The Courting of Bristol Keats

512 pages

English language

Published Nov. 12, 2024 by Flatiron Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-33197-7

No rating (1 review)

After losing both of their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an aunt she’s never heard of who promises she can help, she reluctantly agrees to meet—and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Her father might even still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures and taken to a whole other realm—the one he is from.

Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods and fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with a fae leader, Tyghan. But what she doesn't know is that he's the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as …

After losing both of their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an aunt she’s never heard of who promises she can help, she reluctantly agrees to meet—and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Her father might even still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures and taken to a whole other realm—the one he is from.

Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods and fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with a fae leader, Tyghan. But what she doesn't know is that he's the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as she is to find her father—dead or alive.

2 editions

lastblossom reviewed The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson (The Courting of Bristol Keats, #1)

Court politics, fae intrigue, magical school, and parents with secrets all converge, with a romance that moves way faster than the rest of the plot.

No rating

I'm going to have to split this into two parts, because the plot and the romance both did entirely different things for me.

We'll start with the main plot, which feels a bit like a magical potpourri of ideas. There's fae court intrigue and all sorts of political machinations. There might be a war on the horizon! There's a missing parent with a dark past. And also, there's a magical school that Bristol only sometimes attends. It's a lot to fit together, but it does seem to work for the most part. The school section gets the short end of this, with Bristol's fellow classmates painted as interesting, but largely non-present in the rest of the threads. The separate threads weave together by the end of the book into a fairly focused storyline. There are enough original takes in here that the story feels fresh, without straying too far from …

I'm going to have to split this into two parts, because the plot and the romance both did entirely different things for me.

We'll start with the main plot, which feels a bit like a magical potpourri of ideas. There's fae court intrigue and all sorts of political machinations. There might be a war on the horizon! There's a missing parent with a dark past. And also, there's a magical school that Bristol only sometimes attends. It's a lot to fit together, but it does seem to work for the most part. The school section gets the short end of this, with Bristol's fellow classmates painted as interesting, but largely non-present in the rest of the threads. The separate threads weave together by the end of the book into a fairly focused storyline. There are enough original takes in here that the story feels fresh, without straying too far from what makes faerie court intrigue as popular as it is. Some of the reveals in the second half especially look like they'll be setting up some cool things in the next book.

The romance is where I find myself struggling. I like a good enemies-to-lovers, and the story certainly opens up as if we're going to get there with some nice slow burn. But they say time passes differently in the faerie world, and time must also pass differently in this book, because these characters fell in love WAY faster than I expected. There was some bickering, and then suddenly there wasn't, like a switch had been flipped. It's not quite instalove, but it certainly comes close. If you enjoy sudden and searing passion in your romances, this will probably land well with you. But for fellow fans of a relationship that has to marinate a little longer, you may feel a bit of whiplash at how quickly the first declaration of love appears.

Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for a review copy! All thoughts in this review are my own.