"We are the darkest acts made light."

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city. Kate wants to be ruthless like her father, as real monsters roam the city and people pay him for protection. August wants to be human and protect the innocent. He is one of the monsters, one who can steal souls through music. When Kate returns to the city, August is sent to boarding school to keep an eye on her, but things get out of hand.

I actually enjoyed this YA fantasy. It was adventurous and dark as the monsters were hungry for blood. This book looked at morality and the lengths people would go to making the right decisions. 

There were different kinds of monsters - the Corsai, Malachai, and Sunai. August was a Sunai, one of three and considered to be a powerful weapon. His brother continuously reminded him to take pride in it and embrace the monster in him in order to help save the city and take back control. I really felt for August because he was so meek and lonely, the complete opposite of a monster. All he wanted was to be human and live a normal life. On the other hand, Kate was annoying, but I understood that her character needed to be hard headed in order to impress her father after having been sent away to different boarding schools over the years to keep her away from the mess of the city. Everyone around her viewed her as dangerous and she needed to keep up that image to survive.

The chapters go back and forth between Kate's and August's point of views which eventually came together. While at times childish, I liked the relationship that was formed between the two. From opposite sides of the battle, they needed each other in order to survive. Overall, an enjoyable book that I am completely content with and can't be bothered reading the other book in the duology 😅