Tag: romance

Ties of Starlight by Celeste Baxendell

13+

This was a quick fun read and I am glad I picked it up!

Honestly I admire the author so much for making her MMC relise in the first part of the book that he had been completely of the charts in his relationship with the FMC and he had made mistakes. The premise is a couple who are supposed to get married and perform ceremonies so that the magic of their eleven tribe is renewed for another period. However when the groom flees the morning of his wedding King Nyrunn decides to step in. WITHOUT TELLING HER. I wholeheartedly hated him at that moment but by the end I had relaxed a little in my hatred even through I still don’t like his actions.

The FMC was the really interesting point of this book – she had lived multiple lives and in all of these lives she had been chosen to perform the ceremony. She and the man who ran from the wedding had been constantly engaged and married over the years and he had repeatedly cheated or ignored her in their marriage. Obviously this treatment especially as she was murdered in her previous life as led to her being guarded and wary of anything that changes from the perfect ceremony which would allow her to end this cycle.

Romance – 3/5 – Soft Romance – I just cant get over his actions.

World – 3/5 – it is there in the background but we don’t get much details of it – but it also isn’t very relevant too. This is a fantasy romance so the focus is all on the ROMANCE not the fantasy world itself which is a background detail.

Characters – 3.5/5 – Nyrunn is a good character even if I don’t like him, the FMC was engaging enough to the plot and the supporting characters worked well however I didn’t have any characters that I loved but they did work for the plot.

Plot – 4/5 – intriguing plot, I liked the many lives thing and will probably look for it in more of my reads because it does add an extra level.

Age Recommendation: 13+, YA

Violence Rating: Level 3

Romance Rating: Soft

Content Warnings: cheating, murder.

Overall it was a 3 star read (which means good, i finished it easily and dont regret picking it up, i would recommend to specific people and maybe read the author again) and I think other people who want a more romance heavy book would enjoy it more than I did.

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Fearless by Lauren Roberts

14+B

Wow. This only came out yesterday and my copy was only delivered at eight but I raced through this one in only a few reading hours! Let me just start by saying that Powerless as a series has been one of my favourites that I found in 2024 and I have been slightly stalking on all the socials any teasers or snippets but oh my goodness was it so much better than I could have dreamed!

This book returns to the format of Powerless with three trials, however these are centered around Bravery, Brutality and Benevolence which are the three things that the last king thought a good ruler needed to be. Paedyn is engaged to Kitt as we know from the last few pages of Reckless and this time she is solo tackling these challenges which will prove to the court that she deserves to be queen – even if she is Ordinary. I really enjoyed how Paedyn doesn’t flinch away from saying that she wants power, she enjoys it she says that it is everything she wanted since she was a child. In a league of romantasy books where the FMC wants to be a ‘normal girl’ Paedyns character has stuck out to me from page 1 of Powerless. She welcomes any power that she survives to get and she will become so powerful that the powerless like her have no choice but to be welcomed back into Ilya.

Of course this is a romantasy so how could I not chat a little about the romance! Kai Azer won my heart from the first page but this book really showed just how their relationship was in someways inevitable, in some ways because of other people’s decisions but overall the tension and chemistry that pulls them together even when she is engaged to his brother. All my reviews are spoiler free so I wont continue but oh my goodness did they have to weather a lot of storms but by the end I honestly don’t think any other ending could have worked as well as the one Lauren Roberts wrote!

Let’s go to the star ratings!

World – 4/5 stars – it is solid and I really enjoyed seeing a little bit more of it in the second trial but it is a relatively normal fantasy world that I have seen portrayed a lot before so I can’t say that it is completely original and new but I can say that it fits the story perfectly and illustrates the divide between powerful and the ordinary!

Plot – 5/5 – Romance may be the plot but the plot isn’t all romance! We have so many twists and turns and reveals that I am going to have to go back through and reread the first ones with new eyes!

