All’s Fae in Love and War: Fae Isle Trilogy, Book 1 by Lee Nichols

Tracy’s Rating: 2/2.5 of 5 stars

Series: Fae Isle Trilogy #1

Release Date: May 28, 2026

Pandora Voss is a fairykin on the verge of turning thirty, returning from Boston to her childhood island community with the pressure of manifesting her inherited gift before a looming deadline changes her life. Leo Carter, an antiquarian bookseller with a rare-book-focused gift, comes back to the island on a search that pulls him into Pandora’s orbit despite their unresolved high-school history. Around them is a tight-knit network of family, friends, and townspeople whose everyday routines are intertwined with small enchantments, along with a rotating cast of mischievous fairytale creatures—pixies, gnomes, brownies, and other beings—that complicate life when magic slips its leash.

The story is set on an enchanted island off the coast of Maine where fairykin live with an accepted undercurrent of magic, each person expected to come into a distinct gift by age thirty. Those who do not awaken their power begin to lose their connection to enchantment as memories rewrite themselves into mundane explanations, and extended exposure to magic can have harmful physical effects for the ungifted. When a spell misfires and releases chaotic enchantments and storybook creatures across the island, Pandora and Leo are pushed into an uneasy partnership that sends them through the town’s libraries, boathouses, and community landmarks to contain the fallout, track down the source, and restore balance before the situation escalates.

For me, this landed as a middling listen: the premise and whimsical magic-by-deadline hook kept pulling me along, and I liked how the island’s gifts and creature chaos created a steady sense of motion, but the emotional vibes didn’t always feel as earned as the setup promised. I appreciated the audiobook’s energy—especially the alternating perspectives and the narrators’ commitment to keeping scenes lively—though the production choices and character-voice consistency occasionally took me out of the moment. Overall, it felt like a book with a strong concept and a cozy-romantasy surface that didn’t fully come together in execution, I am sure there are readers who would enjoy this book, but sadly, I am not one of them.

Maybe 2.5 stars

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an ARC / Audiobook that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *