Reviews with content warning for Grief - Heartless Hunter

Tropes - Enemies to Lovers ⚔️ Best Friend’s Brother 🖤 Cat + Mouse Game 🐈‍⬛ Witch x Witch Hunter 🌙

The Plot.
Rune is looked at as nothing more than a flighty heiress whose biggest concerns are what she’s wearing to the next party and who she’s going with…when in reality she’s actually a vigilante with a powerful secret. She is the Crimson Moth, a witch working to save as many of her fellow witches as she can from being unalived. Alongside her friends, Verity and Alex, Rune works tirelessly to outwit & evade the Blood Guard (witch hunters) who seek to rid her island of all witches. Who, you might ask, leads this Blood Guard’s charge? None other than the older brother of Rune’s childhood best friend: Gideon Sharpe. As Captain of the Blood Guard, Gideon will stop at nothing to capture the Crimson Moth and bring her to justice. and his latest suspect – the woman in question who he is “courting” – might just be his undoing… and he, hers.

This book was genuinely Enemies to Lovers perfection for me. I haven't read many stories that strike such a phenomenal - and I mean phenomenal – balance of tension, drama, intrigue and emotion as this one did. I was so wrapped up in the setting and characters that i hardly wanted to put it down at all. I needed to finish it like needing to breathe. That’s how drawn i was to it, like a moth to a flame 😉

“Your laugh is like a fuse,” he said. “It lights you up.”

Rune Winters.
Such a complex, fantasy heroine but one I absolutely loved! She really does it all. She’s a society heiress doing the most to paint the picture of a self-absorbed girl, all while she moonlights as a dangerous, vigilante saving witches?? And she’s a witch herself?? Rune is what we refined readers would call a BA. I really loved the way the author Kirsten revealed Rune’s heart and motivations for her actions to us. Rune struggles so much with her grief and regret from the past and it was beautiful to see how certain characters brought out different things that her complex emotions often masked due to her grief. She is clever, strong, and skilled and ultimately finds her match in Gideon who shares those same attributes.

“She was drowning, and he was air. she hadn’t realized how much she needed him until he was gone.”

Gideon Sharpe.
Boy did this man grow on me. I truly didn’t like him in the beginning (and we even got his POV and I was still weary because this man is equally as complex as Rune but in very different ways). We don’t learn his motivations super quickly – at least not until his character opens up more – but when you do… dang. He has experienced some trauma for sure that has desperately required him to need to put up walls in order to drag himself out it. That being said: if you’re a fan of misunderstood, morally gray characters in books who are intentional and caring for one person, I think Gideon is going to be right up your alley. He definitely was for me!

“I’m afraid you’ll be the end of me...maybe you already are.”

Bottom Line.
This was just *peak* Romantasy/Enemies to Lovers. I never wanted it to end. Like, I got to the final page and literally said aloud to an empty room with just me and my dog: “Uhm, WHAT. Excuse me, Kristen? Where's the rest??” Kristen (the author) strangely did not respond to this random outburst from me in my room. So now I’ll just be on my merry way to go stare at a wall and watch paint dry for the next bit as i try to emotionally recover from that cliffhanger. Cannot wait for this read to be out in the world next month! Do yourself a favor & go preorder your copy now 🖤 It’s a must read if there ever was one!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

perkdd's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

First and foremost, I want to give the biggest thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

”She was drowning, and he was air. She hadn’t even realized how much she needed him until he was gone.”

The Heartless Hunter is a cat-and-mouse duet that will have you hooked from the start and I truly hope it receives the hype it deserves in 2024 because this book had me internally SCREAMING on all parts and ends on such a flawless cliffhanger. If you enjoyed Bridgerton and like reading bout witches, this book is for you because it is a perfect mix of the two.

Kristen Ciccarelli creates a story that surrounds two MCs with a dual POV, Rune Winters, and Gideon Sharpe. Rune is a ditsy socialite by day and a witch vigilante who protects witches from being captured and purged by night. Gideon is a witch hunter within the Blood Guard set on purging witches and finding the bane of his existence, the Crimson Moth. Finally, Gideon discovers intel of a merchant ship that smuggled two young witches out of the New Republic and it leads him to none other than Rune. The two MCs decide to court each other to use the other to their advantage. Rune, to use Gideon's position for intel to help her protect her identity and save more witches, and Gideon for wanting to catch the Crimson Moth. But what happens when the facade becomes real?

I am normally not one for YA novels, but Ciccarelli manages to write the book in a manner that does not make it feel as though it is shallowly written for high schoolers with cringy spice scenes that most YA novels have. My rating for spice level is 2/5 but I enjoyed the slow burn of The Heartless Hunter and hope to see more in the second book.

"It shocked her out of her stupor. Rune was no longer the mimic spider, luring her victim into a trap. She was inside her own trap . . . about to be devoured by her prey."

I wholeheartedly believe that Gideon Sharpe will be a 2024 favorite when it comes to morally grey boyfriends because he is a character that you will love to hate, but also want a happy ending for when you discover more and more about him. This enemies-to-lovers trope is such an unexpected but welcomed plot that keeps you on your toes and I am here for it. I also appreciated how many layers Ciccarelli gave the characters, rather than making them one-dimensional. The banter was exceptional and I was constantly on the edge of my seat from how fast-paced this book is. The amount of unexpected twists and turns leave you wanting more, especially the ending.

The Negatives: I do agree with other reviews that mention how the worldbuilding could have been better, but I am desperately hoping we will see more within the next book. Ciccarelli focuses a lot on the characters, but I needed more in the plot because I have many questions. Specifically, why is it that witches are being purged only in the New Republic but live in harmony with others in Caelis? Are they truly accepted in other parts of the world? What are the power dynamics like among witches? Why mention Rune's merchant business but not explain what it entails? My only other qualm with this book is that it seems to lack diversity. Again, hopefully, this is something we will see within the second book, but I wish there had been at least some.

All in all, I do strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romantasy novels and witches. I truly hope that Ciccarelli receives the hype and success she deserves from this book because it is such a wonderful story that I did NOT want to put it down and read the entire thing in one sitting. This book is dark, emotional, tense, and still manages to give you hope. I am thoroughly excited to see what comes next for Rune and Gideon!

Content Warnings

lastblossom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

tl;dr
A volatile romance with great cat-and-mouse moments, and plenty of drama.

Thoughts
It's rare that a book promising cat-and-mouse delivers quite as well as this one. Usually you only get a bit of banter before the kissing starts, but there are some real twists and deceptions locked up in this one, and I loved it. (Don't worry, there's also kissing.) Anyone looking for conflicted leads with angst and internal hurts will find plenty here to go around. The chemistry between Rune and Gideon is volatile, with a dash of spice, and a really believable enemies-to-lovers(?)-to-enemies(?) roller coaster relationship. World building is effective, with rules about the use of magic explained with quick, but consistent strokes. Author's notes mention The Scarlet Pimpernel (a personal favorite) as a light inspiration, and I can totally see the spaces where it peeks through. I will say that I have never seen a character marked for death so obviously as [Name Redacted], and when they died I found myself somewhat relieved that it finally happened so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Recommended reading for fans of morally gray, complex relationships, hunter vs. hunted relationships, and a splash of dark fantasy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

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