I’ll start by saying I’m not the biggest romantasy fan but I am a Fallon Ballard fan ever since I read Lease on Love a few years ago.

Kudos to Ballard for taking a dive into this genre with competition like Fourth Wing and ACOTAR. Like most romantasy, I had a hard time really immersing myself in the world. I liked the characters overall and read the story rather fast but am not attached to the world as a whole. I’m also not big on fight scenes within a book so the end started to lose me a little.

I think that those who are fans of spice, romantasy, and or Fallon’s work will enjoy this!

Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 ✨

Thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I went in wanting to love this. I’m a Falon Ballard fan and I love romantasy. Unfortunately this missed the mark for me. I didn’t feel connected to the characters, the fantasy world wasn’t as engrossing as I hoped, and the premise (the lessons) felt silly.

The last 100 pages are action-packed and it leaves off with a clear bridge to a next book, but this one just didn’t hook me like I’d hoped.

I think it’s so cool that Falon Ballard tried a new genre and I will be rooting for her continued success!

This was an interesting one for me, because it started out kind of slow, I really liked the middle section of the book, and then it just completely lost me in the end. It just felt like there was good build up, but then everything happened at once. The romance was super rushed (but also I have a hard time with books where the main characters are professing their ultimate love for each other in like two days), and the world building just kind of fell flat for me. There was so much potential here - but it just wasn't quite executed in a way that kept me hooked the whole time. It's very obviously meant to be a series, but I'm unsure if I'll continue it based on this first book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this eARC!

Falon Ballard's SOMETHING WICKED started off strong. The setting was intriguing, the characters Cat and Callum were fleshed out. The issue was not with the plot - girl meets boy, boy and girl do not get along because they're on Opposite Sides, that changes for X reason - but, as some reviewers have stated re: extraneous smut. It began to take away from the plot, which was a shame, because it's really interesting.

This book was also marketed as a Moulin Rouge/Macbeth twist. I...didn't really get that? Maybe it's because it's been ages since I've seen MR, but I know Macbeth very well, and I didn't necessarily get that vibe from it.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was entertaining, but it didn’t grab me after a while like I thought it would.

I am a huge fan of Fallon Ballard’s CR’s so I was excited to see her branch out! This was fun and sexy with a great mix of plot and spice! I can’t wait to see where this world goes!

I was eager to dive into Something Wicked, but ultimately, it wasn't the right fit for me. While the novel explores themes of determination, love and self acceptance, the unique magical talent possessed by the fmc, Lady Catherine, was not to my taste.

Cate, a magically gifted woman, earns her keep at a brothel, where her abilities allow her to draw out pain in an unconventional way. Meanwhile, Callum, the son of a dethroned King, finds himself swept up in the growing movement in Avon to elect a new ruler and bring long-awaited change. Their connection when they meet is immediate, and the story follows their journey and awakening as they navigate personal and political upheaval.

Despite the novel's strong themes of perseverance and embracing one's potential, I found myself unable to fully connect with the story. While Falon Ballard crafts a world rich with intrigue and transformation, Something Wicked didn't resonate with me.

I really wanted to love this book, it was the cover bgl it just looks ah beautiful, lovely job by the artist
Anyways, the book didn't start that bad, i LOOOOOOOVED Caterine, 10/10 carachter for me, she was smart and sexy, confident, great but the ,ain problema that I had with this books is well, firstable i didn't really care about the political plot, it was a lot of things happening all together, way too much information, it just didn't work for me and i wasn't interested enough to try to understand it
BUT the biggest problme for me was the sexy scenes and the constant smut without reason, like Cat was worried about her sister? sex Callum's (MMC of the story) father died? sex. Could be the reason why i couldn't care about the story enough because everytime our carachters had a breaking point their only way to overcome it was with sex and at first it was fun but then it just got boring and a bit ridiculous, so yeah.
I really really really wanted to like this but it just didn't work for me

I was really pleasantly surprised on this one. I think I glanced at other people’s reviews and that allowed me to expect the worst of this, but once I got into it, I found a lot to enjoy.

I really liked the main characters separately. The FMC was a courtesan, and the MMC was a prince. Almost immediately the story sets up the fact that the King is to be killed in order for another to take his spot. The FMC is brought into this because she has powers that relieve people of stress. This can only be achieved when they’re orgasming (this sounds weird now that I’m writing it out, but it was interesting while I was reading it.)

Separately they both had very good tensions and reasons, but together I didn’t fully buy it. It was very instalove, and I guess you could explain that away by a type of magical bond they had, but I feel like it was done strangely.

