A Fragile Enchantment

A Fragile Enchantment is my first book by author Allison Saft. I couldn’t resist the invitation to read this young adult fantasy weaved with magic, politics, and romance, especially when I saw all the early glowing reviews.

This story about a magical seamstress hired to create the wedding attire for a prince’s arranged marriage is layered with several plot lines. Of course there is a romance, but it’s also a story about class, political intrigue, and familial relationships.

While I used to read much more young adult fantasy, it hasn’t been a genre I’ve read a lot of in the past few years. I’ve recently been trying to pick it up more often. And while I did enjoy this one, I did still find it a bit YA for me, with high drama and an ending that wraps up a little too nicely. I also found myself guessing all the “mysteries” at every turn.

But I can see why so many readers have loved it. Niamh is a compelling heroine, with her ability to stitch emotions and memories into the fabric of her clothing designs. Even though it’s an ability that will one day kill her, she has embraced her power and only wants to earn enough money to provide for her family back home. When she gets drawn into the political intrigue of the royal family—and falls in love with the prince—her life becomes even more complicated.

Kit Carmine, the prince she is designing for, seems like a royal pain in the ass when she first meets him, but he has his own magical powers that have complicated his life, too, not to mention a tumultuous relationship with his older brother Jack, the Prince Regent of Avaland and the man insisting on Kit’s arranged marriage. Kit and Niamh can’t resist becoming friends as they spend more time together, drawn closer by the impending wedding.

I also adored all the side characters, each one important to the plot, as well.

Throughout A Fragile Enchantment, I found myself drawing comparisons to Bridgerton and Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, mostly just certain plot lines or scenes, but if you’re a fan of either of those, you’d probably like this one, as well. Saft has created a unique regency era-inspired fantasy world with intricate magic, enigmatic characters, and a compelling story that kept me reading!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with a copy.

#popsugarreadingchallenge2024 (prompt #38 - A cozy fantasy book)

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DNF @ 44%

Painfully boring and vapid, I'm shocked that this is from the same person who wrote [b:A Far Wilder Magic|48909025|A Far Wilder Magic|Allison Saft|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1620919835l/48909025._SY75_.jpg|74303459]. Once again, Allison Saft uses real life events, existing countries, and religions, and just changes their names and then refuses to do any world building. I wouldn't be so upset if, with that out of the way, she had focused on the characters and their relationships but what we got was so superficial and bland. And the romance was so insta love it had me rolling my eyes.

3.75 if I focus on the positives.

I was enjoying this book just fine and then I'm not sure what happened, but around the 60% mark I started to feel exasperated with it and just wanted to finish as quickly as possible.

I liked the concept of the magic seamstress who could imbue her embroidery with emotion, and the tension that her magic came with a price and it would weaken her if she used it too much. I was baffled by the juxtaposition of this setup with a multitude of other (arguably more valuable and powerful) forms of magic that cost nothing for the users. People can just shoot lighting, have Elsa's Frozen powers, sprout plants everywhere, and more! This made it seem out of place that the main character's abilities would be so valuable, half the time she didn't even sew the right emotion into the garments that were commissioned of her. Speaking of, the book tries to make it seem like there's a little bit of a found family situation going on with the group of royals she is working for, but every time they are like "aww you work too hard, just relax!" it doesn't hit right because the reason she is working so hard is because of the complicated garments they have ordered her to create in such a short time frame?

I thought the political aspects of the plot were a bit weak and/or nonsensical. How the hell could the prince regent keep the fact that the country was out of money hidden from anyone? They specifically say he's hiding it from Parliament? What? It was so obvious that was what he was hiding, but it didn't make sense. At the end most of the issues are basically resolved by "people inexplicably became a lot more chill about everything, and they just talked about stuff off-page and it all worked out."

Ultimately I probably could have looked past all of the above if I liked the romance more. I was looking for some cute tension with the premise of a seamstress falling in love with her client (like a gender swap of The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews) but I felt let down by the small amount of sewing/fitting/garments in the story. Kit kind of does the bare minimum in terms of being a love interest. He's outwardly a jerk most of the time and he turns on Niamh at the slightest discomfort. Their bickering/banter didn't feel healthy because the power dynamic was off-balance. I'm not even sure if having Kit's perspective would have helped.

I'll cut myself off there, I feel like I've complained enough. The audiobook narrator was pretty good, and the cover is gorgeous. I also didn't mind the writing style, there were some really pretty yet effective descriptions. I would try this author again.

Content Warnings:
Moderate: Classism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Chronic illness
Minor: Alcoholism, Death of parent, War, and Child abuse