Characters – 4.5/5 – I love them so much, Kai and Kitt really show the differences that an upbringing can make and also the different damages of psychological abuse and physical on how people grow up to view the world. Paedyn as always is amazing and her POVs are always so distinct in contrast to the royals Kitt and Kai as well as (little tiny spoiler here Edrics pov) which shows the divide in the world viewpoint very well!

Romance – Suggestive/Fade to Black after little buildup – 5/5 – it’s a romantasy this is what we are here for! We had some really great romantic moments that I definitely need to quote over and over again in all of my reviews forever more but I just loved this one!

Age recommendation: YA, 13+

Romance Rating: Suggestive/Fade to Black after little buildup. This is not steamy making out at all, it feels very soft and honestly it almost borders on sweet.

Violence Rating: Level 4. While violence does happen its not as much as a lot of books I read and it never feels graphic or gorey.

Content Warnings: Betrayal, infidelity.

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This Rotting Heart by Celeste Baxendell

Thanks to Net Galley, Celeste Baxendell and Victory Editing for this ARC, as always every opinion expressed is my own.
 Pub Date: 1st of April, 2025
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age Category: 13+ but with cross appeal.

 

13+

This was a quick heartwarming fantasy romance that I enjoyed! I just finished Ties of Starlight this morning and started this straight after (yes I read it in under 12 hours) and I loved the little cameo of the main couple from that book!

This Rotting Heart is a Persephone and Hades reimagining – and you know that sometimes these can go very wrong for me on the toxicity of the relationship but this one didn’t! The main element of a Persephone x Hades retelling is that the fmc is kidnapped and made to marry the mmc which can be a lot for me to get over – but I did for this one!

That the personality traits of the two were switched, the fmc was the death obsessed one and the mmc was the Sun king was such a gorgeous little touch which is why I love reading this myth and fairytale reimagining’s.  

World – 3.5/5 – the world isn’t the focus, this is a fantasy romance so I don’t really mind that much. We had what we needed for the story, the world was believable and I didn’t mind not having a lot of worldbuilding because this is more romance than fantasy.

Romance – 4/5 – I struggled with the kidnapping thing, to be honest she was stealing something sacred to his land and from his perspective she had agreed to marry him so I do get that!

Plot – 4/5 – it resolved pleasingly with potential for another book – perhaps with Callahan as the lead?? – and I have no complaints!

Characters – 4/5 – they felt solid and fleshed out and true to themselves. I enjoyed Hellsbore – what a name! I love it that the name ties in with the Greek myth itself! – she was very interesting as a character because she didn’t react to anything. As someone who has read a lot of annoying FMCS who react to the wrong things, blow up over tiny things and ignore big things it was refreshing to read a FMC who was actually the calculating alchemist she was portrayed to be! It may not be healthy to be so restrained but it was certainly fun to read for a change!

Romance Rating: Soft – a few kisses, closed mouth, no detail.

Violence Rating: Level 2 – minor injuries with small non graphic descriptions. Short combat scenes and limited threat.

Content Warnings: betrayal, kidnapping.

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Reckless by Lauren Roberts

13+

This was the March Damsel book club pick and I NEED fearless immediately! Powerless was one of my favourite reads of 2024 – I read it twice and bought a paperback copy – so Reckless had a lot of pressure going in and it held up!

Paedyn is running from the king she killed, and the princes she betrayed across the desert and Kai is forced to follow her at the orders of his brother, now king Kitt. The romance, the chemistry and the emotion between the two of them is undeniable – much as they try to pretend – and they may be enemies but can they truly forget having been lovers?

In the desert city of Dor, far away from the Elite kingdom and without any powers for Kai to wield he is just as Ordinary as Paedyn which levels the playing field. Paedyn does nothing better than survive, but Kai always achieves his missions even when they emotionally destroy him. From illegal fighting rings to a shady gambling brothel to sewers and cells we are taken on a gorgeously vivid romantasy adventure that I could have devoured over and over.

I also love how ‘pretend’ is repeated over and over especially in Kai’s POV chapters. He knows he isn’t pretending, he knows that everytime he kisses Paedyn he loves her more but ‘pretend’ is the shield they both hide behind as they know that both of them have hurt each other – and this book could end up with one of them dead.

