The Courting of Bristol Keats

Peterson (Vow of Thieves) underwhelms in this overly long, paint-by-numbers fae romantasy, the first in a duology. After a lifetime on the run from their parents’ unknown enemies, Bristol Keats and her sisters made a home in Bowskeep, but maintaining their run-down house has left them impoverished. With their mother and father dead, they have no hope for the future and no answers about their past, until a mysterious letter offers Bristol a rare piece of art belonging to her great-aunt. This, however, is actually a fae trick to make Bristol serve Tyghan, king of the Danu Nation. Tyghan and his court believe Bristol is bloodmarked and has the power “to navigate between worlds, to create portals, and to close them,” a skill they need to defend themselves against King Kormick, whose own bloodmarked monster has supplied him with an inexhaustible army. Bristol agrees to serve Tyghan after learning that her father isn’t dead after all—he’s been taken by trows, a type of wild fairy. Unfortunately, the secrets Bristol discovers about her parentage puts her blossoming relationship with Tyghan into an unsettling context and sours the romance, which plays out as a checklist of tired romantasy tropes. There’s little to make this stand out. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Nov.)