this was... okay. i loved the ending and the character development and kayeava were cute in the end. but i feel like the push and pull of "oh i'm a vampire, i'm a monster" and "i might be human after all" got old. i don't really like the "woe be me, i'm a powerful supernatural creature but i'd rather be human" trope. so. the writing style was also unemotional—

spoiler -
when tristan died, i felt nothing. when kaye killed liander, which was supposed to be a major climax point, i felt nothing. i barely even realized that casiopea left her powers to ava. that whole exchange felt muted.
- end spoiler

so 2.85 stars overall. not bad really, just not one of my more interesting reads this year.

Overall: Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.


Content warnings: blood, physical violence

Rep: sapphic relationship, old friends to lovers/enemies to lovers

Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:

This was really dense. While I thought that the overall plot was interesting and what was going on the world, I just felt kind of overwhelmed? The sharing of information was not paced very well and it would be too much at once. And because I felt overwhelmed reading this, I feel like I missed some things that were happening and I honestly feel like I need to reread this book in order to give this a proper rating.

I have been dying to read this book for way too long. When I finally got my hands on a digital arc, it sat in my kindle app. Then it was release day and I bought it, where it sat on my shelf. It’s only a couple weeks later and I got my hands (ears) on an audiobook from the library… and I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner.

This has everything I love. It’s queer (sapphic to be exact), it’s a retelling (Rapunzel), it has vampires (Alice from Twilight, anyone?), witches (Bonnie from Vampire Diaries???) and it’s (Friends to) Enemies to Lovers!!! I devoured the story, to the point that I wanted to slow myself down to really get everything. I’m sure I’ll be rereading it at some point, I loved it THAT much!

So Ava & Kaye used to be friends, but they had a bit of a falling out after Ava disappeared on the night that vampires broke into their town’s wards and killed Kaye’s mother. Ava has been kept in a tower by her VAMPIRE MOTHER and evil step father. You see, Ava was turned on the night of that attack, and every time she tells her step father a name of one of her friends from school, they turn up drained of blood the next day. She’s been keeping one name from leaving her mouth though.

The most special part about her is that even though she was turned, she’s still retained her connection to root magic. Which is the reason her mother is keeping her locked away. So that she can steal it for herself.

Kaye on the other hand is gifted with flame magic and she vows to use it kill the vampire who took her mother’s life. After Ava finally escapes and they reconnect, Kaye finds something among her old friend’s belongings which may be the answer to all of her questions from the past 2 years.

This was full of mystery, albeit I felt like I knew who was good and who was bad early on. I did love that you really never know which side is right, because there are heroes and villains from each. I mean, what is a hero or villain anyway. We are all just chaotic neutral when you get down to it.