Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was really intrigued by the premise of Our Rogue Fates. I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan, so the idea of a story inspired by Tolkien immediately caught my attention. Unfortunately, the execution didn't quite land for me.

The pacing felt uneven--major events often occurred off-page, which made the story feel disjointed and undercut the emotional impact of key moments. I also struggled with the dynamic between the main characters. Their relationships never felt fully believable or fleshed out, which weakened both the emotional stakes and the romantic thread of the story.

Another element that didn't work for me was the tone. While this is marketed as fantasy, it often didn't read like fantasy. When a book positions itself as "Tolkien-inspired," that sets a very high bar--and unfortunately, the story couldn't deliver on that promise. And I have to be honest: the romance being described as "Achillean" really didn't work with me. The Song of Achilles is one of my favorite books, and this book never reached the same emotional or lyrical depth.

That said, there were some aspects I did enjoy. At times, the story almost gave me The Witcher vibes, which was fun, and I think readers who are more familiar with Dungeons & Dragons might connect with this more than I did. Maybe it's just a case of me not being the right audience.

Overall, I don't think this is a bad book, but it didn't live up to its promise or meet my expectations.

Once I finished this, I felt like I was transported in a Dickensian novel and I found myself requesting some more, ahah.

I adored this, from start to finish. The characters were amazing and Alys is no third wheel!

Not for me. Really dense and needlessly complicated world building. To avoid writing an infodump at the start, the author tries to give each information gradually, but like this it comes from out of nowhere and you're feeling confused for most of the read (and to be honest it still feels infodumpy anyway). I also had trouble following along the writing, it was convoluted and it did not flow well.

Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Glenn Marsh has an intriguing premise, but it falls a bit flat. The chemistry between the main characters just didn’t click for me, making it hard to get invested. While the writing is decent, the use of modern words in a fantasy setting feels out of place and jarring. It’s a solid attempt, but not entirely successful.

4 stars for Our Rogue Fates! As a massive Lord of The Rings fan...I can see the similarities! I thought this book truly was a cozy fantasy that had me want to keep turning pages! I found Mal & Griff to be deeply emotional which is not often found in men in fantasy. I loved it.

The story was more cozy fantasy than epic quest. There is definitely more stressful elements to it- but I thought they journey was pleasant! I loved the trio of Alys, Mal, and Griff. There was so much familiarity between the three of them it made me wish I was still close with my friends from childhood. As for the deeper side of the story, I loved Mal & Griff's emotional vulnerability. Were they ever truly enemies? I don't think so...but were they scorned lovers who wanted nothing to do with each other? Absolutely! I found their reconnecting to be beautiful and extremely raw. Of course I have to mention the spice...It was incredible! The spice was spicing!!

I have to mention the queer normative world!! I love seeing this in fantasy & it was ALL OVER Our Rogue Fates! I ate it up & need to see more of it in fantasy! I thought Sarah Glenn Marsh write a story that all queer fantasy loving people would love to live in.

Thank you to Sarah Glenn Marsh for an advanced e-copy of Our Rogue Fates! <3

The premise of this novel had a lot of promise but for me it didn’t live up to what I had hoped. Firstly this book felt more marketed towards an epic fantasy novel but the main focus was on the broken friendship of Griff and Mal and a love lost.

The love component didn’t give that full force in my belief, a lot of it felt rushed and their rekindling came too quickly with not enough conversation or even reflection on the point of where they came from. I’m still partly unclear what their original falling out was over because of the constant back and forth.

I loved the cover art, the description really drew me in. The essence of this story really has great potential, I love the themes, the magical creatures along the way, the found family aspect between Griff, Mal and Alys was done perfectly. It had so many great moments but they didn’t blend all together in this story.

I had moments while reading when I had trouble following along due to the writing style. It just might not be the right writing style for me, but a lot of the sentences seemed like if they were flipped it around it would become a lot more smoother.

Would I continue on if it were a series? I’m not sure.

