*Thanks to Kathy for providing me with the ebook copy! All opinions are my own*
Given the fact that I was very, very misled by the synopsis, I still ended up liking this book! When I read the blurb, I was very interested. A wicked prince???? I got immediate Cruel Prince vibes and I was like ENEMIES TO LOVERS ENEMIES TO LOVERS!!! But alas, no it was definitely not enemies to lovers. While reading this, I felt a lot of similarities to Red Queen, which made me a bit nervous at first because I ended up hating the Red Queen series and I really did not want a repeat performance.

I honestly can't really explain my feelings about this book. I was hooked near the beginning, but it definitely started to slow down towards the middle and it was a bit of a struggle to get motivation to keep reading, especially with three other library holds breathing down my neck. The last 20 percent was really entertaining though, and had a few twists I was shocked by. It's weird that I'm rating this three stars when I actually... didn't really care about any of the characters? Meadow was a fine narrator but I wasn't invested in her motivation for revenge and I was disappointed when the reveal about the truth about her mother's sickness happened. Since I was anticipating a royal enemies to lovers scenario, I was definitely let down by the actual romance. Plus, I'm not a fan of the "nice boy" romance anyway and Vogel annoyed me for most of the first half. I did end up really liking Kalliope and her relationship with Meadow, though! And the ending is great!

So I ended up being a bit disappointed with this, but I still think it's a nice setup for a cool fantasy trilogy. I have absolutely no idea where the next book is gonna pick up from or what's gonna happen, especially after that ending, but I am interested. If you're a fan of Red Queen, I think you'd enjoy this!