy fantasy, so people will probably like this book, it just wasn't for me.

Ok so reading some other 3 star reviews, I'm realizing this was not ever going to be the book I thought it was going to be. I came here for the dead dad trauma, but everyone else came here for the fae romance. When I realized this was much more of a fae romance than it was about finding her allegedly dead dad, I was no longer interested. 3 stars because that's entirely a me issue, and I have no real negatives against the writing.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free ARC of the Audiobook from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fae book.......sign me up. When I didn't get approved for the e-book ARC of this series I was sad so when the audiobook was available even with the length I was like let's try again and pumped when I was approved. I love books with fae in it and this book was no exception. The narrator does an amazing job. Additionally Mary E. Pearson is an amazing writer. You learn to love the characters. Because I essentially listened to this over three weeks I probably wasn't as annoyed with the almost lack of action that seemed to take place. There is some but for the length of the book not a lot. That being said it is still amazingly well written and I will for sure read the sequel.

Definitely recommend this audiobook. Narrator did a fantastic job keeping me engaged in the story. I do think this is going to be one of those books that is better in audio format. I was entertained. But some parts felt a bit drawn out. The romance was not one of those swoony epic love story that I crave. But I was still entertained. I was very ecstatic to get an early listen as this is Pearson’s first adult book, I think it was well balanced with fantasy, adventure, romance, and some betrayal. The writing was enjoyable as usual.
Audio performance was a five star.

I listened to this on audio and the narration is 🙌🏻 fantastic.
I preordered this book before I got the arc because of the special edition. I’m a sucker for those sprayed edges. 🥴

I’m rating this 3.5 ⭐️

I liked it enough that I will read the second book, especially after the abrupt ending. 😤 I wanna know what happens next 🤷🏼‍♀️

3rd person POV 👎🏻

I wanted more. I wanted this to be a 5 star read especially with the cover/edges. I’m not disappointed that I read it though.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for this audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

Mary E Pearson won my heart with her YA Romantasy "Dance of Thieves." I was thrilled to learn that she was writing her first adult series. It does not disappoint!

First off, the special first edition is looking absolutely gorgeous! However, I have found that as these beautiful extras become more and more popular, the book itself rarely measures up to the expectations, especially in the romantasy genre. i have been very disappointed recently with some stories that seem to rehash old plots and have the barest of a fantasy world around the two main characters. I am happy to say that The Courting of Bristol Keats stands out above these in some important ways.

Pearson knows how to build tension and world build at the same time. Set in a faireworld at war, Bristol is recruited as a human with potential faire power because of her parentage. Unknown to her, both her mother and father were key players in the fairy realm before her and her sisters were born. She agrees as part of her own quest to find out what happened to her parents. But as she and the king of the Fae become more attracted to each other, he must hide from her his own knowledge about her father and the role he played in the story.

The plotting beautifully builds an impossible situation that takes its time unfolding. As a result, the characters in the story are wonderfully fraught and complex, and Bristol has a heavy burden to carry. While the story takes a bit of time to take off, it is well worth it. The ending will make you long for the next book immediately.

I was grateful to have access of an ALC of the novel through Netgalley and MacMillan audio. I enjoyed listening to the dual POV narrators. They really enhance the humanity of each character and highlight how what each of them chooses to do is reasonable and even right, while also being at odds with each other. My heart was breaking by the end for all of them!

While the narrator is good, this unfortunately just didn't work out for me very quickly. Everything just seems to be pulled from someone else's fantasy novel and Bri is just so one dimensional.

This book had all the right elements to be fantastic - a mortal woman approached by mysterious beings & taking a bargain leading her into Elfame, the collision course with a bitter fae king trying to keep war at bay in the kingdom, magical military school, family secrets, hidden powers... And yet, I found myself bored much of the book. There were too many characters to track, which led to them being flat/forgettable. The romance felt forced as a result; far too insta-love with no realistic backing. Also, despite a war being at their doorstep, not a whole lot happened with this plot point and tbh, not a lot happened in general. That said, there was some solid banter and fun had at points, just not enough to help me love the book.

The audiobook narrator was fantastic though, solid 5 stars for the performance. While the writing style and head hopping in chapters made it difficult, the narrator's performance kept this book from being 1 star.

3.5 stars for this on-trend romantasy. Bristol, regular girl (tm), is recruited by some fae to help them save their kidnapped king. While training to use her latent magic, she falls for the fae prince. But it turns out that he's been lying to her about his relationship with her parents (bc they were fae, too). After 100+ chapters, there's no plot resolution.

The book is definitely Not For Me, but if you like current romantasy tropes, this is a good example of them. The writing isn't bad and there are tons of places for the plot to go. (I wish that it had gone somewhere in the hundreds of pages it had to go there in this book, but from what I can gather this doesn't matter to a lot of romantasy readers.) I personally prefer a much tighter plot with a resolution. On the spice scale, there are several open door scenes.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

Let me start off by saying that this could completely be that I am just not vibing with the audiobook. Maybe if I had this in physical or ebook format, I would enjoy it more.... but I don't know. As of right now I am 25% into the audiobook and not enjoying it. The story feels very YA to me and I was shocked when I learned it's supposed to be adult. I don't know if I will try again once the book comes out, but as of right now this is a DNF. This one hurts pretty bad. A lot of people that I follow loved this book.

