A magical competition, deadly creatures, and a queer romance! Nigel Barrett has been training to enter into the Culling, a magical spell-casting competition that determines whether or not you will be stripped of your magic or be able to join the Guild. Nigel wants nothing more than to make his family proud, especially since his grandmother is a powerful member of the Guild and his own father failed and was stripped of his magic. Nigel wants to win and be accepted yet he never expects to be falling for a fellow competitor, Ori Olson, a broody rival. Ori and Nigel meet and they have sparks, yet their magical connection means something, but in a competition, can they truly trust one another? The competition itself is becoming deadlier as contestants try to sabotage and kill each other, it also doesn't help that they have to fight against deadly monsters known as The Depraved. Can Nigel figure out a way to win and to keep his heart from being broken by the mysterious rival? This is the first book in a series (definitely because of the way this one ends) but I found the book to be a bit eh, the story had a bit of a slow pacing and the only thing that really had going for it was that it had a fun queer romance. For a competition with such high stakes, I just didn't find myself that invested, which is so sad because it's suppose to be a deadly magical competition with a sweet cowboy and a broody magical rival romance too. Unfortunately I just don't think I'll be picking up the sequel and this one was a bit of a miss for me. If you like magical competitions with queer romances, give this a go though, maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did!

*Thanks Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide, Melissa de la Cruz Studio for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*