Title: Filia and the Fall Festival

Series: Autumn Fairy Tales #1

Author: Leialoha Humpherys

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Romance

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

She’s the “perfect princess” with secrets she can never tell. He’s a prince betrothed to another. Their royal obligations pull them apart, so why do they keep finding themselves drawn to each other? When Princess Filia’s brother is too ill to attend the fall festival at Alpenglow Kingdom, she goes in his place. But being from a tropical island, Filia has never experienced the autumn season. Though she feels like a fish out of water, her guide, Crown Prince Dawson, is more than happy to make her feel at home. Filia has known Dawson from past adventures, but she can’t help noticing there’s something different in their acquaintance this time. She’s betrothed to someone from her island kingdom. He’s betrothed to someone for political purposes. They can never be together. Yet there’s something more sweet and cozy going on than cinnamon rolls, hot cocoa, and crisp autumn air. But even as the two start falling for each other, Filia has a secret she cannot speak aloud, for if she does, it will change the course of her future. When Filia’s escort, a conniving aunt, discovers Filia’s secret, there’s more at risk than Filia’s reputation. Will Filia and Dawson keep their hearts guarded, fulfilling their royal obligations? Or will Filia’s secret ruin whatever chance they have at being together? – summary from Goodreads

Filia and the Fall Festival is a lovely autumn read that retells the Little Mermaid in a unique way with disability representation and romance!

Leialoha Humpherys is a new author to me, and I had high hopes for this book. I loved her Ghosts and Ginger Tea book! It was so good and is one of my favorite recent reads! I liked this book, but it wasn’t my favorite.

I felt like I was missing something when I read this book. This book is part of the Autumn Fairy Tales collection, but the characters and world are part of another universe that I have not read. I don’t think it is necessary to read those books to understand this one, but it would probably be helpful. This book mentioned a lot of things in the past that I was unfamiliar with.

This book was an interesting retelling of the Little Mermaid. The author incorporated saving the prince in an interesting way, as well as incorporating the foot pain that is present in the origin story. I love when retellings are able to include that aspect of the story, and I really enjoyed how the author was able to do it in this story. There was some disability representation present through this part of the story, which I enjoyed. Filia’s legs are permanently damaged due to a war injury. I loved the representation! I also really liked how the witch was incorporated into the story! It was a nice twist at the end.

I loved the setting! It was beautiful and had all the cozy autumn vibes with pumpkin patches and apple orchards! It was so cozy and reminiscent of childhood autumn adventures. I also love how the author shows the characters appreciating the setting, if that makes any sense. Filia is from an island, so she doesn’t experience fall the same way. Throughout the course of the book, we get to see Filia experience fall the first time, which was a nice addition to the book.

I didn’t really love the characters. They weren’t bad, but they got on my nerves. I think part of it was that I was I felt like I was missing a large part of their story. I think if there was a book sharing when Filia was in disguise and fighting under Dawson during the wars, then I would follow this story a little better. Filia was always mentioning how she had to be perfect and couldn’t let anyone down, which made her deny her feelings for much of the book. I did like when she finally decided to be true to herself, but it was a little irritating.

I honestly didn’t really like Dawson. I am all for true love, but Filia repeatedly told him they couldn’t be in a relationship and he did not listen. It was really aggravating and I wish he listened to her. I felt like he could have found way for them to be together while behaving differently.

I did really like the side character Yesenia! She was a little grumpy, from chronic headaches, but she was so nice. I loved her relationship with her guard, which gave Ava and Hans vibes from The Princess Fugitive. I am very excited to see more of their story in the future!

Filia and the Fall Festival is an interesting Little Mermaid retelling with a cozy fall setting and disability representation!