🧚ARC REVIEW🧚

The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson
4/5 ⭐
Pub date 🇺🇸: Nov 12th

This books felt like the perfect merging of a fairy tale with a competition/high stakes game feel, without actually having a competition and all the 'recruits' were working together. I enjoyed the whole thing and am now greatly anticipating the next book!

The novel begin with our main character trying to support her two sisters after the passing of their parents. She accidentally makes a fairy bargain while trying to earn money, and is swept into fantasy land of fae and romance.

Please read if you enjoy the following:

🧝‍♂️ Grumpy fae princes
🧝‍♂️ Legend about a chosen one that can close doors into other worlds
🧝‍♂️ Main characters that don't take 🐂 💩
🧝‍♂️ Hidden magical abilities (?)

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio and Flatiron Books for the ARC!

🏷️ #NetGalley #FantasyBook #Romantasy #bookstagram #books #booklover #book #bookworm #bookstagrammer #reading #bookish #bookaddict #booknerd #bibliophile #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookreview #instabook #bookrecommendations #read #bookcommunity #bookphotography #bookshelf #bookaholic #bookblogger #booklovers #booklove #booktok

I enjoyed this romantasy. I'm not a huge romantasy reader, but feel like this will resonate well with that crowd.

This was amazing. I love Mary E Pearson’s other books, so I couldn’t wait to read this. This book was fantastic. I read an ARC and also ended up requesting the audiobook ALC as I’m trying to branch out with my audiobook genres and I loved listening to the story even though fantasy can be harder for me on audio.

What I struggle with these days when it comes to adult Romantasy/fantasy romance is finding a book that truly balances both and still makes you root for the couple while also being invested in a million other plot points. I think the author did a tremendous job with the balance in this book. It was a coming of age story about Bristol, a romantic journey, and also an adventure in a new world with conflicts, magic, secrets, and deceit. I felt invested in everything.

This did have open door romance and wasn’t YA. Bristol was in her 20s, but I feel like the way the spice was written could be considered appropriate for younger audiences to some degree. It wasn’t closed door, but it also wasn’t graphic. I got the whole sense of what was happening without it being one of those books I have to turn down when I’m driving in the car. If you’re specifically looking for spice, this isn’t for you. It’s like black pepper, not chili peppers. I think this specific detail is important to know since many Romantasy readers are specifically looking for chili peppers and will be disappointed that this has none and also that the romance does sometimes take a back seat to the plot.

I highly recommend this book! I can’t wait to see what happens next in the series/duology.

Brittany Pressley is one of my favorite female narrators and I think she did an awesome job. I will say that because of the changing POV I feel like the book would have benefited from titles of those sections for the audiobook listeners because I would get lost and have to figure out whose perspective we were dealing with. Overall, the story was just missing something. I enjoyed the world and the characters. It wasn't quite exciting enough for me and didn't keep me engaged as I would have expected. I did enjoy the prose of the book and overall thought it was a good listen.

I was pleasantly surprised listening to this first book in a new series. I'm a newcomer to this author and I was hesitant to get into it, but curious enough to try. I was hesitant because lately I've been duped by books similar to this that were mediocre and boring and predictable at best. But this was a great listen! Even though it was typical and predictable, I still appreciated the author's writing and pacing and overall storyline.

The insta-love was expected. The twists were expected. The story arch was expected. But at least this was interesting and creative still. Bristol was a great character to ride along from beginning to end. I was more and more curious about the sisters and wanted more about them, but I figured that was more to come in the next books. I kept wanting to tell people that if you want to start a fantasy series, this would be a good one to begin with.

There were moments, though, that dragged for a bit. This could have been cut about 100 pages and still the story would have been fun. But I enjoyed this!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an audio copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, I don't think this was for me. The writing is beautiful, but some lines made me pause after hearing them, as if there was no way that was right. The world was interesting, but also similar to other fae novels I've read. This was also so long, and while at times I was interested, there were other times where I was utterly bored. I think the major strength of this novel was the relationship between the three sisters, which is not a part of a story I care as much about. Overall, this wasn't a great read for me, but I know this will find an audience who will love it.

The narration was good, but I wish each chapter started with which character the POV was from.

Well, that is one way to end a book.

I enjoyed the world that Mary E. Pearson created. It was refreshing to see different mythical creatures in the same world interacting instead of just being mentioned in passing. I understand that this is Bristol and Tyghan’s story, but I do wish we had gotten to know the side characters more.

The narrator did a wonderful job switching between the character's voices and accents. The narration kept me engaged and not wanting to press pause when I needed to focus on something else.

Thank NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC of The Courting of Bristol Keats.