The Courting of Bristol Keats marks the beginning of a captivating new duology by the talented Mary E. Pearson. It follows Bristol Keats as she uncovers the hidden realm of Magic, known as Elphame. During her journey, she makes a pact with the Fae King, Tyghan, promising to return to the human world and ensure the safety of her two sisters. This agreement compels Bristol to help protect Elphame from evil forces and to assist the king in locating his kidnapped brother, which leads to an absolutely dreamy Reluctant Allies to Lovers narrative between Bristol and Tyghan. Written from a Dual POV, the story beautifully reveals the emotions and motivations of both characters which absolutely enriched the overall tale for me. I truly adored both of these characters and the hauntingly beautiful narratives, this is the first book in a long time that I have ever wanted to start annotating due such magical and beautiful writing!

As I read this arc on my Kindle, the formatting sadly made it incredibly hard to read as there was a constant switching in the Dual POV with little to no warning, which made the overall experience quite confusing to grasp. Regardless, when I did finally catch-on with the narrators, I did feel as if the characters and world lacked development and needed more fleshing out. I would have adored to have more of a back-story on some of the side characters, as there were MANY, which I feel as if could’ve been achieved considering the length of the book.

I absolutely adored the first 50% of this book and couldn’t force myself to put it down, whereas the middle couldn’t hold my attention for more than a chapter or two at a time. Leading toward the 70-80% mark, I finally had that feeling of excitement once more and couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it. I both loved and felt something was missing completely from the ending, almost as if it was meant to be a cliff-hanger but didn’t leave you with that feeling. On one hand I loved that we saw a resolution of sorts between Bristol and Tyghan, but it’s left little to my imagination when thinking of the sequel.

Overall, this adult fantasy was beautifully written; I adored the two main characters and the rich backstory of Bristol and her family. Her nomadic life, characterised by the inability to stay in one place for more than a month or two, added such a depth to the narrative that I wasn’t at all expecting. Despite the few things I didn’t enjoy, I absolutely look forward to continuing this series.