This was utterly GORGEOUS. A beautiful love story framed in science and art and what those things mean. Listened to the audiobook and Morag Sims did a phenomenal job, I loved her voices (Peter Violet most of all, lol!)

(Minor spoilers ahead, nothing specific.) This would have been a 5-star read but I’d knocked a star off for the miscommunication and third-act breakup, and the way it just felt like these two couldn’t win. But I put a half-star back for that twist at the end, and the ultimate resolution— happy but also plausible! Absolutely loved it.

Uggghhh, I wanted to like this so much more than I did, but god, all the orcs are such massive douche canoes. Not only do you have Natt lying and manipulating Ella CONSTANTLY in this book, but Grimmarr from the first book is back to do it to her also! (Silfast and Stella from the short story just show up just for some raunchy exhibitionism.) And even when Ella and Jule call them out on their shit, it’s just for a moment before they end up going along with it. And also, look, I get all the human dudes are even worse, but they HAVE A POINT about the whole magic spunk thing.

I might give this series one more try cause I am curious about John the orc and ostensibly I like Fenn’s writing, but I’m going to take a break first.

This was very lovely! Osiris is such a sweet shadowman, and Eleanor is feisty and perfectly in need of his devotion. I do just wish it had been better edited— lots of typos, and the lore/worldbuilding could have been fleshed out better, I was very confused by the extent of his pumpkin’s expressions, for example. (And I’m begging again for indie authors to use editors with actual names and not just online handles.)

Fun, but too short! It’s really only <60 pages and the rest are a preview of the next book, and it ended just when things were getting interesting!

I listened entirely to this on audio (thanks to the author for the ALC) and I have to say first of all that Roxanne Deveraux gives the best audio performance I think I’ve ever listened to. Her ability to do the different voices for the characters— including convincing male voices and extended passages in a Norwegian baritone— is absolutely astounding. Is this her first audio book? Cause I’m going to need her to record at least ten more immediately, please and thank you. Five stars for the performance.

3.5 stars rounded up for the book. The characters are compelling and the world they live in is fascinating. In many ways this story feels like what Anita Blake’s Merry Gentry story should have been? My one big issue was that there’s too much time spent on details we absolutely don’t need— what everyone looks like, what they’re wearing, in depth anecdotes from Adi’s past about all sorts of weird random stuff like her coffee shop employees we don’t even properly meet— and then less energy and description is spent on proper worldbuilding things, like the different fae species (I still don’t know what a joint-eater is and I had to look up a bunch of things), what exactly Adi’s role as a priestess entails, or why the hell everyone gets horny if anyone is mad? Or details felt buried, like how Adi’s aunts were trying to kill her. I spent most of the book not sure why the EA was even organizing a rebellion in the first place. But I’m definitely invested! Why am I such a sucker for a big Viking cinnamon roll? And Bryn is wonderfully angsty. I just wish we’d seen the two of them bond more, rather than being told about it… and then had Adi’s breakfast described in detail. I hope the next audio version comes out soon, I want to wait for it, but I might not have the patience!