Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson. I was so excited to be approved for an advanced copy of the audiobook that I dove right into it a lot earlier than I usually do with ARCs. Did it live up to my expectations? Read on to find out!

From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Mary E. Pearson comes a thrilling romantic fantasy full of dangerous fae, dark secrets, and addictive romance.

After losing both 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. Even her father might still be alive, not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures 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 the fae king, 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.

***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing a copy of the audiobook. My review contains my honest thoughts about my listening experience.***

I’m not going to spend a ton of time talking about The Courting of Bristol Keats. The book was fine. It was easy to listen to, and the story was exactly what one might expect from a romantasy about fae. The tropes and character types will be familiar to anyone who has read ACOTAR or other books like it. I was just hoping for something a bit more original and less predictable.

Did I enjoy The Courting of Bristol Keats? Absolutely. It was an entertaining read despite retreading familiar territory. The audiobook narrator did a great job of making each character distinctive and pulling me into the story. The world-building was intriguing, especially all of the political shenanigans between the faerie kingdoms. I wish we’d gotten to see even more of the faerie realm, but I liked the things that were explored. The mysteries, while pretty obvious, did keep me engaged with the story because I wanted to see how the characters would react to the answers.

I had two main gripes about The Courting of Bristol Keats other than its lack of originality. First, the book was way too bloated and had a lackluster ending. The middle of this book was so slow and quite repetitive. Then the story finally started building momentum before ending without providing a significant standoff. Some of the mysteries were solved, and important relationship threads were completed. However, none of the larger, action-oriented plot points got any type of resolution, which annoyed me. The last scene, in particular, just felt so awkward. Like, why end the book THERE?

My other main problem with The Courting of Bristol Keats was the romance. I enjoyed the combative nature of the central relationship, especially in the beginning. Then things got really serious, really fast. I liked the scenes where the characters confided in one another because it helped me as the reader get to know them, as well. However, their closeness just didn’t feel earned. It didn’t help that there were some major lies at the foundation of the relationship. When they came out, the resolution once again just felt way too quick. I’m not a fan of instalove, and this story really reeked of it.

Overall, The Courting of Bristol Keats was an entertaining romantasy that utilized familiar tropes, archetypes, and plot points. I do wish the pacing had been a bit steadier and the page count had been at least a hundred pages shorter. The romance had its moments, but the instalove caused me some major disappointment. Therefore, I rate The Courting of Bristol Keats 3.25 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! All of my thoughts on The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson. Does this book sound like something you would enjoy? I think ACOTAR fans will probably find it entertaining. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!