How to Find a Nameless Fae by A. J. Lancaster

Timy reviews How to Find a Nameless Fae, a standalone fantasy romance novel by A. J. Lancaster.

An eARC was received by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2025 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freed from Desire

What happens when a first-born bargain goes wrong?

Princess Gisele was pledged in payment before she was even born, after her mother failed to guess a fae sorcerer’s true name. Gisele has spent her life dutifully preparing for the day that fearsome mage will return to claim her.

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

Which would be great, if the unfulfilled fairytale-debt wasn’t wreaking increasing havoc on her life. When it reaches unbearable levels, Gisele takes matters into her own hands. Terrifying sorcerer or not, she’ll hunt him down and force him to relinquish the debt.

But instead of the evil mastermind she expects, she finds a nameless lord of a magical house. He wants nothing to do with the angry knife-wielding spinster on his doorstep, but 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 lord’s lost name. Assuming they don’t strangle each other first.

“He pulled himself straight, offended.
“There is no possibility I would ever confuse you with anyone else, and I’m inclined to belive I bargained for the better twin, unless your brother is also skilled in the arts of poisoning, blackmail, and research.”

I think it’s been about 2 years ago when I basically binge-read A. J. Lancaster‘s Stariel series and loved it. So when an opportunity came up to read her newest novel, I didn’t hesitate to get on board. Well, okay, a bit, because How to Find a Nameless Fae is a retelling of the Rumplestiltskin story, and I’m not generally into retellings. But, this is a fairy tale I’m not really familiar with, so I let that slide. Plus, everything I heard about the book piqued my interest. And even though I did enjoy reading How to Find a Nameless Fae, I wasn’t getting all the feels from it as I hoped.

Gisele spent all her life waiting for the evil sorcerer fae, who cursed her to take her away at last. But he seems to have forgotten her, and the side effects of his magic are getting out of hand, so on her 40th birthday, she decides to take matters into her own hands. But her Malediction, as she calls him, is not how she expected him to be. For one thing, he owns a beatiful, sentient house, he is kind although quite grumpy, and has cat ears and a tail. But Gisele is determined not only to get answers but to get freed from the curse as well, even poisoning a fae if that’s what it takes. What could go wrong?

Everything, as you could expect, but that’s all I’m willing to say about the plot. Find out the rest for yourselves 😛 Right, now the good bits. It’s always nice to have “older” MCs (as someone who nears forty, I definitely can appreciate this), even if Gisele had lived a somewhat sheltered life as a princess who was cast out all her life and left to her own devices. She is smart, but also a bit naive, which is understandable. But she is not your average damsel in distress, as she is willing to fight for herself. And it was nice to see her finding herself and blossoming into the woman she was meant to be. As for Mal, him having cat characteristics was fun!

I loved Skymallow (the house), which definitely gave Howl’s Moving Castle vibes, which I think was the point? Anyway, I liked its antics and the way it had its own mind in a way. Especially as it pushed Mal and Gisele together, as well as the other creatures living around the meadow. Which gave the book a found family undertone, a theme that’s close to my heart.

And while How to Find a Nameless Fae does a lot of things right – and Lancaster’s writing is just as polished as usual – I still struggled to connect with the book. The characters felt just a bit underdeveloped for my liking – there was just something missing for me to be invested in them walking circles around each other. I always find it frustrating when a simple conversation could solve a whole lot of problems so the characters would be able to move on to other things. Plus, Gisele’s inner monologues about how much she likes/not likes Mal started to grate on my nerves at one point. I enjoyed the second half more once things got more serious. But even then, I could never really buy into the MCs chemistry, and for me, that’s a problem when it comes to romance. I also prefer a lot more enmity between the characters for enemies-to-lovers become fun to read. I think this book was just lacking tension in a way. Or maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

But even though How to Find a Nameless Fae didn’t quite meet my own expectations, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recommend it. If you love stories with fae, retellings or romantasy with a found family theme, then this could be your book! It’s a fun summer read with darker undertones, and a sprinkle of spice for good measure.