The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains

• Author: Reena McCarty
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: April 7, 2026
• Publisher: Orbit

Thank you to Orbit for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Discover a world of enchanted contracts, faerie intrigue and French toast, in this delightful debut packed full of wit, charm, adventure and heart, with a dash of magical bureaucracy and a sprinkling of romance.

When Poppy Hill was a child, she was stolen from her family’s Montana homestead and taken ‘Otherside’ to the land of the fae, where she spent more than a century as a cook in the Wild King’s castle. Now back in the human world, she works for a company that brokers faerie bargains, checking for loopholes in their contracts.

But when a bargain that Poppy is negotiating goes disastrously wrong, she must return to the world she grew up in to try to rectify her mistake, facing danger, intrigue and a pesky ex-boyfriend along the way.

I’m always a sucker for reading about a faerie bargain, and I couldn’t wait to start this one. I won’t lie, it took me a bit to get the hang of the setting and the various characters, but it wound up being a great debut that I thoroughly enjoyed, even with some mild flaws.

The world-building is unique but mismatched. I enjoyed the creatively different idea of a human corporation that creates, ensures, and brokers bargains between humans and the fae. The setting straddles the line between the human world and Otherside, and while the human world and corporate setting are thoroughly described, more of Otherside is hidden from us, even as the characters travel throughout the various areas of Otherside. 

Poppy was brought to Otherside as a child, kidnapped from her family, and forced to work in the castle of the Wild King as a cook for over a hundred years. Once she completed her service, she was sent back to the human realm, and I especially loved how McCarty handled this. Humans returning from fae lands are sent through a rigorous training and deconditioning—she has to go through classes to educate her about the human world and how it works, is given movies to watch so she can acclimate to pop culture, and attend therapy sessions. It was refreshing to see the modern world and the work that is put in for returning humans, rather than totally skipping over the adaptation process.

This is especially important for Poppy, as she straddles both the human realm and Otherside, not fully belonging to one or the other. After more than a century in Otherside, she knows well how the realm works, but is not enjoying her reintroduction to human life. She does have one friend, Gloria, who she works with and has given her both support and guidance in the human world. But when she has to make a faerie bargain for a very important client, the deal goes disastrously wrong and the client is brought back to Otherside rather than remaining in the human world. And Poppy has no choice but to follow the client to Otherside and try to return her to the human world. 

Once she reaches Otherside, she is able to reunite with two of the people she was closest to—Sloan, a female fae who helped protect her as a child, and Elan, an old flame. While she has had some contact with Sloan through her job, Elan has been radio silent since she was returned to the human lands, and it is an entirely new dynamic between them. I really liked seeing how the dynamics of the relationships between Poppy and Sloan and Elan, and how they are pushed to work together despite their individual differences. One of the big themes in the story was Poppy being not fully a part of either world, and always having to know her place. As a human in Otherside, life can get very dangerous very quickly, and she always tries to keep in mind that fae aren’t exactly trustworthy and can nearly always find a way to get around a lie. However, she’s torn between wanting to trust the two most important people in her life, while knowing they might turn against her for any or no reason.

The pacing was uneven, with the central part of the story moving quite slowly compared to the beginning, and the end felt rushed in comparison. I would have liked to see Otherside as fleshed out as the human realm and the brokerage firm were, since McCarty clearly has a talent for world-building and creativity. There is a romantic subplot, but it doesn’t overshadow the story itself. 

Although the book is listed as cozy fantasy, this tackles heavier issues than are usually found in a cozy. There is emotional and physical abuse, childhood trauma, and no shortage of violence in the story, although these are kind of glossed over, there is the presence of a therapist available for Poppy to work through her childhood issues. However, she still makes poor choices and avoids holding her old flames and friends accountable for their actions. It was frustrating to watch her make certain choices, although I could understand the nostalgia that can come from being the only two fae who valued her for a century.

These aren’t Disneyfied fae—they’re scary and visibly different from the humans, and their cruelty is on full display. I found it ironic that the fae are so dismissive and unappreciative of the humans who fuel their world with creativity, hard work, and ideas, although there is at least one fae who understands how valuable humans are to Otherside, which couldn’t exist in the same way without human labor. For her part, Poppy has learned to be a great cook, having worked in the king’s kitchens for more than a century, and I loved seeing her use those skills in Otherside. She makes especially good French toast, and after hearing about this, I couldn’t help but want to make some French toast after reading how much everyone in the story loved hers. But Poppy isn’t naïve and doesn’t head to Otherside unprepared.

Overall, this wound up being a great debut, and I’m already eager to read more of her work in the future. There are fantastically creative characters who felt as realistic as fae can be, while the human characters are wonderfully complex. However, there were some issues that stopped this from being a five star read. The uneven pacing with the lag in the center part and the rushed ending, the lack of complex world-building within the setting in Otherside, and the messy character relationships. This isn’t a second-chance or clean love triangle type of romantasy—instead, the dynamics are very messy, which actually made things feel more realistic to me. Relationships can be messy and complicated, and it was nice to see something leaning towards realistic when it comes to romance, although I typically like seeing romance that is more well-defined than messy. But the author found a way to make this a fresh and unique take in fantasy, and I have high hopes for her future stories as well.

Bottom line: A fresh and creative debut that showcases the author’s ability to create well-rounded characters and a unique setting, with a character straddling two worlds and fitting in neither while navigating a journey to correct an error in a contract and finds herself embroiled in an even busier and more dangerous fiasco.

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