13+B

Such a good read!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all of its little fantasy elements mixed in with an original but yet familiar mythology and god based magic system.

We start with a prologue five years earlier that introduces us to Elver. Elver was sacrificed to a sea serpent (yes we have sea serpents and a Queen Serpent) when she was twelve but the Queen of the serpents filled her blood with poison. Flash forward five years and Elver has been living feral in the woods surrounded by fellow jih because her touch is poison to anyone.

We then get introduced to the Sleepless – people who have two souls inside them and when one goes to sleep the other wakes up. It is a very Jekyll and Hyde style situation but neither of the souls have any control over it. The Sleepless are kept inside a monastery guarded by archers because their secondary souls are a danger to society. Artair/Lucian was just perfect and honestly I need more double soul love interests in my fantasy reads because why not?

Artair gives us the good dutiful love interest and Lucian the dark wild one and they share a body so Elver isn’t quite sure when she is dealing with whom. All of the characters were so well developed (I loved the twisty god Tisk) and even the villain has fully developed reasons which by the end we can not only understand but kind of support (at least I did).

Characters – 4/5 – 1000/5 for Artair and Lucian, they just reflect each other so well and I love that we get both love interests.

World – 5/5 – The world never stumbled! We had so many different locations (a physical quest allows us to see lots of the land) and I love the wild woods and then the busy town and how we see it through Artair’s naivety and Elver’s cynicism.

Plot – 4/5 – It was rapid paced in the beginning and then slower as we understood the complex world and how the Twelve gods ruled over it. And the twist at the end!

Romance – 5/5 –  Soft Romance – love it! It was less of a focus than I was expecting but I am 100% hooked for the sequel.

Content Warnings: violence, mentions of child death.