A tarot inspired romantasy with a fake marriage to a broody MMC. This story is a fun, easy, and lighter read that allows the reader to enjoy a cozy night this winter. The author did a wonderful job with describing the scenery though I did wish there was a little more world building. Overall, this was an intriguing story and I am looking forward to reading more by Kristin Cast.

Fantasy is one of my favorite genres. This book is a fast paced romantasy . It has a lot of cutesy romance, some spice.
Welcome to The Empress where tarot cards come alive.
Hannah and Kane have chemistry from the get go. I would have liked to see the tarot cards more accurately represented though.

The Empress follows the epic journey of Hannah and Kane.
Poor, desperate Hannah has nothing going for her in her modern life. Until she comes across a tarot card that changes everything.
Thrust into a time of Kingdoms and Knights she must battle her way back to the palace to find the tarot card that will take her home.
Or so she hopes.

Tall, dark, and mysterious Kane is on a mission to banish the rot from the Kingdom he has sworn to protect. With Shadow by his side, he is an unstoppable force.

This was a beautifully written tale of self discovery and finding home.
Hannah is such a relatable character for anyone that feels lost and unsure what to do in life, myself included. Watching her go from nothing to a literal Queen was so beautiful and empowering.
I very much enjoyed this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Bloom Books, and Ms. Cast for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

Book: it wasn't you, it was me. Okay, maybe it was you. It might have been both of us, to be honest.

I watched Ms. Cast talk about her book in a panel during Library Journal Day of Dialog and I was intrigued. A fantasy romance involving tarot? Sign me UP. Then I pulled it up on Goodreads and fell in love; that cover is gorgeous. And the blurb calls it Scarlett St. Clair crossed with Outlander? swoon.

Unfortunately it was all downhill (for me) from there. Hannah, the female main character, is one of the most repellent characters I have ever come across. A complete sad-sack, she is incompetent, immature, whiny, lazy, and completely terrible at adulting. She is absolutely unable to do her job and equally unable to understand why she isn't advancing at work. Her self-monologuing is relentless, cringeworthy, and annoying. I really don't like characters who talk to themselves constantly. When she crosses through the portal into the tarot realm, she makes just about every stupid decision she possibly can. When told to be quiet, she screams. Her sole concern is her phone. I thought it was meant to be some sort of sly social commentary on phone dependency but... no, she just really loves her phone. The connection between Hannah and Kane is mystifying. I couldn't understand how it started or why it continued. Honestly I didn't particularly care because Hannah was SO annoying as to be borderline physically painful to read.

I had to force myself to keep reading this. There was very little tarot comparatively to what I had expected or what the description portrayed. Frankly I think the entire tarot-based fantasy concept has a lot of promise but the execution was underbaked. I hate to give a book, especially an ARC, a negative rating, but in all honesty I did not enjoy it.

Hannah is transported to the tarot world Towerfall after finding a tarot card. She is saved by Kane who can use magic and helps her. They pretend to be married but she starts falling for him...

Love the romance. It's swoony and magical. :) Like Hannah and Kane together. Love their chemistry. Their banter is terrific.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

After finding the Empress card of the Tarot in the snow, Hannah is instantly transported to the world of Towerfall. Nearly killed upon arrival, Kane saves her life and nursed her back to health. She isn't sure if he can be trusted, but must convince the Kingdom of Pentacles that they are married. It's her best chance to get to the palace and into her own world. There are many things wrong with Towerfall, but if anyone finds out that the marriage isn't real, both will be killed.

This is the first book in the new series Towerfall, mixing the Tarot with portal fantasy romance. Hannah has been down on herself and her luck for a while. Her major presentation tanks, coworkers make fun of her, and her boyfriend wants someone more put together than she is. She stumbles through the portal into Towerfall, and she has no idea what's happening around her. She is even mistaken fir a witch due to trying to get her cell phone to connect to nonexistent Wi-Fi. Kane rescues her and nurses her back to health, sure the Empress brought her to Towerfall to cure the rot in his world. The king has shut down the palace on the advice of his advisor, only opening it up to petition every six months. Hannah doesn't want to wait for the next opportunity, so she proposes taking over the identity of slain ambassadors. It would set off a war between kingdoms if she and Kane are discovered, setting up the proximity and tension keeping them together.

