3/27/22
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

Special thanks to Bloomsbury YA for an ARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

This book just drove home what I already knew. I would read Brigid Kemmerer’s grocery list and love it. This is one of my most anticipated books coming this spring—I mean, Brigid Kemmerer, return to Emberfall and Syhl Shallow, disability rep, AND MORE TYCHO???—and it exceeded all my expectations.
This book is tri-POV, following Jax and Callyn, best friends who live in a small Syhl Shallow town near the boarder to Emberfall, and Tycho, a fan favorite from the Cursebreakers series. As courtly politics and magic reach Cal and Jax’s town, they find themselves on opposing sides of a potential war, and have to face the fact that everything they’ve always known about magic and the King, may not be true.

I loved this book. I loved the plot, the story, and I already loved the world, but now I love it even more. I loved all the cameos from Jake, Harper, Grey, Rhen, Noah, and Lia Mara. I loved the disability representation in Jax, a below the knee amputee. I loved one of the romances. I already adored Tycho, and I loved seeing more of him. I loved Callyn and Jax and their personalities and characterizations and growth. I JUST LOVED THIS BOOK OKAY?

I will admit, Callyn’s storyline kind of made me want to scream at times, since, because I’ve read the Cursebreakers, I knew so much that she didn’t and I just wanted to shake some sense into her. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It was well written, made sense with her character, her past, the world, and all of that. I think it was well done and I don’t have any complaints with it, it was just SO FRUSTRATING. I think it was supposed to be.

I flew through this book. It’s like 560 pages, and I read the whole thing in under 24 hours. In two sittings. I stayed up late into the night, reading until I couldn’t keep my eyes open and had to put it down because I was so hooked. I honestly don’t know what it is about Brigid Kemmerer’s books that are so addicting to me. Her characters are just so alive, her worlds are so easy to fall into, and she is a master of keeping you on the edge of your seat.

All of that is to say: this is the best book I have read so far this year—and I’ve read 61 books so far. I have only one complaint, and that is the fact that I’ll have to wait over a year for book 2.

3/15/22
BRIGID FREAKING KEMMERER MAN
I LOVE HER I LOVE THE CURSEBREAKERS I LOVE DEFY THE NIGHT I LOVE THIS
actual rtc