Wild Reverence started out as a super cute, easy read. I instantly fell in love with Matilda—she is an absolute cutie who must be protected at all costs! There were some genuinely beautiful, emotional highlights early on, like the poetic moment of Bade and the Poet Queen, and Matilda stepping up to help. The book is written beautifully and reads almost like a movie, and I really appreciated how it explored the theme of mortality and how living forever distorts time.

However, I struggled quite a bit with the pacing, world-building, and character development. The magic system, the dreamscapes, were hard to picture, and many plot events felt random. Because the beginning relied on large time jumps and anecdotal storytelling, the main plot felt hard to track. The romance also moved way too fast for me; Vincent's sudden attachment felt abrupt, and I never quite understood the "why" behind their massive feelings. I spent most of the book just feeling bad for Vincent, who honestly felt dragged around by Matilda like the wind (which he acknowledged), more like a bystander in her story.

By the time I hit the last 10%, I ended up skimming because I just wasn't invested in the plot or the resolution. Ultimately, this felt like a prelude to Divine Rivals rather than an outstanding standalone. I felt the same detachment here as I did with Divine Rivals, so this author's style might just not be for me. It’s a good, beautifully written book, but it left me wishing we had spent more time exploring Dacre and Enva's story, or Bade and Adria's instead.