ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

S.T. Gibson is a difficult author to review for me. I've read two books by her now, and enjoyed both, but they just don't tend to stick in my brain. Maybe that's because they are more vibes than plot. I will say that the writing here wasn't purple prose at all (I was kind of expecting that based on A Dowry of Blood), and was very easy to read.

There is a plot, but it's pretty basic, and even though there's supposed to be some urgency there, I honestly didn't feel that at all. The book spends a lot of time on the three main characters and their bonds with each other. I do like character-focused stories, but considering the premise, I did hope for more plot in this case, especially since it's supposed to be a series, and I don't feel like we got enough setup for that.

There's the beginning of a poly relationship between Rhys, David, and Moira. The dynamic between David and Rhys was as expected, but I surprisingly ended up loving the connection between David and Moira more. Maybe it's because I got to see it happen on page—with Rhys and David, there's already a lot of (bad) history, and I found it hard to really root for them. That said, I do think that both Rhys and David get a lot more focus on them as characters than Moira does, which is a shame.

I liked the characters enough that I'll pick up the sequel, but I really hope we get more story there.