The premise of long-term pen pals to enemies to lovers was a promising one, and the story is pretty well-paced and has a relatively good trajectory. The writing itself isn’t entirely horrible; it’s effective enough to sustain interest and entertainment, however, it does feel quite shallow and the dialogue is generally awful. The main (and even secondary characters) are largely completely insufferable over the first few chapters. I don’t know if I can say they necessarily grow on you, but they do develop somewhat.

The undertone of misogyny is made apparent from the start and was the first thing that put me off, I thought I might be reaching at first, but then Misha calls Ryen a “stupid cunt” merely a few chapters in and consistently refers to her as being brainless, affectionately nicknaming her "Rocks". Every female character except for the protagonist is essentially bimbofied to some extent to really beat you over the head to understand that Ryen is Not Like the Other Girls™️. All relationships among women presented are quite vicious or are strained in some way, which is glaringly present in Ryen’s immensely toxic relationship with her friend Lyla; although to be fair, Ryen appears to grow from this by the end, when she sends an apology letter to her childhood friend.

The characters and their interactions seemed kind of out of place for high school students, especially considering the more explicit scenes, it probably could have been done better in a college setting.
Also, that epilogue read like Wattpad fanfiction and could have been omitted entirely.

If you’re down to read a very cringe, but relatively entertaining angsty teen romance, then this is for you. I don't entirely regret reading though, it was pretty fun (both to read and pick apart lol).

Let me get straight to the point.

☾ What I liked:

⋆˙⟡ The unique approach to what the moons are & the way dragons are presented in relation to the moons.

⋆˙⟡ Generally, the world-building is very meticulous and thorough, without being too overwhelming for the reader.

⋆˙⟡ The veil of mystery surrounding certain identities and secrets, all very well built-up leading to plot twists and theories. This kept me on my toes and made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen.

⋆˙⟡ It was an immersive story, in the sense that I wanted to read the book just to get back into that world.

⋆˙⟡ The themes of female empowerment, subtle, but very loud at the same time.

What didn't work for me:

⋆˙⟡ The language felt forced, at times too lyrical, often as if words were automatically replaced using a thesaurus. The text didn't flow organically.

⋆˙⟡ The length. This could be shorter, had the language been less forced and descriptive.

⋆˙⟡ The main female character feels a bit stereotypical and very similar to other MFCs across the fantasy genre. The snarky assassin with a sense of sarcasm and extraordinary skills has been done a thousand times before, and to be fair, I am tired of it.

⋆˙⟡ The relationship/connection between the FMC and MMC kind of lost me after 70% of the book. However, I must say that this is because of plot reasons that do make sense.

I generally feel that the book started very strong and after the 70% mark started declining. Not that it was bad, but it just didn't manage to keep up to the first part of it.

💭 Still, this is a 4-star for me, I enjoyed it a lot, mainly because of the world-building & the mystery surrounding certain events and identities.

📩 If you read it, I can't wait to discuss theories about certain events and characters with y'all!!!

4.75⭐️

i absolutely love the way the author made me feel about the characters. i both hated them and understood them deeply.