Would I read more from this author? Of course, I look forward to reading more and to try and understand if my thoughts are solely for this novel, or if it transfers into anything else. Marsh is strong in her concepts, and I really commend her for that.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press and Sarah Glenn Marsh for exchanging this arc for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this was an early DNF. The first chapters are written very choppily and with a lot of info dumping. At first I thought maybe this was because Griff was having a very bad time and dying (The event is written in the summary, so this isn't a spoiler), which can be written as very dreamy, but then we got into Mal's POV and the info dumping and choppy writing continued. It wasn't even full info dumping, I think it was supposed to get me excited for the intrigue or whatever was going to happen in the book, but instead I just had basic questions I felt should have been answered if we were already going to learn about, especially since it was information that the character would know.

I was trying to force myself through the novel, but I wasn't getting through much each day and it was making me not want to read at all, so I'm going to have to DNF this.

As grateful as I am to NetGalley for this ARC, this was a DNF for me. The writing just didn’t flow for me, I felt absolutely no connection to the characters and there was no hook to the plot to keep me engaged to try and develop that interest in the characters.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for a review.

The premise of this book was great on paper but it wound up not being a great fit. I love enemies to lovers troupe but the enemies part of this book didn't make sense. They moved way too quickly to lovers and the reconciliation was unsatifying for me. The characters were unredeemable (except for Liam who requires no redemption but does deserve retribution). I lost the point of the plot about halfway in and spent a lot of time skimming.

The lore is really neat. With more attention, it could really stand out.

I think this book will have its audience. Who that audience is, I'm not exactly sure.

Unfortunately, I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would when I requested it. I didn't enjoy the writing style at all. I found it confusing at times, and I didn't know where or when the book was set. The characters all acted like copies of each other, and there wasn't much personality difference between the three characters we were following.

I enjoyed the plot and the two former friends, now enemies, coming together to do the quest, however, again, I don't think it was well written and a lot that was irrelevant to the plot was going on, but nothing important ever happened until towards the end of the book.

I did give this a 2.5 because I did enjoy the romance between the two main characters, it was a little rushed as they did get together by the halfway point, but with the backstory, I didn't mind it as much as i normally would.

Overall, this book wasn't for me, if you're more of a character and romance-focused reader rather than a writing and world-building focused reader, I do recommend this for you.

Opposites Attract
Childhood Best Friends
Amazing Chosen Family
Fantasy Adventure!

Grab your sword and your maul for treasure hunting adventure! Estranged best friends have to reunite with their badass sister to find treasure in a fantasy realm.
Will they be able to work through the years of tension to be friends again? Could there be more?
This story is action packed and keeps you on your toes!

This has a very fun enemies-lovers story! I enjoyed the characters and I found the plot to be the perfect mix of romance and action that kept me interested. I will say I didn't love the writing style. The way it was written felt too modern at times for its setting which took me out of the immersion. In all, it's a fun fantasy that delivers on the D&D feel.

This adventurous romance book was a good companion during cozy autumn evenings. It details a ragtag group of three childhood best friends, who have had drama, and falling-outs, and misunderstandings over the years. Two men, one falling neatly into the category of a good upstanding guy and the other into the category of a morally gray thief, with one having a desperate secret crush on the other. And their friend, a reckless fighter and also a mother of three, who we didn't get enough of during the book.

I liked the setup of this book, some old drama to hash out while banding back together to go after a mysterious treasure in a dark forest - with some hidden motives of course. The pacing of the book felt a little odd, with some sections dragging and others going by too fast. Some plot points also felt unexplored. I also found the happy ending for everyone, albeit with some life-long injuries, to be unrealistic considering the sheer amount of danger the group seemed to attract.

Overall, I enjoyed this book! Immersive enough that I felt stressed about the imposed quest deadline while reading. The romance was cute, and the plot had heart.

The blurb sounded interesting to me. However, once I started reading it I felt like I missed a lot of information. Don’t get me wrong I love a lore dump but this felt like I had to read another book before hand.

It was marketed as an enemy to lover romance, but to me it did not feel that way. More like Mal kinda hates Griff but also not, please choose something, or at least communicate with each other. Also felt that the romance was quick, could have used more tension between them (which was described in the blurb but where was it). Also felt that Alys was just there and did not really add to the story.

