I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I read Ross’s The Queen’s Rising back in 2018, and utterly adored it. I was so excited to finally get back to Ross’s writing after so long (I’ve bought every single release since The Queen’s Rising, but foolishly kept putting them off!). This seemed like the perfect book to finally get back to her writing, with the combination of knowing it was an author I’d loved a book from before and an extremely intriguing synopsis.

This book is honestly beautiful. It’s a story about love and war, with so many dark moments and heartbreaking realizations, but with a constant core of hope and light shining from within. It’s such a comforting book in a way, as it feels like a reminder that no matter how dark the world seems to be, and how much you may have lost, there’s also something to reach for and strive for, and there’s always love. It’s a book that reminds you to find the beauty in the heartbreak, without actually trying to dismiss the existence of that heartbreak, and shows characters learning to be happy even with their sorrow.

A story like this is always a tough burden to bear for a writer, as it’s something that can so easily fail if something in the story doesn’t work. The characters have to be strong enough to feel the whole spectrum of emotion, and have to be able to connect with the reader in order to pass on the emotions. The world has to somehow be dark enough to inspire great depths of sadness and pain, yet still have a string of light to follow back out of those depths. And on top of all that, the writing needs to be able to properly convey all of it, without losing any of the meaning in muddled sentences or too dense descriptions. Somehow, Ross has managed all of this all at once, and she managed to capture my entire soul in this book so quickly. From only a few pages in, I was feeling it. I was feeling the weight of Iris’s fear and her responsibilities, I could feel myself being crushed by the expectations that Roman was bowing to, and that was somehow only the beginning of everything. The book just kept becoming more and more and more, until suddenly my head was all full of Iris and Roman and Roman and Iris. It was just, wonderful, and I already miss being in this book so much.

I cannot recommend this book enough, for so many reasons, and I can’t wait for the world to finally experience what I did, and see why I loved this book as much as I did. (Though at the same time, I almost want to selfishly keep it to myself, a secret just for me).