Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Mortal Follies

Mortal Follies has a number the things I enjoy: fairies, deities, sapphic regency romance, and great banter between characters. Having a hobgoblin as the story’s narrator was a nice touch, whose commentary kept things pretty fun. I will say around the 50% mark the story reaches a resolution before shifting into an entirely different conflict in the second half, which made it feel almost like two different stories. But while the second half dragged here and there, it still kept me interested to the end. The author has a lovely writing style and again, the banter between the two leads was delicious. Overall, fun read!

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abby_can_read's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

📱
This wasn't a book for me. I really wanted to like it. I thought the summary was good and I kept trying to like it. I didn't connect with the characters or the plot.

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cosypuck's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Loved the tone, vibes and concept of this but as other people have mentioned, it felt like two plots crammed into one book and the romance wasn't overly believable.

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the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

In many ways, this read like a sapphic story by someone who was uncomfortable with telling a sapphic story. The romance was poorly developed, the characters were flat and unlikeable as romantic leads, and the fade to black for sexual content was awkward to me.

I also felt really uncomfortable with the narrator being a person spying on the romantic leads throughout, including during intimate time between them.

With this said, it is a funny book and a good satire. If you go into it expecting that instead of a romance, you might like it more than I did.

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kay_w's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A great book but the last third started slow and then began to feel rushed towards the end.

I loved the whole concept and execution of the narrator. Without it I don’t think I would’ve have enjoyed the book as much.

I’m very keen to read more of Alexis Hall’s books.

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mlashley's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The narrator format sometimes took me out of the story but that’s just a personal issue tbh. The storyline was rich, even if the characters were a bit shallow.

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katerdate's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I’m surprised that I loved this book as much as I did. The narrator was a delight to read. The chemistry was tangible. And the side characters were fun! It was a very lovely love story.

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garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

A delightful adventure of two young women's love, in a magical version of regency England that's full of witches and fairies and old gods and magic. I sometimes have trouble getting into sapphic romances but this one was a quick easy read that grabbed me right away. The narrative framing was great.

The whodunnit that we start with seemed very obvious, but then it turned out to not be the real focus of the story, so I was more okay with it having been obvious. The rest of the story was well done.

And Alexis Hall always treats the characters (especially the queer ones) with the respect and nuance they deserve, which I really appreciate.

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