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4.39 AVERAGE
4.39 AVERAGE
It was so boring. I didn't care about any of the characters, who were all interchangeable except for the love triangle. Patrick clearly pined over Nina for 13 years and is now being flirty out of nowhere and it just feels so forced and weird.
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
mysterious
tense
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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
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:
Yes
dark
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:
No
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
I absolutely devoured this story. Even when it was predictable, it was so fun and enjoyable and immersive that I didn’t care. Can’t wait for the sequel.
Eh it was just ok. I was pretty bored with it and didn’t realize it would be a duology. It reminded me of season 1 peaky blinders except with a magic element. The thick northern accents on the audiobook and the socially just gangster Thomas Shelby being Patrick and Nina being Grace (a “double agent”). Aunt Polly reminded me of Patrick’s mom too.
Okay, well. I’m ruined now. Thanks so much. Emotional damage has been swiftly delivered, and what remains of me is a husk staring into the middle distance.
This book was such an unexpected gut punch of a surprise. The set, the setting, the tone — all of it felt like a breath of fresh, coal-dusted air. It’s giving Peaky Blinders’ criminal underworld meets the political gamesmanship of The Hunger Games meets the grit and longing of a Northern mining town straight out of Billy Elliot… except with MAGIC, you guys. And ROMANCE. A romance so raw, so inevitable, so truly earned it cracked me clean in half and left the pieces on the floor.
Stacey McEwan is a full-blown artist. Her prose is accessible yet elegant, poetic but devastating in its simplicity. Every character here feels alive and jagged-edged in the best way — real, flawed people making messy, desperate choices to save their families, their mission, their entire philosophy of life. The good blur into bad, the bad into good, and every betrayal or salvation feels earned. Even the places breathe — the streets, the mines, the pubs all sketched so vividly I swear I could smell the coal and hear the low roar of voices through the fog. It’s an absolute masterclass.
And then there’s that ending. That ending. Fuck. What are any of us supposed to do with that? A piece of me is still sitting on that last page like a ghost, holding my place until the next book arrives to stitch me back together. I am wrecked. I am grateful. I am completely, irreparably in love.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
The twists and turns!! I am still reeling 😵💫😵