Fantasy Romance Archives - The Litertarian

Book Review:: Fallen City | Adrienne Young

A city is falling – it’s inevitable – but the man who started it is also the one who cannot leave. Not without her.

Fallen City by Adrienne Young Book Cover

Maris and Luca, oh my my. This book has political tension, mystical mysteries, warfront tactics, rivalries, brotherhood, courting, and a love so deep and true it’ll have you aching for more and afraid to find out what happens next.

The pacing and reveals in this book are its crowning achievement. Young pulls you through the novel with sparse inner-chapter hints and last-line gut-punches that keep that sense of discovery feeling constant through just about the whole book. It’s propulsive. It’s a valuable lesson for writers (like me).

I honestly feel like the plot is secondary here, though there is plenty of it to sink your teeth into. But it’s the characters that make it unforgettable.

Will I read the next installment? You don’t even have to ask.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Fallen City (Fallen City Duology #1)
Author:: Adrienne Young
Genre:: Romantasy
Publisher:: Saturday Books
Length:: 416 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 19m
Audiobook Narrator:: Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick & Leela Bassuk
Published:: November 4th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross
Heartless Hunter, Kristen Ciccarelli
Our Infinite Fates, Laura Steven
The City in Glass, Nghi Vo
What the River Knows, Isabel Ibanez

Book Review:: Silver & Blood | Jessie Mihalik

Romantasy fans, this one’s for you. Part fairy tale, part romance, this book is bound to satisfy many romantasy lovers.

Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik Book Cover

Riela is taken to an enchanted house in the woods, where she is essentially trapped with a partly terrifying, partly misunderstood brooding powerful man, his wolf companion, and enough magic to protect them from the evils outside. But strange as that is, it becomes ever stranger when she accidentally does the one thing she was told never to do, and opens an entirely new can of worms.

In some ways, this book was refreshing in the face of other romantasy novels, but in others, it’s still the same note. Romantasy heroines are essentially all inter-changable, and I found that to be the case here as well. They’re always doing things they ought naught, having an attitude about it, being stuck in magical situations that barely make any sense at all…

But…

Somehow it is still interesting enough to keep you turning pages. Did I want to know what happened next? Mmhmm. Did I fall in love with Garrick alongside her? Um, duh. Are the politics nothing but window dressing? Of course. But that’s what romantasy readers want, and here, they get it. A fulfilled promise. An entertaining handful of hours. A new series to track.

And will I read the sequel? …probably 🙂

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Silver & Blood (Silber & Blood #1)
Author:: Jessie Mihalik
Genre:: Romantasy
Publisher:: Avon
Length:: 448 pages
Published::January 27th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 3-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Quicksilver | Callie Hart
Rose in Chains | Julie Soto
Heartless Hunter | Kristen Ciccarelli
Divine Rivals | Rebecca Ross

Book Review:: The Everlasting | Alix E. Harrow

I have read over two hundred books this year, and I hope you believe me when I say that this is the best one of them. I don’t know what I thought The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow was going to be, but I certainly didn’t expect to be adding it to my all-time favorites book list (a very exclusive place). If you only ever read one book that I recommend, please let it be this one.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow Book Cover

The Everlasting is an academic mystery thriller adventure love story hero’s journey epoch/epic legend historical fantasy that is witty and smart and twisted and surprising and endearing and wickedly romantic and I am going to read it again about a million times before I die because that’s the kind of reader I am. I got this book for free through netgalley and the publisher (thanks, by the way), and before I finished, I had ordered myself a limited-edition hardcover so I can study this masterpiece.

Sorry, are book reviews not supposed to be written like school-girl crush-fests? Let’s get into some better detail…

There was once a legend of an orphan girl called Una who was in the right place at the right time and was chosen by a worthy queen as her champion, and she served her as a hero through all the rest of her days. Centuries later, there is a boy with a broken family and a story that has saved him, again and again, from despair. That story is of Una Everlasting. That boy is a scholar, and he is called upon to rewrite Una’s story into a magical book that transports him back to actually meet her and live her story so he can record it with an honesty and integrity that doesn’t exist in our world.

Until he learns the truth.

This book is about heroism is unlikely places. It’s about the boundless nature of love. It’s about power and honor and duty and secrets. It’s about magic and fate and family. About lies and deep, unshakable truths. Its writing is sharp and honestly delightful. The tone is adventurous and fun. There are good guys and bad guys and lots of other guys in between. There is nothing not to like about this book, and it deserves every single one of its five-star reviews.

As an aspiring author myself, Alix, how the hell? This novel is impeccable, immaculate, amazing. Thank you.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Everlasting
Author:: Alix E. Harrow
Genre:: Historical Fantasy
Publisher:: Tor Books
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 13h 41m
Audiobook Narrator:: Moira Quirk & Sid Sagar
Published:: October 28th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Book Review:: The Book of Lost Hours | Hayley Gelfuso

A big idea can change the world, for what is the world as we know it, but ideas? It starts small, inside the mind of one person, who grapples with it, tries to fully understand it, articulate it into words to share with another mind, who will poke and it, test it, expand it. Some of them wither and die under scrutiny, and others balloon with importance and have the power to change the world as we know it. Democracy. Germ theory. And in the case of The Book of Lost Hours, the manipulation of time.

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso Book Cover

This book is a wonder. Any book about time is going to bend our ideas of a timeline, and this one plays with the strings of time beautifully, skillfully, coherently, it will have you enthralled. This is a page turning thriller with so much heart and intellectual stimulation it will grip you and not let go until the final dang sentence.

It’s also the kind of book with twists and turns and the simple joys of small discoveries. With that, I don’t want to spoil one detail of the plot for those of you who go on to read this, which I very much recommend you do. It is marketed as a mashup of The Ministry of Time and The Midnight Library and I could not come up with a better description of this impressive novel.

Hayley Gelfuso, you are a genius and I think I will pick up anything you put down. Also, what do you mean this is a debut novel. Masterful work. Thank you, sincerely, for writing this fascinating book.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Book of Lost Hours
Author:: Hayley Gelfuso
Genre:: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Romance
Publisher:: Atria Books
Length:: 400 pages
Audio Length:: 13h 41m
Audiobook Narrator:: Carlotta Brentan
Published:: August 26th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars