ooh i so wanted to like this but i just could not get into this book.

the premise is pretty promising and at first i liked it, but as we got deeper into the plot i started to lose connection with it. i'm not the biggest fan of the writing; maybe the non-arc writing was better but i felt like the writing was unpolished in a sense; the sentences were short and stilted and the flow of dialogue was choppy. the world-building was also confusing and at the end of the book i found myself puzzled by the different people and their roles and the world around them, such as the two queens and the inheritance. i really think this world had so much potential but it was left unexplored. i also felt like the romances were badly built up and underwhelming. the characters were kind of bland and i honestly wasn't that invested in them.the side characters in particular were hard to be interested in because they were just one-note. i'm not gonna lie tho the ending surprised me.

it was promising! i was hooked at first! i just think it didn't have enough focus on the background and the actual driving forces of the plot, and the robotic writing and underdeveloped characters and romance caused me to really lose my interest in this book. i give this 2.5 stars rounded up.

thank you to random house and netgalley for the arc. 

note: yeeran needs to stop thirsting over her ex like WE GET IT DAMN but also her and furi were so bland