Review: Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Series: Fae & Alchemy #1

Publication date: December 3rd, 2024
Pages: 624

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

From global phenomenon Callie Hart comes a highly addictive enemies-to-lovers Romantasy with razor-sharp banter, heart-stopping action, and blistering hot romance that you won't be able to put down!

Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate.

In the land of the unforgiving desert,  there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange power she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoir's for as long as she can remember.

But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myths, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him... or her.

Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.

Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details...

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Review:

"Quicksilver" by Callie Hart had been resting on my bookshelf for the better part of a year. It was sitting vigil hoping that one day I would choose it over all the hundreds of physical and electronic books I had waiting to be read. The amount of books I have on my TBR is something I may need to gift my grandchildren in hopes of ever completing. My indecisive nature had my asking for someone else to pick a book off my shelf for me to read. I was both delighted and nervous when "Quicksilver" was selected. It was a 600+ page book that had been presented to me with a crass, "Faerie Porn" description. It had really been a while since I had read anything fae related and I have never been deterred by smut. However, what I got when I started reading was far from the simplistic description I had been given. 

I decided to read the book along with the audiobook that was narrated by Stella Bloom and Anthony Palmini. I am very particular about my audiobooks, often finding myself only tolerant of them when they are read duet style, instead of male or female narrators having to put on the voices of the opposite sex taking me firmly out of the headspace I want to be in to enjoy the book. The right character voice brings them alive in my head. I feel Stella and Anthony did an amazing job. Anthony made Kingfisher dark and growly and everything that his book description made him, while Stella had Saeris feisty and sometimes even comically delightful in her delivery. They were good choices and the style for the audiobook made it all the better.

The story itself was unlike any I had read before. That is often a hard thing to accomplish being as I have read so many books. Saeris was spunky and determined to the point of fault while Kingfisher was brooding and feral. The two of them separate were dangerous, but together they were a force to be reckoned with. I found myself completely overtaken by the word and how it was connected. The twists and turns were things I could only have thought of in passing and dismissed as an impossibility. Of course, that only made the author go exactly that direction to throw off her readers completely. The language, vocabulary, and presentation of how the story was presented made me start to adopt an air of romanticism in the way I spoke for a moment. I was so engrossed in the world Hart created that I felt a part of it. Like I was there watching it all unfold. And that is the mark of a truly amazing storyteller.

"Quicksilver" was a truly amazing read that was even better with the audiobook actors bringing their characters to life. I cannot wait to get my hands on "Brimstone" and see what happens next.