Synopsis:
What happens when a first-born bargain goes wrong?

Princess Gisele has spent her life preparing for an evil fae sorcerer to claim her. That was the bargain her mother was tricked into: one royal first-born in exchange for spinning straw into gold.

But it’s been decades, and he still hasn’t shown up.

The unfulfilled fairytale-debt, however, is refusing to lie quietly. When its chaotic magic reaches unbearable levels, Gisele takes matters into her own hands. Terrifying fae sorcerer or not, she’ll hunt him down and force him to stop ruining her life.

But instead of an evil mastermind, she finds the scholarly, nameless lord of a magical house. He wants nothing to do with the angry knife-wielding spinster on his doorstep. Unfortunately, the fairytale-debt has other ideas.

Now magically bound to her lifelong nemesis, the only way to break the magic between them is to work together to find the nameless fae’s lost name. Assuming they don’t strangle each other first.

HOW TO FIND A NAMELESS FAE is a cozy fantasy romance retelling of Rumplestiltskin with spice, featuring a middle-aged heroine, a buttoned-up hero, and an interfering sentient house.

Review:
“On her fortieth birthday, Princess Gisele of Isshia realised she was going to have to save herself.” (Page 9)

This book started so strong with a middle aged heroine who has lived a very different life to what one in her position was expected to do, due to the bargain holding her life hostage. It was easy to like Gisele as you learn of her blight and see how well she has learned to navigate life despite her curse. While I love the humanization of a character that has been seen as a villain for most of time, I was not a fan of his less than human side. All the characters were relatively well developed, but I found the romance aspect to have been assumed and immediately on the nose from the moment those two characters interacted. I did find most of the major plot points to be predictable, and while there was still enough of a surprise where/how in the story, I personally did not find this book to be for me (mostly due to lack of humanity as stated). There is some spice, but as I skimmed it very quickly, I will not be rating it.

Star rating: ✯✯✯

*This was read in February, though reviewed now.