***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing a copy of the audiobook. My review contains my honest thoughts about my listening experience.***

I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about The Courting of Bristol Keats. The book was fine. It was easy to listen to, and the story was exactly what one might expect from a romantasy about fae. The tropes and character types will be familiar to anyone who has read ACOTAR or other books like it. I was just hoping for something a bit more original and less predictable.

Did I enjoy The Courting of Bristol Keats? Absolutely. It was an entertaining read despite retreading familiar territory. The audiobook narrator did a great job of making each character distinctive and pulling me into the story. The world-building was intriguing, especially all of the political shenanigans between the faerie kingdoms. I wish we'd gotten to see even more of the faerie realm, but I liked the things that were explored. The mysteries, while pretty obvious, did keep me engaged with the story because I wanted to see how the characters would react to the answers.

I had two main gripes about The Courting of Bristol Keats other than its lack of originality. First, the book was way too bloated and had a lackluster ending. The middle of this book was so slow and quite repetitive. Then the story finally started building momentum before ending without providing a significant standoff. Some of the mysteries were solved, and important relationship threads were completed. However, none of the larger, action-oriented plot points got any type of resolution, which annoyed me. The last scene, in particular, just felt so awkward. Like, why end the book THERE?

My other main problem with The Courting of Bristol Keats was the romance. I enjoyed the combative nature of the central relationship, especially in the beginning. Then things got really serious, really fast. I liked the scenes where the characters confided in one another because it helped me as the reader get to know them, as well. However, their closeness just didn't feel earned. It didn't help that there were some major lies at the foundation of the relationship. When they came out, the resolution once again just felt way too quick. I'm not a fan of instalove, and this story really reeked of it.

Overall, The Courting of Bristol Keats was an entertaining romantasy that utilized familiar tropes, archetypes, and plot points. I do wish the pacing had been a bit steadier and the page count had been at least a hundred pages shorter. The romance had its moments, but the instalove caused me some major disappointment. Therefore, I rate The Courting of Bristol Keats 3.25 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn't for me. Let me rephrase, this book isn't for me at this point in my life. A few years ago, a younger me would've eaten this story up and loved every minute. It has fae, war, magic, secrets, romance, and plenty of twists, but for some reason I couldn't connect with it. It dragged a bit and I kept putting it down and leaving it alone for longer and longer periods.

Maybe I'll come back to it when I'm feeling more high fantasy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this book early!

DNF at 62%.
I REALLY wanted to like this book. Brittany Pressley’s narration was fantastic!! There were beautifully written passages.

Unfortunately, those are the only pros I can come up with. I think the bones for a good story are there but the execution was painful. Pearson writes a lot of the “what” of the story but we get very little “why”. This applies to character & relationship development (they go from enemies to lovers how?? when??), how the parallel worlds work, and even the entire reason Bristol goes to another realm. The reason is stated at the beginning but the story is so meandering that I lost interest. Why are they training again?? Who are the side characters and why do I care about them? I hate leaving an icky review in advance of a release, but I hate being frustrated by a new book even more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.


The Courting of Bristol Keats By Mary E. Pearson has Vibes that remind me of ACOTAR but with its little spin on the Romantasy genre. The narrator was wonderful and articulated the story well. Pearson knows how to write a multi-level tale that makes the reader feel like the world they weaved could happen in reality. I loved this story so much; I laughed and cried for Bristol because I felt her emotions. The way things were written made it easy for me to sympathize with what These characters were going through and at times I found myself wanting to reach through the page to either hug, yell, or strangle certain characters. The only thing I disliked was the book ended and I needed to know more so I hope Mary E Pearson writes the second book because I NEED to know what happens next.

First I’d like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. I ended up DNFing it at 50%. FirstI want to say that I really liked the narrator. She did a fantastic job at doing the many different voices and accents. But the story itself just wasn’t for me. It felt very familiar and not in a good way. Maybe if I hadn’t just read The Cruel Prince trilogy I would have thought this was a little more unique. And it’s probably not fair to compare the two, but TCP was just so much more vivid and immersive. I listened to half of this book, which was nearly 9 hours, and in that time I didn’t feel pulled into the world or connected to the characters at all. I also felt that the insta lust between the two main characters didn’t have the development that it should have to feel realistic.

I do think that this book will work for many. But this is my third attempt at reading Marry E Pearson, and I think it may be time to admit that her books just aren’t for me.

This book had such a promising start! It captured that enchanting vibe reminiscent of The Cruel Prince, and I was all in. We follow Bristol Keats as she ventures into a world of gods, fae, and monsters in search of her father, whom she and her sisters believed to be dead. Surprise! He’s alive in another realm. As Bristol embarks on her quest, she discovers far more than she bargained for.

However, I found the ending a bit disappointing. It felt dragged out, almost as if it could have been condensed into a novella or extended into a separate book. Still, I will definitely read the next installment—I need to know what happens next for Bristol, her father, her mother, and Tyghan!

I enjoyed getting to know Bri and her word of fae. I read and listened to the audiobook at the same time because I was so wrapped up in the story. Can't wait for book two.

So first of all - I mostly liked the narrator. I've heard her before in other things and I don't have a problem with her at all.

Overall I liked this. One thing that I didn't realize and it ended up sort of disappointing me was that this is going to be part of a series. In my head, for whatever reason, I thought it was going to be a standalone book so I was looking forward to a complete story. Either way, I liked it. I thought the world was interesting - some of the dynamics or characters I didn't really get or care about but overall not bad. I unfortunately couldn't keep the majority of the knights straight in my brain but such is life. I will definitely keep an eye out for the next book.

2.5 stars. This was my first read from this author and I don’t know if this is how their other books are usually, but this wasn’t it. I should stop letting sprayed edges and pretty covers pull me in.

