shane_the_reading_rat's Reviews (1.21k)

a bit too dry of nonfiction for me

this was,, interesting and i mean that both in a bad and good way. first of all i was so hyped to read a fantasy based in the spanish inquisition with a sephardic jewish mc cause thats part of my own family history too. and i did kind of like this overall?? but

there was zero chemistry between luzia and santangel. im not an enemies-to-lovers kind of person (or whatever they were honestly idk) and i found the whole “several hundred year old man falls in love with young woman/teenager icky to say the least

i did really enjoy valentina as a character throughout, she was really interesting :D
the plot also felt very confusing, granted i was listening to an audiobook of this so it could be a me problem but i had so much difficulty telling apart characters.
anyway, this was definitely a good fantasy book but im probably going to reread it physically in the future so i can actually understand what on earth is going on

loved this !! i do have a couple of nitpicks though:

i wanted more scenes of wren and leo like in the final chapter when they were together!! it was really cute and i wanted a bit less abrupt ending.
also, since throughout the book wren was so sure that his asexuality would be a dealbreaker for dating, it wouldve been amazing to see him and leo have a conversation about it and leo be like “no of course thats not a deal breaker”. just since it was touched on multiple times it felt odd for that not to be wrapped up. (also an an ace person it wouldve felt great to read a conversation like that)

upon finishing this, i just had to sit and hug this book for several minutes

cute, well-paced romance, but i really wish we’d gotten to learn more about mari and her life