I jumped into this story and quickly loved the writing and atmosphere that Summers creates. Honestly, I saw the cover and wanted to read it. I went into this book completely blind and I’m so glad I did.

As I mentioned above, the prose were great and easy to read. Summer’s creates a world that’s really unique and keeps you wanting more. I found myself turning pages quickly, and it was faster paced than I’m used to for a fantasy. Although, some of the pacing towards the end was a bit off. It felt really rushed in places and too slow in others. The overall world-building was lacking in places. There’s so many things that I didn’t understand and just went with it. Now, the original romance and what this book stems from, is one I’m interested in. It was powerful, and I would love a prequel of that story.

One of the issues I had with this story was the relationship between Violet and Aleksander. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a romance or just friends with benefits. It felt like the latter but it could be that it was so underdeveloped. I got so many friendship vibes that I couldn’t really get into the romance.

Now onto Violet. I really enjoyed her character most of the book. She was not afraid to do what needed to get done. She’s quite frankly the opposite of her mother! I get that she was upset with her uncles, but I don’t think the ways she acted towards them throughout the book was just. It came off a little bratty and immature. Penelope was a character that I was really perplexed by. I’m unsure if it’s just the lack of character development, but I didn’t quite understand her reasonings.

Overall, I did like this book. It was a fast read, and I loved that it was a standalone. I didn’t think the romance was there, and I did like the overall story. I hope she has a spin-off story about the original love story! I think the ending wrapped up perfectly!

Many thanks to Orbit and Redhook for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.