I’m desperate for you. Desperate the way a starving man craves fruit. I’ve dreamt of this for years, and I want to taste every inch of your skin.

I could not put this down lmao
4.25 stars

Was it a masterpiece? Absolutely not. But it was addictive. We follow Nia as she’s swept into a Fey and Demi-Fey war in a sorta occupied France and her enemies-to-lovers romance, which you all know I’m here for. There was lots of emotion and angst, terror and nightmares. All things I like in books 💀

I’m always the one who picks up the pieces. I take care of things when everyone falls apart around me. I live in the shadows, trying to make things go smoothly. And who comes to help me in the night when I’m sick and can’t breathe? When I’m calling for help, and there’s no answer?

I liked Nia as a character. I always love when characters have chronic illnesses (Nia has asthma) because I can relate to them more - Nia was always thinking about how she wouldn’t be able to keep up fighting for a long time, i.e. wear out her opponent because she simply couldn’t with her asthma. But she made adjustments and I liked that.

“You don’t know the city, and you get sick if you exert yourself,” Aleina mutters. “Why did you think you’re the right person to help us?”
“Well… I didn’t see… anyone else… stepping up.” My head is spinning. I’ll have to take a break soon.”

Raphael was a strange character for me. I liked him as a MMC and as a partner to Nia, and I liked their rivalry. I liked his attitude, his protectiveness, and such, but I am toxic as fuck and want to hear more about the Dream Stalker LMAO just shoot me now. My love of morally black characters has ruined me. In dreams, death cannot save you.

At least, for the upcoming month, I will be out of danger. The only thing I have to do is master every spy skill that exists and memorize the entire Fey history.

Anyway, I really liked how Nia didn’t turn into this super warrior like some do after they get a few months of training, instead of training for years. Yeah, she was super powerful, but still kinda useless and clumsy, which was refreshing lol.

“Hang on, you were celebrating your birthday by yourself?” I glare at him. That’s right, I’m a giant loser on top of everything else.

There were a lot of super funny parts in this book that I appreciated but also so many cringe parts too. There was a ton of info-dumping, the world-building and plot were definitely shoved in your face in large chunks and I was kinda reeling after. I would also say it wasn't described that well, I am still a little confused, but that could have just been from the fact that it was all dumped on us in the first few pages inorganically.

Apparently, all it takes for me to forget about how much I hate him is for him to take his shirt off.

This also had a lot of interactions that made me, as I said above, cringe. The school setting was kinda secondary since we didn’t actually have much school going on, which I think should have been expanded on. Nia mostly started school and then finished with like 2 classes that we were told of. There were time gaps that we were supposed to just accept that things happened in them lmao. The mean family Pendragons were so over-the-top comic villains that I predicted everything before it happened, which wasn’t fun. It wasn’t clear about how they could keep trying to get rid of Nia when she had such coveted magic?? And why the humans hold so much sway over the demi-fey when the demi-fey are clearly more powerful??

Speaking of the Dream Stalker - 

what happened to him?? Is he going to be in the next book

or did I just get attached to the actual bad guy?

I clamp my hands on my hips. I am fucking terrible at relaxing, especially when someone tells me to relax.

Okay, anyway, that seemed really negative, but like I said, it was addictive and I couldn’t put it down and I’m really looking forward to reading book 2!

Thank you to the author for this finished copy accompanying an ARC of book 2!

“You look like you hate everyone around you,” he adds.
“Oh, that’s because I do.”

Same Nia, same.