Sadly not for me. I went between feeling bored or frustrated. He had barely any proper knowledge to embark on such a journey and wonders why he perishes. For a short book (I listened to the audio at x1.7 so only took me around 4 hours, it still felt incredibly long.)

It seemed like there was a lot of side stories about people that didn’t make a big impact on his life at all.

I feel like I was meant to sympathise with him but I didn’t get any of those emotions and couldn’t connect in any way. I just feel he was entitled and pompous and wanted to be remembered for something wild. I’m sorry to everyone who loves this, especially my friend whom had gifted this to me. I know he loves it.

I read someone else’s review that said ‘It is tragic and sad, yes, but not heroic or courageous.’ And honestly I couldn’t agree more.

“There is no world—no war, no distance—where I do not belong to you.”

Read this novella in preparation to start Kissed By The Gods.

It was a great introduction to the world and some characters backstory. I’m very excited to see where this goes in book 1!

The writing is very easy to read and I’m very intrigued by the world, the powers/magic and the creatures!

‘The gods may have stolen our past, but our story continues. Unfinished. Unwritten. Unknown.’

A Forbidden Alchemy has been sitting on my shelf for a while now, and overall was a very enjoyable romantasy, so here’s a breakdown of all my thoughts while reading!

The positives..

• the setting was very cool! I haven’t read gangster style romantasy before and this felt really fresh and fun. (Sometimes though I imagined them not as gangsters, but The Simpsons Violet and Patches 😂)
• it was very fast paced and easy to read, I’m invested enough to continue this series
• I listened to some of this via audio and thought the narrators sounded very authentic.
• the magic system was unique to me and I would have loved it to be explained in more detail.
• Lots of plot twists that I didn’t pick and an open ending to hook you in for book 2

A few things that I didn’t like..

• the time jumps, they seemed unnecessary with the way they were set out.
• the editing (I know this shouldn’t bring a books rating down, but as a fully published book, it does annoy me slightly to see grammar/spelling errors.)
• I felt the MMCs personality felt a bit like watching a tennis game, I did like his inner war with himself and his feelings though.
• The main characters have a brief meeting at the start of this story, but somehow they’re acting like they are lifelong childhood friends.

I definitely still think if you like the vibes of a gangster fantasy, this is definitely worth a read!!

“Rebellion happens in the shadows, after all.”

A fantastic follow up to A Language of Dragons. I was unable to guess anything that was happening, and was blown away by everything that was happening.

Williamson is nothing short of an incredible writer, the language and dialect she uses always fascinates and impresses me.

I have many thoughts, however it would all be spoilers. Everyone needs to pick up this series and give it a go. I was thinking this could have been wrapped up as a duology, however in those last few chapters you can see why it’s a trilogy and there’s so much more to tell!