I see a lot of people not liking Kitt but I totally get his perspective. He was betrayed by a girl he risked the security of his kingdom and personal safety for, he lost his father, his stepmother is dying and he knows that his brother might pick the girl over him. Of course he is out for revenge – but that ending!

Here are a few of my favourite quotes from the characters before we launch into the star ratings! Don’t worry, none of these are spoilers because they are out of context and I have removed any spoiling titbits!

Kai had some of the most gorgeously poetic dialogue throughout and these I couldn’t not include!

“Out here I am Kai and nothing more.” His throat bobs. “Out here I am powerless. A monster without an ability to hide behind. An Enforcer free from his masks. A man shouting his love for a women.” – Kai Azer

“Because the Beast doesn’t get the Beauty” – Kai Azer

“Oh, but you are my undoing. My deliverance. My downfall disguised as a deity. You are my ruin.” – Kai Azer

“Call us even. Call me crazy, I don’t care. Just…Just call me yours.” – Kai Azer

“I may be a monster, but if you cut me, I’ll bleed. And if you break my heart, Pae, you’ll break me. So, if even a sliver of your soul longs for mine, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to deserve it.” – Kai Azer

A few more quotes!

“A ballad of betrayal, a sonnet of sorrow. I’m tired of writing from the villain’s perspective.” – Kitt Azer

“At my weakest, I wish for him. And at my strongest, I wish I could say it wasn’t the same.” – Paedyn Gray

This book had the swooniest quotes ever! But on to the star ratings!

Romance – 100000/5 – Suggestive Romance – I love Kai and Pae so so much. That’s all. but I also like Kitt. And I cant decide.

World – 5/5 – its real, its present but the world is never the focus, it is always the romance so I cant say much more about it other than it feels so real!

Plot – 100000/5 – WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?? No spoilers just read it and then come talk to me – I need people to rant over that ending with!

Characters – 5/5 – I love them all, or I love to hate them. Just perfection.

Romance Rating: Suggestive – more physical making out, mostly clothed, discussions of sex, can have some innuendo. This is still VERY clean and YA appropriate.

Violence Rating: Level 3

Content Warnings: they do go to a brothel at one point, but it (or the women) aren’t described in detail. Threat of drowning. Child death.  

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Assassin of Fire and Sacrifice by Mary Mecham

13+ (if you wanted you could read this one around 12, while i think a little older will probably enjoy it more, it has no content I wouldnt be comfortable giving to a tween.)

I love this book so much! I have already read it twice in the last year because it has all of the famous tropes like just one bed and arranged marriage but without any of the spice or even a hint of it leaning that way which I love.

Azora and Tarquin’s banter was amazing –  I love that she didn’t hold back or pretend to be someone else for her mission! It makes the romance so much more realistic because Tarquin was falling for her not a persona. Also – the training scenes *swoon*!

Its fantasy romance but we also got a good dose of the fantasy side of it – the world, wars, strange customs and Phoenix shifters! I cant believe I haven’t mentioned the shifter part of it yet – we have this rich culture centred around fire and heat (even including spicy food!) because they are fire birds and the world just radiated of the page!

The ending – no spoilers! – was something I don’t think I have seen done before but I loved it so much! The plot twists and the romance and the gorgeous world make this a no-brainer 5 star!

World – 5/5 – yes! I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Plot – 5/5 – the twists, the turns! The everything! The romance and then the war and just everything between! I always struggle to talk about plot without spoilers so let me just say read it – you’ll be sucked into the whirlwind within a chapter!

Romance – 5/5 – honestly heart wrenching – I think my heart attually skipped around some of those twists but true to fantasy romance form I was 100% behind the couple the whole time!

Characters – 4/5 – I really did enjoy the characters, they aren’t usual for fantasy, an assassin and a prince but the reveal about the government and the way the kingdom is ruled was really interesting and I neeed more details (I think that is world tho and I’ve already gushed up there about that!). Tarquin I loved, Aloza was just the perfect FMC and the little cute fire baby godson of Tarquins stole my heart from the first page!