The world I was also a bit hesitant on—people had magical powers but they were all insanely specific and everyone’s was different. They had restrictions put in place by the government but the King was a man that didn’t want it? So like… Who was enforcing these rules and why didn’t he get rid of them?

It was a quick and fun read. I don’t know how much I would pick up the second book, and it feels a bit forgettable, but I did enjoy myself while I read it.

I didn't love this book, although the premise was interesting! I just never really felt connected with the characters, nor did I truly feel suspense in the plot. If you're looking for spice, this book definitely has it!

Thanks to netgalley and the author/publisher for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam for the ARC!

This was my first book by Falon Ballard, and I devoured it. It’s an action-packed romance between a prince 👑 and a gifted courtesan, full of witty banter, smutty “lessons”, and an entertaining dynamic. Callum and Cate start off with a one-sided enemies-to-lovers vibe, but it turns into insta-love pretty quickly 💘.

I don’t take my Romantasy reads too seriously, and this one hit the spot—fast-paced, smutty, funny, and it totally stands on its own.

Around the 75% mark, I had a good idea of how things would wrap up, but the twist at the end threw me a bit. Still not sure if I loved it or found it mildly annoying 😅—maybe both?

4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 on Goodreads. Overall, a great read, and I’m wishing Falon all the success with this release! 🎉

Easy Romantasy to read. I appreciate that the world building was not overly complex. I loved the tension between Cate and Callum. It lacked excitement for me and was a little forgettable. The bond was a little confusing to understand. So many unanswered questions so I'm hoping there is a sequel. If there is i will read it. The cover is stunning. Cates gift was also a little difficult to understand and kind of weird for me

First and foremost this book is very unique, the magic the main character possesses was original to me and I thought it was really interesting!
I liked the beginning but had a tough time getting into the meat of the book I think because the world building was slightly confusing and I didn’t feel super invested.
You just have to keep reading to get to more of the main characters tension and development.

I honestly stopped reading it for a few weeks (I’m a huge mood reader!) but couldn’t stop thinking about it and returned and I’m glad I did!

This book is spicyyyyy which I think is obvious with the premise of the story. I enjoyed the tension and building of the story. Overall this story is a good time!

I think I will def keep reading this series! This author usually writes contemporary from what I understand and I think she will just improve!

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!

I was really excited to get an eARC of this book. The sexual nature was a bit much for me and I felt like it didn’t necessarily add to the plot. Some of the dialogue just did not flow for me and felt very disjointed and awkward. It just truly fell flat in the reasonings and delivery for all the characters. The Bond seemed like an excuse for insta love as they went from strangers to in love within a week. I’d be interested in reading more of this world.

was okay. felt a bit rushed during parts but overall pretty good. Felt some disconnect between the characters

This book has a very promising premise, but ultimately did not deliver.
This story is sorely lacking some necessary world building. Any bit of background about the Uprising as an organization, Callum's family, and the Gifted girls/the club would go a long way here. Lady M's character is still a complete mystery to me. Her introduction was random and her motivations are still unclear.

There also needs to be more focus on the relationship between the characters, not just Cate and Callum. I would love to see Cate and her sister's relationship have a bit more sentiment, and more history about Cate and Harold. I would also love to see a few more scenes of the courtesans bonding behind the scenes, I think this would up the stakes a bit more.

In general, I am not a big fan of the instalust to bonded mates line, but I found this particular execution of the trope especially lacking. I love romance but the fact that this story tries to sell us on how "sex lessons" can overcome prejudices and years of oppression is.....distasteful to say the very least.

And what a waste of a fun setting! Leaning into the glamour of the Moulin Rouge inspiration would add a lot of dazzle to this book, and I think is what I was most looking forward to in this book. There is one fun on stage scene, and the rest of the time it is just the background to the story.

This book bumbled along for me. It was a promising concept, but poorly done.

3.25 Stars

This book was super engaging and I was able to binge it in 2 days. The twists were fun and I am definitely curious about how the story will go in the next one. I liked the little entries at the end of the chapters that gave us more insight into other characters and events that happened in the past, but I don’t think it was enough to offset the lack of world building and exposition.

I liked Cate and Callum’s relationship, and I do think they had enough scenes together to be fleshed out, but since the whole story takes place over the course of around 2 weeks, the plausibility of their love felt too unrealistic. I know they have the Bond, but the book doesn’t do a very good job explaining what it is exactly and how it works. I do think they have great chemistry but the ending decision they made feels very rushed for the timeline and I wish there was either more resistance to make the characters yearn more, or that the timeline was longer to make it more believable.

