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Last week, I enjoyed an Italian meal while imagining myself eating with the King and Queen like Stanley Tucci.

Book: Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall
Genre: Historical fantasy romance
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication date: 2023

Source: E-book borrowed from the library

Summary: Happy Valentine’s Day!

I wanted to read a book with romance to celebrate the holiday. I thought that Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall might be structured as a historical romance, like A Lady for a Duke, or as a Regency Romance, like Something Fabulous. 

But no. Although Mortal Follies is set in the Regency era, it doesn’t follow the format of those novel types. Instead of telling the story from the points of view of the two people falling in love, Hall gives us a narrator to observe the romance and tell the story.

Our narrator is a supernatural creature with the ability to read the thoughts and emotions of mortals, so we don’t miss out on those aspects of the human experience of love.

We begin in Bath where Maelys Mitchelmore wants to behave like a Regency lady ought, if only her clothes hadn’t come unraveled in the middle of a ball. She suspects supernatural interference. Fortunately, her rescuer may know a thing or two about the supernatural.

The ‘Duke of Annadale’ attained the nickname because she is the only survivor of her family after her father and brothers died in mysterious circumstances. The Duke professes haughty indifference to the plight of Maelys but is suspiciously always present when Maelys needs assistance. Is the Duke the cause of the problems or destined to be her deliverance?

Thoughts: The narrator is, in some ways, the most interesting of the characters. I enjoyed the hints of their tragic tale, the disdain and fascination for ‘mortal follies,’ and the occasional foray into revealing the mechanics of how a tale is told. Given that I’m currently an aspiring novelist who struggles with how tales are told, this openness was particularly fascinating for me.

Here is an observation from the narrator that seems particularly appropriate for Valentine’s Day. A character used her hands to make the shape of a heart.

A stylised heart, of course, not an actual heart. For some peculiar reason you mortals find real hearts disturbing rather than romantic. A double-standard I consider to be the rankest of hypocrisy.

As with other Alexis Hall novels, genders and sexualities are explored as if playing with a prism to make beautiful rainbows. The narrator seems to be a type of creature that doesn’t have a gender. The lovers are both women.

Appeal: I sought out an Alexis Hall story for a dose of humor during a dark time. It worked for me!