Romance Rating: Soft – perhaps a closed mouth kiss or two, no detail.

Violence Rating: Level 3 – Medium threat and danger. Medium combat scenes with injuries described non graphically. Death and violence are present and regularly part of the storyline and plot.

Content Warnings: death (past and present), betrayal (medium).

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The Lies of Vampires and Slayers by KM Shea

13+

Oh I love this trilogy so much! KM Shea has written so many amazing couples but honestly this might be my favourite out of all 5 star Magiford trilogies!

The main character Jade has left her slayer family to work on the first of the magiford paranormal police teams and I loved her from page one! With social anxiety and insane weaponry skills that put her far above the other paras on her team she has no idea how to interact with other paranormals. She came to the city to try to show that slayers can be more to modern society than assassins and feared paranormals – but how can she do that when her own team are afraid of her?

And then we have Connor – possibly the swooniest mmc I have ever read and honestly my favourite vampire of all time. I cannot say more for spoilers because I have read this trilogy so many times all the details have run into each other but let me say – read it!

We also get so many cameos from the other Magiford trilogies – especially Killians and Hazel so that was fun to read!

World – 5/5 – love so much! We have this paranormal city in northern America that has become the hotspot of politics and we have so many different characters and different supernaturals and other little bits and pieces!

Characters – 10000000/5 – I love them! all of considines siblings, the whole team, Jade and Connor especially and everyone else! They all live in my head constantly and everything about them is so real I feel like I could take a plane to America and Jade would be patrolling the streets!

Plot – 1000000000/5 – everytime I pick up this book I read it in less than one day, I just inhale it and then its gone (until I pick it up again a few months later and yes I know that the Magiford world has become an obsession but I cant help it!).

Romance – 10000/5 – Soft Romance –  ahhhhhh! I love them so much!! We have enemies to lovers AND friends to lovers AND alternate egos AND nicknames AND everything I love *swoon*.

Content Warnings: some violence, minor grief.

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Wings of Ash and Dust by Brittany Wang

13+

This was a solid read that I enjoyed!

We have different clans of fae, trials for a throne, a little no-spice romance and a heroine who refuses to acknowledge the existence of her magic and I was hooked!

We are first introduced to Quinn – the daughter of the general of her clan the Gywillion and she has just been overlooked for a place on the guard. Her anger at the injustice burns throughout the book and her bitterness leads her to making the decision to leave her clan and become a pirate. In the second book I am really interested to see if she reflects on that decision and any regret surrounding it!

 It is always so interesting to have a heroine who is unaware of the parallels between her and someone she hates but is clear to the reader! It adds that bit of depth that just having some similarities with the villain doesn’t, it makes it so you can have the heroine shine a lantern on some of her more dislikable qualities as a character and I just loved it! Quinn hates her father for overlooking her and ignoring her promise to focus on her twin brother Gaius – but she does the same in the beginning which leads to the betrayal a few chapters in! Quinn is in no way a Mary Sue – she has human emotions and her character makes the decisions the best she can in a world where she threw away the limited privilege she was given four years ago and now is competing against royals who have their clans completely behind them.

And one of my favourite points is when she mentions that she uses the same training techniques she thought were overly harsh when her father used them but says that they ‘work’. We have a main character who is running from her clan and especially her father but also who’s views and way of life are extremely close to how she has been raised. We get this gorgeous juxtaposition and then she is launched into the world of the other clans!

From warrior princess to pirate to prisoner princess and the trials for the throne Quinn takes us through this gorgeously intricate world and I just loved it!

Characters – 5/5 stars! I have talked about this a lot in the main body of my review but I did really enjoy the characters so let me reiterate – from the Queen whom we get a tiny glimpse into the life of a royal who’s only claim to the throne was because of the men she married to Delphine and Arista to the other competitors – the side characters in this were a true work of art and I love them so much!

World – 4/5 stars – I don’t think I have ever read a world that contained fae that weren’t heavily connected to folklore fae – changelings and deals and trickery – but we can still see glimmers of here and there like in the Nymph silver tongue.

