I think blurb sets it up for failure: “The Witcher meets N.K. Jemisin in a new series from NYT bestselling author Rachel Howzell Hall where a young woman awakens in a field with no memory & learns that the world is dying…” The Witcher I can almost see: the details, the monsters. BUT The Witcher also had nonlinear storytelling & iconic characters. &if you invoke Jemisin: I expect ethereal prose. We do not have those things.

Marketing aside, the beginning was quite slow, the second half DOES get interesting but I never felt invested in the romance, & it ends quite randomly… I don’t feel it was strong enough for that. I didn’t love the tone/word choices. Sometimes casual language works in fantasy, but when you have ageless magical beings with no setting in the modern mortal world calling people “nasty ass” or saying “this realm is a dump” it takes me out of the moment.