In a world where mages are being hunted down for their magical abilities, one girl is about to discover hers, whether she wants to or not. Loira has spent her life hiding her magical abilities, particularly her glowing skin. She lives in fear of being discovered by the mage Darius, who uses other mages’ magic to grow his own power. Not only does he essentially rule the kingdom, but he has taken a particular interest in Loira. Instead of taking her after discovering her, Darius takes Loira’s little sister Mina to work for the palace, but essentially is holding her a hostage. To make matters more complicated Loira’s childhood best friend and crush, Evran, has been acting mysterious, disappearing for long stretches of time, avoiding her, and saying cryptic things. When Evran’s mother, a fellow witch who works under Darius, hires Loira as an apprentice, Loira will start to truly come into her power. Things end up taking a turn for the worst when Evran goes missing and Darius becomes a more frequent visitor in Loira’s life. Soon Loira must embark on a journey to stop Darius from destroying the entire kingdom and to finding the powers waiting to be unleashed within her. This story gave me strong Shadow and Bone vibes with the whole “one poor girl with magical abilities related to light and a villain/sort of love interest who is interested in her power and has abilities related to darkness/void, and a childhood best friend who sorta disappears and reappears but has his own thing going on”

Spoiler

it even ends in the same way sort of, Loira ends up with Evran and they go traveling together after defeating Darius and Darius isn’t technically dead just loses his powers

I enjoyed Darius as a villain, he was complicated and had a depth to him that was interesting to unravel. The romance between Loira and Evran was sort of what you expect from childhood best friends who are dealing with their own lives but are supportive of one another. I just didn’t really like how Evran constantly didn’t trust Loira and left her out of crucial plans, that even impacted her, and she constantly justified it and said “oh yeah he was right not to trust me, it’s fine” girl no. He is your best friend, he shouldn’t be ghosting you, leaving you hanging with your emotions, and show up and say cryptic things and then disappear again, and then keep you out of important decisions. I did however like Loira for the most part. She takes things in strides and was willing to make the big sacrifices for her loved ones. She could empathize and see things from Darius’s perspective while also holding onto her own ideals. Overall an okay fantasy romance read. If you liked Shadow and Bone I definitely think you’ll like this one.

*Thanks Netgalley and Inkyard Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*