Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Tor Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an audio galley of this title to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I was sent a copy of the first book in this series through the mail. I was very unsure wether I would enjoy it. Then the audio popped up for review so I decided to do a read along with the ARC I was sent and I'm so glad I did. I wasn't sure what to expect but I didn't expect to fall in love with the world Dimova built; a world full of monsters, witches, and things that go bump in the night. When I saw the second book was coming to print, I jumped at the chance to grab the audio to listen to for review and I'm glad I did.
If you didn't read the first book in this duet, I highly recommend you do. You will not understand the relationships in this book, or the world, since the book picks up about 6 months after the ending of the previous book. And, while the previous book did not truly end on a cliffhanger, all that happened in that book is very important to the folklore in this one.
I'll start with the narrators of this story. The female main character is narrated by Zura Johnson. I did enjoy her voice for the previous book, so it was nice to have that consistency with narrators. But unlike the first book, this book also had a male narrator for the male main character: Tim Campbell. I was so happy to see Asen get his own POV. While I really liked him in the first book, this book elevated him to another level because he had his own voice. I have not listened to anything narrated by Campbell before and I found that I really did love his voice for this book. They were able to do the Slavic accents well and each character was distinct and easy to pick out.
Dimova took this book to the next level of monsters and watching the main character, Kosara, fight against the evil that threatens her home. Kosara is a strong character who has built walls around herself, too afraid to truly let anyone in or let anyone help her for fear of becoming attached and losing them. In this book, we see those walls crumble a bit and watch her begin to understand her found family truly wants to help her and be there for her.
I will say you really saw Dimova come in to her story with this book. It's much smoother than the first book; much more put together. And she continues with the Slavic folklore and introduces more monsters than in the first book. One of my favorite parts of this book was the very end when you can truly learn about all the monsters in the compendium the witches have compiled. And this book read faster than the first for me. The action was ramped up, the conflicts were more dire, and the outcome of beating the real monster was huge.
Dark and gritty, this book is also just fun and even includes a bit of romance, which I was happy to see (though I think it could have been infused with even more to really bring the characters into the light as they fought side by side to ensure the safety of those around them). 
I will admit, this book reads very much like YA but the characters are definitely not of YA age. I'm actually not quite sure how old they are but seems like they would be close to 30. For that reason there were some melodramatic areas I really thought would be more suited for a younger audience. I do wish there was a bit more adult infused into the book as it really seems like that's the audience it's meant for.
Dimova is a truly creative author who has a great talent for pulling you into a story, making you care about the characters, and pulling you through to the other side while cheering for everything to turn out ok. I'm impressed this is only her second book and I am looking forward to seeing what else she comes up with in the future!