Review: Fairydale
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)

“What could possibly go wrong in the town that rhymes with fairytale?”

This book is an epic love story that stretches across centuries and lifetimes. It’s haunting, atmospheric, and beautifully written—one of those rare stories that makes you feel every heartbeat of the characters.

Fairydale itself is a secluded town where trains don’t run, strangers never visit, and the founding families carry secrets that refuse to stay buried. Within its pages, we find witches, demons, and ghosts—but at its heart, this is the story of Amon and Darcy. Their love, their pain, and their relentless search for happiness had me absolutely gripped. I cried for them. I rooted for them. I couldn’t stop reading until I knew they finally found peace.

What makes it even more powerful is that the story unfolds across three distinct timelines. As Darcy learns what happened in the past—and how it collides with the present—we’re carried through generations of love, betrayal, and sacrifice. The pacing of these revelations is just right: layer after layer pulling you deeper into the history of Fairydale.

It’s a very long book, yes, but it needs to be. Structured in three parts, it almost feels like reading an entire series bound together in one volume.

If you love generational curses, gothic towns, and romance that defies death and time itself, Fairydale will devour you.

*not my real honest rating* I need to sit in this book for a while. I need to think long and hard about it and I may need to talk it out with other people who have read this book.

This book was the ultimate rabbit hole of what in the world is going on. Mystery, romance, historical flashbacks and a unique multi-POV with a spin will keep you from guessing what is next.

Upon receiving a notice that Darcy’s biological father has passed away she is asked to travel to the town of Fairydale for the funeral and reading of the his will. Once there, strange things start to happen unraveling a story full of twists and turns where nothing is really as it seems.

Personally, I found the writing style to feel very inconsistent; it was more than just differentiating between the separate POV voices to make them unique. Sometimes the writing was romantic and lovely and then it would become very juvenile and shallow feeling. The incongruous writing was distracting, especially for such a long book. There was so much telling and not showing. Another major hang up came with the characters language not being congruent with the supposed time they were living in; it was very distracting and made the story less believable.

As for the plot and setting- the creativity was there, but it’s seemed a little too repetitive. I love a good long book you can settle into, but the last thing you want to encounter in a long book is constant reiteration. It was more than just recapping in order to keep the reader with you through the twists and turns. There was a bit of sitting and spinning with the repetition rather than it moving you forward. The setting did achieve an eerie, atmospheric and gothic vibe-not so creepy that you couldn’t sleep or walk around the house in the dark, but enough that you could feel it as you followed the story.

I did find myself liking the main characters. The naivety of the fmc is a necessary part of the storyline, but I am getting tired of every female in romatansay being young and naive. It’s getting a little old.

This is a dark romance and the trigger warning should be taken seriously for sensitive readers.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for a copy of Fairydale for review and consideration.

I had very high hopes for this book based on the one pager and description. I was extremely disappointed. Not only is it riddled with grammatical errors and clearly AI-assisted, the plot is messy and entirely too long. This book needs to be seriously revised and rewritten to be considered a dark gothic fantasy.

This book was definitely unique and weird at times but I gotta give it to the author …. I wasn’t confused at all and it was ALOT of twists and I was intrigued and had to know what was going on! The romance at the heart of the story was all consuming and the epitome of “ I will find you in any life time” I’m glad I waited until the fall to read this as it’s def a great spooky season read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for the ARC copy. I really enjoyed the twists and turns and mystery aspect of this book.

Let's talk about "Fairydale" by Veronice Lancet.

What. Just. Happened???

I'm not sure what to think of this book as I sit here writing out my review. Sure I can tell you my feelings: yearned, ached, groveled, raged, tore my hair out as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Veronica Lancet just took me down a rabbit hole that had no endings and held no bounds. The twists and turns this book - this thick, opulent, devious book took, was a mastermind of deception.

You think you understand what is happening, but you truly don't. Multiple points of view, but within the same mind, within the same ... body? Time is an illusion.

<i>"You need a bad man, not a gentleman. You need corruption and sin. You need someone to worship your innocence and despoil it at the same time."</i>

And it was HOT. Wild, wet, slippery, and disturbing. It was dark, demonic, and left me with questions and answers that I did not readily agree upon. It was a breakfast of trigger warnings that feed me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Veronica Lancet for this ARC and for my open and honest feedback.

✨ Touch her and Die Horribly...
✨ Fated Mates
✨ Multiple POVs (but with a twist!)
✨ Gothic Vibes
✨ Them vs Us
✨ Time Hopping

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Series: Standalone

I think the creativity is there. This concept had me so excited. I unfortunately DNFed at 50%.

The writing style was not for me. I know this book is described as long, and I usually love a long book. This book is the exceptions because it feels as though it is only long because the author is quite repetitive and does not give readers room to engage in critical thinking/ inferencing.

Ex: “ The sheets of paper with their odd message did little to calm my increasing anxiety, and I find myself nervous about what is to come. ”

The book was very over-explained. So far every plot twist was guessed by me well before the reveal, because the authors writing left no room for questions as far as where the story was heading.

There were also very random inclusions that didn’t really seem to serve any purpose plot wise

Ex: “How could I when we live in an age of scientific advancement—when a man-made creation can wipe an entire city, if not a country, off the map?“

Things like this felt like a lazy way to “establish the time period” but this is also never brought up again and contributed nothing to the plot. Things like this made it hard for me to suspend my disbelief and really stay absorbed in the book.

This is described as a slow burn but it was actually very insta lovey. I will say at 50% there hasn’t been any spice, however no spice doesn’t means slow burn. Caleb (or MMC) is basically head over heels in first sight and she basically reciprocates all his very intense insta love feelings immediately. It made it hard for me to buy into the relationship between the characters.

The concept is a great one, the execution needs some workshopping for me!

Darcy is an orphan who receives a letter informing her that her biological father whom she's never met has passed away. She's summoned to the town of Fairydale for his funeral and the reading of his will. But from the moment she arrives, strange things begin to happen, and Darcy quickly realizes her family isn't what she thought.

This is definitely not your typical fantasy romance. It got weird fast but in a way that kept me turning the pages. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the book, especially in the early chapters. But leading up to the halfway point, things took a turn that grabbed my full attention.
Initially, I wasn’t into the love interest(s). There was something missing. However, as the story developed, whatever was lacking started to show up in full force, and I found myself obsessed. The connection between the characters became so intense and passionate that I could feel it and their obsession with each other was addictive in the best way.
I also really appreciated how everything came together in the end. All my questions were answered, every plot thread tied up neatly, making it a solid standalone. And the bonus chapter? Pure icing on the cake.

If you’re okay with a romantasy that leans into the strange, featuring an MMC who basically says, "Touch her and X_X. Think ill of her and X_X." then this might just be your next favorite read. The spice level may not be for everyone, but it made for one fun, wild ride.

Fairydale has set on my to be read shelf for a long time and with a title like that, I had high expectations. There was a lot of book and I can see why it was widely enjoyed.

Indie published Fairydale sat on my tbr for so long so i was excited to see it got picked up traditionally and that i got a chance to read an ARC :)

700+ pages still felt like way too much and that was cut back from the indie version. It was a meshing of different time lines and plots and immediately the writing style left me wanting more. Dialogue felt very odd to read, as if i was reading a script for a play, direct and having to tell everything. I think for those that loved the indie version will still love this, but this one was not for me

Fairydale follows Darcy O’Sullivan, an orphaned woman of little means who receives a letter that her birth father has passed away and requests her presence for the reading of the will. Her father lived in the mysterious town of Fairydale where she must now travel and remain as a condition of her inheritance. But all is not as it seems in Fairydale and everyone seems to want something from her, who can she trust? The dashing stranger Caleb Hale who seems oddly infatuated with her? Or the man she can’t get out of her head but who’s she seems only able to conjure in her dreams…

Ok… so I will start by saying if you are considering reading this book, CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. They are very much present in the book and I don’t mean merely implied or mentioned.