The writing style did not connect with me which is probably why the story and characters did not connect with me as well.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an arc for an honest review

This review contains spoilers.

Three childhood friends venture out on a mission to retrieve treasure and face many types of peril along the way. The setup for this book was kind of dry for me but once we entered relationship dynamics, I became more invested. We start with Griff and Mal each thinking the other hates them. Secretly Griff has been in love with his childhood friend as long as he can remember. So much so that when Mal left for another town, Griff drowned himself in drink and hired another man whom he could pretend was Mal. Mal never forgot about his best friend and just wanted him back even though he felt like Griff would never forgive him for leaving. One night, Mal realizes his feelings for his friend are more than just friendship and the two begin coupling up. They face all sorts of challenges where both of them nearly die before they finally defeat the forces against them and get the treasure just in time. They come home to live out the rest of their days together. Both characters have grown in their time apart and grow during their time together. They realize as long as they have each other that's all that matters.

trigger warnings for: ableism, slut shaming

For me, a book needs to have three things: solid characters — they don’t have to be good, I don’t have to like them, but I have to want to know what happens to them; a solid plot, because characters doing nothing tends to not hold my interest; and solid world building, so I know where the characters live, where they’re going, and a sense of reality to their worlds. (Nothing I hate more than a grey and empty box as a setting.)

This book failed in all three.

The world isn’t even generic Forgotten Realms. It’s just “fantasy” with gnomes and dwarves and ogres, indoor plumbing and teashops. It’s so vague, and the book seems to trust that I’ve already read enough fantasy to fill in the multiple gaps and empty places with my own imagination — which I can do, but shouldn’t have to. The world is flavourless, hollow, and nothing has a consequence. In this small town there is a locksmith who is called multiple times to change locks because he’s handsome. (This is supposed to be funny.) It’s also a small town so big that Mal and Griff can live in it and never see each other. So, there’s no world building; what about the plot?

The plot has Mal agreeing to bring back a trinket for the Shadow Queen who is … a goddess of some sort, maybe? She and how she fits into the world are never dealt with, because it’s taken for granted that I’ll already know these things. I don’t, though. If Mal doesn’t bring back the Maguffin, he and Griff will die, so Mal decides to bring Griff along with him for … reasons?

Along the way they fight a monster roughly ever chapter with the sole purpose of these attacks to force Griff and Mal to have some physical contact as Griff is always getting hurt and Mal has to tend him; but then Mal gets hurt so Griff is attending him. Fights happen right as they’re about to have a talk about feelings so that those feelings are never addressed; when Mal is about to tell Griff the truth, they’re interrupted so that Griff can be mad at Mal — who is just about to tell him the truth — for not telling him the truth prior to the interruption to force a third act breakup.

The plot is garbage and pointless. They never even get the ring thing for the Shadow Queen, being distracted by some other minor bad lich guy, then they go home and Mal — with his cursed tattoo — is just fine? I wonder if AI helped with the plot because there are so many holes, so many pointless scenes that go nowhere and have no narrative purpose.

So, what about the characters, you may ask?

Alys has no purpose in this book. She drugs them at several points and that’s supposed to be funny. During a fight with an ogre she stops to tell the Ogre a story to prove she’s quirky. Other than that, she might as well not be there for all the use she had.

Griff — named after his father’s favorite horse, Griffon — has had quite a sexual past, which leads to him being slut shamed. He is so in love with Mal that, for years while with his current lover, who looks like Mal, who he encourages to wear his hair like Mal, who is tolerant enough to ignore how often Griff calls out Mal’s name in bed during the years of their relationship. Griff even knows his lover is about to propose, but decides to head out with Mal anyway, knowing this ends that relationship and all his things will be in the garbage when he returns. Griff doesn’t really have a personality beyond having a crush on Mal, who is to all appearances straight, and the desire to join the Wardens. (Who are the wardens? Good question. They have swords, does that help?)

Mal is angry, angsty, knows he’s utter garbage and hates himself for it. He’s angry, angsty, broody and an asshole. Of the three he has the strongest personality, but he’s also a terrible person. He is constantly putting Griff down, mocking him, belittling him, insulting him, blaming him, yelling at him. Honestly, it’s such a toxic relationship with both of them focused more on an imaginary person that I wondered for a moment if this book would deal with some of that, the “who you are in my head vs. who you are in real life … “ but like so much of the plot, no.