This was so long and just not interesting. So much we are told about happening off-page instead of actually seeing it, which never works for me. This was also giving vibes of The Cruel Prince, similar set up and I just wasn’t here for that. Basically we follow Bristol as she learns fae exist, travels to the faerie realm Elfhame, makes deals with fae, learns about how tricky fae are/the dangers, trying to care for her sisters, learns about her family’s history, etc.

I received an audio ALC, all thoughts in this review are my own.

I’m obsessed. I need more right now.

This is my first read from Mary E. Pearson and I can’t wait to read more from her!

I loved the world-building and found myself unable to put the book down. I kept needing to know what happened next and this book helped me get out of a reading slump.

Unfortunately I found this story hard to follow, and I had trouble connecting with the main character Bristol.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

I received the audio e-arc of this book and I wanted to love it so badly!!

I was so confused for the first 20-30% of this book. I didn't quite understand why things were setting up the way they were. I also don't think I was meshing with the writing style much.

I feel that people who love whimsical books, fairytale retellings and little to no spice then you would absolutely love this book.

Thank you to the publisher and the author for my ALC. All thoughts are my own. The narrator was phenomenal and did such a great job with each character's voice and essence. I had no problems with the audio file or any audio issues.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I really liked it at first and then I lost my enthusiasm. I thought the beginning was paced well with all the world building, even though I had a lot of characters to keep track of. It also seemed like the author assumed the reader was familiar with fae and their worlds from other fantasy books.
I was patiently waiting out the slow build to get to some intense battle scenes but there really weren't' any. Maybe one. I was disappointed there wasn't more action. I also didn't love the ending. I felt like Bristol's feelings at the end were so torn and betrayed and shattered I was mad (spoilers) she hopped back in bed with Tyghan. It wasn't a cliffhanger and I know there's a second book coming but it felt like the ending should have been different.
Overall I'll probably rank it around a 3 or 3.5/5 stars.

Im always intrigued with a story when the plot is mixed with the real world and fae. I think it's a great way for a reader that is used to contemporary to jump into fantasy. For me however, I mainly read fantasy/romantasy so I think it's time that I realize that plots like this seem to end up being something I've read countless times and its nothing new. that doesn't take away that this book had great characters with depth and the world building was interesting.

I would recommend this to someone just starting to get into fantasy. Especially the audiobook. It has a great narrator with amazing range that got me to appreciate the story.

I was given the ALC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to both NetGalley and Mary E Pearson for the chance to read and review this book before it’s released!


My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5


The Keats sisters have been trying to survive the death of their parents, working menial jobs and living paycheck to paycheck when one day, Bristol Keats discovers that their father is not dead, but spirited away into Elfhame, the land of the Fae. Bristol is given the opportunity to support her sisters through a piece of valuable art in exchange for her help to locate and close a mysterious portal to another dimension that is loosing horrors on the people of Elfhame.

Bristol reluctantly agrees with the primary goal of finding her father, and sets off into Elfhame with the prickly and mysterious (and wickedly handsome) leader of the Fae, Tyghan. This is a slow burn, enemies to lovers type of romance.

Bristol discovers that not only is her family hoarding secrets, but her own life is shrouded in a mystery that she must discover on her own as she learns to make her way within the Fae world of magic and intrigue.

This is a good introduction to this series and I look forward to the next book!

Want to start off by saying I listened to this audiobook and 100% adore Brittany Pressley. She can do no wrong, and honestly there are some books that she saved for me with her narration alone.

Ever since losing both of her parents, Bristol and her sisters are struggling to make meets end. She is propositioned and essentially tricked into making a deal with people who claim to be associated with her "aunt". Upon meeting them she quickly discovers that nobody is who they seem to be, even her father.
Desperate to find and saver her father, Bristol enters the land of gods, fae, and monsters. Little does she know the person she made a deal with is the same person who drove her parents away.

Many twists in this one. The writing style is unique, and I enjoyed that. I am not a big reader of Fantasy; however, the story line was good at keeping my attention for the most part. Definitely a long story and at time repetitive.
The cliff hanger was definitely intense.

Thank you, Mary Pearson, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been trying to listen to this for a couple weeks now and I’m about 30% in. I was really excited for this release but honestly I think I am going to DNF. It might just be that the audio isn’t working for me so I’m planning on getting a physical copy and trying it out that way. There is a lot going on in this book so you have to really pay attention when you’re listening. I’ve had to rewind a lot, which is totally a me problem but if you’re like me be warned! The story has been interesting but it doesn’t feel like anything new to me and I think that’s why I’m dragging my feet to pick it up.

I really enjoyed this book and the audio! It’s a modern day fantasy which crosses real life places, events, and people with a mythical world. I really enjoyed the Celtic mythology women into the story. I did wish there was a bit more focus on main characters and their arcs rather than so many supporting characters. The ending of the book leaves it wide open for the next book in the series. Over all, this book was a fun read and I’d love to read the second when it’s written.

This is amazing! I was absolutely hooked with the puzzle of who is what and who belongs to who. I was skeptical of this book but I am so glad that I gave it a try. It is written so well and keeps you guessing.

Book art would be great for this book!

Overall: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Plotline: 3.5/5
World-Building: 3.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Tropes: MF; Portal; Fae; Enemies to Lovers; Secret Identity

Themes: 4/5
Romance: 4/5
Spice Factor: 1.5
Enjoyment Factor: 4/5

Audiobook: 4/5
Review: This had a very slow start, and the story itself doesn't get started until about halfway through the book, but once it got going, I was fully invested. The plot line was a bit all over the place, and the constant changing of the POVS was jarring and hard to follow within an audiobook. I did love all the characters, which is what kept me listening in the beginning, as they are written very well!