I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This started as a 5-star read and to the 60% mark, I was enjoying it! Like really, really enjoying it. It dropped its star rating to 3.5 (rounded to 4) for the rushed plot at the end and 2 tropes that I don't like. That was not handled quite well, so it didn't bring its part to the story, it only made you cringe.
But that aside, this author is just starting, and for the first book, this was so worth reading and the next books in the series could be even better.


The writing is great, and it shows such good pacing at the start of the story, the sweet and heartwarming parts were gentle and smooth, and soon as we are transferred to the fast-paced scenes the writing goes sharp and firmly adapts to the atmosphere. I liked how the chapters ended, with a powerful statement for each one. The dialog is so fluent and easy to read, hearth worming and gets you closer to the characters, I loved it...A promising start! Unfortunately, the pace of the story in the other half of the book got rushed and it needed a bit of stretch to breathe, and to give time to relate with the characters and their troubles.
I love that the whole story was written from Wren's perspective, that is how the mystery is kept, and that made the story a lot more interesting.

The world-building is a bit underwhelmed, I needed a lot more about the magic system, about politics but I anticipate that this is something that we will learn more about with the next books in the series...

In the beginning, Wrens' character is standing by her grounds and doesn't fall into the arms of the mysterious villain in her story from the start. At some point, she excepts her new reality and it is written in such a good way, gradually, so it makes it believable and gives you time and opportunity to understand her pov and with that find logic in all of her decisions. Through the first part of the story she stays independent and strong, the other half we get to see the naive and childish Wren.
Malaki and his hidden emotions...only intelligent characters can play the game of surviving on the court and he plays it well, as Wren is about to find out as he captures her heart. He may not be the one that will court you but he will certainly be the one that will make your mind dizzy.
The beautiful writing embedded the connection between Wren and Malaki and it is as if you are reading a love story written by Jane Austen herself. At first, the plot develops slowly and I love that you have time to learn about every character and understand their motives, the author did an amazing job with this one in the first part of the book, then, the rush came in, and kinda ruined the character development and change its course. It had a different kind of energy as if for the last part of the story the writing time was short and the book needed to end. Some of the side characters were forgotten by the end and new ones were fastly introduced.

Sophie's character was too good to be true. I'm looking forward to knowing more about her character's past.
Richards's character was a bit weird. He started at one point but completely turned around with not much of a good reason for that.

The ending was a bit disappointing, it seems that Wren slept through all the action, It was all talk... We don't get to see the action and a lot of questions were left unanswered. It did end as a cliffhanger but in a way that opens a space for the new chapters of the next book, a new part of their story, and I'm looking forward to reading it!.