Plot – 4/5 – the plot pace did slow in the middle but I felt like that did work! However the ending’s pace I wasn’t quite sure of – the characters got a lot of new information and then the plot picked up and exploded into the final fight! It is still a solid plot but for me I prefer it when the plot stays relatively the same pace throughout!

Romance – 3/5 – Soft Romance – the romance is a subplot in this book, not the focus. It is budding throughout but the real focus is on the gorgeous surroundings and the deadly trials. We get the most gorgeous scene in the boat with the quote that made me read it but then the romance seems to fade out of the plot. I still enjoyed the romance – especially as I knew from the marketing there was no risk of it turning explicit! – and I am interested to see where it goes and will definitely read the second.

Content Warnings: drug reliance/abuse – this is a fantasy drug but it does have medium presence on the page while the main character never takes it!

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A Guide to Violence Ratings

Here are my violence ratings for damsel! I am going to start adding these in to all of my reviews so you can make sure you know the overall violence level of the book. Some books have SA discussed and very violent things alluded to but not on page so always check the Content Warnings. 1+2 are suitable for most readers, 3 is the bottom of YA fantasy content, 4 is probably the most common area that I rate within and 5+6 are the ones that contain graphic descriptions, blood, torture, PTSD, racism etc. Violence is hard to gauge specifically because it is all relative and descriptions while useful dont help as much as examples! It is always useful to have a gauge of what kind of books fall into each category so click here 1 to skip down at see what I gauge popular books you might have read/heard of to be.

Level 1

this is very minor violence, perhaps a punch but ultimately suitable for most YA readers.

Level 2

minor injuries/fights with small non graphic descriptions.

Short combat scenes and limited threat

Level 3

Medium threat and danger.

Medium combat scenes with injuries described non graphically.

Death and violence are present and regularly part of the storyline and plot.

May have minor Drug/Alcohol Abuse

Level 4

Violence occurs regularly as does death and injuries.

SA references will mostly be in the past and non graphic if present.

Drug/Alcohol abuse may be graphic

Level 5

Violence is frequent with long combat scenes that contain deaths of both good, bad and morally gray characters.

Some sexual violence/harassment may be present on page and in the past but rare and short.

Blood and injuries may be described graphically.

Drugs/Alcohol abuse may be present

Level 6

graphic descriptions of injury, violence and blood.

may have sexual violence or harassment.

SA may occur – in the past or on the page so check the content warnings

Frequent death and suffering including torture should be expected.

Drugs/Alcohol abuse may be present

Level 1 – These are going to be romances mainly. Very few fantasy books fall into this category that I review and so I cant think of any examples other than Meet Me at Midnight which releases 10th of April 2025.

Level 2 –

Keeper of the Lost Cities – we are firmly middlegrade here, we have short fight scenes with no graphic description (but later on in the series it might brush up to a 3).

Howls Moving Castle – I would say this is suitable for 10+ as long as you are okay with a little threat – most of Diana Wynne Jones’s books are pretty safe in general, a few do drift darker than others but I have read her entire works and I would say this is where most of them sit if you are looking to read her!

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone sits here there is threat but not all throughout.

Level 3 –

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban as well as the Goblet of Fire sit here and the Order of the Phoenix.  

Level 4 –

Powerless by Lauren Roberts, it does center around trials and there are fight scenes – some are sparring and some serious – but overall the book is more romantic than murderous.

A Good Girls Guide to Murder and Good Girl Bad Blood both fall into this category. They are pretty dark in places but we are looking back especially in the first so the SA, rape and drugs aren’t primarily to the main characters.

Level 5 –

Hunger Games Trilogy, we have gory battle scenes, brutal murder and corruption etc.

Red Queen – the first book might just scrape down into level 4 but we have war, torture, captivity and a lot of manipulation and threat. I read it about 13 and loved it to bits (still do!) but it is pretty violent especially later on.  

Throne of Glass – just the first book here! – we have trials and on page violence and general darkness to the whole series.

