When making a wedding dress, its a poor choice to fall for the groom.
Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never sought out more. She has the power to stitch emotions and memories into fabric, but this power is also killing her slowly. Niamh is determined to make a better life for her family and self with the time she has left.
Niamh gets invited to design the outfits for the royal family of Avaland, a kingdom that is neighboring her own. Avaland's royalty is also responsible for the hard times over her homelands.
Avaland is not what she imagined. The groom, Kit Carmine, is abrasive and prickly, making her job a lot harder. He is being dragged to the alter as a political pawn, and is unhappy about the arrangement made when he wasn't even in the kingdom.
As Niamh and Kit start to develop a friendship, the gossip columns for the season seem to sense their chemistry, which could ruin the set up done by Prince Regent Jack. As Niamh spends more time with the prince, his friend Sinclair and his betrothed, she starts to wonder if the royal life is as much of fairytale as she used to believe.
Kit's magic is occasionally as out of control as his emotions, leaving him scared to let anyone close. He keeps many people at arms length, and worries he will hurt someone if he is upset. As Kit and Jack start to butt heads more, the magic starts to become more erratic and Niamh finds herself more fascinated by Kit and why he was gone from the kingdom so long.
As the pressure of making the perfect dress for the bride, and cloak for the grown, grows on her, Niamh finds herself feeling weaker, pushing herself to the edge of her magic to try to prove herself in the palace and world where she is looked down on. Niamh's magic helps her make beautiful gowns, allowing the prince to relax when he needs it, or even adding enchantments that will hide him if he doesn't want to be seen.
This story has a fun fantasy look at Regency England, with magic flowing through many of the characters. I enjoyed the different types of magic, and that not every character had access to it. Whatever ability people had is also based on their blood and family history, which I really liked as well. It meant there were almost specialties depending on their family.
While Kit has a hard time controlling his magic, because of how tied to his emotions it is. Niamh feels sick and weak if she uses it too much, with one her strands of hair turning grey the more she pushes herself to the edge.
I liked the Bridgerton vibe of having a 'gossip sheet' within the story, but also liked that it didn't take up too much of the story. There was the mystery of who that person could be, while also having a lot of pressure put on the characters outside of that.
There is also an interesting political aspect to the story, with Jack and Kit having to make choices that go against their father's wishes, but also try to stick up for what they believe in.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a light fantasy read that leaves you feeling warm by the end. There was LGBT representation, and Niamh being sick because of her magic shows how hard pushing yourself can effect you.
A 4.5/5 star book for me.
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