I made it through this book on nothing else but pure stubbornness. Truly, this was twice as long as it needed to be.

First and foremost, mind your triggers. The prologue of this book opens on a flashback to a childhood sexual assault that was literally never mentioned again, and seems like it was purely just included for shock value. There are also several other mentions/scenes containing sexual assault, that truly brought nothing to the story.

I was initially thrilled to get this ARC, as I’d heard about the indie release months ago, and thought the concept was really interesting! 1950’s spooky coastal village with mysterious long-lost family, multiple timelines, and unexplained supernatural happenings?? Sign me up.

Unfortunately, that’s about where my enjoyment of this book ended. This was a STRUGGLE. Our main character, Darcy, was completely insufferable. She was naive, wildly unobservant, and frankly, dumb. Not to mention, she not once had a reasonable reaction to anything happening around her. Father whose funeral she was in town to attend turns out to be alive, but suddenly vomits his organs, drops dead and catches fire? No biggie. Half the townsfolk explode into what I’m pretty sure was described as ‘pulp’? No worries. Three people are murdered, all of whom have a direct connection to her? It’s probably fine. Her internal monologues were endless, and the story was entirely made up of ‘telling’ with very little ‘showing’, especially through the author’s literal only trick for conveying information- flashback dreams that conveniently provide all the essential details just at the right time, but never enough information for Darcy or the reader to actually understand what’s supposed to be happening.

The pacing of this book was also beyond bizarre, with chapters that drag on for AGES, hundreds of pages yet no real world building, explanation of the witches’ governing body, of the magic system, of the WHOLE OTHER WORLD? Yet plenty of time for face licking. Not to mention the side quest at about 80% which took us on an INSANELY long past-life flashback, that felt more like poorly written alien fanfic of the main story. After which, the book concludes in the most anticlimactic non-battle.

I truly was not rooting for a single character in this book. Darcy and Amon were insanely selfish people, and honestly I’d consider them the villains of the story. Their happy ending came at the cost them abandoning their home world in the midst of genocide, Amon murdering his wife’s sister, so they could adopt (kidnap) her kids, he then kills thousands of people (twice) in the town in a temper tantrum for wronging Darcy, and only at the end, after leaving millennia of wreckage in their wake, do they consider in the epilogue that mayyyyybe they should go back home and help their people. But don’t worry, we don’t actually see any of that.

All in all, I would say this book is best enjoyed as a drinking game. If I’d taken a sip every time I had to read the terms “Darcy darlin’” and “Lizzie mine” I may have actually enjoyed myself 😅

This is one of those books that just leaves me here sitting staring at the wall. I recommend looking up the TW before reading this. Other then that I feel like this was more unique of a story, It is long and at times my attention did get pulled but I will say that was due to my ADHD acting up. I find that when it is more of a slow build and slow burn that will happen with me. But when it hits it hits. This is gothic historical romance. It has my favoirte Fated mates trope in it. Now I need to see if there is anything else out there that is similar that this book really got me wanting to devour.
(On another note I have the audio as well and did end up listening to it as well and it is fantastic. It is duet narrated and very well produced)

Thank you to Atria for the complementary copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Phew.. ok, I can’t wait to get into this! ♾️ infinity stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Love triangle (but not traditional)
• Fated mates
• Haunted heroine
• Broody MMC
• Historical + paranormal blend
• Inheritance mystery
• Slow burn romance
• Dark fantasy elements

Set in 1955, Fairydale follows Darcy O’Sullivan, an orphaned teacher whose life is upended when she inherits a mysterious estate from the father she never knew. Drawn to the coastal town of Fairydale, Darcy finds herself entangled in a place where nothing is as it seems.. strange residents, strange deaths, and an even stranger pull toward the hottie Caleb Hale.

But as dreams begin to bleed into reality and a ghost from two centuries past enters her world, Darcy is torn between desire, duty, and unraveling sanity. With darkness rising and an ancient evil awakening, the past and present begin to collide—and Darcy must choose who to trust before it’s too late.

