3.5 - 4 Stars - I recommend if you are looking for something that's not your typical vampire story, and you can handle some really dark, torture-y scenes. It's not overly graphic, and it's still YA, but that doesn't make it easy to read. Don't be fooled, it's not 50 shades meets Twilight, it's not code for anything kinky, it's actual torture.

This book follows Roseline, a young woman who on her wedding day is killed, tuned immortal, witnesses the death of everyone at her wedding, her town burning, and is then taken to live with her cruel new husband... who did all the destroying. Much of this book focuses on her absolute downfall into her husband's debaucherous society and whims. (It reminded me of GOT a bit, it's just really harsh and cruel, and no one seems to think twice about it.) For about 2/3 the book, you read as Roseline loses all hope of escaping or actually living a life. It's a bit tough to read... The last 1/3 of the book, Roseline finds some purpose, and the book gets significantly more interesting from there.

Overall, this book was kind of a wild ride. I got this from Netgalley and didn't realize that this was actually about vampires before I started it. It's not a typical YA vampire plot. She's repulsed by them, she doesn't want to be one of them, she is a prisoner - but it's not a Stockholm Syndrome type situation. It's obviously very dark and gruesome.... on the one hand, if the "desolation" part had lasted much longer than it did... I don't think I could have kept reading. On the other hand, Miles REALLY hits home, just how bad her situation is, and sets up a LOT of motivation for Roseline's future actions, personality, etc. I read this all in one day... so it was obviously pretty gripping. I would definitely be interested in reading future books in this series (it will be a trilogy)... because I really want to see where she goes after all of that insane pain she was put through. I think it probably makes more and more sense, the more of her story you read. The main reason the rating is not higher, is just that it's tough to read something quite so dark. - last note: this book is part of a prequel trilogy, so you can read about Roseline in the present in Miles' other series, AROTAS.

I was given advance access to by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. These reviews are my own opinion, and based on the edition of the book I was given at the time. Thank you Netgalley!