Level 6 –

As Good as Dead, very violent, she is being hunted by a serial killer and threat is very high.

Nightweaver – the first two thirds have about a level 5 of violence but it ramps up in the last third to have graphic blood and murder as well as possession by demons.

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Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

13+B

This book is one I have wanted to read since Red Queen (honestly changed my brain chemistry and my shelves forever!) and so in true bookish fashion it has sat on my TBR for just long enough for me to get really worried I wasn’t going to enjoy it – but I did!

It was the Damsel book club read for February and so it will feature more details than usual mainly because I cant stop typing!

This is a gorgeous huge world that follows a large cast full of different characters on a physical quest and I honestly felt like any of them could have been the mc and from a single POV and I would still have 100% been there for that!

I love that the leading men had a conversation about grief and loss that was frank and open – we need more vulnerability and exploration of this in books – and not to a love interest. So many books have the love interest equal the therapist and it was so nice it separated from that!

There are a lot of different POVs and they are all in third person so I am not entirely convinced there needed to be that many especially when most of the companions were travelling together but I adapted to the format by the end of the book and cant wait to pick up the next two (I downloaded them instantly they are on Kindle Unlimited but I may need shelf trophies too!). This is a slower pace than Red Queen and focuses on a classic fantasy quest with several enjoyable twists and a romantic hint of a subplot instead of a high action dystopian revolution romance which wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I did enjoy it!

A little more on the characters (some not all and I could rant forever about these characters but here are five of them!) because they are the real driving force behind this book despite the solid plot!

Corayne an-Amarat is a pirates daughter who has never been to sea. That perspective of being the daughter of Hell Mel, of facilitating hundreds of illicit trades and doing everything she can to support a ship and crew that she will never be a part of was honestly heartbreaking. I need more of her – yes she is closer to the usual protagonist than the others but that is for a reason!

“Your blood is born of spindles, of distant realms and lost stars. You want the horizon, Coryane of Old Cor. You want it in your bones.”

Andry is the first character we meet in the prologue and as the usual main focus of the book (a young male squire trying to protect his mother and save the world) I was worried it would overfocus on him but it was nicely balanced! He was just adorable and had some of my favourite quotes!

“He doesn’t belong here with us, as much as he tries to. The end of the world is no place for Andry Trelland. He doesn’t deserve it.”

Dom is immortal a prince and wrestling with a loss and grief that his culture has no experience of. As the companion of Corayne’s father who dies in the prologue throughout he is absorbed with the idea of honouring him as well as comparisons with Corayne. I really enjoyed how Victoria Aveyard wrote it that he changed from seeing Corteal in her to seeing herself.

“Sorrow touches us all, Lord Domacridhan, whether we believe in it or not. It doesn’t matter what you call the things ripping you apart. It will still devour you if given the chance.”

Sorasa – the assassin mc I always love! She feels a little like Celaena Sardothian only more muted from her experiences! Throughout she is the character who knows what they are doing. the one who makes calculated decisions because this quest isn’t as close to her emotionally as the others. With her connections and her insane combat skills I would read a whole book of just her!

“The Amhara has great need for those who can pass unseen, and who is more unseen to men than a woman?”

Erida of Galland – I love her. I just love the character the complexity and the sheer frank honesty of her character which is hidden behind a calculating mask. I need more details of her I need a book from her perspective because she would usually be cast as the villain or the obstinate unprepared child queen but instead Victoria Aveyard makes her into the most stunningly complex character despite only a few chapters featuring her!

“History gorges itself on women raised high and then brought low by men grasping for power. I will not be one of them. I will not lose what my father gave me. I will make it greater”

VA has delved into a completely different genre here – this is epic fantasy, this is quests, this feels like classic fantasy I fell in love with in the beginning of my readers journey. If you compare it to Red Queen then it just cant because they are completely different genres.

This review is becoming overly large so let me continue to the star ratings and wrap this up!

World – 5/5 – As a fantasy reader who hates underdeveloped worlds – what do you mean you only have one location and no description?? – then VA hit me with the perfect world. it feels tangible and like I could chart it on a map!

