Archivist Annie Finch is content with the manner of things: her job archiving at a London museum and life outside of work spent on her friend Rita’s estate, Osprey Park. So what if romance is firmly on the back burner and she harbors a not-so-secret crush on her boss? After the devastating loss of Rita to cancer, Annie is left with the daunting task of cataloguing her entire estate, which is set to be donated to the museum in two months’ time—all while grieving the loss of her dear friend. At Osprey Park, a recovered letter from Rita directs Annie to a hidden room that reveals Rita may have believed in magic more than she let on. Annie confronts this most directly when she touches a green jar and out springs a woman. That woman is Esynne, a fairy godmother cursed to aid mortals in the quest of true love for two hundred and fifteen years. Her freedom is close at hand, and Annie is the last card to fall. Knowing Annie is in love with her boss, Max, Esynne sets the task of bringing Regency-era courtship into the modern dating scene. Under the guise of Osprey Park’s gardener, Esynne is ready to take charge of love once more. But the more she draws Annie out of her shell, the clearer it becomes that they could not be more perfect for each other. She can’t fall, not if it means letting the curse forever control her. Or, Esynne could grasp real magic and cast off her constraints for a power that’s been hers to command from the start, alongside a love that blooms wilder than anything that came before.
Cottagecore sapphic romance? I can already feel myself coming back to life. Nadia El-Fassi is a vibrant talent in romance. Some kind of faerie magic strikes whenever she puts her pen to something new—also something incredibly bisexual. Continuing her work of interconnected magical romances set in modern-day England, El-Fassi delights with a sapphic romance with Cinderella tendencies. Specifically: if Cinderella was a museum archivist desperate to win the heart of her unrequited love, and instead fell for the fairy godmother aiding her in her quest, one cursed to help mortals fall in love but never experience it herself. Cataloguing an estate that borders a forest with ties to the fae lands while trying to save the fairy godmother you accidentally summoned is the charge of one Annie Finch. Falling for said fairy godmother was not the plan, but when said fairy godmother is a silver-haired beauty with a penchant for gardening and making you dresses from your favorite rom-coms, who can blame her? One can always trust Nadia El-Fassi to nail a premise, both in concept and in execution, and this one might just be my favorite. Humorous and lighthearted, while striking an emotional chord around life after loss and reaching for our happiness, My Fairy Godlover is a luminous queer romance finally let out of the jar (see: Esynne, fairy godmother trapped inside a jar for centuries). El-Fassi delivers a romance for the people pleasers and late bloomers out there: to not just flower, but to choose where to be planted. And bloom do they, indeed.
One of the absolute honors of my life has been getting to witness my favorite writers transform with every passing novel they write. When you get to see how things evolve from their debut to the present, to see where they take their words and worlds. Nadia El-Fassi is without a doubt one of those writers for me. With her first novel, Best Hex Ever, she struck pure magic and refined it into a rom-com for the modern age. Love At First Fright was the paranormal romance of my dreams and the bisexual love story I’d been waiting my whole life for. Her third novel, My Fairy Godlover, shows the proof is in the pudding for El-Fassi—her calling is writing grounded queer love stories for those who never got to be represented, with a splash of the magical. I can feel this world becoming more rooted, expanding with each twist into new territory. Witches, ghosts, and now fae, El-Fassi is investing in multiple paranormal territories and the payoff is tremendous. My Fairy Godlover is another jaunt into the English countryside. Hint: a mere stone’s throw from Love At First Fright’s Hallowvale Manor. At Osprey Park, the fae loom close, but the nearest one has been trapped in a jar since Regency times (oof). Her freedom depends on a curse-bound quest of wooing one’s true love. Add in a little inconveniently falling for the woman you’re supposed to help win love. But that’s half the fun, and the challenge of course, for both El-Fassi to impart and for her protagonists to wrestle with.
Annie and Esynne are everything you could want in romance protagonists. We have mysterious fae depths and the: “I-learned-everything-I-know-about-courtship-from -the-regency-era” in Esynne, while Annie is the quiet archivist stuck living a life that is slowly passing her by, grieving the loss of a friend who meant the world to her. Where these two find magic is in their connection and the setting of Osprey Park, a Tudor manor house bordering a fairy wood in the countryside. In El-Fassi’s hands, everything is rendered magical—from that morning cuppa to showing a fairy godmother your favorite romance films, sapphic historical romance novels, and the joys of the internet. Even the hard parts of life, like grief, are about remembrance and the impact of someone else’s life upon our own. This book is made all the more lovely through glimpses into couples of books past—specifically Rosemary and Ellis, still going strong, of course, who get to jump in and give classic advice to our dear Annie. My Fairy Godlover is all about what traps us, and how, in many cases, these barriers can be things we have been conditioned to believe in. For Esynne, this is proof of her worth after her previous love chose to marry a man for security and her dreaded curse; while Annie battles perfectionism, the opinions of others, and what her life could be. Together, they can make it past it all. Further proof of love’s transformative properties!
I’m never going to stop praising the wordsmith that is Nadia El-Fassi. If you are a lover of queer romance or just want a fun magical romp, look no further than her romance backlist. My Fairy Godlover is the secret bloom in a garden filled with flowers—the kind of story you might happen upon accidentally, but one that speaks to hidden longings and experiences begging to be voiced. El-Fassi’s dedication to representing bisexuality and queerness across history finds new life in her latest romance. Through Annie and Esynne, El-Fassi invokes the danger in supposing our place in the narrative and what it takes to shake us out of that funk and take charge of our own lives. My Fairy Godlover has small connections to the initial Cinderella tale, making this less a retelling and more a modern fae romance surrounding fairy godmothers, with all the best moments from the Cinderella story: gorgeous dresses, a ball, and a fairy godmother at the center of it all. Not an evil stepmother in sight, just a wonderful old woman who was a great friend and left you the rarest gift of all: cool magic items, including the jar housing your future girlfriend. I am officially in gear for more romances from El-Fassi. I’d love to see more involving the fae or Regency-era ghosts (Love at First Fright really gave me a hankering). Truly, I am on board for it all. As with most things, Nadia El-Fassi can do no wrong, and My Fairy Godlover is just further evidence. She’ll have you realizing that an archivist and a fairy godmother can have a happily-ever-after, even when you don’t know how. And that’s the indomitable power of true love, folks!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this advance review copy.
Trigger warnings: homophobia, grief, death of a loved one
