The Verdict
Today I’m giving you my honest take on Quicksilver, by Callie Hart. It started as a self-published book, blew up on BookTok, sparked a reported ten publisher auction, and Netflix bought the film rights.
My verdict: if you love enemies to lovers romantasy, you’ll devour it. Saeris is a great heroine, the banter is genuinely funny, and the last act is wild. But it’s long, the middle drags, and if you’ve read a few fae romances, the formula will feel familiar. I give it three and a half out of five, and no spoilers here.
What It’s About
Saeris Fane is a thief and a metalworker in Zilvaren, a desert city with two suns, ruled by an immortal queen named Madra. Water is rationed, and Saeris will do anything to protect her little brother, Hayden.
When she steals a guard’s golden gauntlet, everything goes wrong. She ends up in the queen’s palace, and then, through a pool of liquid silver, in a frozen fae realm called Yvelia, where a dark, rude, terrifying warrior named Kingfisher needs her help to win a war.
The Romance
This is an enemies to lovers story, and the enemies part is real. Fisher calls her human, then Little Osha, and they bicker constantly. She punches him in the mouth during one of their first lessons.
The slow burn is slow, then very not slow. Fair warning, the second half has several very explicit chapters. If that’s not for you, this isn’t your book.
What Works
First, Saeris. She’s funny, foul-mouthed, practical and stubborn. She’s a thief who can climb anything, and her magic, talking to metal, is a fresh idea for the genre.
Second, the humor. The quicksilver itself is a character that demands jokes before it’ll cooperate, and Saeris’s terrible jokes are some of my favorite moments. Carrion Swift, her smuggler ex, steals every scene he’s in.
Third, the last hundred pages. The final act takes place somewhere I won’t spoil, and it’s dark, inventive, and full of reveals that actually reframe the book.
The World
Yvelia is a snowy, war-torn fae kingdom fighting an army of vampire-like feeders across a frozen river. There’s a forge, a war camp, a stately home called Cahlish, a fox named Onyx, and a lot of pine and mint.
It’s atmospheric, but the magic system is mostly explained by characters talking. The political plot, with a cruel fae king named Belikon, is fairly thin until the end.
What Doesn’t Work
Now the honest part. First, it’s long, around six hundred pages, and the middle section in Yvelia, with a lot of training, forging and banter, could lose a hundred.
Second, Fisher is a very familiar romantasy hero: tall, dark, tortured, tattooed, possessive. If you’ve read A Court of Thorns and Roses, you’ll recognize him.
Third, the writing leans on swearing and modern slang, which some readers will love and others will find jarring in a fantasy world.
The Scorecard
My scores. Romance, four and a half out of five. Heroine, four and a half. World building, three. Pacing, two and a half. Ending, four. That averages to three point seven, so three and a half to four.
Who It’s For
Read it if you loved A Court of Thorns and Roses, Fourth Wing, or From Blood and Ash, and you want a funnier heroine. It’s for adults only.
Skip it if you don’t like explicit romance, if you want tight world building, or if the brooding fae hero trope makes you roll your eyes.
Where To Go Next
I’ve also made an ending explained, a guide to the series and the Netflix movie, and a list of books like it. They’re linked below. Tell me in the comments: Fisher or Carrion?
