What if the one thing protecting your identity could be undone by falling in love?
That is the deliciously complicated situation at the heart of Mirrorwoven by Bori Cser, a YA fantasy filled with hidden identities, court politics, music, magic, and sapphic romance. The premise immediately caught my attention, but what has impressed me most while reading is actually the way Cser introduces her world. This is one of those fantasy novels where I genuinely feel like I am discovering a new place alongside the main character instead of stopping every few pages for a history lesson.
Thank you to the author and Feiwel & Friends for the book and my honest review. This book tour is sponsored by Toppling Stacks Tours.
Del has two very important rules: stay away from royalty and don’t fall in love. Unfortunately for her, this is a fantasy novel, so naturally neither rule is going to remain uncomplicated.
Del is secretly a runaway princess. After the death of her sister, she leaves her homeland, her family, and her new responsibilities as heir behind. Using magic, she creates a new “mirrorwoven” face so no one will recognize her and escapes to the lagoon-city of Salato, where she hopes to disappear into a completely different life.
There is just one rather inconvenient catch: true love’s kiss can undo the magic disguising her identity.
So obviously falling in love is off the table.
Probably.
One of my favorite things about Mirrorwoven so far is its worldbuilding. Cser does a wonderful job weaving Salato’s culture, government, history, and everyday life into Del’s story without making all of that information feel like a giant fantasy encyclopedia has been dropped into the middle of the novel.
As Del travels through Salato and tries to join the bard guild, I’m learning about the city right along with her. At the same time, little pieces of Del’s northern homeland and her past are revealed naturally through her experiences, memories, and comparisons between the two places.
As a reader, I love this.
As a writer, I’m slightly jealous.
I actually caught myself thinking, I need to figure out how Cser is doing this because I want to learn this technique for my own writing. The world feels developed without the author constantly stopping the story to explain why everything works the way it does. Instead, I feel like I’m visiting Salato with Del, noticing things as she notices them.
Del herself is another highlight. She is funny, intelligent, observant, and just messy enough to be entertaining. Considering everything she has experienced, there is also quite a bit happening beneath the personality she shows everyone around her. I especially enjoy the contrast between the seemingly ordinary musician Del wants people to see and the politically educated princess she is desperately trying to hide.
And then, of course, Del manages to break her first rule by becoming court bard to Clara, the newly widowed First of Salato.
Because apparently running away from royal life only works until royal life finds you again.
This brings Del into Clara’s orbit as well as that of Clara’s brilliant and potentially dangerous sister-in-law, Nasca. Between Del’s secret identity and the growing relationships among these women, there is plenty of potential for romantic tension, political trouble, and some spectacularly bad decision-making.
My biggest issue with the book so far, though, is the pacing.
For as much as I enjoy exploring this world with Del, I keep waiting for the story itself to give me a little more urgency.
The primary threat hanging over Del is the possibility that someone will discover who she really is. That should create enormous tension, especially when she keeps moving closer to the exact kind of people she originally planned to avoid. Yet I haven’t consistently felt that danger.
Del seems to skate past situations where she could potentially be noticed, questioned, or exposed. I wanted more obstacles in her path—more moments when maintaining this new identity became genuinely difficult or when one mistake had consequences she couldn’t easily escape.
Because those complications haven’t happened as often as I would like, parts of the plot have started to drag for me.
The romance and banter also lean heavily into the slow-burn side of things. I can absolutely see other readers loving that. If your favorite part of a fantasy novel is lingering romantic tension, sapphic yearning, witty conversations, and watching relationships develop gradually, the pacing may work much better for you.
For me, though, I need a little more external conflict mixed in with all that yearning.
I’m currently sitting at 3.7 stars, which feels like the perfect representation of my reading experience so far. I’m impressed by the writing and genuinely fascinated by the world. I like Del, I want to know more about what happened in her past, and I’m curious enough about her increasingly complicated relationships with Clara and Nasca that I definitely want to see where everything goes.
At the same time, I’m a little bored getting there.
That may change as the story progresses. There are certainly enough secrets, political complications, dangerous relationships, and terrible possibilities waiting in the wings for things to get very interesting very quickly.
For now, Mirrorwoven is a beautifully constructed YA fantasy with a protagonist I enjoy spending time with and some of the most naturally incorporated worldbuilding I’ve read recently. I just wish the plot would give Del a few more problems she couldn’t talk, charm, or quietly slip her way out of.
If you love sapphic YA fantasy, hidden identities, court politics, masquerades, slow-burn romance, clever banter, and immersive worldbuilding, Mirrorwoven may be exactly the kind of fantasy you’ve been looking for.
As for me? I’m still reading—and still waiting for Del’s carefully constructed house of cards to finally start falling.
About the book:
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: August 25, 2026
Genre: YA Fantasy
Representation: Sapphic, LGBT+
Content Warnings: Family trauma, death of siblings
Current Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½☆ — 3.7/5
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Synopsis:
You are cordially invited to the Dragon Masquerade …
Del has two rules. stay away from royalty. don’t fall in love.
The first – because Del is secretly a runaway princess. After the death of her sister at the hand of her boyfriend, Del flees her family, home and all the responsibilities that come with being the queendom’s new heir. With a magically constructed mirrorwoven face, Del is now unrecognisable, and disappears to the faraway opaline lagoon-city of Salato.
The second rule – because the enchantment hiding Del’s identity can only be unravelled by true love’s kiss. But that’s just fine. Del’s had enough of love anyway.
When Del breaks Rule One and becomes court bard to the newly widowed First of Salato, she is resolved to keep her head down. But Clara is naïve and trusts too easily, and soon Del finds herself having to guide Clara through the shoals of court life, somehow without revealing her own secret.
As Del grows closer to both Clara and Nasca, Clara’s brilliant, dangerous sister-in-law, it will only take a push to bring Del’s house of cards tumbling down.
Like, for example, breaking Rule Two
Meet the author:
Bori Cser is a Hungarian-Australian author of young adult fantasy. At various times she has identified as a classically trained clarinettist, a biology PhD dropout and a dinosaur puppeteer, but these days mostly describes herself as in need of a nap. She lives on Dharug and Gundungurra country in Australia’s Blue Mountains with her partner and three high-maintenance cats.