I’m not really sure how I got this impression, but I fully expected A Fae in Finance by Juliet Brooks to be mosterotica when I requested this from Netgalley. I would have been fine with that eventuality — I don’t request books I think I won’t like — but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a workplace comedy, of sorts, with some pointed criticism of corporate bro culture. Finance drone Miri gets stuck in Faerie leading the equivalent of corporate seminars for the denizens of fairyland, which is about as ridiculous as it sounds. Explaining formulaic, insincere greetings — “how are you?” “fine” — to a group of people who can’t lie becomes a farce pretty rapidly.
It’s more than probable that this triggered my monsterotica radar because a lot of the set-up seems like something from Kate Prior’s Claws & Cubicles series. Those books are def on the fuckier side of things, but also are some of the most accurate depictions of the nastiness of corporate culture. It is notable me that I keep finding these really funny but pointed critiques of workplace culture and capitalism in romance novels and/or light fantasy. Maybe it works because the Fae are strictly rule-bound and hierarchical, which isn’t so far off from the org chart. Maybe it’s because you can be really subversive if you wrap your sendup in comedy.
Miri started out in either an NGO or a government program that aimed to integrate the Fae in to American culture. (The Fae made themselves known to the world in the past some-odd years.) But she thought — adorably, naively — that integrating the Fae would be easier through capitalist bullshit. Which results in her working for some kind of VC or whatever, that’s really not the point. The point is she’s part of a team in some corporate hellscape with Patrick Bateman — here called Jeff — as her boss. Miri is trapped in Faerie when both her boss and the king of the Fae pull some shenanigans. She’s eventually joined by her cat, Doctor Kitten. Bateman/Jeff is like, as long as you have wi-fi, it’s fine with me you’re trapped in Fairie. Her feelings, of course, are immaterial. Her parents are considerably less chill about the whole thing.
But don’t let my mouth-frothing about corporate culture make you think that A Fae in Finance is a drag. There’s a lot of comedy to be had in the opening acts, such as the antics of the Fae who befriend Miri and make her time in Fairie bearable. One of Miri’s friends is a cat-fairy of some kind, and she and Doctor Kitten become fast friends. (Her translation services for Doctor Kitten are pretty great.) Another keeps trying to make a transdimensional hallway for Doctor Kitten to run around in, but keeps messing up and connecting to bogs or hell dimensions.
Even though there’s a lot of slapstick and hijinks, Miri is still trapped in Fairyland, cut off from her family and friends, and as far as she knows, that is permanent. Brooks doesn’t gloss over how difficult that would be emotionally. Speaking of comedies addressing very serious topics with sensitivity: this is the second rom/com I’ve read in the last six months wherein the main character slides into a fairly severe depressive episode, and believably enough that I had to white-knuckle through some of it. (The other book was At First Spite by Olivia Dade.) This is not a criticism at all; I welcome writers addressing mental health. I’m a big girl and can read the content warnings, and I can always stop reading if it’s too much for me.
So I went into A Fae in Finance expecting one thing, and I came out with another, and that was very much a happy mistake on my part. As I think about it, Brooks has done something very unusual here: I have read a lot of urban fantasy in which the Fae or other supernatural creatures have been living alongside us — or in a pocket universe that intersects with ours in key places — who then become known to the general public. There are sometimes allusions to government agencies set up to deal with the supernatural, but they’re almost always a plot impediment or a source of jack-booted G-men. Vanishingly few writers actually depict the bureaucratic systems that would inevitably develop to mediate between the two groups. I think that’s very cool, but I’ve always had a shine for a fictional bureaucracy. A Fae in Finance wraps up neatly, without a lot of trailing threads to off-ramp to a sequel, but I would happily read another book set in this world.
I received my copy from Netgalley. A Fae in Finance is out October 21, 2025.