⭐ 4.75 | ❤️ 4/5

I stayed up into the early morning reading this and paid for it the next day. This is a dystopian romantic thriller with some sci-fi elements.

This world is gritty and graphically brutal; I had to skim some lines that were a bit too detailed in their brutality. There are traces of influence of The Hunger Games (rings of society segregated by power/access and proximity to the ruling class, a rebel martyr, an outlawed rebellion anthem and salute) and The Handmaid's Tale (systemic oppression of women including institutionalized erasure, status as property, ritualized violence). If either of these are dystopian stories that you loved, this world will feel familiar without feeling derivative.

I appreciated having leads that were in their 30’s. While Shade and Greyson are true enemies, they are mirrors of each other: both forged by violence, emotionally closed off, complicit in the system they hate, and hollowed out by the roles they’ve been forced to play. The romance is a glacial slow burn that feels earned as the story slowly drips small details that built parallels between them that felt satisfying to pick up on, since they felt like little easter eggs. They were both characters who I was rooting for.

The story is told through an ensemble cast via 5 primary character POVs (Shade, Greyson, Jameson, Callum, and Lira) in addition to a few from Elara and President Serel, which built out the interiority of many key players in the story. Each POV felt purposeful and distinct rather than feeling like a tangent. There were several standout supporting characters including Jameson, who had one of the most cinematic scenes in the book during a confrontation at a bar.

When the prose was at its best, it was vivid, visceral, and cinematic. I also enjoyed the deliberate use of irony threaded throughout the story. The prose occasionally overreached, and the dialogue tipped into corny territory at times particularly in the bigger emotional declarations (namely from a specific character). Neither was pervasive enough to take away from my enjoyment of the story.

There were some plot logic inconsistencies, some of which the story does eventually address but some remained unresolved. For example, I was left wondering about Elara’s motivations around the mask law. I hope that the sequel sheds light on this, because without that, it felt like a convenient plot mechanism without clear character logic. The pace is fast enough that the inconsistencies fall by the wayside. None of this was enough to pull me out of the story for long, but if plot holes are a dealbreaker for you, you should be aware going in.

Daggermouth was an entertaining, addictive read in spite of its imperfections, and I’m already dying for my bookish friends to finish reading it so that I can talk about it with someone. The sequel can’t come soon enough.

This review is based on an ARC provided by Scarlett Press via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

⭐ 4 | ❤️ 3/5

If you read The Ruler and liked Constantine, I recommend that you read the sequel. The Savage is the stronger book, though it is meaningfully different.

The romance takes a backseat in this sequel; as does the heat. What you get instead is Constantine’s mafia origin story across a dual timeline, and I found myself more engaged with his past timeline than the present across either book. Part of that is due to it being in his POV; he’s just more inhabited and fleshed out than Aurelia is. The past timeline includes how things came to unravel between him and his twin Edric, the fallout with his ex Isabella, and how he rose up. Watching this build up to the present storyline, including the first time he laid eyes on Aurelia, was very satisfying. I came away from this book understanding Constantine as a person much better. The secondary characters get their moments too, and some of the highlights of the book include quips from Aurelia and Constantine’s social circles, which bring levity with good comedic timing.

Some of the craft patterns that I mentioned in my review of The Ruler persist in this book. The dialogue occasionally veers into corny territory, typically from Constantine. There were moments where the dialogue undercut an otherwise solid scene. The story also had some inconsistency around the central betrayal that drives the backstory, where I felt that the narrative didn’t quite commit to what actually happened. This led it to feel unresolved. Like The Ruler, telling instead of showing remains a pattern especially in the handling of emotions.

It’s worth noting that the heat is dialed down to a 3/5 versus the 4/5 of The Ruler’s (or what I might typically expect from the author). While there was the addition of more somnophilia and free use, most scenes were brief, low detail, or happened off the page. If heat was a primary draw for you, know this going into this book.

The ending felt anticlimactic and not just because of how suddenly it arrived. The external plot resolves, but the emotional resolution felt unfinished to me as if there would have been a final scene that just got cut off. Part of that feeling came from being told what the characters felt rather than shown it, which felt at odds with the uncertainty that was being conveyed nonverbally. I turned the page expecting more and found the author’s backlist instead. With a third book, The Breaker, on the way, this reads in hindsight as a series pause, but nothing in the ending signaled that.

Overall, it was an entertaining read; just know what you're getting into.

1. The Ruler ⭐ 3.75 | ❤️ 4/5
2. The Savage ⭐ 4 | ❤️ 3/5
3. The Breaker - to be released

This review is based on an ARC provided by Montlake via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.