They fuck, they have misunderstandings, they go home to have a happily ever after. So what happens to the fact that Griff wants to be a Warder and Mal kills warders for nothing? The book neither cares nor comments. How about the tattoo, what happens to that? The book has no idea, so don’t ask it. Mal loses hearing in his ear due to a fever, but it goes away when the book forgets to remember it, so it wasn’t important.

The writing is so clunky and hamfisted. The pace is choppy and sporadic with every chapter feeling separate from the ones that came before or the ones that come after. And calling this a second chance romance is bullshit, because there was never a first romance. They were kids, and Griff walked away when he learned Mal was straight. This isn’t even friends to lovers; more stepbrothers to lovers.

I’m sorry, but no. No to this whole book.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

It's not you, it's me. Unfortunately, I did not vibe with the writing style and POV switches. I liked the characters enough and the story starts off with a bang but I had a difficult time finding the energy to keep picking this one up. I'm hoping I can read this again soon and have a different opinion.

Thank you to Sarah Glenn Marsh and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Loved Mal and Griff's dynamic, the tension and not-so-slow burn payoff - it all worked so well. A few pacing hiccups, however felt the romance carried the story. If you're into Enemies/lovers. and a DND (Dungeons and Dragons) vibe then this book is right up your alley. There's plenty of angst and chemistry.

If you like sharp banter and two men fighting fate (and their feelings) this one's definitely worth picking up

Our Rogue Fates by Sarah Marsh is a sweeping MM romantic fantasy that balances epic, Tolkien-esque worldbuilding with a love story full of history, heartbreak, and hope.

Mal and Griff are childhood best friends turned rivals, separated for a decade by a careless argument that left bitterness between them. Their relationship is the heart of the book, and the way their history weighs on every glance and word makes their reconciliation both believable and deeply moving. Mal, in particular, stood out for me as flawed and human, yet so easy to root for. Alys, their other childhood friend, also adds depth and warmth, providing a strong but gentle presence that ties them together.

This is very much a romantic fantasy rather than a fantasy with a romance subplot. The world has all the scope of classic epic fantasy — wyverns, dragons, and a shadow queen scheming in the background, but the romance is what drives the story forward. I also appreciated that the battles were written with realism; not every character emerges unscathed, which gave weight to the danger.

The pacing is steady throughout, with an immersive quality that made the ending almost sneak up on me. It didn’t feel rushed, just the kind of story that pulls you in so completely that you lose track of the pages.

Our Rogue Fates delivered exactly what I was hoping for: a beautifully built world, a tender yet hard-earned romance, and characters I’ll be thinking about long after finishing. I’ll definitely be rereading it.

Thank you to Sarah Glenn Marsh, Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
Social media posts will be forthcoming in the next few weeks

(Street Team eARC) *Very Light Spoilers* As a lifelong fantasy lover, this book was calling to me from the minute I heard about it. SGM's worldbuilding is immersive without being overwhelming; the settings, various factions, and inner-world politics are easy to comprehend, but don't detract from the main plot. The characters are easy to empathize with. They each have their own clearly defined goals and plans -- plenty of which are upended, which makes for a compelling tale, as they traverse their own emotions, along with completing the main quest at hand. Griff and Mal are reminiscent of classic fantasy characters, and there are certainly familiar bits and pieces shining through -- but they're so distinctly their own, with their own struggles, feelings, and ideals. But one of my favorite parts of the book was being able to connect with other characters, too. Alys was such an unexpected joy for me; I related to her in so many ways, and saw parts of myself in her, too. I caught myself rooting for Liam's happiness. There's a whole gaggle of animal companions that made me smile, and say "Yup, that sounds just like my dog." The whole cast of characters leads this story so beautifully, and I think that's one of the primary reasons I adored it so. Because while this is a fantasy adventure story, it is also, at its heart, guided strongly by love. I can't wait to celebrate this book's release, and I hope I can return to the world of Linden soon.