ARC/ALC Book Review: All’s Fae in Love and War by Lee Nichols

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Urban Fantasy Romance
Length: 371 pages
Author: Lee Nichols
Publisher: Second Sky
Release Date: May 28th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Pandora Voss has one last summer to unlock her powers—or lose all memory of magic forever.

No pressure.

Pandora returns to her enchanted hometown in Maine to nurture the magic she knows must be inside her. Time is running out, and the last thing she needs is a distraction…

Which makes the return of her high-school heartbreak, Leo Carter, deeply inconvenient.

The handsome antiquarian bookseller has come back to the island in search of a rare book. Leo still has that warm, devastating smile that sets pulses racing wherever he goes… Not that Pandora has noticed because she is absolutely, completely over him.

But when an unexpected encounter at Leo’s family boathouse ends in a wildly sexy kiss, Pandora’s plans are blown apart. Andwhen she’s “volunteered” to work with him at the library the next day, the tension between them unleashes a spell that goes spectacularly wrong.

As enchantments wreak havoc across the island, Pandora and Leo team up to save the town. Racing to contain fairytale creatures and dodging unresolved feelings, Pandora must decide what’s more untamed magic… or falling for Leo all over again.

With magical mayhem, spicy romance, and laugh-out-loud humor, All’s Fae in Love and War is the first book in a trilogy that’s perfect for fans of fantasy rom-coms like The Ex Hex and Rewitched.

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy.

DID NOT WORK.

On soooo many levels. And honestly I am convinced these two don’t even make it past the last page. That’s how this romance felt.

🎧: One of the few positives was that the audiobook was good and easy to listen to. There’s two narrators for the two POV’s and they do a good job.

I didn’t love that it was written from the perspective of a diary for only Pen’s POV? It came across as breaking the fourth wall rather than an epistolary style story. The romance was just Pen and Carter finding and making up over and over again. And over the same thing. The spice between them was cringey and just didn’t fit the tone of the novel.

There were some things that felt whimsical? Though none of the humor felt humorous. Overall the book felt stale and lackluster. I won’t be continuing the series.

Overall audience notes:

  • Urban Fantasy Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 2ish open door
  • Violence: moderate

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