I had higher hopes for this book. There were too many POVs and too little differentiation. Each chapter would've benefited from being labeled as the name of the person whose POV it was. There was also a lot of backstory between all of the different characters. I honestly just found myself bored with this book. I wasn't super intrigued while reading it. It was good, but I didn't feel a strong emotional connection to this book either. Maybe this had to do with the amount of POVs making me feel as though too much was going on with too many people, preventing me from developing a connection. I did like the overall message of this book, but I think there were a few things wrong with the execution for my personal taste.

Lastly, I don't think this should've been labeled "thriller." It definitely felt like contemporary fiction, but not a thriller. And if so, it was one of the most underwhelming thrillers I've read.

I'm so sorry to everyone that enjoyed this book, please don't take this review the wrong way.. but this was <b>not</b> for me. If you enjoyed this book, then I'm happy for you and please just ignore this review.

I realistically should've DNF'd this instead of continuing on with it but it is what it is. I thought the writing was bad. It felt very juvenile to me and I didn't care for any of the characters. Vad was especially awful. He had so many cringey lines and is such a drama queen. I'm not sure if it's just me, but his possessiveness so soon in the relationship was a complete turn off. I didn't like any of the sexual encounters either. I just found this book gross instead of attractive. Maybe this is because I couldn't stand their dynamic or the characters, but I genuinely found them both incredibly frustrating. Also, don't get me wrong.. I love a good dark romance, but this was not that.

If Vad wasn't a character in this book, then the story might not have been too bad but I couldn't get past him.

And I'm sorry, but I have to say that not every single (dark) romance book has to end with the two main characters wanting children. I had hopes initially that this book wouldn't turn out this way given that Vad stated he had a vasectomy.. but BAM! Right at the end he hits Corvina with "I reversed my vasectomy."

I had at least one other RuNyx book on my TBR and I think after this one, I might have to remove it.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to rate this and I’m still incredibly conflicted. I’ll start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and based off of that alone, I probably could’ve given it 5/5 stars. That being said, I think this book has some issues. This book very strongly reminded me of Caraval. The story was incredibly similar but instead of a circus theme, it was paranormal. Because of the similarities to Caraval, it made the ending predictable to me.

I think my biggest issue with this book was the main character. It bothered me how weak Ophelia’s character was. It felt more like Blackwell was the one doing the Phantasma trials than Ophelia was. Almost every time that Ophelia was in trouble, she immediately called for Blackwell to swoop in and save the day. I’m not a huge fan of the “damsel in distress” trope. I kept wishing that Ophelia would really grow into becoming a stronger character and utilize her necromancy magic more. Her attitude bothered me too. I hated how she treated other characters at times. She was a “user.” Whenever she went through any emotional or mental distress, she immediately turned to Blackwell to use him for sex to avoid confronting her feelings as well as her trying to push him away.

Ophelia and Blackwell’s relationship had issues as well. It felt rushed.

The timeline of this book was about a week and somehow that was enough time to fall madly in love to the point that she would sacrifice her life for him.

The ending felt rushed and I don’t think the trials held as much terror as I was expecting them to.

Flaws aside, I still devoured this book. I thought this was a fun read and if I based my rating off of feels alone, I would’ve scored this higher. I loved Caraval so this blurb really enticed me.

As much as Ophelia’s character bothered me, I loved the OCD representation in this. I haven’t come across many books where OCD is written in or written well. I thought the way it was represented was done really well and in a way that you can see the severity of the disorder.