The Lady Alchemist

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, Month 9 Books, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! In no way does this affect my rating or review. RTC later today! My Blog ¦ Bookstagram ¦ Twitter ¦ Pinterest ¦ Facebook

The premise of The Lady Alchemist is pretty interesting: blending alchemy and magic, along with some intricate secrets beneath the fantasy. This is the reason I added the book into the tbr last year. While Vitale had quite some interesting ideas on the table with this fast-paced debut, I didn't think the potentials of these ideas were fully realised due to poor executions in the writing. For example, I wasn't able to picture the kind of world The Lady Alchemist is set due to very vague worldbuilding and this made it pretty difficult to follow through what's happening when I picked the book back up. I also think the characterisation was partially sacrificed in favour of the fast pace & the plots, so I felt like the characters are doing things but there weren't enough explored in their headspace for me to feel that their actions are justified. Overall, this was a pretty quick but also a rather forgettable read. There were some interesting concepts with alchemists and magicians but the missteps in the writing made it not a very engaging read. N.B. This book contains following triggering content: abuse, assault, and pregnancy