Review of the Enchanted Isles by Alycia M. Anderson

I received a free e-galley from the author in exchange for an honest review, this book comes out May 6th

CW’s: Some violence, some language, book is pretty clean, mentions of toxic family dynamics and death. An implied threat of SA.

My Rating: 4 stars

So, right off the bat, the writing style was really digestible and Anderson got to the point straight away. It didn’t feel like she was ever stalling for time or trying to stretch out the book’s content to make it longer. She introduced the characters in a very organic way. Anderson wasn’t trying too hard to make her writing pretty, she wasn’t using overly flowery purple prose and wasn’t trying to make her book this perfect example of writing. It’s pretty obvious when people are trying too hard, it just comes off as disingenuous.

This was far from that. I loved Vivienne from the get-go. She felt realistic in her grief and in how she was processing what was happening to her. Her cousin, Briar, was an active part of her consideration and she felt a duty that felt like something someone in that situation would actually feel they had.

In addition, I liked her job, cataloguing and map making makes me so interested.

Also, why, out of all the characters, am I the Court Crier? Because I do have a hard time controlling my volume when I’m nervous.

I do think there were some info-dumping scenes. Which I guess is a bit necessary when you want to focus on the plot, but I think that could have been done a bit better. I also felt like some of the answers (finding them out) was a bit too convenient. But again, I don’t really think there are unlimited ways to figure the answers out to mysterious writing in your mom’s journal.

As for the romance, oh my GOD. I loved all three options.

Lewis had the best friends to lovers vibes, which I hope to see more of in the next book.

Cirrus had the second chance romance trope, and I loved the tension and his yearning for her.

And I loved the CHEMISTRY between her and the Commander.

The romance ALONE had me flying through this book. The plot was great and I liked that it felt more episodic, way more friendly to my ADHD. I liked that there were a lot of botanical and medicinal solutions. It worked well with the worldbuilding.

I do think there was some stuff to be desired with the politics but I think that can be addressed in later books. I also hope to see more of the love polygon developed.

Some of the language didn’t flow as well in the prose and the dialogue was a bit clunky but it was very much readable.

The villains felt a bit cartoonish, but it kind of had some charm in it.

I did like that the book was pretty clean and had most violence off page. A lot of romantasy can be pretty heavy in more explicit scenes, which, if that’s your thing, is great. I’m just more sex-averse personally. (But still, stop policing smut in books, it’s good to understand and explore your sexuality/sexual preferences as long as no one is hurt or non-consenting, and I think smut books have an added benefit of not exploiting real life people and not perpetuating or fueling sex trafficking and exploitation of minors, like porn can be. Off my soapbox).

Vivienne is flawed, and Anderson wasn’t afraid of letting her be that way. She’s stubborn and a bit of a know-it-all and can be a bit of a martyr without asking people what they want first. But she has good intentions behind it. She’s not selfish or a pick-me. The author writes what feels like a real heroine with real personality without sacrificing her agency or her support of other women. I would really like to see future books in the series cover more about the role of women in this world, because it seems like they do have positions of power and they can inherit titles, be doctors, and be scholars. I would really like to see their role in politics more.

While I think there is room to improve, I think that’s true for a lot of books and authors. I don’t usually kick my feet and giggle at all of the possible romantic leads and each one of them just scratched my romantic giggly itch in my brain. The world reminds me a lot of Rebecca Ross’ books, I don’t know what exactly it is, but it just gives similar vibes to Divine Rivals.

I think it’s a good start to the series and I hope I get the chance to review further books.