Where do I even begin, I feel this description feels like a good place to start…

“His towering build was a wall of muscle wrapped in black armour, giant twin blades peeking out from behind him. Wet, dark hair was swept up in a knot at the back of his head, a neat beard lined his fierce jaw…”

Absolutely feral for a bun and beard combo and it only got better….

Obviously this is classed as romantasy but I was pleasantly surprised by a number of relationships that felt stronger and more important than that of the love interest. First being the relationship between Thea and her sister Wren. The banter these two have between themselves and, to me, very accurate sisterly bond that’s comprised of love, mutual respect and individuality, disagreements and resolutions due to shared history and a level of understanding each other that no one else gets close to- I feel like this is such an important relationship that often gets a side story in most books but here I definitely felt it was front and centre and reminder of maintaining those familial relationships.

Then we have the new found friend group where we meet the “underdogs”. I don’t know why felt so strongly here, maybe I felt seen from my highschool days, but it really highlighted the importance of finding YOUR people as opposed to what society decides as “worthy” people- because the dynamic you create as a unit is far more powerful than any individual capability you hold.

These are relationships I really enjoy reading about and what absolutely devastates me when these fracture or end.

I was also so stoked with the level of violence and brutality in this- I live for chaos, wars, fight scenes and destruction. We have the human societal system and politics including war politics which is epic, and then the monster/ paranormal world which is slowly trying to infiltrate the human realm.

There is just so much in this that I love. Strong females, magic, healing, apothecary, battles, training, warriors, trials, fates and fortunes, the list goes on. I’m absolutely obsessed and I’m only one of four books in. I’m genuinely worried about the damage this may bring…..but also, you need to pick this up so I can drag you down the emotional pit with me.

This was a really fun read with an element of dark romance I have no experienced yet …… surviving both your stalker and a death battle 🤣 Even worse- you’re the daughter of the creator of said death games, so of course you’ve got the biggest target on your back.

Full of hectic characters and scenes and plot twists you don’t see coming this with an incredibly sarcastic/sardonic FMC you can’t not enjoy this.

I believe it’s now being trad published so a release date it yet to be announced.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy