Review: The Thrifty Fae And The Repair Shop by Ariana Jade

The Thrifty Fae And The Repair Shop (Fae On A Budget #2)
by Ariana Jade

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: f/f

Blurb:
In a world of magical crystals, enchanted artefacts, and golden coins, Daxia has… just coins. Iron coins.

Half Fae, half human, Daxia has never fit in with her peers . To make matters worse, she has to work for a living, a fate unbefitting for a Fae. Luckily, she has a chance to venture into the human world to make a fortune of her own.

Today, it’s scrubbing tavern floors. Tomorrow, it’s finding chests with gold and jewels. At least, that’s how she hopes it will go. In reality, a few more challenges stand between her and single-handedly creating her own generational wealth.

After running into someone from her past, Daxia finds herself helping out an old repair shop with their dragon problem while avoiding debt-collecting gerbils. It’s not exactly glamorous but Daxia is determined to make her own fortune.

Even if she has to stick to a tight budget to make it happen.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

The first book in this series didn’t fully win me over, but that one was more of a prequel and I was curious to see if this book would change my mind about this series, sadly it did not. There are some aspect that I enjoyed about this book, but mostly it just didn’t fully work for me. It didn’t really hook me or make me excited to continue reading.

The point of view in this book switches compared to the first book and now we get Daxia’s point of view, she’s a fae who is in the human lands trying to get rich as she’s very poor. She also has some low self-esteem and an uncle who didn’t treat her right. The point of view switch took some getting used to and the vibe of the book felt different focussing on Daxia’s money struggles instead of on Naia’s bad luck.

Something about this book just didn’t quite work for me. The set-up seems interesting enough, but it was kinda hard getting a feel for the world. I didn’t always like reading about Daxia, on some points her money struggles and low self-esteem would feel relatable and could hit too close to home and on other times I just didn’t like how she acted and she could really annoy me. Then there were other scenes where she shows how much she cares and has empathy for the dragon they’re supposed to catch. And then she does something that bothered me again. I also struggled a bit with Daxia’s friend Erin, but she did grow on me throughout the story.

And then there was the romance, I had not expected that to go the way it did. There is a lot of hurt between them now and multiple years have passed since the first book. It just felt kinda jarring and there’s a lot that changed and their connection doesn’t feel the same anymore. They both could be quite harsh to the other and they didn’t really talk things through, although I did like it when they finally explained and addressed some of the fresh hurt they caused. And I do like the set-up here with them both having something they struggle with, Naia with handling things on her own and feeling capable and Daxia with her self esteem and feeling less than because she’s poor. I just didn’t like how they act mean and rude before the understanding gets there and even then they never really address the core with what happened at the bridge. It just felt like a big deviation from the first book where they both were so supportive and sweet to the other.

To summarize: This one just didn’t fully work for me. Something about the story and vibe just did not pull me in. I liked the set-up well enough and the two characters both have their issues to work through, but the way it played out just didn’t quite work for me. Sometimes I could relate to Daxia (a bit too well at times), other times I couldn’t stand her and how she acted and then her empathy was such an interesting addition and then I went back to just not liking how she was acting. The romance turns into a bit of a second chance one, but the two haven’t seen other for years and there is some big hurt they caused the other and a lot of them bickering and being mean to the other before they partly talk some things through. This book had Daxia’s point of view instead of Naia’s which the first book had, which took some time getting used to. I like most of this author’s books that I read and I am just sad this series doesn’t really seem to work for me.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.