This book is a MASTERPIECE, a hauntingly beautiful blend of dark fantasy, gothic horror, historical romance, and mind-bending paranormal twists. Fairydale gave me everything I never knew I needed in a book, and then some. I just finished and I’m literally sitting here staring at the wall, completely stunned by what I just experienced.

Thanks to NetGalley, I had the incredible opportunity to read an advanced copy and I can say without a doubt: this is storytelling at its most immersive and intricate. The way Veronica Lancet weaves three distinct timelines into one seamless, emotionally devastating arc is nothing short of brilliant. Every breadcrumb, every whisper of a clue, every lingering mystery is wrapped up perfectly by the end. No loose ends. Just chills and awe.

Let’s talk about Amon. HIS. TOUCH. HER. DIE. That kind of intense. That kind of power. That kind of devotion. He’s the embodiment of masculine strength, but the softness he reserves for his true love? Devastating. He’s unlike any male main character I’ve ever read. Suave, tortured, timeless… I’m still not over him.

The atmosphere? Deliciously eerie. The romance? Twisted, tormented, and impossible to look away from. And the writing? Gothic poetry.

If you like stories where passion is edged with danger, where fantasy and madness blur, and where love stretches across time itself you need this book!

‼️‼️‼️

Spoilers! Some of my favorite quotes:

“You called for me,” he leans forward, whispering in my ear. “Your soul called for me. So make your wish. What is it you want, Lizzie mine?”

“You need a bad man, not a gentleman,” he rasps as his gaze connects with mine. “You need corruption and sin, Darcy darlin’. You need someone to worship your innocence and despoil it at the same time.”

…without his signature white hair I would have been able to find him—I’ll always find him. “And I you,” he says, his eyes flickering with intensity. “Hm?” I blink. “Wherever you are, wherever you go . . .” he pauses as his gaze pins me to the spot. “Whoever you are. I will find you. That is my promise to you. Always.”

“Before you, I only knew violence. I was born to bloodshed and destruction, and I let it shape who I was—I embraced it,” he kisses my skin as he fastens the necklace around my neck, the metal cold against my feverish flesh.

“What’s in a name, love,” he murmurs lovingly as he lays a kiss on the top of my head. “You would be mine under any other name. Just like I would be yours.”

This is a dark, gothic historical romance that has a lot of different elements. It’s definitely an acquired taste if your into horror, paranormal and fantasy. It’s a really long book with over 700 pages. This is a good book but I don’t know if I would pick it up again or not. Probably will in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and share my thoughts.

Thank you to the publisher and nergalley for an arc. The preface is pretentious and was an immediate turn off, telling the reader you can’t skim you must pay attention, etc, and then the author lays out the most predictable story ever. I feel dumber for having read it. It needs a serious edit, too much time in the characters head for one. Also a love triangle isn’t really that if the reader can guess the outcome.

Absolutely phenomenal book. Did feel like some moments dragged but not in bad way but 800 page darker fantasy romance to does happen BUT still the story is 5 stars.

This book is WILD.

This is like if The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery and Kiss of the Basilisk had a baby that traveled across timelines.

Darcy is such a sweet summer child and bless her heart--she tries. She's arguably one of the smartest dumb FMCs I've read in ages, and I love her for that. She hears insane fact after insane thing, witnesses insane thing after insane thing, and just accepts it as valid and moves about her life. I could NEVER, and I can appreciate that.

This book IS dark, and absolutely has things on page that can be upsetting to people--it's written in a way TO BE upsetting, and does so in a way that's respectful but necessary for the story development. But be warned that if reading about things bothers you that you will NEED to check the TWs on this one before committing to it!

I finished this book a week ago and I'm still not sure how to explain it without spoilers. I don't think you can, if I'm being honest. I had SUCH a great time with this book (I read and listened to it--highly recommend the audio as well!), but it definitely requires some focus to keep track of the timelines and where we are in the grand scheme of things.

If you read the summary of the book and it sounds even half as fascinating to you as it did to me, and you're okay with the content matter--I cannot recommend it enough! TBH, I wouldn't be mad if I found myself in the same situation Darcy did. At least, eventually I wouldn't mind. All the trauma before hand may be a little much, but I think I'd be willing to do it for our MMC. Honestly? I'll take 50 more books like it.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC copy of Fairydale!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with starting this book but let me tell you it was a WILD RIDE. Please be aware of any trigger warnings. This is a very intense story with graphic themes. There were moments I wanted to DNF but I pushed through and finished. There are explicit scenes, and you are introduced to things that may not be up everyone’s alley. Plead be warned.

