this might be long?? i have a lot to say about this book.
firstly: i enjoyed about the first third of it a lot!! haven’t enjoyed YA fantasy (or fantasy in general) in a while, i liked Natasha as a main character,

Elodie as an antagonist

(Elodie is still my favorite character from this honestly), and the worldbuilding seemed really fascinating!!
unfortunately,,, it didn’t stick the landing on the rest of the story. poor Braxton. my mans got no personality and i dont even remember if we got a description of him besides “yeah he’s really really hot”.

also i despise the love triangle subplot of Natasha, Braxton, and Killian. i can tell it’s leading to something where she’ll have to choose. yknow Natasha…. you have two hands and those hands can be held by both of them

. also this book, towards the middle, had very sudden vaguely feminist themes that were… implemented really awkwardly? like on an extremely basic idealogical level i agree, but it hardcore went into territory of “lets degrade woman from history for doing silly things to impress men” like… do you not think women did do some fashion things because they just thought it looked nice? jeez. (also, there was an uncomfortable use of “female” in a sentence where “woman” would have honestly fit better. idk it just always makes my skin crawl a little bit when i see that).

there was also an extremely off-page queer relationship between Song and Anjou, who has been missing for a while at the time this book takes place. soon (and i mean quite soon. there is almost no dialogue from Song post-relationship reveal) after this is revealed, Song goes missing. im not saying that this is true “bury your gays”, but… it’s giving some uncomfortable tinges of that.

god i wanted this book to be so good. hopefully other people will enjoy it more than i. :)