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adventurous
emotional
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent
Minor: Ableism, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, War
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“You are the fire of my heart, and the beat of
my drum. I am yours under moonlight. Until the rhythm sings no more.”
This is a difficult book to review, because while there were things going for it - namely the characters and the world-building - I found what remained underwhelming at best.
As I said, there are parts of this book that do work. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and I found the worldbuilding, lore, and magic quite interesting. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by all the things I found frustrating.
This is a very predictable book. Which is fine, not ever tale needs to be a perfect maze of twist and turns with perfectly laid surprises and foreshadowing. But this was ridiculous, mainly because everything felt so glaringly obvious, and yet none of the supposedly intelligent characters seemed to be able to rub two brain cells together to link the simplest of threads. Clues and information were laid out repeatedly, almost as if there was a neon sign pointing to the answers the characters sought - and instead, they wandered past the point until someone explicitly told them the answer.
My next issue comes to roost in the writing. Something about it felt clunky, awkward almost. While some paragraphs or dialogues elicited a chuckle or a smile, for the most part the writing felt disjointed.
Which brings us to my third and final major issue- the romances storylines. The pacing felt weird. With both couples falling into insta-something (maybe love, maybe lust, maybe a secret third thing that's much worse) but then proceeding to dance around it in a confusing, misguided, miscommunicated mess that was suddenly overcome by a random change of heart. I do not know what changed Furi's tune. I am still confused over Yeeran's entire thought process. Lettle's realisation and change of heart was the worst of them all. And poor Rayan doesn't really know what happened and how he got to this point. Same, dude. Same.
All in all, there was potential, and some truly interesting elements of this book. But, there were also some major flaws. While the characters were interesting in theory, the plot forced them into a state of mind-numbing ignorance to attempt various plot twists that could be seen a mile away. The worldbuilding and lore was fascinating, but the writing itself didn't feel like it could live up to the standard it set. And the romantic pacing was just odd. I really don't know what else to say other than this was a rather strange reading and reviewing experience all round.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, War
Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Murder
Minor: Dementia, Grief, Alcohol
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, War
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was really good and had good character depth but I was just not in the mood for it by the time the Libby hold came through so it took me a while to get into this plot. It does had a very slight cliffhanger that I wish was resolved but ultimately it was a good ending.
Read For
✓ High Fantasy
✓ Elves and Fae
✓ Magic System
✓ Rivals to Lovers
✓ Queernormativity
𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Sad Level: 💧💧
Plot: 8/10
Pace: 8/10
Ending: 7/10
Characters: 9/10
Enjoyability: 9/10
Writing Style: 8/10
Would I Recommend? Yes
Favorite Character: Lettle
Favorite Quote: ❝ Love and hate are oil and water, separate but similar, and sometimes they swirl together, making it difficult to tell one from the other. ❞
POV: Multiple, Third Person
Pages: 386
Format: Audiobook
Language: English
Release Date: 23, January 2024
Rep/Extras: Queer/LGBTQIA+ characters, Afro/arab world 🇬🇭🇸🇩
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Grief, War
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Gore, Death of parent, Alcohol
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood
Minor: Physical abuse, Murder
adventurous
mysterious
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
so i really enjoyed this world and the use of african (i can only recognise egypt but there are probably other elements of different african countries) culture/language/folklore etc to develop the world. for example using drums to direct the magic, that is pretty cool. i loved how non-white this was, excellent times.
i think there is some intrigue/set up for the next book, which i am keen for but tbh, i didn't particularly care for the characters, sure their relationships were a bit cute at times but they were pretty meh. i think they needed more development than we actually got, some of their changes felt sudden and a bit random
i think there is some intrigue/set up for the next book, which i am keen for but tbh, i didn't particularly care for the characters, sure their relationships were a bit cute at times but they were pretty meh. i think they needed more development than we actually got, some of their changes felt sudden and a bit random
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Murder, War
Moderate: Bullying, Xenophobia, Death of parent
Minor: Confinement, Sexual content
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Murder
Moderate: War
Minor: Gore, Grief, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Classism
Minor: Dementia, Alcohol
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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:
Complicated
ooo this one has everything!! incredible world building, intriguing politics, complex characters, steamy romance, and a beautifully diverse world!!! i absolutely ate this up and i will be starting the second book very soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Racism, Slavery, Dementia, Death of parent
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Racism