I loved this book. We already knew Messalina well from the previous book, but discovering her arranged marriage of animosity to Gideon— the lowborn neurodivergent antihero who has pined for her all along— was better than I could have even anticipated. Plus the villain plot built wonderfully. My only complaint was that the ending seemed sudden.

On reading two Hoyt books in a row, I have to commend her for a couple of things consistent in her writing. First of all, her use of anatomically correct terms and still making them wonderfully spicy. It doesn’t always need to be dirty words and euphemisms, and I have to give her so many props for that! But also, usually when there are quotes in the beginning of chapters, I skip past or glance over them. In both Greycourt novels, she uses that space to tell a whole other story in the form of fairy tales, and I was invested in both!

The covers to these are still so tonally off, especially for a story with the sheer amount of attempted murder this one had. The title for this one really didn’t fit either, but oh well. Loved everything on the inside!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the copy of this book to review!