If you're looking for a well-plotted, complex, fantasy with a hot romance at its centre I really must stress that this isn't it. Armentrout got 60% of the way through before thinking that there should actually be some plot.

I found the world really difficult to get my head around and partly it might be because there were no maps in the proof I read but my feeling is that it is because the worldbuilding and overarching plot was second to the romance. So, this is definitely more of a romance that happens to have elements of fantasy, rather than a good balance of romance and fantasy.

The writing was a quite repetitive, although Armentrout at least had the courtesy to find 100 different ways of saying 'I bit my lip' which compared to other writers I've read recently is definitely an improvement. It moves quite quickly, especially ramping up in the last section of the book, and I must say I was hooked by the mystery at the centre of Lis' character.

Some of Lis' characterisation struck me as a bit confused. In the blurb, she's described as a courtesan, but in the book it's clear courtesan carries the implication of sex work, whereas apparently 'paramour' doesn't. Though Lis states that sex work is fine, she also goes to great length to stress that isn't what she does. She's had sex before, and we're led to believe plenty, but when it comes to her and Thorne she's portrayed as nigh-on virginal. These are but two examples where I feel like Armentrout tried a lot to hedge her bets but it would have been better if she'd just come down on one side.

But you know what? For all my criticisms, this was an incredibly easy and addictive read that I enjoyed enough to finish, albeit with a lot of eyerolling.