This wasn’t like anything I have ever read before. I've never read a love story that made me feel so deeply and had me entirely invested from the beginning. At times it did dragged and I got bored but it did had my interest! This book was definitely long and it took me a while to finish it but I’m glad I did!

Thank you to Aria books and Netgalley.

⚠️ please please please check trigger warnings.
Ill start by saying by the end it wrapped up and I had a better idea of what was going on. This is a long read. A dark Gothic tale. Explicit scenes of rape and gore. Half way changes genres for a bit then comes full circle. The FMC aggravated me at first... but then grew on me like the other characters.

3.75 stars for sure. By the end the read was worth it. Its just a long confusing ride to get there and I didn't mind.

I don’t know how I feel about this book to the point that I don’t know how to rate it. Definitely check out the content warnings for this book because it is intense, I knew that it would be a heavy book when I read them. This book was still odd and a lot of stuff just didn’t make sense until the very end of the book. The main characters don’t start to come along until the end either, until then it feels sort of off, which is for a reason but it just takes a long time to get there which is also something that the author warns you about.

So I wasn’t interested in the spicy scenes and had to skip some, or the extreme possessiveness but I did like the general plot line for the main characters. Their story is raw and heartfelt, while also being traumatic. Once things started coming together I felt like it was really a good book, but it felt like the ending was a little anticlimactic for the length of the story.

I’m also not bashing the length of this book, I love a book that has a good amount of plot and this book has it. I could have used a few less spice scenes but still, for a standalone, this book was pretty well paced and laid out.

Overall, take what you will from this review and make your decision on if you want to read it. Just pay attention to the author’s content warnings and prepare yourself for mystery, confusion, and lots of plot.

This book has so much detail nothing goes untouched! The magic system is unique and well thought. The romance, the love, and the main characters are top tier!! A true work of art!
The bonus epilogue was the cherry on top and finalized everything I needed!!

I can’t comment enough on how happy I am to never have to open this book again. I’ll admit there were SOME interesting parts or parts where I was like “okay, this could get good!” But holy hell was this NOT what I wanted. This was a psychological paranormal thriller mixed with bridgerton for the first few hundred pages. Then it turned slightly sci-fun/fantasy and ended with monster romance and fantasy? I don’t know. I hated this. I wanted to DNF this so many times and was assured it would get better and pay off. It didn’t. Thank god because now I don’t have to spend 200$ on that gorgeous Arcane Society special edition.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this Arc copy.

I was so excited to read this book. I picked it up at the cutest little indie book store. The premise sounded so interesting. I was all set to give this book my all. And then I got the new arc and went full send.
The beginning was what grabbed my attention. I was hooked. It kept reeling me back in.
And then her dad blew up. At this point I was still interested, but less so. It just started to unravel from there. And I noticed myself starting to daze off and get lost in my own mind instead of the book. And that’s not a place I like to be. It was also quite predictable.
So I can say I gave this a good ol’ college try. I made it halfway before calling time of dnf (13:00).
If this book was good at one thing though, it was putting me to sleep. That was the best nap I’ve had in a while so I thank you for that.
Two stars cause I may come back to it eventually? But let’s be real. It’s so long and so drawn out that it really is unnecessary.

This book was pretty good, I would definitely recommend

~This was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review………..

First off, I want to say thank you to NetGalley, Atria books, and the author for the eARC of this book.

This book and its story is definitely an acquired taste, pun intended, as I feel like there was a lot of licking going on. It is incredibly too long and could have been 200 pages shorter, easily. There are sensitive topics dealt with in this book so make sure to check out the trigger warnings before reading. I feel like the author fell into the trope trap where they tried to squeeze too many into one book and it isn't working. The writing was very amateur as well and where I had been hoping for beautiful prose, I was left disappointed.

