A Fragile Engagement follows Niamh Ó Conchobhair, a magical dressmaker commissioned to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding who gets entangled in a scandal when a gossip columnist brings to light her chemistry with the groom.
Perhaps chalk it up to me not being an avid reader of Romantasy, but this book just wasn’t my cup of tea. I want to start by saying it was a good book from a holistic standpoint but I just found it lacking in certain areas. Maybe this is a staple of the genre but I kept on waiting for the author to develop the plot, the world, or the magic system but the focus was entirely on the romance. Everything else felt kind of surface-level. I don’t mind a book where the romance takes front and center but at least for me I would like a plot or world-building that matches the intensity.
That being said, I did enjoy the characters. I really appreciated the fact that the author put in time to develop each character. This was a book where I found that the secondary characters had as much backstory and thought put into them as the main characters. The romance in the book was cute as well. The romance is the typical misunderstood bad boy who hates everything except for his love interest and who secretly has a heart of gold trope ( that was a mouthful). At first, I was worried that the book would fall too much into this trope but it actually managed to bring its unique spin on the trope, which was refreshing. Overall if you enjoy an enemies to lovers fun cozy fall Romantasy book with a bit of spice you will probably like A Fragile Engagement.
Now before getting into the details of what I liked and disliked about the novel, again I would like to preface that I don’t typically read Romantasy so some things that I don’t like may be just the cliche or trope of the genre. What I mean to say is take this review with a grain of salt and maybe try it out for yourself. Starting with the world and magic system. It was so interesting coming into the world of the book. I felt like the author had such potential to create a deep and whimsical world. The world was colorful and vibrant, but it was never really developed outside of how it pushed the romance forward. It was still a really cool world and magic system though. If you're looking for a light fantasy read that you can read to kind of let your brain relax this wouldn't be a bad idea.
Now when it comes to the plot I have similar feelings. It felt like it could have been really interesting but the author kept bringing to light different threads of the plot but then she would just leave them unresolved. Now I’m fine with plot threads not being neatly tied up at the end of the book, but this book introduced different plot lines and they were simply never addressed later on in the book, at least in my opinion. However, I was thrown a curve ball when I found out who wrote the gossip column, so that was a fun plot twist. Also in Bridgerton fashion, there are some spicy scenes. It was more spice than I have ever been used to in a book but that's because I’ve never read a book with any spice. There were a few steamy make-out scenes and one sex scene. The scene itself is handled in a not-too-graphic or explicit way. Other than that there are a few F words and B words and damn was used as well but aside from that it wasn’t too heavy on the language. All in all, I did enjoy the book, it just wasn't a favorite of mine, but who knows it could very well be yours. And I may check out some more of Allison Saft’s work.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an arc in exchange for an honest review
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