These three books are all ones I received as an ARC from Netgalley and I am so grateful. Ultimately, unlike yesterday, we’re starting with the best one and then giving you the other two reviews instead of ending with the best. You know, in the name of fairness (actually, it’s just the order in which I read them, but whatever). Anyway, you can officially access all three of these books if any of them sound appealing to you! How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly is a sporty contemporary romance that is sapphic and deeply emotional and lovely. A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft is a YA romantasy that was disappointing to me personally. And finally, An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson is a lyrical literal fiction that is a sapphic, dark academia inspired situation. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these books that you’ve already read!
How You Get the Girl
by Anita Kelly
There’s something about Anita Kelly’s writing that just pulls out every shred of emotion from me and I am both grateful for that and also, relieved it’s a skill not too many authors possess because wow. Julie is working a job at Vanderbilt that she frankly doesn’t care for, so she’s really living for her second job as the coach of a high school girls basketball team in Nashville. One day at practice a new girl starts, Vanessa, that leads to Julie meeting her idol and Vanessa’s aunt, Elle. I found myself loving the basketball in this book (and if you’re a UT basketball fan or, more specifically, a Pat Summitt fan, you too will likely adore that aspect of this book), but more than that, I found myself loving the way this book used basketball to develop the relationship between Julie and Elle. Plus, Julie and the team. And healing the relationship Elle had with basketball. Honestly, I really just loved absolutely everything about this book and despite having been allowing my thoughts to simmer for a month, I don’t have anything coherent to tell you beyond, I loved this and I hope that you will too.
A Fragile Enchantment
by Allison Saft
A Fragile Enchantment follows a girl who can stitch emotions into the clothing that she makes and she’s caught the attention of the Royal family who wants her to make the wedding outfits for the Prince. Now, mind you, the kingdom she’ll be making the outfits for is the conquering kingdom of her own, so her mother and grandmother aren’t thrilled about this, which is something we’re repeatedly told, but don’t ever really see. Anyway, N, our main character, goes to this other kingdom, and has an interaction with the Prince that has her deciding he’s terrible. So right away, we’ve got a great set up for an enemies to lovers situation. However, there is somehow no tension. Like, of any kind, throughout the entire book. There’s conflict in this book and there are things that had me like, “seriously?” But… honestly, this book just never became compulsively readable. I could have set it down a page before the end and been fine with never finishing. It’s completely fine. And I want to tell you that I’m not the target audience and all that while putting myself in teenage me’s shoes, but honestly, if there’s no tension? It’s hard to blame myself for that. Anyway, it’s a beautiful cover, beautiful book. The narration was lovely. I just ultimately found the inside to be a bit of a let down.
An Education in Malice
by S. T. Gibson
I’ve been sitting on my thoughts on this book for a week now. And, here’s the thing. I still don’t know. Did I like the writing of this book? Absolutely. It was lovely. S.T. Gibson can WRITE. And in A Dowry of Blood her writing and the narration carried me through the whole book like, “Wow, this is so lovely.” But in this book? I hated the plot. Honestly, just absolutely hated it. So how do you balance the beautiful writing with a plot where you’re just left upsetti spaghetti because what do you mean that’s how it ended? Like, there wasn’t even a reckoning of the ramifications of this weird relationship with the professor. I… At the end of the day, I’m not a literary fiction girlie, I’m really not, so maybe it’s not fair for me to be like, I hate the choices made by this book, 3 stars, but also, you’re here for my opinions, so that’s it. When you’re tackling a subject like grooming, which I KNOW that these girls were a bit older than children, but when you’re tackling a subject with professor student relationships like this… I just think you have to really get into the ramifications and this book had WILD stakes of ramifications and we STILL don’t really get to see the characters reckoning with them? What I loved about A Dowry of Blood and the way that it looked at this predatory/abusive relationship with Dracula is that it was reflective. Magdelena was looking back on this relationship and therefore the lyrical writing was also complete with messaging. Not An Education in Malice. It’s written too contemporaneously with the events so the actual messaging is lost or left to you and while I can appreciate authors not treating me like I can’t draw my own conclusions, I do not like to leave characters before they’ve even begun to disentangle themselves emotionally… This is really just turning into more of a rant than a review of this book, so I am going to restrain myself. If you love S.T. Gibson’s writing, I still think this book is beautifully written. But if you’re at all sensitive to power imbalances in relationships, I think you should steer clear.
Closing Thoughts
I have been spent March really diving into books outside of my comfort genre (contemporary romance) and sometimes it really does go well. Sometimes though… Not so much. Please share with me your favorite sapphic books because I want to be reading more!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 