I am not typically a romantasy girl and haven't read much in the genre but I LOVE Julie Soto, so here I am. It was dark, relatively speaking, a time of war with the accompanying atrocities and crimes against humanity, which isn't really my jam. The romance is a slow-burn, which isn't a problem for me, but in this first installment (seems we'll get at least one more book in the series, if not 2 or 3) there wasn't enough romantic elements/romantic stakes there for me to really love it (wished to see more of what Toven was feeling towards Briony, there aren't a lot of clear signs conveying what's going on under the surface for him). Perhaps this is the typical romantic pacing for a multi-book series, and we'll get more romantic heightening in the next installment as their time together/circumstances deepen the relationship. Regardless, objectively it is very-well written, and if romantasy is your thing then I would definitely recommend it. And I'll definitely be checking out the follow-up when it is released next summer.

Poston is such a beautiful writer. Like Dead Romantics, there is a lot of air time given to thoughts about being back home, family, homesickness, grief about being absent etc. with the stage set by her mother's diagnosis of early-onset dementia. Alzheimers is so cruel, and because her condition hasn't devolved so far yet the narrative doesn't get too heavy into the way it erodes the lives of all involved, but it doesn't gloss it over either. It definitely stirred up my own tender feelings about time marching on (my children are getting so big, my parents are getting so old, feels like there's never enough time to savor vs. dealing with the whack-a-mole that is daily life doings) and hilariously I found myself sobbing while listening to Fleetwood Mac yesterday (which I had put on to try to soothe and get grounded!) because I couldn't stop thinking about how vital Christine McVie had been and now she is gone. SO anyway, that's just me and my sensitive heart, I think I'm just extra vulnerable to those feelings right now! The romance was lovely and about as present proportionally as in her other books, but it didn't hit me as hard as in her other books (again, maybe it's just where my head is these days). All around it is a warm, thoughtful, and richly-crafted book.