For self-published fantasy romance this was, alright! A little cheesy, trope-y and cringe-y at parts but I feel like that's just how it goes when you're reading self-pub romantasy!
This is like Bridgerton dating politics but make it sci-fi-fantasy 'modern' and add in witches, vampires & immortal beings (plus more plot, there's other things going on).
The romance is second chance - they were kinda together in high school and then had a falling out for *Reasons*. I think you could technically say it's science fiction? cause it doesn't take place on earth and there's mention of the Illuminated (the ruling class for all intents and purposes) coming to this world as part of the lore. Was a little silly to read a world where the vampires are the villains from just having a background of reading lots of pro-vampire books lol.

I did appreciate the conversations around mental health, inclusive body sizes, and there are several queer characters (MC is Bi!) & one of her sisters is on the ace/aro spectrum. Our MC Harlow has def had some horrible past relationships, and has a lot of Trauma to work through so that is a big part of her story and journey.

Audio critique - unfortunately the narrator continually mispronounced several words including triptych (which is repeated quite often because of plot reasons) which was a bit grating to me.


I do think I will see how book two goes...