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“Uill, a charaid, bha sin na iongnadh!��

(No, this book isn’t written completely in Gaelic, but expect plenty of words that look similar to those above! I recommend a bit of Duolingo Scottish Gaelic to really get yourself into the vibes)

This book kept surprising me—in very good ways!

An ugly, smelly prince. A heroine smart enough to think ahead and avoid obvious traps. And a fantasy land heavily based on Wales/Scotland/Ireland.

All unique elements in this first book of the Enchanted Tales of Tír!

I was genuinely impressed with all of these elements

—typically princes aren’t perfect, but they also don’t usually smell like they have terrible hygiene and are pretty much never overweight. Even being part of a curse, I loved that the author didn’t apologize for it or hint at him becoming more physically attractive to Aine in any way just because they were becoming friends. It really emphasized that their relationship was based on getting to know each other instead of holding out a promise of beauty that they just had to persevere through the ugly to get to.

—there’s usually at least one if not a few instances where I can guess ahead and see the MC making an avoidable mistake, but Aine (AN-ya) was sharp and thought ahead. I LOVED how crafty the Queen and her tests were, and I loved even more that Aine stayed right on top of them as well as all the sabotage attempts 👌🏽 I would also have recommended being sus of Maeryn (ma-RIN), but also super appreciated Aine’s ability to communicate openly, avoid further drama, and build friendships through it all. Really well-written, strong and clever FMC!!

—most authors don’t go so far as to include a pronunciation guide at the beginning of their books because they have so many foreign words included (tbh could’ve done with a lot more in that pronunciation guide! Also, if there is an audiobook, it needs to be done by someone with a Celtic accent 🙏🏼)

A princess test is always a great first book in a series as it can introduce you to multiple characters quickly, and I loved finding all of the hints at other fairytales :)

I wasn’t expecting to be so impressed by this book—but now I’m dying to read more from Sarah Carlisle and wished she had more books published already!!