3.75/5 stars (rounded up to 4)

Thank you Netgalley and SOUCEBOOKS Bloom Books for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Empress by Kristin Cast is the first book in a new fantasy romance series that transports readers (and our unwilling heroine) to the world of Towerfall where tarot comes to life. The story follows Hannah, a down-on-her-luck woman as she is thrust from the mundane life she knows into a whole new world steeped in magic that is desperate for her help.

I was really intrigued by the prospect of an entire world and magic system based around tarot, but I felt as though the execution was not the best. I would have liked to have seen the concept fleshed out a bit more. It seemed quite superficial. When the synopsis said that the tarot cards come to life, I was expecting just that. I thought that Hannah would have to deal with the personification of the cards, but instead there was only one character that seemed to be named after a card, and the different courts were named after the different minor arcana. The concept of a tarot-inspired world and magic system has so much potential, and I would love to see it fleshed out more in the upcoming sequels.

That being said, I did love the character's. Having the fake marriage trope combined with a morally grey male love interest was so much fun. I really enjoyed seeing both Hannah and Kane grow throughout the story. While Hannah's modern sensibilities crashed quite often with the medieval setting and grated on my nerves at times, I felt that her overall arc was quite earnest and she really did grow to care about the world and those in it.

While The Empress wasn't ground-breaking, the flirtatious banter and fast-paced action kept me flipping through the pages, and I really did enjoy the time I spent reading it. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a face-paced romantasy with a touch of tarot.

certainly, this is a book that exists. i shouldn’t be shocked as i haven’t liked most of cast’s previous books, but i was expecting something… more. and found little to show for it. this book is a confusing mixture of tropes being thrown together, hoping one of them will look good when it sticks. furthermore, the main character is just… there. there’s little anything for her, she’s just a caricature.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. The premise was interesting, but the execution ultimately fell short. I would have liked to see a bit more world building and character development throughout.

Even though it's marketed as an adult novel, the writing itself felt very YA. I read through the first 50 pages and unfortunately had to skim through the rest.

Thank you for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review

This was just okay for me, no regrets, but it felt unfinished a bit. The tone was a bit our of place, it reads much more like a YA novel most of the time, except there are some shoehorned in spicy scenes that I frankly could do without to keep a consistent tone (and I am not a spice hater!). I also found the magic system to be under developed. I've been enjoying the rise in books using tarot-based magic systems, but this one didn't grab me. Finally some of the dialogue slipped into bad/cringey territory. It entertained, but I'm not sure I'd pursue any further books in this series, may have even been better as a stand alone.

First of all, I just want to say I had high hopes for this book and was disappointed. I was very much interested in the tarot card and the magic that surrounded that but it was hardly present. It served as only a magic item and some type of teleportation device which was used only 3 times.

Hannah was annoying. How could she keep saying she missed her own world when it was so awful for her? She fumbled her promotion at work, her miserable excuse of a boyfriend cheated, no friends etc. There was absolutely no reason for her to want to go back.

I hated the constant popular culture references, I can only assume they were meant for the readers benefit for some kind of banter or light humour but I cringed.

The novel in its entirety strikes me as a simple romantasy novel. I would be happy enough to leave this as a stand-alone. With the crown simply given to the main characters, it rings like a fairytale, a happily ever after ending.

I really wanted to love this one. The premise and the cover are fantastic, but I just couldn't vibe with the voice and perspective of the main character.

The premise of this book had a lot of potential, but it fell short on execution. I was hoping that the tarot card would come into play a lot more than it did, because it was such a unique idea. I did like the idea of the timeline/world change, but the FMC was just so annoying that I didn't really care at all about what happened to her and the tarot elements of the story really just seemed like it happened, and then was forgotten for the longest time.

