I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains by Reena McCarty Published by Orbit on April 7 2026
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 416
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A woman must return to the faerie world she was thrown out of in this fun and twisty fantasy debut.
Books about faeries and the fae realm seem to be everywhere these days, so it’s nice to come across one that feels a little different. There are familiar elements in The Tricky Business of Faerie Bargains, but I also found parts of the world building to be unique as well. Reena McCarty’s debut takes the magical qualities of the faerie world and combines them with the practicalities of negotiating deals—in this case bargains between the fae and humans—and turns them into a high stakes, entertaining story.
Poppy Hill works for a law firm called Carter Lane, a company that brokers bargains between the fae and humans. She’s uniquely qualified for the job because she herself spent a hundred years in the Otherside, stolen as a child of five and forced to work as a cook for the Wild Court. Until one day, she suddenly finds herself back in the human world. Disoriented and confused—and missing her best friend Sloan and her boyfriend Elan—Poppy is told she must stay at the Carter Lane facilities for the next five years, learning how to live as a human and working for the company as well.
The story begins after Poppy has been back for a few years and has mastered the craft of reading over bargains to make sure there aren’t any loopholes. One day, however, she’s asked to do something unusual: make a verbal bargain with a woman named Dr. Albrecht who wants to sell her sense of taste in exchange for knowing every written and spoken human language. Poppy is nervous about the bargain, since there’s nothing in writing, and sure enough, she leaves out a very important clause. In order to rectify her mistake, Poppy must go to the Otherside and bring the woman back.
Unfortunately, crossing over to the Otherside isn’t as easy as it sounds. Once there, she must navigate a long, dangerous trek to find Dr. Albrecht, deal with her conflicting feelings about seeing Sloan and Elan again, and try to stay alive after finding herself in the middle of plot to kill the King of the Wild. And she has fourteen days to complete her task before she’s pulled back to the human realm once more.
One of my favorite world building elements was the way humans and fae have to work together in this world. The fae have no creative talents at all—they can’t do art, make music or even cook—and in order to enjoy all those things and more, they make bargains with humans, many of them involving servitude of some kind, where humans have to serve in the Otherside for a certain number of years. Both need something the other has, so it was an interesting, symbiotic dynamic. Not only that, but as the story progresses, you can see that faeries aren’t that different from humans. Life is hard, politics are complicated and bargains are literally everywhere. Poppy is torn between wanting her old life back, including her friendship with Sloan and Elan, the love of her life, and having a normal life back in Reality.
I liked Poppy a lot. She’s a smart girl (in her twenties, I think, since time moves differently in the Otherside) and she has the advantage of knowing the dangers she’ll face when she goes back. She manages to smuggle iron nails and salt over (both forbidden) in order to protect herself, and she knows the lay of the land well enough not to get lost. But she’s also vulnerable. She doesn’t really know how to handle her emotions, and seeing Elan and Sloan again throws her off her game. I also have to mention the cooking, which adds a nice cozy vibe to the story. Poppy is an expert, and it was fun to see her cook for the fae once she gets to the Otherside. It’s sort of mind boggling that the fae can look at separate ingredients—eggs, flour and sugar—but they can’t imagine combining them into something delicious like French toast:-)
The story is billed as romance, but it’s a very small part of the story. Poppy is reunited with Elan—briefly—and he tries to reignite their relationship, but like most fae, Elan is selfish and only wants Poppy when it’s convenient for him. Luckily Poppy sees that, and despite still being in love with him, she’s also practical about it. I thought there was going to be a love triangle at one point, since Poppy meets someone else during her journey to find Dr. Albrecht, but it was a very slowly developing “maybe” type of romance that could possibly go somewhere if there’s a sequel.
The pacing is pretty good for the most part, although the story lags in places. I’ll admit I was bored at times, especially when the characters stop moving (the whole thing mostly reads like a quest/road trip story) and nothing really happens. Luckily these sections don’t go on too long. McCarty throws in a couple of twists in the last section and the momentum picked up after that.
