4.4 AVERAGE

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Plot or Character Driven: A mix

A refreshing unique romantasy. This felt like magic in a Peaky Blinders world with class warfare. The world building was easy to follow and the setting was beautifully described. I felt like I got to know Kenton Hill and its gritty people. Extremely well written with great dialogue. 

My only complaint might be that the initial introduction of the characters as children felt a bit clunky. You need the initial meeting between Nina and Patrick to anchor the story. It is the center of gravity that draws these two together again. But it felt a bit too quick and rushed for me. Same for Theo and Nina. We’re given bits and pieces of their schooling and Nina’s initial heartbreak but I wanted more foundation to ground the story. 

But the rest of the book delves deeply into these characters as we see love develop, trust earned and destroyed, and friendships gained and lost.   

A heart-aching beautiful read. I need book 2 now please! 
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I didn't think I'd enjoy this, since the beginning is very slow (Which is crazy to say considering we skip literal years in some chapters). I feel as though claiming Patrick and Nina are best friends is also quite a stretch, considering they spent a few hours together on one single day (And even most of that was just told in "hours passed" sort of writing, after their cellar adventures).

I will say - I definitely did get Peaky Blinders vibes from this, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm sure it's not a coincidence that Patrick was just Cillian Murphy in my brain (How many times can you mention his ice/light blue eyes? Come on. Obviously you want me to picture Tommy/Cillian Murphy there). It takes until about 25-30% to start picking up and was a thoroughly enjoyable ride from there.

I can agree with other reviews that Nina's actions/behaviour made little sense.
She seemed to jump from "I'm a traitor, hurrah!" to "Nope, I'm secretly working with the good guys!" back to "I'm a traitor, hurrah!" and all it did was cause whiplash.


I'm keen for the second book, but only because I enjoyed Patrick and the Peaky Blinders vibes. Nina wasn't that strong of a character for me.

(& don't even get me started on ol' Teddy. He was even worse than Nina with his whiplash backtracking)
adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes