WW1 and fae are two things I never thought I’d see mentioned together in a book but here we are and for the most part I think it worked!?

The novels unusual premise was promising but unfortunately I did find the story to be a little slow. I must admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of either Silas or Adelaide and believe this interfered with my reading experience, as I just wasn’t interested in them but I enjoyed everything to do with Kit and Valentine and their journey into the Fae Realm - this is when the story really picked up for me. Not my favourite read but overall I enjoyed myself, the pacing issues were just unfortunate. 🧚✨

Loved the concept of the story, however, the execution could be better. Absolutely hated Adelaide, I haven't met such unlikable character for a while. Though I loved the way historical fiction was mixed with fantasy, I wished that faeries were a bit more distinguishable from humans not only in looks but also in their behavior, manners, and mindset. 3.5/5

A Magical and Enchanting Fantasy Romance ★★★★☆

Dance with the Fae by Elisabeth J. Hobbes is a beautifully written fantasy romance that transports readers into a world of intrigue, danger, and enchantment. The story follows a compelling protagonist who is drawn into the mesmerizing yet treacherous realm of the Fae, where nothing is quite as it seems.

Hobbes’ writing is lush and immersive, capturing the magic and mystery of the Fae world with vivid detail. The romance is slow-burning and well-developed, with plenty of tension and emotional depth. The characters, especially the lead, are engaging, and their journey is filled with twists that keep the reader invested.

The only reason for a four-star rating instead of five is that certain plot points felt a bit predictable, and I would have loved more world-building in some areas. However, these are minor issues in an otherwise captivating story.

If you enjoy fae-centered fantasy with a strong romantic thread and beautifully crafted prose, Dance with the Fae is definitely worth reading!

While the synopsis captured me, I admit I struggled a bit to connect with our protagonist. It was a bit hard to relate at times, but overall I enjoyed story.

Set shortly after WWI, we follow Kit, who has is resuming his duties as heir to his family estate, and marrying his childhood friend, Adelaide. It is what is expected, and Kit, ever the soldier, follows orders. He’s use to keeping his feelings, his trauma, his secrets inside. The story begins at the couple’s engagement party. Kit has a few encounters with odd guests, one of whom dances quite intimately with his betrothed. Another brings up feelings that Kit knows are all too dangerous to expose…

The following morning, Adelaide can not be roused from slumber. Kit must journey to the realm of the far to rescue her, and ultimately save himself as well.

Now, for the best part- Adelaide is not the love interest, but I won’t spoil it for you.

I really loved the premise. It evoked memories of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and The Red Shoes, and actually even Downton Abbey, in the beginning. It felt nostalgic, like a classic fairytale, but also refreshing, in that it’s not a straightforward love story between our initial characters, but a true journey of self discovery, with excellent pansexual representation, as well as gentle self healing that allows for a deep love to grow with another character.

Now, the only problem for me was the pacing. It took me a few tries to get going. I loved the idea but it’s slow slow pacing and if I put it aside for a few days, I had to back read to remember what happened. It wasn’t until around half way that I felt like I got momentum and wanted to immerse myself in and finish quickly. I think a lot of work went in to the beautiful character relationships and development, and we could have benefited from a little more action in our quest earlier on perhaps?! 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley, and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for this arc, in exchange for my unbiased review!

Liked it . Due to health issues cannot will write a proper review at a later time
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mineA more extensive review will follow

Set in the aftermath of the First World War, we follow a wounded soldier's journey of recovery, of finding himself again, and a second chance at life in an enchanting mystical realm. After his fiancée is swept away by the charming and mysterious Mr Wilde, he begrudgingly pairs together with the fae Valentine - who's full of riddles and cryptic meanings - to save his stolen love.

Upon reading the description of this novel, I was excited to see that it was a male rather than female protagonist that would be adventuring into fairyland.

However, I found it a little difficult to connect with our main character as I didn't fully like his personality. He was angry often - justifiably so as his fiance was kidnapped - and very mistrusting; again, this makes perfect sense as they fae are not to be trusted and have deceitful ways. However, I think he is almost written too realistically. I had hoped for more wonder and excitement throughout this novel, and more happy moments between him and his love interest. This book has a depressing tone to it, and although I enjoy reading about battles, and dangerous and emotional scenes in my fantasy books, I think this novel didn't provide me with the joy I get from the escapism of reading. I felt dreadfully sorry for Kit and had a pit in my stomach knowing what he'd gone through.

The representation for PTSD was good, and it holds great importance to remember what occurs to people during war - and mental health representation in general too - , although it was distressing to read. I would definitely advise readers be aware of this content before reading, as although I am usually comfortable reading about violence and characters battles with mental health, the emotional impact of Kit's memories are a tough one to digest.

The author handled his confusion and distrust of the fae really well and captured his disorienting experience entering a new and unfamiliar fantastical realm.

I loved the LGBT+ representation this novel provided. It was beautiful to see it blended so naturally into the fae world Kit has found himself in. It was wonderful to see how free he was able to be in a more diverse and accepting world.

This novel is a historical fantasy romance, though I did find the romance a bit lacking. Kit and Valentine definitely formed a connection during their adventure together, but I found it lacked chemistry, and not much was provided to the reader as to why their personalities would mesh. Their bond wasn't translating off the page to me. I just wanted to feel a little more excitement from their romance.

This novel had quite a slow build-up. I was looking forward to jumping into the world of the fae, but it took so long to get there, and even after arriving, I wished there was more description of the magical things to be discovered there. I struggled to build a full image in my head of what differences this new land had to the one we live in.

The ending also felt very rushed in comparison to the slower pacing throughout the book, leaving it feeling a bit lackluster and without very high-stakes, as I knew the book would be ending shortly.

'Dance with the Fae' is a beautifully well written novel, and though I did not connect with it the way I'd hoped, I think it's a fantastic historical fantasy. It was enchanting, with a uniquely eerie, unsettling, and mystifying vibe, and darker themes. I would definitely recommend this novel, even though it wasn't for me.

When One More Chapter invited me to read this book through Netgalley I was not entirely sure what to expect. At the moment there are so many books about fae and faeries around, that it's hard to find the true gems in between the sea of bad books. However, the plot of this one sounded really intriguing and the cover also made me quite curious. I decided to accept the invitation and downloaded my review copy. This week it was time to start reading.

This book was a positive surprise from start to finish. It's hard to explain what makes this book different and stand out. I think it's partly due to Kit. Kit has survived the great war but is, like so many of his peers, quite traumatized. He's also quite sceptical. He doesn't believe in fairytales, he is absolutely not interested in getting involved in another war and yet, yet this world manages to eventually convince him. And by convincing him, the world also convinces us.

Since Kit needs some time to get used to the thought that there might be a whole other world, with other rules and other values, we also get the time to really get to know the fae, their issues and their world. We understand why Kit doesn't believe everything at first, I mean, he doesn't have the title of his own book to tell him what's going on, and we also understand why Kit eventually does fall in love with the world of faeries.

And although this book is a portal fantasy, the book feels quite realistic. That's because the characters, the historical setting and the circumstances of the characters feel quite realistic. The fae part of the story may be fiction, but the historical part of the story is and feels true. Kit's struggles are real too. Kit's choices and responsibilities are too. I'm incredibly happy that I gave this book a chance and I will for sure check out the other Fae books by this author.

British Fairy Tale with Great Premise

Elisabeth Hobbes combines historical fiction with fantasy in her newest novel, Dance with the Fae. Christopher 'Kit' Arton-Price, decorated war hero bearing the scars of the battles he has seen, returns to his family's Yorkshire manor to marry Adelaide Wyndham, an heiress he has been promised to since they were both little. Now, at 30, Kit is ready to retreat to the library and bury himself in the running of the estate rather than attend the society functions expected of a young couple. When two mysterious strangers crash his engagement party, his troubles are about to get much more fantastical than his rational mind can possibly comprehend..

I found the first few pages of the novel riveting. The premise of the war hero, scarred and with a terrible secret, is tantalising, as were the descriptions and mystery of the two strangers and their connection with his fiancée and family.
The intrigue flattened out after a few chapters as the pacing stalled and I found that the first major turning point only happened a third into the book (all before that being more exposition than plot). What I thought would be a quick and easy read became somewhat dragging. The pacing did pick up towards the end but after such a slow rest of the novel, it then felt rushed and the plot lines tied up too quickly to be satisfying.
Despite a somewhat queer-positive premise, the book does not manage to straddle that topic decisively enough and falls back to straight romance where possible. The queer moments seem like an afterthought.
Some bits of the plot that were meant to be minor were more entertaining than the main storyline, which I think shows that maybe Hobbes' narrative gifts might be better suited to a different sort of story.
Only one plotline has proper obstacles and stakes that are sufficiently explored (the novel is short for a historical fantasy and I think it could have been tightened and expanded in equal measure).
The world building borrows heavily from British mythology and fairy stories, which was nice but again not fleshed out enough for my taste.
There were moments where the language of the characters seemed to slip out of the tone Elizabeth Hobbes establishes in the first few chapters and became distractingly modern.

Overall an easy read, though I would not call it a romantasy per se, more of a fantasical adventure comedy..

This was such an intriguing story and a lovely edition to the romantacy genre. Historical romance has never been my go to but this was very easy to get into. And the exploration of more complex lgbtq+ relationships in that time period was so amazing. It still wouldn't say it was a top read, mostly because it was a slow start from the type of story I'm typically like.

Thank you HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for this arc.

I enjoyed “Daughter of the Sea,” with its mix of a strong MFC and fairytale beings. This book promised more of that and I was delighted to be approved to read it. There is a lot to like but unfortunately it’s balanced with things I didn’t care for.

The pace of the book is fairly slow all the way through. There is a lot to explain at the beginning and then much for Kit to try and understand. Believe me he tries valiantly to deny, deny, deny what’s right in front of his face. Okay, having fae creatures steal your fiancée and seeing something shocking about a family member who has always been seen as “being away with the fairies” is hard to accept all at once, I’ll give Kit that. But after a while I wanted to shake him.

I enjoyed the land of the fae, how it’s described, the various people and creatures there (the birds! and another creature!). Kit finally begins to loosen up a bit and examine his personal privilege (there’s a pointed scene that drives this home) and how humans maybe don’t know everything and have done some grievous wrongs to the world. I will admit that the two people behind Kit and Adelaide being there take some time to trust, and yes there are good reasons for that, but Kit stretches this to the max. So maybe I just got bored with the repetition.

I like that there is a lot of LGBTQIA+ rep, that oppressed people get Kit to understand that not everyone has as good a life back home as he does, that Kit finally comes clear about what happened to him during the war, and that he Does His Bit to make the faedemesne a better place. I feel that Adelaide does a 180 on her LGBTQIA+ beliefs too quickly and that Kit’s ultimate choice is telegraphed. The final section wraps some things up which is nice but for once Kit needed to be a touch less honorable and just do what he wanted. Someone else describes this as Downton Abbey meets Emily Wilde which, yeah it is. C+

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for this ARC.
I found this book intriuging upon requesting it, a romantasy but in a male characters perspective. Which is a rare thing to see indeed, at least to me. The writing is readable and fun, but the pacing was a bit funny, not sure if that was me or not, as it was a bit of hectic time whilst reading, The settings descirptions were fun and magical. The historical context to the book was quite fun, as recently I've been reading a few historical novels none of them fantasy like this one. Kit as a main character was okay, unique and I loved the representation. I tried to not reveal too much spoilers in this review.

Unlike other fae books I’ve read, we follow a male character Kit who enters the fae world. Just back from war, Kit deals with PTSD as he tries to figure out his place in society again.

Now that he’s back from war, it’s time for him to take up his mantle and finally marry his fiancé. However, Kit is reluctant to do so. While at his engagement ball, he witnesses his fiancé dancing with an elusive stranger.

Adelaide, his fiancé, has come down with a sudden sickness that won’t allow her to wake. Soon, Kit finds himself entering another world.

This book had a similar vibe to Midnight in Everwood.

OK, I will be perfectly honest here and say that Romantasy isn’t my go-to genre, I will read it, but I am incredibly fussy, so much so that 90% of books that I’ve read from this genre have unfortunately ended up in the DNF box. Though rather contradictory I’m always happy to give a Romantasy book a go, maybe I just haven’t found what works for me yet, in the Romantasy genre!

But that changes whenever I read one of Elisabeth Hobbes’s Romantasy books, she is the only author who writes within the genre and can keep me interested and engaged. I adored her debut Romantasy; Daughter of the Sea, I loved everything about that book and have since re-read and loved it all over again. Her second; The Promise Tree lacked something, and even though Dance with the Fae is not Daughter of the Sea (which in my humble opinion is perfect!) this book completely hooked me from the start, I read it in one weekend which is incredibly fast for a super slow reader like me.

Dance with the Fae is a lovely friends-to-lovers romance, set directly after WW1 with the addition of being in the realm of the Fae. Something that I think allowed the author to fully embrace her imaginative and creative side to story-telling, and I hope that there will be more stories within this genre from Elisabeth J Hobbes.

The opening sees our hero; Kit Arton-Price at his and childhood friend/bride-be, Adelaide’s engagement party, it’s easy to see right from the first few pages that Adelaide and Kit aren’t made for each other, they are like chalk and cheese, good friends yet, but not anything more than that. Adelaide comes across as a bit of a spoilt airhead, a little too bothered about dancing and parties and the attention she receives, she’s not too interested in the plans Kit has for the future or the fact they are both being railroaded into an arranged marriage by their families.

