✧.* 3/5

Whatever I expected this to be, it didn't live up to it.

With an incredible premise and the attempt to merge history, fantasy and folklore, I really wanted to love this. My biggest issue with this book, however, was the writing. It wasn't bad, by any means, but it felt like I was reading a modern romance at times and that irks me when I want to read a historical fantasy, or simply a fantasy in general. It makes the book easy to read without a doubt, but it robbed me of a lot of immersion that would have otherwise been able to capture my interest more.

I have to agree with a lot of other reviews when it comes to the blatant check listing of popular tropes in this and it did bother me at a specific point halfway through the book, but I was entertained enough.

Bram, surprisingly, grew to be the most interesting character for me. Ivy and Emmett were both alright protagonists, but all of the side characters either annoyed me or were easy to forget. The magic system was pretty interesting since it also leaned into the folklore aspect of faeries.

Unfortunately, I saw the plot twist coming from miles away, but at least it got far more interesting again in the last 50 pages after I had to drag myself through most of the middle section.

✧.* 1/5

the premise of this was so good but the execution... made me want to dnf so bad but i pulled through somehow. i love fanfics and this could have been GENIUS, but it made me cringe more than anything. the commentary is so overdone and the characters are not even interesting

a big no from me unfortunately