Book Review: Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy #1) by Callie Hart

Genre: Romantasy

Pages: 609 (paperback)

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

⭐⭐⭐

Available on Kindle Unlimited

Spoiler-free Review!

Summary:

Saeris Fane, a young thief living in the scorched desert of Zilvaren, will soon discover she is destined for more that just stealing. After accidentally opening a portal, she is taken to The Winter Court in the realm of the Fae. There, she learns that she is not just a mere human, but an alchemist. A race of mortals long thought to have been extinct. She alone can unlock the true power of the Quicksilver and help the Fae reclaim their war-stricken lands. But first, she must not only learn to harness her abilities, but do so under the watchful and ever criticizing eye of Kingfisher, the legendary and exceedingly moody warrior.

With time quickly running out, Saeris must do anything and everything to discover the secrets of her new found powers and the mysterious, whispering Quicksilver.

My Review:

I am going to be brutally honest here. This was my biggest disappointment of 2025. After this novel absolutely blew up on social media, I went in with extremely high expectations and was thoroughly let down. Over-hyped, copy and paste Fae Romantasy.

First and foremost, Saeris is not exactly an intriguing character. Whiney, immature and for lack of a better word...stupid. I may be alone in this, but I figured out fairly quickly what she need to do to "unlock the secrets" of the Quicksilver. However, it took her a painfully long amount of time to discover it for herself. As the reader, I was getting so frustrated and that caused me to dislike her even more. Our side-characters on the other-hand were absolutely loveable. Bringing comedy, light-heartedness and a found-family aspect. I enjoyed every scene with Carrion, Everylayne and Renfis.

As for the plot, it got a little lost in the middle of the book. We got off to a fairly good start, but slowed way way down until about the 75% mark. Around this time the story picked up again and we really started to get some answers and action happening. The story finished on a solid note and honestly left me forgetting how much I disliked the majority of the book (if that makes sense). That said, once I began putting my thoughts down in a book journal, I realized that for the first 2/3 of the book...nothing of significance actually happened. It's not just that it was slow going, just...nothing really furthered the plot until the book was almost done.

The worst part of these novels was the sex. I love a good steamy, spicy scene. But the explicit chapters in Quicksilver did the opposite of turn me on. Starting with the mouth on Kingfisher. A lot of readers enjoyed his filthy mouth...I did not. And I'm all for some good dirty-talk. However, everything that he said just made me cringe and want to shut the book. This may sound dramatic, but the first spicy scene almost ruined the book for me. It was rushed, forced (not sexually forced) and completely destroyed any sexual tension the characters had.

Do not believe those who label this as an "Enemies to Lovers", it is not. Nor those who say it has incredible banter. The so-called "incredible banter" is just Saeris telling Kingfisher to "Fuck off".

All in all, this was a 3 out of 5 star read for me. A solid start, boring middle, solid finish. Likeable side characters and a plot that was good by the end. While Callie Hart's writing was in no way bad, there was just a lack of good plot building, no connection to the main character and no solid buildup to her romance with the MMC.

Would I Recommend? No...I think..?

P.S. Please Callie, never use the term "slick folds" ever again.