Absolutely loved this, I'm a big hunger games fan so this was right up my alley. I felt Paedyn was very Katniss coded, from the slums, uses a bow and arrow, has another prominent female in her life who relies on her.

I can totally see why a lot of the reviews don't like this, but I'm easily pleased by a man written just to yearn after a girl he can't have.

I felt like some of the sideline relationships were a little under developed and it would have been nice to have more of Adena littered throughout to make their relationship feel more meaningful.

All this being said this was so much fun! I often struggle to imagine what things would look like but felt I could picture much of the trials. Would recommend!

If you make it to the smut, the plot get’s better after that… I don’t really understand how these two even got to the point of liking each other, other than “fate”. That being said I never really saw them as enemies, so I didn’t get the enemies to lovers I was promised.

I needed more of Carrion, to lighted the mood and help things not feel so dry and heavy.

I’m not sure I’ll bother with book 2, I feel fairly satisfied with the conclusion. Even though there are unanswered questions I don’t like any of the characters enough to feel any urgency to pick it up to find the answers.

The final 3rd let me down, I found some of the dialogue awkward and cringey. She forgave him too quickly and I felt like she should have been more angry with him. I did really enjoy the first 2/3rds and it was light enough that people can easily dip a toe into shifter romance without having to learn a load of lore.

Listening to the audiobook, I don’t know why they bothered having a male narrator literally reading a sentence per chapter and the shortest epilogue known to man. It felt like a waste and I was sat waiting for it to swap to his pov the whole book.

I’m glad I read it, but it’s not going on my re-read pile.