Kane is the brooding loner type of hero in comparison to Hannah's nervous and chatty heroine. This gives him a commanding air, even with the innuendo and inevitable bedroom play. Hannah's into it, not to worry, and he backs off whenever she says no. We see the politicking that the nobles do, how unhappy the common people are, and the menace of the King's advisor, Four. In acting as an ambassador's wife, Hannah takes on a little more responsibility and sticks up for herself; it doesn't always work in this realm, but I liked seeing her begin to grow. When she begins to make her own decisions toward the end, there's still danger to contend with. I liked how it all came together for her happily ever after, even if it was a bit contrived.

When your life is falling apart and you suddenly find yourself being dropped into a magical Tarot world where people are trying to kill you and the Tarots are real... and the only person who can help you is the hot brooding guy that you'll have to be in a fake marriage with, finding a way home is definitely going to be complicated. Hannah's life is a mess, from failing at her job to catching her boyfriend cheating on her. Yet when she finds herself thrown into Towerfall, a magical world where the Tarots are real and people are trying to kill her, she meets Kane, a mysterious and handsome man with his own secrets and quest. The only way to survive is to find her tarot card as it acts as a key back to her world and to enter into a fake marriage with Kane to try and trick the Kingom of Pentacles and get access into the palace. Hannah and Kane are drawn together but his own secrets and agenda might tear them apart when she finds out why he approached her in the first place... can Hannah survive this deadly world or will she end up losing her heart and her life? This is the first book in a series and when I tell you this book was nearly unreadable... I struggled so much with this book. This is the first book written by the author by herself as she had previously cowritten a more popular series (house of night) and I was so excited to try this but 2 chapters in and I was struggling. Hannah is not a likable character and reading this book felt so out of place, it never really hooks you and the romance doesn't exactly feel like a romance, there is no depth, there is no real chemistry, in fact Kane's entire personality summed up is : brooding and loves asking Hannah if she's his good girl. I swear to god, this book had me nearly DNF-ing so many times. I can't say I'll be continuing on with the series but I would say this, if you like modern day fantasy romance and want something extremely easy to read, give this a try.

Release Date: January 7 ,2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books | Bloom Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

The Empress is a tarot inspired Romantasy. After Hannah gets a tarot reading, she is given a blank card from the stranger. This card is her passage to Towerfell, a medieval kingdom. Once in Towerfell, she is saved by a handsome brooding Kane.
✨tarot inspired Romantasy
✨fake dating
✨flirty banter
✨time travel
✨morally grey MMC
.
I thought this was a fun lighthearted Romantasy with funny adventures and great banter.

Thank you netgalley and bloom books for the opportunity to read and rate this book!

The Empress is book one in the Towerfall series by Kristin Cast.
A wonderfully written tarot-inspired fantasy series. A new seductive series world of Towerfall, starting with The Empress, a high-heat, fake marriage romantasy with a swoon-worthy, morally-gray love interest.
This book was completely spellbinding.
A truly wonderful book, excellently written with a lot of details. It moves along very quickly, keeping me completely engrossed in the story.

Thank You NetGalley and Bloom Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

3.75/5

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloom Books for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I recommend this book for anyone who's looking for a light, cozy, funny romantasy.

I give this book a 3.75/5 because I did enjoy the descriptive writing style and the premise had potential. It was a mix of contemporary and mainly a cozy historical romantasy. I thought the setting was good, I definitely could picture it because of the descriptions of what era it should portray.

I unfortunately could relate to the FMC's inner thoughts and feelings of adulting and finding yourself lol but the romance was too insta-lovey for me and I had issues with the pacing of the FMC's relationships with the other characters.

