The beginning of the book was strong and I absolutely loved it. But towards the end it started to lose me.

I never really liked Tiras and the way he spoke to Lark. The ending was so confusing and convoluted it just didn’t make much sense to me.

The majority of the story I enjoyed. It was beautifully written and I loved Lark’s story. The ending fell flat and lost me though.

This is an easy and fun read if you like cozy fantasy stories. The writing style was beautiful and the narrators did a wonderful job. Although I did find some of their pronunciation of words to be different than what is typically heard but maybe that's just me. The historical aspect of I also enjoyed.

However I didn't really understand their dislike of each other so much. More so on Reid's part. I understand his wanting to be acknowledged and appreciated by the other people in his life and felt that Josie got some of that immediately and felt jealous but it still didn't feel proportionate to how much he actually disliked her. I did enjoy some of their banter, though. Both of the characters were pretty mid overall.

It felt like the actual plot of the story took so long to get to and by the time we got there I was let down. It didn't really feel like the story was going anywhere until you were over halfway through the book and by that point I was just annoyed that they hadn't figured out each others identities. I think there were a lot of things that could've been left out and that the pacing wasn't great. I never fully got an understanding of the magic system.

Overall this wasn't a decent read and is probably enjoyable for those who love cozy stories like this. But for me it wasn't engaging enough to hold my interest for much of the story and plot.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity for this ARC!