Also, I have to talk about the MFC. I couldn't stand her most of the time which is a struggle seeing as you're stuck with internal monologue most of the time. And the love interests? I just couldn't get on board with them. I wanted to like at least one of them, but the way they treated her like an object most of the time was just icky.

All in all, I really wanted to love it, but this was a tough book for me to get through. I will not be reading the sequel.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for ARC. All opinions are entirely my own.

Okay, so this book was a ride. A loooooong one, full of different timelines, povs, secrets and plenty of crazy moments. It’s a gothic fantasy with horror/paranormals themes than honestly, I kind of wish I’d saved for spooky season.

The story itself is super complex. We’re jumping across timelines, following different characters, and trying to piece together a ton of moving parts. I had a hard time keeping up at times. Normally I get a little annoyed when switching povs, but in this case, the side stories were super necessary. They gave Darcy (and us readers) important context to understand the whole fated-mates situation with Amon. So yeah, it’s a lot, but it works.

I did end up spoiling myself a little. I was already side eyeing the cat, Caleb, and those super weird dreams Darcy was having, so I looked at some reviews. And yeah… turns out I wasn’t that far off. So when the big family tree twist happened, I wasn’t that shocked. I also kind of expected Darcy to catch on sooner, but oh well.

As for the spice, this one is extra spicy. The smut is spaced out nicely, and even though it takes a while for the present-day characters to get it on, the tension and build-up are very much present.

I did feel like the writing was weirdly modern at times for a book set in the 1950s. Not a complaint per se, but it gave me a bit of whiplash now and then.

If you’re into dark, twisty gothic romances with horror aspects, morally grey love interests, and time spanning star-crossed lovers, then this one might just be your thing.

Final rating:
3.75 ⭐️ (rounded up)
4 🌶️ (frequent descriptive language and explicit scenes)

🚨 Before diving into this book, be sure to check the trigger warnings. This story explores heavy topics that can be really intense.

This book had me in a chokehold… until it didn’t.

I loved the setup. Creepy coastal town? Check. Orphaned English teacher suddenly dragged into a web of inheritance, secrets, and ghostly hot men? Double check. There’s forbidden love, ancient curses, small-town politics, and a big ol’ helping of “Is this a nightmare or foreplay?” It had all the ingredients for a new favorite read.

And honestly? The characters ate. Amon is that tragic, poetic spirit type who haunts your dreams (in a good way), while Caleb has that unhinged, morally gray edge that whispers, “I’ve probably killed someone, but I’d never hurt you.” I was fully here for the brooding, the sensual tension, the whole “villain who’d end the world just for you” energy. Iconic.

But my issue? The pacing. This book was thicc…. and not in the fun way. I’m talking dense, filler-heavy chapters that felt like narrative quicksand. There were whole stretches where I was dying for something to happen that wasn’t just Darcy angsting in circles or another scene where the vibe was strong but the plot… wasn’t. Like girl, I know you’re overwhelmed, but if you keep monologuing about it, I’m going to become the ghost here.

I can absolutely see why some people are giving this five stars. It’s got that dark, gothic atmosphere and slow unraveling mystery that some readers live for. But for me, the ratio of plot to padding just didn’t land.

Solid three stars. I liked it. I’m glad I read it. But I needed a machete to get through all that fluff, and by the end, I was ready to inherit my peace and move out of Fairydale.

Trust the process.

If you are looking for a light read, this isn't it. HOWEVER if you want mystery, trauma, and love topped off with some magic then let me introduce you to Fairydale

Not gonna lie, the first 45% is a little confusing, but in the best way. It's very much a "what is going on, I have to find out" and then you never put the book down again

Truly my only complaint is something that would be very spoiler-y so I'll just say "24 months" and.....IYKYK

Lastly, expect your heart to be torn out of your chest. Highly recommend 🫶

Tropes:
🖤 Dark Romantasy
🖤 Period Piece
🖤 Fated Mates
🖤 Slow Burn
🖤 Small Town
🖤 Multiple Timelines
🖤 Possessive MMC

This book. Wow. Go in blind. What an incredible love story. I dont think I've read anything like this before. I loved it from start to finish. It's long but I couldn't put it down. I'd love to listen to this on audio when it comes out.