I do have a small complaint that might seem nitpicky, but it confused me so much I have to bring it up. The story is told in Poppy’s first person voice, and McCarty’s writing is very good. But for some reason, a few times during Poppy’s dialog, her grammar takes a nosedive, and she says things like “It ain’t exactly been a priority in my studies” or “I’d love to know why you don’t got a horse.” It even weirder because the narrative doesn’t have any of these quirks. It’s one thing to have a character use this grammar throughout, and another to only add it in a few times. I’d love to know why the author made this choice, or perhaps it was meant to be taken out in the final version of the book. In any case, it really pulled me out of the story.
The book isn’t listed as the start of a series on Goodreads, but it certainly ends like one! I’m hoping that Poppy’s adventures aren’t over yet, because I’d love to see what happens next.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I love books about the fae so of course this one is already on my TBR. I’ve read another book where the fae are incapable of creating- An Enchantment Of Ravens – and am very curious to see this authors take on it. The few strange sections of speech sound odd. I’ll have to bare in mind that this is more of a quest type narrative going into it and have the right expectations in mind. Lovely review and I hope you get the sequel that seems hinted at.
I feel like maybe the publisher is waiting to see if the book is successful before committing to a sequel, but there’s definitely room for more!
The cover is so stunning. I love the little details it has! And of course the story itself sounds so good to me as I love love love faerie stories.
Me too! And the cover is cute, and all of the little details play a part in the story.
This sounds really charming! I’ve seen some mixed reviews — but yours makes me think I should give this book a try!
It’s not my favorite fae story but I enjoyed it:-)
Glad you ended up liking this one, especially considering the somewhat mixed reviews that are out there. Your description of the fae having no creative talents reminds of Rowenna Miller’s THE FAERIE BARGAINS OF PROSPECT HILL, which has a similar dynamic between the fae and human interaction whereby anything new in the fae world is bargained for from humans…but I think the can turn that human-made item into various things in the fae world.
I hadn’t thought about the similarities with The Faerie Bargains of Prospect Hill, but hey, both stories have “bargains” in the title so I’m not surprised:-)
Excellent review!
I received an ARC of this book, too; and, I’m going to make time to read this one. Yes, there have been several books about faeries, but this is one of the few where we get to know what happens to a changeling AFTER the “terms of the exchange” have been met. This changeling looks like she got the better deal compared to other stories about them, so I want to know what happens in this one.
It was a unique idea for sure, to start the story after she came back!
I’ve been curious about this one for a while, sounds like it’s worth giving it a try!
I’m glad I read it!
That is weird about those blips in the dialogue…talk about pulling you out of the story. But the premise of this one sounds so fun. I think I’m going to have to give it a read. 😀
It’s definitely worth trying!
This sounds good. Was it an arc maybe they were typos. If not then that is weird.. would annoy me as well.
I don’t think they were typos. The wording was deliberately written that way, but maybe they will change it for the final book.
Excellent review! Great cover too. I think I might like this one.
I think you would enjoy the politics. It definitely makes the story more interesting.
I just saw this book for the first time yesterday. Fae books can be hit or miss with me, but I am curious about this one. Great review!
It was very good! I’m reading so many fae books lately so it’s fun to compare them.
When I saw the cover, I thought it screamed romance. Glad to hear that’s not the focus! I will be checking this one out when I need an entertaining read.
The cover doesn’t really match the story, IMO. It gives the book a cozy feel and there’s very little cozy, lol.
Great review! I missed out on this one, which is a shame because it sounds right up my alley. I’m guessing those odd lapses were a previous voice for the pov character that got missed, when it was suggested it should be changed. Having had to make those changes in the past myself – it’s very difficult to get them all! That said, shame on the publisher for not picking them up:).
Your review is spot on Tammy and I am so glad you loved it as well. her bad grammar didn’t phase me. She used it to be underestimated.
Glad to see you enjoyed this one, and that any little quirks were small enough to not impact your overall enjoyment.
This sounds like a fun twist on the typical fae story! I’m really curious about it. (Though I have so many books on my backlog that it’s hard to know when—or even if—I’ll actually pick it up.) Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
This sounds like a fun read but it is odd about the dialogue. I wonder if it’s because it was an ARC.
I can’t believe I haven’t read this one already!! Argh! So many books and so little time!
But I am glad that, even if you were bored and there were some hiccups, you still enjoyed it. I am really curious to meet Poppy!!
This sounds like a unique story. I’ll have to maybe check it out. Great review!
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