Speaking of being confused, the world building and character depth was lacking in the book.

The motivations of the characters politically was unclear, and I’m not totally sure how the old versus new government operate. We don’t get much backstory on the war or how the new regime took over or even what the new regimes goal is. The book focused so much on the task of finding the new candidate, but we don’t actually know too much about the state of their world. I hate to say it but even though the spicy scenes were done really well, I’d rather have had less of them if I could get more world building.

Besides the two main characters, a lot of the side characters and the main villain fell flat, since they weren’t in that many scenes comparatively. After reading the book I’m still unclear about their true motivations and I don’t buy some of the bonds these characters supposedly have. I know for the sake of a larger series some things are supposed to remain mysterious, but the twin sisters barely had any scenes together to make me understand their relationship.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

First off, this cover is one of the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen. Stunning!

In the first 20% of the book felt like this had five star potential. The setting was interesting with magical courtesans in a fantasy world. Getting to see Cate using her gift in action was so fun. I do wish that her gift would have shown up more throughout the story. It’s such a unique part of her yet we didn’t get to see her use it very often to aid the story. It felt solely there just as a plot device to get her and Callum to meet.

The reason I felt myself drifting away from the story was that certain choices started to not make sense to me. There were major questions I would sit with that would distract me from reading like:

-Cate was going to get enough money to buy her and her sister‘s contract out. Why did she agree to the extra part of lady M’s bargain?
-How does the bond actually work? It seems like you can go a long time being away from each other, but then another scene you can’t?
-On the day of Callum‘s father‘s murder when Cate and Callum woke up late why did Kait immediately start dumping out all of the nefarious things she was doing? It felt inauthentic in that scene and just done to aid the plot.
-I need some other context behind why Alex decided to be a part of the uprising. Doing it just because you know they’ll win and you want to get the inside scoop doesn’t make enough sense.

Overall, it was a good read, but I think it could have been even greater! To be honest, this is a rare case where I think it should’ve been 100-200 pages longer. It would have benefited from some extra space to build out the connection between the main characters and the world building.

Boy, this book has had some harsh reviews, and I'm here wondering if we all read the same book? I loved this. No, it wasn't perfect, but I think its exactly what its been promoted as and it's just a really good time.

Considering Ballard has been a contemporary romance author, I was really impressed with her world building. The concept is relatively simple, but WELL executed, and I'll take that over complicated and convoluted any day of the week. Furthermore, the world building felt natural, certainly helped along by the first person narrative, but there was never a point where we had to get info dumped on in order to simply understand what's happening.

The political intrigue and unrest is a really interesting backdrop for this story and I liked the way that plotline played out. I liked that the Uprising wasn't perfect, and in fact, really kinda screwed up. I loved the double agent, and the way that relationship played out on page in the aftermath. I really REALLY loved the snippets of correspondence or news at the end of each chapter, which were intriguing and confusing but also helped start putting things together. That was a unique touch that I REALLY enjoyed.

Is it insta-love? Yes, but at least there's a fated mates trope in the Bonding idea that makes that make sense, it's not just gratuitous. Does Callum make a kinda sharp about face in a pretty short stretch of time in terms of his ideals and values? Yeah, the pacing there left something to be desired, BUT I think it made him a lot more likable and sympathetic in the second half of the book. Was the "I'm no good for you" line a little repetitive? Also yes. And Lady MacVeigh being only Lady M for some reason took me out of the story every time--I know it was to make that Macbeth association but it felt jarring to read every time and I don't even know why.

All of that said, this definitely has some elements that weren't perfect, but overall I had a great time reading this and I absolutely don't think it deserves the rough feedback I've seen for it on Netgalley.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book!

Falon Ballard's first foray into romantasy is a SPICY one! I have been wanting a fantasy book that was different and unique and she nailed it with this world building! It is difficult to condense this plot down into a synopsis because there are many interweaving plots between the two main characters, Cate, who is a Gifted courtesans whose gift allows her to ease the emotions of her lovers and Callum, who is the prince and has been given an almost impossible task to complete. Callum visits Cate for her gift and a deeper connection develops. Their connection sets them down a path to save those they love and save their kingdom.

I can say that i enjoyed this read with all the spice and powers. It was a quick read for me. I was surprised by the spice, it was very hot. The story was also interesting. There was something different about the way this went.