Audio Review: Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Narrator: Stella Bloom, Anthony Palmini
Series: Fae & Alchemy #1
Published by Podium Audio, Forever on 2024-09-10
Length: 624 pages
Length: 20 hours and 41 minutes
Listening Speed: 2x
Reviewing Audiobook, Kindle from Audible, Kindle Unlimited
Rating:

An instant #1 New York Times bestseller!
The global phenomenon by Callie Hart--a highly addicting enemies-to-lovers Romantasy with razor-sharp banter, heart-stopping action, and blistering hot romance.

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

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen’s reservoirs for as long as she can remember. In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn’t much a girl wouldn’t do for a glass of water. 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 reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares…but it turns out they’re real, and Saeris has landed right 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...

N.B. Quicksilver contains depictions of graphic violence/adult situations and is therefore recommended for readers 17+. For a full list of tropes and TWs, please visit the author's website.

I’m not gonna lie, this one was a bit of a struggle at the start but ended up being great. Quicksilver by Callie Hart is the first in her series Fae & Alchemy. Saeris Fane is like all the others living in her sector, struggling to survive and doing whatever it takes to make it each day. When she is caught stealing armor from the Undying Queen, Saeris is sentenced to death, but she isn’t going to go down easy. Unknowingly, she awakens a mysterious power that creates a portal to another realm. As death is coming for her, Saeris closes her eyes and awakens in this new realm, a realm long forgotten by her people, and comes face to face with the Kingfisher.

Saeris is not an easy character to like. She has spent her life living for the next day. All of her actions are governed by what she and her brother need to survive. When she is faced with the reality of being in a foreign realm, her brother most likely dead, and being at the mercy of the fae king, Saeris reacts how most would. She’s starts planning her escape.

The Kingfisher is a warrior fae who is none too kind. He is brash, unpredictable, and seemingly uncaring. As the book progresses, we learn more about him, what motivates him, and his goals. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I will leave it here. He grew on me. His sparring matches with Saeris are both humorous and tension filled. While her new fae friends want to protect her from as much of the truth as they can, Kingfisher is open and brutally honest which Saeris trusts.

The plot of this book revolves around quicksilver. It is a type of sentient metal that has been frozen for a long time. It’s what Saeris inadvertently wakes and opens the portals between realms. It’s what haunts Kingfisher. The quicksilver is needed to win a war the fae have been in for centuries, and Saeris is the key if only she can figure out how to access it.

While I struggled at the start of this book, I found the longer I read the more intrigued I became and more invested I was in the characters. I loved the relationships Saeris forms with the fae and Kingfisher grew on me. The world-building gets better the further into the book you get. And the ending 🤯 So much in such a short amount of pages! Overall, I enjoyed Quicksilver. If you are a fan of romantic fantasy, I highly recommend it.

Audiobook Note: I started off reading this one, and because I was struggling to engage with the story, I switched to audio. I’m SO glad I did. It made all the difference. I loved Stella Bloom and Anthony Palmini. I’ve bought audios without knowing anything about the book just because it’s Stella narrating. This was the first time I’ve listened to a book in duet narration. It took a little getting used to, but I loved it. I need more duets! If you are an audiobook fan and love romantasy, highly recommend this one.

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