Quicksilver by Callie Hart has been all over my bookish feeds lately. Despite all the mixed reviews, I was intrigued by its premise and its popularity. It then was a no-brainer I would get myself a copy once I saw the announcement for the Dutch publication. I knew I wouldn’t have time to read it before its publication, so I therefore decided to wait. I was excited to find out what all the hype was about, so did it deliver?

About the book

Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Series: Fae & Alchemy #1
Published by Forever on June 4, 2024
Pages: 609
ISBN: 9781538774199
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romantasy

From USA TODAY Bestselling Author Callie Hart comes a brand new, highly addicting enemies-to-lovers Romantasy with razor-sharp banter, heart-stopping action, and blistering hot romance that you won’t be able to put down!

Do not touch the sword.

Do not turn the key.

Do not open the gate.

In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn’t much a girl wouldn’t do for a glass of water.

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.

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 herself 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…

My review

Before reading

Since this book was pretty popular with many mixed reviews, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. However, I was eager to find out whether I would vibe with this Booktok romantasy hype. It was already on my “Possibility pile” for March, but I was this eager I just couldn’t ignore it. After some bad luck with this month’s picks, I actually expected to like this one. Turned out I’m still conflicted about my feelings towards the book in the end.

Characters

The first thing I’m really conflicted about is the characters and their execution. At the start of this book, we get introduced to Saeris, a human being living in a poor village. After an incident, she finds herself in the faerie realm and there her adventure begins. She wants to return home but doesn’t know if this will ever be possible. From the moment I met Saeris, I knew she was badass. She’s a fighter through and through and doesn’t hold back from a confrontation. She has some snarky remarks throughout the book, but she also deeply cares about the ones she loves. She wants to fight for them, even when this is considered impossible. My problem with her however is her naivety towards her whereabouts. She has been “dumped” In a new and unfamiliar realm, but she barely has any questions? This feels a bit odd to me. Furthermore, she happens to befriend many of the characters pretty quickly, but it seems like she hardly spends time with them. Despite her being a fighter, she feels quite shallow to me.

On the other hand, we have Kingfisher. And I have so, so many questions about him. He clearly has a background story and I’m sure we haven’t seen all of it in this first book. This isn’t too strange as Quicksilver is the first book in a series and the second book will be published coming November. However, Fisher is two-faced. One moment he’s an outright jerk, only to be sweet and caring the next. He endured a lot in the past and Heart slowly reveals some of it. However, I’m sure there’s more to his character than we know now. In his interactions with Saeris, he comes off as two-faced as well and Saeris clearly struggles with his behaviour. Even though we get to know both characters to a certain extend, the character building is lacking overall.

Writing

The only thing I’m not conflicted about is the writing style in this novel. No, it’s not the best, but despite the books’ flaws – I’ll come back to this shortly – it definitely is a quick and easy read. The book is quite long, but the chapters are of an average length. I would have loved a multiple POV narration though, because the bonus chapters from Kingfisher’s POV don’t add much right now. I think we will get more of this in the next book, especially when you check the blurb for this sequel. Again, the writing is not outstanding, but I still was able to finish this book in a matter of days.

Plot

The plot however is lacking the most here. There’s an unoriginal and quite predictable plotline, which is also moving forward very slowly. I mean, there’s happening a lot, but not much at the same time. We barely get information and even though this is much better than getting a lot of infodump at once, I still have questions in the end. The pacing was quite off. It was too fast, I’d rather see the author would have slowed down a bit to provide some necessary information and world building. There’s a lot to this world we don’t know yet. Much is revealed by the quicksilver (I can’t go deeper into this because of spoilers), but that’s all we get. In the end, I’m still not sure about what I’ve just read. I therefore wasn’t intrigued, in spite the fact I was able to finish this book pretty quickly. The execution of the plot feels as mediocre to me as the characters and that’s quite unfortunate. Yet, I’m not really surprised as this book is very popular on Booktok. This novel seems to be centred around the romance and smut, but even that didn’t spark my curiosity. The moments the quicksilver was revealing information were the most interesting to me. The book picks up interest at the final quarter, but that’s quite too late. The ending doesn’t really feel like a cliffhanger to me either, I’m not left gasping and hungry for the next book.

Final thoughts

Now it has been a short while since I finished Quicksilver by Callie Hart and I’m still not sure what to think of this one yet. I’m clearly not really vibing with the hype, even though I was able to finish this book pretty quickly. The execution of both plot and characters is lacking to me and I still have so many remaining questions. It feels like there is no world and character building which is pretty essential for a series starter. I therefore wasn’t fully intrigued. By now, I’m not sure if I want to pick up the next book, which will be out in November.