Next I want to say that this story was incredibly creative and I so badly wanted to love it. It was far too long from the book itself to the chapters, everything was very drawn out and could have been edited down quite a bit. I struggled to finish this and I am no stranger to long romantasy books. I don’t love long and drawn out flashbacks so the extensive stories from 3 different timelines didn’t do much for me. The MMC in the last third of the book was much better but for the majority of the book I found him and the romance to feel kind of….icky…. I’m not sure what other way there is to describe it. The immediate possessiveness and controlling nature of the man and then there was the gaslighting…. Oh the gaslighting…. I had a really hard time understanding the feelings of love she had for him. All in all? 2 stars because of the creativity and the underlying story. I have friends who would love it but it was not for me.

Huge thank you to Atria books for offering this title for review via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had seen this book all over YouTube, and the hype was everywhere, so even though I had JUST finished another massive book, I couldn’t resist diving straight into Fairydale.

Let me just start by saying wow. This book messed with my head in the best way. Veronica Lancet’s writing is dark, moody, and atmospheric, and from the very first pages, I was completely pulled in. But what really stood out to me was the constant feeling of being unsettled. You’re never quite sure what’s real, who’s telling the truth, or what to believe. At times, it honestly felt like I was being gaslit right alongside the characters, and that made the entire experience addictive.

The three timelines play a huge role in that tension. They weave together slowly, and I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of the structure at first. But as the story unfolded, I grew to appreciate how it kept me constantly guessing. It’s intentionally disorienting; the kind of storytelling that lingers in your mind and has you thinking about the book even when you’re not actively reading it.

That said, we can’t ignore the elephant in the room: this book is LONG. While I loved getting lost in the world, there were definitely stretches in the middle where it felt like a couple hundred pages could have been trimmed without sacrificing much. The pacing slows in places, which might test your patience, but the payoff makes sticking with it worthwhile.

This isn’t a light or easy read, but it’s haunting, emotional, and layered in a way that will stay with me for a long time. If you enjoy dark, atmospheric stories that keep you on edge and constantly questioning everything, I’d say Fairydale is absolutely worth your time.

The opening was very intense, if you have strong triggers with sexual assault I would avoid that. The plot was very slow, a lot of filler.

Fairydale has such a haunting, atmospheric setting and some genuinely intriguing supernatural elements. I enjoyed the romance and the sense of mystery, but the story sometimes felt a bit scattered, and a few characters weren’t fully developed. Still, it’s an enjoyable read for fans of gothic paranormal fantasy.

Fairydale is a multi-timeline story about two souls following each other throughout history. It has elements of gothic and dark romance, and may not be for all readers. The range of storylines kept me engrossed and needing to know what happens next.

This is for the newly published edition! It features a new cover that fits its dark themes, although I still preferred the old one. The new edition has made significant improvements in correcting grammatical errors, and we also get bonus content.

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have received a physical advanced copy of Fairydale from the author and Atria Books! 🫶

Fairydale truly is ethereal and it’s such a beautiful story that will forever remain in my heart! 🥹🖤 It’s gothic, haunting, magical and brought me to a whole other world! 🫶 The world building is intricately complex with three different timelines and yet ties together so seamlessly like one putting together puzzle pieces for a puzzle! 🧩 Now I will say that this book is HUGE! 🙀🙊My physical edition of the book is 730 pages and I savored this book for five days because I didn’t want to let go or say goodbye! 🫶

This book brought me through the wringer of emotions! 😭💔😂🤭🔥🙊😱😤🥰 I cried, laughed, got angry, had my heart broken and put back together time and time again, smiled, blushed, screamed, got goosebumps, etc. Don’t even get me started on the love story because the love story is beautiful! 🥹❤️ It really is a love story that transcends across all time and is simply *chef’s kiss* 👩‍🍳💋

If you love gothic historical fantasy, a beautiful love story, slow burn, multiple timelines, touch her and ☠️, mystery, and a story that will bring you a beautiful and haunting ride then be sure to read this book! 🫶

First I would love to thank Author Veronica Lancet for writing such a beautiful, heartbreaking book. It’s truly one of my top 5 favorites of all time. Getting the extra surprise epilogue was such a sweet treat. I’d love to know more of their story later on!

What a wild ride!!!!! At times, I cried. At times, I laughed. At times, I was confused! The overarching love story was amazing, and I loved the different timelines. I did think the book was a bit long, but I don’t know what could be cut out! Definitely recommending this one to my fellow romantic fantasy lovers!