I have received an eARC from the Author and this is my honest opinion.

This was a fun and quick read. There were things that I liked and some things that I liked less.

Let me tell you the good part first :)
What I love, love, love about this book is the platonic relationship between Eme and Ace. You could feel that they would move mountains for each other but then again, when needed, they would gladly let each other go in order to find their happiness. That was just amazing! I have to admit, not something that I have seen in a fantasy romance book (or in any book that I have read so far) and, again, I loooove that. This is a refreshing perspective of the heroine's story and is still highly debated whether a woman and a man can be just friends...we'll see :)
What is also interesting is how we get to the love interest, Emes' journey to him is pretty wavy and just when you think "yeah, here he is'' ... nope ... next :) so that part was very on edge :) but then again there is a lot more to happen in the next book, so....I don't know... maybe I`m still wrong guessing here :)

Also, the diversity and the inclusivity in the story are soooo heart-warming. Ace's character (his kind) uses sign language, which is such a strong moment in the book. The representation of the separate language and the acceptance of it as a part of the highly functional system was just - chefs kiss. Loved it.

Element based magic system and the "chosen one" part of the story reminds a lot of the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender intertwined with the fae world, so if you liked Avatar, you will like this one :)

Now, what I liked less...
I can't say that the story is the most original one, we even have the Fire fae as the enemies. Most of the tropes that are in the fantasy romance genre are checked. I don't mind a retelling or an inspired story (Avatar is one of my favorite shows), the thing that was missing was 50-100 pages more, so the story could have been a bit longer and with a bit more of character development. The story is fast-paced, mainly plot-driven, and interesting to read, but for me, because of the fast pace and the shortness, some of the characters lacked a bit more depth, and connecting to them was a bit of a challenge in some of the parts. I couldn't connect with them with a few short dialogues, especially where the love tension is set. Generally, the whole story is fast-paced and some of the scenes and the tropes felt rushed.

There is a prequel to this book and it would be useful reading it before this one, but still, you could do without it, you can catch up.

Now, this is just the start of the series and the cliffhanger set my expectations high for the next book which I will gladly read as soon as we see it published :)