Plot – 3/5 – I struggled with the plot a little. It starts of rapidly with action and adventure and then dips a little in the middle focusing on the characters before it picks up again when they visit Adira and from then on I read it in one sitting!

Characters – 4/5 – its tricky with such a huge cast to get a real feel for the characters as we are rapidly introduced to them in short succession however I do feel like I can differentiate between them and they are all very different. Let me just say that Sigil and Charlie’s relationship and introductions were just perfect and I love them so much!

Romance – NA – some crushes and flirting but the focus is on the quest not the romance.

Content Warnings: Nothing you wouldn’t expect in a high fantasy world – violence, death but nothing outside of the violence rating given! There is a scene where the current POV speaker expects to sleep with someone out of duty but it doesnt happen.

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Academy of Villains by Ever King

Thanks to Net Galley and Ever King for this ARC! All thoughts and views expressed are my own!

13+B

I had high hopes going into this book I love Greek myths and assassin mcs which can sometimes make it harder for a book to impress me but

I loved this one!

We have a dark academia world full of little Greek myth details interwoven into a background of power and secret societies and I was captivated.

A dual POV of Kiera and Lucian sweeps us into a world that is similarly split between mundanes and mages, rich and poor, oblivious and oppressed. Kiera’s detailed focus on the mission at the beginning soon expands into wonder as we see through her eyes the magic but also corruption of the world! I really really enjoyed Lucian’s interactions with the Raven Society – often the mcs are alone fighting a war they are unsupported in but Lucian has the support from his peers allowing him and Kiera to split of taking one part of the quest.

The celestial magic of Kiera was honestly my favourite part of the book. I love love love the backstory of how the witches were persecuted and how that magic that some mages wielded in a slightly altered form was also persecuted and in the end it was almost completely wiped out and with it Heartstrings. The idea of fated lovers/fated mates can be a really hard thing to integrate with a relationship because it takes away the choice but Ever King neatly avoided this by showing the Heartstring was potential not binding and it grew as they trusted each other more! I could keep gushing forever but I need to move onto the star ratings!

World – 4/5 – when it was marketed as throne of glass x harry potter with Greek myths I was expecting it to be a darker gritty retelling of the love story but instead the world completely surprised me with the freshness. There are little Greek myth elements but the world has also drawn inspiration from dark academia, witch/mage grimoires and the idea of a society where the upper class have no idea that the lower class is suffering. Any YA book which is set at a school seems to be compared to Harry Potter and I can see why but I would definitely say that in my opinion it leans more into the romantasy academia than that series or Throne of Glass.

Romance – Smokey Romance/Fade to Black – 4/5 stars – I often have to be convinced of enemies-to-lovers. It is a much loved trope and I get it and love it when done well (I think all of my greatest loved books which have this trope are closer to the rivals-> lovers, ignorance of different experiences-> love or forbidden love which is actually very close to this books romance!) At first I found Lucian enigmatic and it was difficult to get a feel for how he interacted with Kiera and what I thought of that!  Obviously she tried to kill him so that does put strain on the relationship at the beginning but I was convinced by the end that he was without a doubt a book boyfriend to add to the long list!  

Characters – 4/5 – I liked the characters a lot, we had the assassin mc (a favourite of mine), a royal love interest (another favourite of mine) but where this really stood out was that Lucian was supported by other peers that didn’t just exist to reflect his power back at him. Lucian was never presented as the most intelligent of the group or the clear overlord or the most powerful despite being the leader and I really enjoyed all of their interactions!

Plot – 3/5 – The plot seemed to become the romance by the end (I know it’s a romantasy) and we do get the final fight scene and the quest but I feel like there are a lot of loose threads that I cant wait to see be picked up in the next book like the orbs and Edmund shifting in his seat at the mention of heartstrings???

Content Warnings: Self Harm (on page, brief, no detail), Panic Attack, (on page, brief), death of parent.

I feel like I have barely stepped into this rich world and I cannot wait for the next book in the series!

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