Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖 (I felt like a lot wasn’t explained yet)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (judged by kiss scene length)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): only kisses
Humor: just a bit – it’s mostly sarcasm
Perspective: First person from the heroine’s point of view

Should I read in order?
This is book 1 but yes, definitely yes. Don’t read book 2 before this one as it’s a direct continuation of this story and picks up at the cliffhanger at the end.

Basic plot:
Aerinne is the Lady of House Faronne and she’s been waging war against House Montague for over a decade. Her mother dead, she wants vengeance. But...the Prince is waking. An Old One hasn’t been within the Court in centuries. And all of it is connected.

Give this a try if you want:
- Slow burn – definitely a slow build of tension over the course of the book
- You’re okay with a cliffhanger (book 2 is out and the story picks up immediately)
- Low steam (in this one) – only kisses but they are developed and explicit
- Fantasy romance – Fae, humans, magic skills, avatar
- Plenty of fighting and action scenes, including death and torture

Ages:
- heroine 27, hero is like 10,000 + (I have no idea but heroine is ‘not even half a percent of his age’)

My thoughts:
I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I didn’t think I was going to, because the beginning was kind of confusing for me. But as I got into it, I really feel into the author’s writing style. I really, really loved the writing. This descriptive, angsty, slow burning, emotional prose is exactly, exactly what I love.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy – I’m pretty new to the genre. So I was a touch overwhelmed in the beginning with all these new things I was being introduced to but didn’t understand. I knew there were fae, but we also have avatars, skills, various houses with different cultures within them, a mix of high fae, low fae, humans, and Old Ones. There were references to modern things but I didn’t feel like the world was modern (I’m writing this after I have started book 2 and want to note there are definitely more details regarding these things as the story moves on). I did struggle a bit with the timeline. The book begins with a scene from about 3 weeks in the future, then goes back. I’m sure this is just me but it just made me more confused haha and I struggled with finding my grounding in this new world. I think I needed a bit more background on this world we were entering. Computers, therapists, New York is mentioned, but the lifestyle seemed very ‘historical’ feeling so I couldn’t quite get a concrete feel for what was going on here. (I have been rereading it through writing this review and it flows much better to me now and makes a lot more sense so I think it was just my personally struggling with grasping this)

Arienne I loved and got a touch annoyed by. She is so strong and I loved her confidence. I truly loved her when she was in battle – she was amazing to behold and I don’t even usually like battle scenes! She can make dumb decisions, but this is also reflected on. I do think some of her sarcasm and banter made her seem really young and immature (very ‘sassy teenager’ feeling) but other than that, I am amazed by her, intrigued, and rooting for her to conquer her demons. I’m hoping I’m going to fall for her even more in the later books in the series.

The Prince has already utterly ruined me. And we barely know him. He open his eyes and my heart beat faster. He spoke, and I began perspiring. And when you actually see him pursue, battle and banter, I was completely wrecked at his feet in love. (Also want to note that you start to get scenes from his perspective in book 2, which I don’t think happened in this book, though you still get to know him through Aerinne.)

Absolutely continuing with the series and I’ll probably reading this author’s back list as well.


A few other notes/highlighted parts:

I love this! I read a lot of HR and I feel like a man taking pride in his dancing is hardly ever featured and I ate that up!

He offered a hand once the brown of desert climes, paled by sunless centuries. “You will enjoy yourself in my arms. Warriors train to dance the way they train to kill.”

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Prince Renaud lowered his mouth to my ear, his voice a breath of sound. “Do not run from me.”
“And if I do?”
“Run, and I will give chase, my halfling.”
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There’s just going to be endless quotes about the prince, prepare yourselves.

“Nyawira.”
How did he know my middle name? The one only my father used?
He savored my names and suddenly the hand around my throat was not a cage but a cradle. A promise of benevolent ownership, of velvet covered chains and silk sheets, of lounging in his lap while he sat on his throne, and who was I not to sink to my knees in submission?

-----------------------------------------------------------

“Why would I wish to damage what is mine, Aerinne?” So gentle, that voice. So absent mercy.

-----------------------------------------------------------
A note from Renaud to Aerinne

We have only just met face-to-face, and the nature of our meeting was not one I would have chosen. Perhaps it is just as well. I would rather you understand completely the nature of the male you challenged.
I told you I did not wake to entertain children on a playground.
I woke, Aerinne, for you.
Fair warning. I mean for you to be mine.
You may fight me if you choose – I would relish it. In the end, submission is inevitable...but not only yours.
-Yours, Renaud
P.S. Sanity is the dream of my distant youth. I beg you, tread carefully. I do not wish to kill you.

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“To dance, not for you to fuck me standing up in public.”
“When I fuck you, Aerinne, you won’t be capable of standing.”

------------------------------------------------------------
YES SNIFF THE HAIR

His arms c aged me as he angled his head to study me as if I were an alien creature.
“Your scent reminds me of…” He lifted a curl from my shoulder, running the stands through his fingertips as if tasting me through touch, and even lifted the lock close to his face to inhale.

------------------------------------------------------------

“You kissed me,” I said, and accidentally bent the handle of my spoon. I set it down carefully.
Renaud stilled, then his velvet voice rubbed against my bare skin. “I did. I’ll kiss you many more times, Aerinne.”

------------------------------------------------------------

Renaud reached out and took my fingers, lifting them slowly to his lips, not even trying to be discreet. I snatched by hand away. He caught and pressed it against the table, under his own – as if it were our bodies, and his bed. I felt heat in my cheeks, and silently cursed by ability to blush, knowing my skin tone mostly hid the tell-tale color.
I could eat you, Aerinne.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

Renaud leaned toward me, his lips at my ear. “Cease eye-fucking my cousin, or I will take steps to demonstrate the consequences of such behavior.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

“By the gods, I highly doubt you’re that good in bed. You’re a Prince. No female would require you put in the effort.”
“A challenge,” he purred, tilting his head. “I can have you swearing I am your god in minutes.” The small table between us was no protection. “Only give me leave, Aerinne.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

After allowing me a moment of respite, he took my hand and brought me to the table, pulling out a chair. “Sit.”
“I don’t want - “
His eyes flashed. “Sit.”
I plopped down, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re so damned bossy.”
“I am going to enjoy fucking that defiance out of you.”

Content Warnings:

plenty of death on page
both characters slap each other in the face

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

52% - kiss
89% - kiss
93% - kisses