Mary E. Pearson, the bestselling author of several young adult fantasies, makes her adult fiction debut with THE COURTING OF BRISTOL KEATS. This slowburn romantasy is set in the world of the fae and features its newfound hero: a potentially mortal-bound pizza delivery girl. Wait. What?

Bristol Keats knows a thing or two about survival. Her festival-going parents taught her and her two sisters, Cat and Harper, how to con their way out of scrapes, how to enchant buyers of their parents’ art, and, most important of all, how to pick up and run without forming deep connections. Their seemingly Bohemian lifestyle worked until it didn’t. One year ago, their mother --- desperate to escape them, her life or something much darker --- ran her car directly into a roaring river and died. Their father, Logan, a six-foot giant of a man, followed her only months later, though his death was an accident: a hit-and-run that, according to the sheriff, demolished his massive body and left nothing good in its wake.

At the time of her mother’s disappearance, Bristol had moved out and was attempting to take the world by storm, with great plans to study art and make something legitimate out of her previously ungrounded existence. But now she is the family breadwinner, stabilizer and scrapper dedicated to ensuring her sisters’ safety. Hence, pizza delivery.

"Perfect for fantasy lovers, as well as readers of romance and even historical fiction, this journey into Elphame is a one-way trip to pure, spellbinding magic (and plenty of slowburn, swoony steam)."

Still, even delivery tips aren’t enough to pay the bills. But skeptical, untrusting Bristol is intrigued when the girls receive letter after letter from a distant great-aunt of their father’s, begging them to meet her and saying she can help them. There’s just one problem: their father was a foster child who maintained no connection to his foster families and was adamant that he never knew about his origins. But when a new letter arrives hinting at a real connection to Logan, and a series of unusual events finds Bristol free for a night, she decides to see what this great-aunt is all about.

The inn where the meeting is intended to take place has been abandoned for years, but on the evening Bristol arrives, she finds it charmingly well-lit and decorated, and as silent as a closed museum. The only person to greet her is her great-aunt’s counselor, Eris, a polished and well-dressed man of indeterminate age. Eris tells Bristol that her great-aunt is a collector of fine art. Bristol may choose one original Leonardo da Vinci work to pay off her and her sisters’ debt and keep them afloat. The deal seems too good to be true, especially to a girl raised under Logan’s discerning gaze.

Just when Bristol is ready to run, she finds herself in a room full of monsters: scaled, feathered, tusked, antlered, and in every color and texture imaginable. Of the few humans among the mix, one, a giant brute named Tyghen, treats Bristol as if she not only killed his puppy, but laughed while she did it. The monsters tell Bristol that they are ambassadors from Elphame, the world of the fae; with her selection of a painting, she has just become indebted to their king.

A bargain is a bargain, and Bristol agrees to whatever service they require of her but on one condition: they help her find her father, who she now has reason to believe is alive and being held captive by trow, mischievous, conniving fae who rarely bargain with anyone, let alone mortals. But Logan is special, and if anyone could strike a bargain with them, it would be him. Besides, the fae’s request --- that she come to Elphame to help them locate a door and close it --- doesn’t seem too dangerous or difficult. Or so she thinks.

The fae take Bristol to their kingdom, Danu, a world of glimmering, verdant trees, gold-hued buildings, and more luminous and terrifyingly gorgeous creatures than Bristol ever could have imagined. It is here that she learns the real scope of her bargain: Danu has been beset by vicious, undead monsters, fed into Elphame through a mysterious door, the same one Bristol has been asked to find and close. The problem? The door is invisible, and countless well-trained fae have died in search of it.

Oh, and Danu has only three months to find and close the portal before the Choosing Ceremony, where the new king or queen will be crowned. King Kormick, a tyrant from a nearby kingdom, has been vying for the role, and his army of undead has been scarily successful so far at getting other kingdoms to support him. Unless Bristol can close the door and separate Kormick from his undead soldiers, Elphame as the fae know it will be lost forever. Thank goodness for those pizza delivery skills!

As Bristol immerses herself in all things fae and meets the other recruits --- mortal-born trainees who the fae have reason to believe may possess a forgotten magic that will help them find the door --- one thing becomes quickly apparent: Bristol has not one ounce of magic in her entire body. As her fellow recruits learn to shapeshift, read incantations and levitate items, Bristol learns almost nothing, except that the current king of Danu truly hates her. Of course, Tyghen has a few secrets of his own.

With the Choosing Ceremony rapidly approaching, Bristol’s magic refusing to surface, and some serious, steamy tension building between the recruit and her king, it seems that Danu’s future lies in a precarious position. King Kormick, meanwhile, continues to mount his attacks on Danu and its surrounding kingdoms, and rumors that the Butcher has returned to Danu set citizens on edge and make them question their faith in their king. However, when a surprise attack injures Bristol, Tyghen rushes to her defense, making clear his growing feelings for the difficult, independent girl.

But Bristol’s injury reveals something far more dangerous than a forbidden love: her magic, cooped up in her body for 20+ years and ready to decimate. Will choosing her magic change Bristol forever, bring to life a terrifying prophecy, or save Danu and Elphame as a whole? The answer is as tricky as a bargain with faerie but is far more entertaining.

With romantasy topping the charts, it seems only natural that the adult fantasy world turns to fae, and I can't think of anyone better to steer the charge than Mary E. Pearson. Her worldbuilding in THE COURTING OF BRISTOL KEATS is immaculate --- immersive and expansive as any trek into another world should be, but meticulously grounded as well, with tons of faerie history for readers to sink their teeth into. She calls upon fae scholars and their texts, canon fae lore and her inventive imagination to make Elphame --- and especially Danu --- sing.

While the courtly intrigue of Danu and the impending world war are enough to propel this expansive narrative, it is the romance at its core that makes the book compulsively readable. The love affair between Bristol and Tyghen unfolds for more than half of the over-500-page book, but the climax (no pun intended) is so satisfying and unbearably longed for that the journey getting there feels not just worth it, but necessary. Add to that Bristol’s exploration of her own family lineage, origins and possession of magic, and you have a novel that sweeps you off your feet but also completely levels you.

With the promise of future installments, THE COURTING OF BRISTOL KEATS is an outstanding novel on its own but is more than likely to be your next favorite series. Perfect for fantasy lovers, as well as readers of romance and even historical fiction, this journey into Elphame is a one-way trip to pure, spellbinding magic (and plenty of slowburn, swoony steam).