In her new world after the change, the FMC kept talking about how someone else did better than her, was upset she didn't get her promotion even though she messed up, and then when she went to the new world, kept going on about how she missed her old life that she hated, and then when she went back, she gave it all up, even her family, without much thought or effort. The MMC was also pretty bland and one-dimensional without really any diving deeper into his character or expressing himself more, and the relationship between the MMC and the FMC was insta-lust with no chemistry, and yet he was the one that she was willing to give up everything for after only a couple of weeks. It just doesn't make any sense to me. The good thing about their relationship, was that there was some banter that kept me slightly hopeful for their relationship.

Thank you to Kristin Cast, SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This is my honest review.

Let us start with the tropes, as that is what the target audience is often first drawn to:
Fake marriage
Portal fantasy
One bed
Tarot based magic (not really)
Insta lust
Touch her and die


Okay so now to the nitty gritty. Mild spoilers ahead.

There was no tarot based magic. There was a magic tarot card, but it could have literally been any magic item. A book, a gem, a hockey stick. It’s magic and literally pulls our heroine into the plot. The tarot motifs are used in society, but it’s actually a place where magic is outlawed. Our MMC has magic that he keeps on the down low, but it’s just golden magical sparkly generic magic stuff.

Our FMC Hannah tumbles into this world after she touches the magic mcguffin and lands conveniently in the same room that the MMC Kane is hiding in. Why? Dunno, it’s never really explained beyond “the Tower did it.” My biggest gripe with this book is everything too convenient . Every little thing is just based around convenience. Whenever there is a conflict or issue or ANYTHING a simple solution appears with little to no explanation and zero consequences.

This is insta lust, which was kinda jarring when Kane is making advances on Hannah while she has been in this world 24 hours and has a gaping knife wound. Like bro, read the room. And why is he so into her, or she him? It ain’t cuz they have chemistry! There are 3 sex scenes which are mid. The actual villain doesn’t appear on page until like 60% into the book. And the villain is as complex and deep as a bowl of tap water.

You know, for all this dumping on the book you must assume I hated it! But I can’t say that. It’s pretty standard romantasy. Not great, not awful. I don’t understand why it’s got such a low average rating. Maybe if there weren’t so many good romantasies out there. Or if this was a debut. But Cast has been writing for decades at this point. I am very glad I got this for free from NetGalley. The pretty cover is honestly wasted on such a sub par book. Get it from the library.

PS. Kane literally grew up in the castle but no one recognizes him with a hair cut and an eye patch? Really?? Come on….

This was 3.5 stars rounded down for me.

I got this as an ARC from Netgalley. I really enjoyed the premise of this book. A woman goes to a new age shop to get some help before a career-making work presentation and ends up with an odd prophecy and The Empress Tarot card. After her presentation and personal life collapse in the same day, she is transported to Towerfall, a Renaissance style world with magick and other versions of people she's met in her own realm. She has to pretend to be a married Lady to gain access to the castle, get back her Empress card, and get back to her own world.

So - that sounds amazing! I had no issues with the plot overall. For me, it fell apart in the characters actions. It's very high stakes for Hannah to get back into the castle. If she's found to be a fake, she could be killed. She nonchalantly talks about how good she is at branding because of her job, but then she continues to talk in her normal, casual style. She even tells everyone to call her Hannah instead of learning what her first name is supposed to be as the lady she impersonating.

There is also one part where she has to put on a corset (presumably for the first time) and the male love interest says for it to be tighter and without undergarments which she agrees to. I'm not sure how purposefully causing yourself pain is supposed to be sexy? Especially as she needs to be in this high stakes environment and doesn't need to add further discomfort to herself.

So those were my issues with the story. I did think the spicy scenes were really sexy. I loved the idea of this world and the general plot was really good. I would definitely continue the series but I hope the author works out some of the details in the future and improves the holes in the plot.

I so wanted to love this book more than I did, I love Kristin's moms books and was excited to see she was striking out on her own with a very cool concept! The concept delivered, the world-building with tarot incorporated was wonderful! It was the characters that fell flat for me, especially our main girl Hannah. She just felt over the top and unrealistic, very woe is me, especially at the beginning. Everyone was mean to her and like in a cartoonish way, this guy she thinks is her exclusive boyfriend has been cheating on her and dumps her while she's standing naked in his buildings hallway. It just felt ridiculous, and this is directly after she's thinking she can quit her job, that she isn't good at, and just move in with him and be a stay at home wife ready to service him whenever he wants, I just couldn't respect her after that. Things started to pick up when she met Kane, but even still, she's very impulsive and rash and causes them sooo many avoidable issues. It just wasn't for me, sadly.

This book has two of my favorite things: time travel and romance. I wanted to love everything about this book, but I just needed more from it. I feel like the main character, Hannah, deserved more than just an insta-relationship, insta-friend, insta-enemy, insta-everything! An expanded storyline would have given more depth to the characters and their relationships, so they didn't all seem to surface-level and juvenile.

This book was an entertaining read. I enjoyed it quite well, and love the world that we are introduced to by Kristin Cast.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I sadly did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. Kristin Cast was one of my favorite authors growing up and I was sad to find out that I did not enjoy this book. I will continue to look for her novels as they come out and see if I can continue my love with this author and her stories.

I started this book anticipating that I would love it due to the premise, but it came across as immature and lusty. I wish there was more development in the characters due to the premise of the story being interesting. I might try the next book in the series to fully see if it is not my vibe or if they get better.

Thank you for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was incredibly excited for this book as I love a good isekai/portal fantasy book, but this book unfortunately fell very short of my expectations.

The story is about a girl named Hannah (and I must say, the female main character makes me ashamed to be a Hannah) who, after a series of blow ups in her everyday life, falls into an alternate reality. There, she’s saved by this beautiful man who then drags her into an arranged marriage, hidden identity, revolution plot.

I think that this book could’ve been so great, if it was marketed much differently. In my opinion, the dialogue and description were fit for a young readers or YA book, and I have reason to believe that it only got bumped up for there to be adult scenes.

The book was also marketed to take place in a tarot, magic-inspired universe, yet the only place this idea seemed to present itself was in the names of places and characters. In a way, this was one of the most upsetting things for me because the synopsis made the story out to be incredibly magical and spiritual, but in reality, all plot gave way to the tragedy that was the main couple.

The main couple, both individually and together, had too many problems to count. I felt like there were constant reminders of how hot and sexy Kane was and how inferior and ugly Hannah was, but we barely scratched the surface of their inner workings. While more was revealed of Hannah because the book was from her POV, her whining and combination of superiority and inferiority was nearly unbearable, and for Kane, absolutely nothing was revealed about him, other than the fact that he was sexy and in love with the FMC.

There are so many more things I could comment on, but I think the overall gist is that this book was a huge letdown. I hope, for the sake of the author, that some more thought is put into the message and plot of her work next time, so that the book may reach a better audience.

The Empress was a fun and dark fantasy. What if a card could change your life? This book explores parallel worlds with the best characters!

2.5 stars.

Hannah is a girl down on her luck and can’t seem to get it together. On the advice from a self-help book, she takes a chance to do something different and gets a tart reading, receiving the Empress card. She seeks out her boyfriend for solace, only to discover he was cheating on her. In her flight from his building, she is transported to another realm where she meets Kane, sent to protect her so she can save his realm.

I wanted to live this book. The premise had so much promise, but the execution fell flat. It felt rushed, very superficial with little to no depth to the characters or world. I kept reading in the hopes it would get better, but sadly, it didn’t. Very meh.

Sadly I could not get super into this! I enjoyed the premise but I just couldn’t fully connect with it.

This was a cute read!
The tarot idea was cute and I wouldve liked to see more of it in the story.

It's a good "palette cleanser" in between books :)

I wanted to like it this but I couldn't get into it. It had a really interesting premise but I just this the execution fell short for me. It seems very kid-ish and I just couldn't connect with the characters.

The world building here is very intriguing and started off strong but then it felt super flat. The romance was very lackluster and very insta-love. I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn’t.