Right from the beginning we are introduced to the mysterious Mr Wilde and Ms Dove, who are these two strange and ethereally beautiful creatures who seem to appear out of nowhere. Then suddenly Adelaide falls into a deep sleep which she can’t be awoken from, the local doctors claim it’s a strange sleeping sickness epidemic where people of all ages, men, women and children are all suddenly falling under its spell. Unsure of what to do, Kit finds the answers and help in the most unexpected places, first, his great aunt who in my opinion is an absolute treasure, says some quite unusual, borderline bonkers things and then there is the reappearance of the mysterious Valentine in his bedroom!

What has all of these strange occurrences got to do with Adelaide? Well, Kit has to first open his eyes and his mind and then make a life-changing journey to the land of the Fae to find the answers!

To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t get behind Kit and Adelaide’s relationship, I do think Kit had a very lucky escape when the utterly charming and ridiculously beautiful Silas Wilde (sigh!) steals her away to the world of the Fae, it is the best place for her, away from the human world in a land where all attention can be on her.

I know I sound like a bit of a bitch, but nothing irritates me more than spoilt brats, whether it’s in the fictional world or in the real one I can’t be doing with spoilt, little brats who think themselves entitled and in thinking so just become spoilt adult brats who just come across as t**ts.

Hmm, went off a little there, apologies!

Though, by the last chapter Adelaide did grow on me, not enough to actually like her, but by the end, she did come across as more mature and less selfish. She still wasn’t my favourite character, that title really must belong to Kit and Silas (who btw is a fairy dish!😍). Valentine was such a sweetheart, but I felt that there should have been a bit more about her, something felt a little flat about her that I can’t quite explain. But, I loved that she instantly picked up on Kit’s bisexuality, even saying that Silas would have a better chance at luring him into the fairy world than she. Valentine accepts Kit for who he is, she allows him to be himself with both sides of her character (I won’t say too much about that, but it’s lovely!) and I really liked their blossoming romance.

I really liked the representation of quite an extensive LGBT community within the story, the fact that this is set just after the Great War in 1918 and that being gay or bisexual is illegal is a factor in Kit’s personal back story. My heart broke for him, he’s a little uncertain of who he is and trying too hard to be what others want him to be, he is certainly suffering from PTSD after the war I got the impression that he is a little lost. His story from the trenches and what happened with his friend is heartbreaking and in my opinion one of the key parts of the whole story and could have been explored a little further, but I am a WW1 girly and will always lean towards that aspect of any story.

Dance with the Fae is utterly charming, full of magic and folklore, and an extensive and quite eclectic cast of characters all of which bring either magic or grounding to the story. I guessed the little twist at the end even though it felt a little rushed it was a satisfying ending. I particularly loved the incorporation of Kit’s past as a soldier in the trenches with the Fairy World and how one affected the other.

Overall, this is a lovely, enchanting feel-good story of love, loss, guilt, acceptance and claiming who you are, highly recommended for those who love the romantasy genre, and even for those like myself who are fussy, this isn’t too fantasy heavy so an easy and enjoyable read!

Thank you Netgalley and One More Chapter for the ARC! This read is not my typical read but loved the cozy and whimsical feelings this historical fantasy is. The pacing is a bit slow which makes sense for this book
Reading the fae in this book as more cunning creatures compared to the romantasy version was a nice change of pace as well. Kit is a likable main characters and his reactions to things of the fae world was very realistic and refreshing to see. Since it was slower-paced, I had a difficult time getting into the book but once more action started, I enjoyed it more!

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins & One More Chapter for this eARC. This is a historical fantasy set in England after World War Two. It is quite whimsical and often charming but I found the story a bit hard to get into. The pacing did pick up towards the end though. I liked Kit and the representation of his trauma and repressed sexuality but the relationship with Valentine felt a bit flat and I would have like to have seen more of them together and falling in love.

Thank you to NetGalley and one more chapter for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it had a bit of a slow start for me but once the story progressed into faerie I was hooked.

What I loved:
- The fae in this book are the traditional trickster type and some that Kit encounters are on the scary side which I really enjoyed.
- The romance in the story was really well planned and I liked how the author gave it time to develop.
- Kit was a refreshing and believable main character.

What could be better:
- very little, I struggled a bit with the pacing at the start but everything introduced was relevant to the story.

I would suggest this book to those who love the regency fairytales or anyone who likes a historical romantic fantasy.

A historical romantsy - there's some magically beautiful world building that I really enjoyed. I thought the queer representation was great and done beautifully.
I did find the ending felt a little rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the book.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc ebook.

A pleasant read - if you can get through the first half which is very slow - although very atmospheric.

A truly unique story with some great characters.

A romantic fantasy telling the story of Kit who has returned from The Great War with some scars that are more visible than others.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!

"Dance with the Fae" unfortunately was not what I expected. The book description sounded so good! However, the plot and characters were not for me. I just couldn't get into this story.