The Courting of Bristol Keats
A highly addictive romantic fantasy from 'the new queen of Faerie'
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 14 Nov 2024
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
From internationally bestselling author Mary E. Pearson, The Courting of Bristol Keats is the first book in her debut adult fantasy series, filled with forbidden romance, deadly faerie curses and pulse-pounding action.
‘Mary E. Pearson is the new queen of Faerie‘ – Stephanie Garber, bestselling author of Once Upon a Broken Heart
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 has never heard of, who promises to help, Bristol reluctantly agrees to meet her – 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 another realm – the one he is from.
Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods, 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 does not know is that he is 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 . . .
A heart-wrenching love story that spans worlds and decades, The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson explores second chances – the ones we are denied and the ones we refuse to give – and the lines we cross that may never be forgiven.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Bristol will do anything to keep her family together, even as she and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their village. A series of mysterious letters from a never-mentioned aunt seems to promise a financial lifeline, but instead leads to something much stranger. Bristol is pulled into a fairy realm, reluctantly ruled by the brooding Tyghan, and tasked with a quest. It seems that her parents may not be dead after all—and may not even have been human. Confused but strong, Bristol plunges into an adventure that involves uncovering family secrets, a desperate hope to save the kingdom and the beginnings of a romance that cannot possibly work out. Mary E. Pearson has written several bestselling fantasy novels for young adults, and her experience with world-building shows here in her first book for adults: The fae kingdom of Elphame is brilliantly realised. A strong new addition for romantic fantasy lovers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Peterson (Vow of Thieves) underwhelms in this overly long, paint-by-numbers fae romantasy, the first in a duology. After a lifetime on the run from their parents' unknown enemies, Bristol Keats and her sisters made a home in Bowskeep, but maintaining their run-down house has left them impoverished. With their mother and father dead, they have no hope for the future and no answers about their past, until a mysterious letter offers Bristol a rare piece of art belonging to her great-aunt. This, however, is actually a fae trick to make Bristol serve Tyghan, king of the Danu Nation. Tyghan and his court believe Bristol is bloodmarked and has the power "to navigate between worlds, to create portals, and to close them," a skill they need to defend themselves against King Kormick, whose own bloodmarked monster has supplied him with an inexhaustible army. Bristol agrees to serve Tyghan after learning that her father isn't dead after all—he's been taken by trows, a type of wild fairy. Unfortunately, the secrets Bristol discovers about her parentage puts her blossoming relationship with Tyghan into an unsettling context and sours the romance, which plays out as a checklist of tired romantasy tropes. There's little to make this stand out.
