Quicksilver by Callie Hart QUICK REVIEW

 

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

 4.61 out of 5 Stars

 

I read this literally one year ago, last April, so the review is going to be shorter than some of the others I have done for fantasy and romantasy books.

  

Saeris Fane, our main female lead, is a thief from a harsh desert kingdom who harbors the dangerous secret that she can manipulate metals. She comes to learn that what it really is is an alchemical power that allows her to manipulate quicksilver, a magical substance capable of opening interdimensional portals. An accidental (and very dramatic) first meeting with Kingfisher, our main male lead, gets her wound up in the frozen realm of Yvelia. Saeris becomes entangled in a centuries-old conflict between warring Fae factions and bound to Fisher, forced to help him in the war efforts. This is a slow-burn romance, which was an utter delight for a romantasy book in my opinion, that I believe holds a lot of promise for the rest of the series.

 

I LOVED THE ORIGINALITY OF THIS BOOK! 

 

Insta: Callie Hart (@calliehartauthor)

 

Romantasy is getting harder and harder for me to randomly pick up because there is sooo much overlap in themes and character tropes that at this point, I'm going numb. The magic system in this though hooked me in and it made a WORLD of a difference. I also really loved that this wasn't a heavily romance-centered romantasy. There is true substance to the plot of the book and the characters face a crisis that, for now, seems like its going to take a lot of careful strategizing and maneuvering. I am SO here for it!!

One of the draws that this book had for me, was that there's nothing special about the writing style. I really wish I could say that there was, because this would be the icing on the cake that got the book ever closer to a full five-star rating, but it's not there. It's perfectly good writing! It has the smoothness and chemistry of an author who has been honing this skill for years. It definitely shows in how the language smoothly alternates from simply informing to drawing in action to interweaving things back and forth with dialogue. But there was nothing about it that was particularly standout-like to me, with an exception for the imagery of the landscapes and the creatures. Those are two very distinct elements to pull out and bring attention to, but God did she do a good job painting the picture of what the land looked like and what the different lower Fae and feeders looked like.

 

The New Cover

 

A worry: 

As excited and as hopeful as I am, I am worried that, now that the romance has been established, that the romance will become the focus of the story. I'm not here for that. I love Saeris and Fisher -- don't get me wrong -- but I love what is happening with the quicksilver and the potential collapse of the universe. I need that. I need the politics of this world fleshed out even more. I want scheming and trickster games and convoluted solutions to complex problems. The potential is *there.* I am just desperately hoping and praying that, even though Hart has primarily written romance books, she won't fall back on that as a comfort blanket.

 

To prepare for Brimstone now, I am going to be looking up a crap-ton of reviews online and summaries of the first book. As I was writing this, I was vaguely starting to remember that there are a whole host of characters that suddenly get very important toward the end of the book, and I want to refresh myself on who they are. I'm also now remembering that the pacing of book 1 started slow... I'm kind of hoping the second book doesn't begin like that as well... 

 

Thanks for reading!

Xo