Because of these cons, I think the book could've benefited in being longer so it can have time to world build and give the characters proper backgrounds cos I honestly don't feel anything for the rest of the characters. And the ending was too predictable. But I think this book was meant to be a cozy light romantasy so I'm just hoping for too much lol

"He's a ruthless, battle-scarred warrior with a dark past, and she's stuck pretending to be his wife to save a fantasy kingdom.

From New York Times bestselling author Kristin Cast comes a new tarot-inspired fantasy series. Scarlett St. Clair meets Outlander in the seductive and spellbinding world of Towerfall, starting with The Empress, a high-heat, fake marriage romantasy with a swoon-worthy, morally-gray love interest.

The Arcana aren't just figures in a tarot deck - they're real. Terrifyingly real. That's what I learned when I found a tarot card in the snow and was yanked from my world and into Towerfall. The first thing the people of this harsh, cruel realm did was try to kill me, and they probably would have succeeded if Kane hadn't taken me to his hideout in the woods and nursed me back to health.

I don't know if I can trust him. He's too hot to be good news, he's definitely hiding secrets, and I've already seen him kill two people to protect me. If I hadn't just been helplessly dumped into his world, the blood on his sword and his dark, brooding mood would have me running in the opposite direction.

But right now, convincing the Kingdom of Pentacles that Kane and I are married is my best chance of getting into the palace, and back to my own world.

Because there's something wrong with Towerfall. Something deeply, deadly wrong. And if anyone finds out Kane and I aren't really husband and wife?

Well, then both of us are dead."

A book a recently read did a bait and switch with being tarot themed. Thankfully this isn't the case here.

I loved this story! I thought it was a really clever juxtaposition of a mythical tarot universe and real-world Chicago. Hannah is having a really bad day, she performs poorly during a pitch at work, discovers that her boyfriend is having an affair, and gets transported to a fantastical realm after picking up an enchanted tarot card. We've all been there, huh? She meets the enigmatic Kane who tells her that she has been brought to cure the blight of the Kingdom of Pentacles, which they are able to do by impersonating the ambassadors from the Kingdom of Cups. Hannah struggles to return to her own life, but when she does, it doesn't necessarily feel like home anymore. There are some steamy romance scenes between Kane and Hannah, plenty of intrigue, a healthy female friendship with her boss's doppelganger, and forbidden magick. Hannah is a likable protagonist, she really feels like someone you could know, and you will be rooting for her to find her inner power and save the day. Fans of fantasy and romance will love this story!

Kristin Cast's The Empress takes readers into the mystical world of Towerfall, where tarot cards come to life and survival relies on deception and alliances. While the concept of blending fantasy, romance, and tarot-inspired magic is intriguing, the execution falls short. The tarot elements are a unique highlight, but the world-building feels shallow, serving the plot more than creating a fully realized universe. The protagonists, Hannah and Kane, share a fake marriage that adds some tension and humor, but their character arcs don't quite hit the mark—Hannah's modern attitude often clashes with the medieval setting, and Kane's brooding persona remains one-dimensional. Despite its lack of emotional depth, The Empress offers fast-paced action, flirtatious banter, and a bit of spice, making it a light, entertaining read for fans of romantasy.

I get a Alice in Wonderland vibe from this fantasy / romance story, with an emphasis on the romance. The story revolves around a young woman who is pulled into an alternate world by a tarot card. She will fight for survival with help from a man scarred by life by determined to save his world, Towerfall. The pacing is tension filled, can they escape their destiny? Only the cards can tell.

Hannah is a marketing exec that has not yet figured out who she is as a woman and as a person. A chance encounter leaves her with a tarot card that takes her to another realm and a smoking hot warrior. In this world she begins to learn about herself and what’s really important. I have loved Kristen Cast ever since the House of Night series and this book does not disappoint! I loved Hannah’s story and her growth throughout the book. I found myself rooting for her and upset with her for some of her choices. The spice was also great! I wish there was a little more Kane backstory but loved this book.

