Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms

Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms (2024) Sarah Wallace, S.O. Callahan (Fae & Human Relations: A Regency Fantasy Series)

Roger Barnes failed his Hastings Exam–the magical test that determines which child can inherit. He believes the is inherently problematic, and goes up before the Council to propose a different testing scheme.

Many humans, once they reached the age of thirty and came into their majority, had been kicked out of their homes, deemed burdens by their own families. The poverty rate was steadily increasing as more and more low-scoring humans were left with few choices for their futures.

Somewhat to his surprise, his scheme is tentatively accepted and he is asked to create a rubric for his scheme.

Wyndham Wrenwhistle is a dandy and a bit of a rake.

His mother wants him and his siblings to make good matches this season, but all Wyn wants is to go back to the country, where he feels most comfortable.

Wyn wanted to be back in the country where he could enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and nights under the stars without the constant bustling and noise of high society.

The world-building here is fascinating. Queer relationships are normalized, however, Fae-human relationships are seen as not quite the done thing.

Additionally, although fae and humans co-exist in society, their morals remain very different–fae see sexual experimentation as something quite normal, which humans hold the mores of the regency–humans should go to the wedding virgins, and single humans–of either gender–I expected to be chaperoned any time they are around another eligible young person.

So it’s something of a scandal when Wyn and Roger are found to have been working alone on their project in Roger’s rooms.

The weakest part of the story was the “forced” marriage. But once I got past that and just accepted it for what it was, it was fascinating to see the regency mores applied equally to males and females.

“Are you…er…going to stay here while I change?”

Wyndham rolled his eyes. “I have seen the naked form before. And if we can’t get them to retract, we’ll be getting married anyway. So it hardly matters.”

“You haven’t seen my naked form,” Roger muttered.

Additionally although the terms aren’t used, Roger is Ace and Wyn is Aro, so it was very interesting how that worked out as well.

I quite enjoyed the premise, although I wish parts of the story had been tightened up — or expanded– in service of the story-telling.

Cover art: Caras Alexandra

Rating: 7.5/10

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