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.

4⭐️s
-Fake Marriage
-Romantasy
-Tarot Cards
-Unique Magical system
-Broody/Morally Grey MMC
-Little Fawn

“You want to be mine little fawn?” mhmmm..Kane was sooo yummy that he deserved his own POV. I probably would’ve gave it 5⭐️’s. I actually enjoyed this book more than I initially thought I would. Hannah was a bit frustrating through the book, she’s very naive and came off a bit immature. II kept slamming the book closed wanting to yell at her for some of the decisions she made or just her whining! I loved the unique magical system but was 50/50 with how much modern day things were included in the book EX: cell phones ,Uber, Target panties lol I don’t usually enjoy fantasy books that’s written that way but this was good. The tension in this book was making me antsy because Hannah was attracted to Kane right away, I didn’t expect it to be a slow burn & the chemistry just was a bit off to me. Also, I didn’t understand how Hannah was able to impersonate a brown person being white anyway, there was some holes but it didn’t make it any less enjoyable to me.I just kept wanting to read more! The spice was pretty hot!! I loved it . Definitely a book I’d recommend to others to read. First book by Kristin Cast but won’t be the last. Thanks NetGalley , Sourcebooks and Kristin Cast for giving me the opportunity to Arc Read this book!

An interesting twist on portal fantasy romance.

When a last second, impulsive trip to a Tarot shop ends with Hannah being practically booted from the shop with a tarot card in tow, she can't imagine that things could get any stranger. But the next day, after a failed presentation at work, an unfortunate encounter with her cheating boyfriend, and a missed bus have ended with her slipping on ice, falling through a portal. Transported to a realm with no cell signal, no electricity, and a tall, dark, and brooding warrior that things she's been sent to save them all, Hannah loses the tarot card that brought her here (and her purse) and needs to find them both so she can get home ASAP and make up for her disastrous work presentation. But when she finds herself fitting in to the world of Towerfall more and more and begins to catch feelings for the broody warrior who has become her protector, getting back to the real world might be a lot harder than she imagined.

This was an interesting, albeit shallow, portal fantasy romance. Elements of historical romance, fantasy, and even some contemporary elements blend together to create a world where there are more realms that one and they can be traversed by those who possess the means to do so. I enjoyed my time reading this story, I just wish there had been a little more meat to it. Both the romance and fantasy plots felt a bit shallower than I tend to prefer. I tend to like stories with more detail and a lot of aspects of this read felt a little glossed over.

That being said, I loved the witty banter between the characters and the contrast between Hannah (your average contemporary corporate ladder climber who has thus far been extremely unlucky in life and in love) and the historical fantasy aspects of the world of Towerfall. There is just something special about a woman being accused of witchcraft for using her phone. I thought the use of tarot was an interesting twist on a magic system and that the doppelgangers between realms was a very nice touch. Except for Stephanie. Fucking Stephanie.

Overall, I'd be intrigued to see where this series goes as it continues but it's not a book I think I will find myself reading more than once.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books via NetGalley for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read this due to the premise and tarot-themed magick system. It was fun to learn about the parallel universe and to watch the FMC (SLOWLY) learn the high-stakes social rules of the alternate society. That said, I ran into some hiccups that made it hard for me to fully enjoy the book.

I think it would have been more interesting if some of the parallel characters didn't play the same roles--it became predictible whenever she would recognize someone, because we knew what kind of role they would take on based on her experience with them in her universe. I could see how keeping the parallel characters "good" or "bad" makes sense in theory, but one character being a jerk at work then being an evil usurper of the crown felt really extreme and dramatic.

It was also hard to believe that this character would've chosen to stay in the alternate universe. It was clear that the goal was to have her have few ties to her realm, but I think she needed to have a worse life than she did in that realm to abandon it for this one.

Lastly, I wish that we knew more about the magick system. It was hard to really empathize with the political distress or be worried during certain key scenes when we don't really know what the magick does or what its limits are, if any.

I think that there is definitely a niche audience for this book--I would recommend it to people who enjoy a modern person's mannerisms, motives, and experiences in a historical setting. I learned that just isn't me, unfortunately.

First, I love the tarot card cover. The use of Tarot cards in this fantasy is great but everything else really confused me. Kristin is a really well put together author so I am confused on how some things happened in this book. I don't how the next installment could go. I hope this gets better with the second and answers quite a few of the questions for me.

This is a fun parallel universe story with good descriptions of the alternate reality. I liked that the characters have a doppelganger in Pentacles and the fact that they had the same good vs. evil persona in both worlds. I also appreciated that the author made sure the differences between the societies were noted and explained. The FMC learned, admittedly very slowly for someone working in corporate America in a major city, what she couldn't say or do. I wished she wasn't such a passive character for over half the book. It would have helped with the flow of the story. I also wanted a more in-depth discussion or development of the magick of the Tower and the prophecy.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I had a hard time getting into the story and ultimately decided not to finish it.

Overall this was quite an enjoyable read! I loved the mesh of modern times and a medieval past. I found myself really liking the main characters. It definitely was an easy read but an enjoyable one. If you like fish out of water, magic, protective men, and romantasy you will enjoy this book.

There are things I enjoyed about this book, and other things that felt frustrating.

The idea behind another world based on tarot cards is very original. I love that each world had mirroring characters that impacted the plot and character development.

However, I did not enjoy the FMC throughout the majority of the book. She felt very whiney and helpless for the majority of the book and it made it difficult to get through the first 30%. The ending also felt very rushed and disjointed.

My favorite parts of the book were the spicy scenes. I thought the author did a good job building tension between the two main characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While this book has its flaws, I was overall charmed by the premise and characters. There were some key plot holes (IUD removal, frozen credit card, and dopplegangers) but it was creative and entertaining.

As a kid, I found the Stephen Donaldson book "The Mirror of Her Dreams" among my dad's eclectic sci-fi and fantasy books. This strongly reminded me of that duology but without the depressive overtones and with legit spice.

I'm not a tarot believer (though I've read multiple urban fantasy books that use them) so I skipped the explanation in the prologue. It didn't detract from my enjoyment. The whole book is Hannah's first-person POV, with some inner monologuing along the way.

I think the author did a good job of balancing Hannah's modern Chicago life with her time in Pentacles, Towerfall. I especially liked the food, clothing, and transportation details in Pentacles. Those fantasy areas are often glossed over.

The fantasy clothing was part of a deliciously spicy scene, too. Pentacles is plenty modern when it comes to k*nk.

The villain has a very silly name and the politics of the kingdom are glossed over at best. As well, it's not made clear the scope and size of the Towerfall Kingdoms.

Still, this had humor and spice and a rousing self-esteem adventure.

The premise of this book hooked me but unfortunately this book did fall a bit flat for me. I wanted to see a bit more of the world building and magic system throughout the book. The tarot elements were so intriguing and one of my favorite parts of the book. I think it could have been developed a little more though. This book held lots of banter, tension, and action which I loved. Overall, this book was a little bit of a miss for me but I could see how some people would love it!