This was a cute story, however it was very “light” there wasn’t too much going on… but what did happen was told very well. It was a very original story and fantasy world. Kane was a perfect broody hero and I was obsessed with him from the get go. Hannah had such growth, I hated her for at least half of the book. I did end up really liking her character once she stopped being a square trying to fit into a circle. This was definitely a slow burn but I think it was done so well, the tension and back and forth was great. I loved the tarot aspect, and the side characters were so good. As her first solo book I think it was a success and can’t wait to see her writing continue to grow as a solo author. I hope we get to have Alderic and Marion’s story!

Hannah’s life in the fashion and publishing world is anything but glamorous. She’s ambitious yet stuck, longing for a break from the monotony. When a tarot reading goes sideways, she’s thrown into a parallel medieval realm—the Kingdom of Pentacles—where danger lurks around every corner, and magic isn’t just something out of fairytales. Accused of witchcraft and rescued by the brooding, mysterious Kane, Hannah finds herself tangled in a mission that may be her only way back home.

This book hooked me from the start with its blend of modern and fantastical elements. Hannah’s snarky, relatable inner monologue reminded me of Bridget Jones, and her pop culture references brought a fun, light-hearted touch to the otherwise intense world she was thrust into. Kane, on the other hand, is everything you’d want in a dark and broody hero—he’s protective, guarded, and exudes quiet strength. Their dynamic is full of tension, humor, and just the right amount of spice.

What I loved most about The Empress was the balance of high stakes and light moments. The world-building is lush and immersive, and while there’s plenty of action and intrigue, it never felt overwhelming. The romance builds naturally, with forced proximity and fake marriage tropes adding extra layers of complexity to their relationship.

If you’re a fan of romantasy with a modern twist, this is definitely worth picking up. It’s got everything—time travel, hidden witches, court politics, and a grumpy-sunshine dynamic that kept me invested. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Hannah in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom for this ARC!

The Empress was life changing for me. Not only is Kane the hottest MMC ever, but Hannah is the most relatable FMC ever. The tension between them was so hot. 🥵 I cannot wait to get more of their story! You will enjoy The Empress if you love slow burn, magickal tales, and amazing one liners.

This was an interesting tale.  Hannah was having a terrible time at work, where she was supposed to deliver a pitch to a new company. She struggled with her word choices so, Stephanie took over the pitch and made it work. So, not only did she fail, but someone else took over the pitch and while she was in a self-loathing era she went to her boyfriend's house in the hopes that he could help her forget. Only when she arrived was he entertaining another woman and breaking it off with her. She left in tears while a stranger gave her his monogrammed handkerchief. She fell, then awoke in an unfamiliar place. Trying to escape, she ended up in a tavern where people tried to kill her, mistaking her for a witch, until Kane rescued her. Only then does she realize that she is no longer in her world, and not even in her time period. This does have the outlander type of vibes! Ultimately, Kane saves Hannah and takes care of her because he believes the Empress sent her to help save the kingdom and Hannah accepts the help because she wants to get back home. Slowly they start working together and the banter between the two is very comical, and I loved it! The way the author interwoven the story's elements, including the tarot cards, also really pleased me. That was an interesting take that I was not expecting, but was unique. I love the way she builds off the characters and the mission and stuff like that, however; the pace was rather slow, and I did have to take several breaks because I would lose interest in the book. Overall, I did like the book but the pace was rather slow for my liking! Thank you Sourcebooks fire and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this one!

The concept of this book is interesting. I love the idea of a modern person falling into a romantasy setting. That being said, I was disappointed with the execution. I felt like the world building and magic system needed to be developed more. I was confused about the use of modern American slang in a different realm and time period. The characters also felt a little two-dimensional. Overall I would say it was a book that was entertaining to read, even if it didn’t wow me. I would recommend this book for fans of the author and anyone looking for a quick romantasy who isn’t too picky about content.