I was drawn to Burn the Kingdom Down because I'm a sucker for the forced marriage trope and was intrigued by the promise of political tension mixed with a mystery. It didn't quite work for me personally, but I think the right reader would really enjoy this one.

The magic system was interesting and the political stakes were easy to follow right from the start. The mystery surrounding Indira's sister's death also kept me flipping pages to the very end, and I found the ending satisfying.

Where I struggled was connecting with the story and the characters. I think this is mostly due to the uneven pacing. Some scenes, especially early on, stretched out way too long, while more emotional or important moments flew by before the tension could build up. This hurt the romance and politics too, since both rely on relationships that never really got room to develop. I also strongly disliked Indira's inner dialogue. Throughout the book, her reactions and thoughts appear in italics as if her older sister is there with her. It's interesting at first, especially as Indira’s grieving, but it gets overused fast and became grating to me.

Though this didn't click for me, I can see someone younger or newer to romantasy really enjoying it. The political tension is easy to follow, the magic is unique, and the mystery kept me reading until the end.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC!

I feel pretty lukewarm about this one. The Lies that Summon the Night had all the right ideas but I feel kind of "meh" about the execution.

There were so many parts of this book that I loved. Our FMC Inana is a storyteller in a world where art and creativity are forbidden. Art is considered a sin that attracts monsters called Shades, which attack, kill, and destroy. Our MMC Dominic is a monster hunter whose path crosses with Inana when he brings her onto his team as a summoner to lure monsters for him to kill or capture. Though this dynamic is a familiar template for many romantasies, it's the details of the world and story that made this feel refreshing and original. The pacing was also good and the story felt like it was constantly moving. This book is under 350 pages, so I never felt like we lingered in any one place or scene for too long.

Unfortunately, all of these great things were overshadowed by the overcomplicated worldbuilding. I have more patience for info-dumping at the start of a series, like this one, but I really struggled here. The magic system and lore are actually easy to understand once you process everything, but the way it's laid out makes it difficult to connect the different pieces together. One of my biggest worldbuilding pet peeves is unnatural dialogue, and this book had a lot of that. The details of the world were straightforward enough that the author could have let the worldbuilding unfold more organically, rather than relying on multi-paragraph monologues that made everything more confusing than it needed to be.

If you've read a lot of romantasy, you may find the romance similar to many other books. It's a typical setup with a mysterious, irresistibly attractive male love interest, vaguely enemies-to-lovers, and pretty insta-lusty. I'm not sure what Inana and Dominic's connection is beyond physical attraction. I didn't mind the romance; it just wasn't a standout romantic arc.

Overall, if you're looking for some classic romantasy vibes with vampire-like beings, some intrigue, and a few spice scenes, give this one a try. The cliffhanger ending was interesting, but I did not enjoy this enough to continue the series.