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praaliine's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Moderate: Torture, Grief, Death, Kidnapping, and Murder
naomi_k's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Medical trauma, Gore, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Moderate: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, War, and Body horror
Minor: Kidnapping and Sexual content
mimmixoxo's review
4.25
Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death, Violence, Murder, Blood, and Medical content
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Drug use
Minor: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Stalking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Deportation, Gore, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, and Gun violence
hannahs_library__'s review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and War
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When she arrives, the lord is eccentric and the patient she was summoned to save is Hal, a war criminal and former child soldier. He's an assassin who can kill with his magic gaze, and the lord seems to have no idea, demanding that Wren do all she can for his "servant". Gradually, it becomes clear that Hal's illness is more complicated (as are her growing feelings for him), and Wren will have to choose between turning him in and stopping the war.
I saw a review which characterized Wren's dilemma as a choice between supporting a current war criminal or a former war criminal. That is definitely literally a choice that gets made at several points in the text, and somewhat dampened some of my enjoyment of the story. However, I did appreciate it as a narrative about two people who didn’t have much choice about whether to join their respective nations' militaries, but now are trying to find other paths for themselves and stop those who want a war to continue. When the options are to root for the character who was a child soldier but now is trying to stop the violence, or to support the character actively kidnapping and torturing people for his own personal and political gains... that's not nearly as tricky of a problem for me as this other reviewer found it.
One of my favorite worldbuilding details is the way that the small cluster of three countries (two of which are shown) have very different levels of technology, largely driven by whether or not their citizens have access to magic. Next is the way that this feels like a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It's probably not meant to be one, however, so many of the larger story beats fit neatly into the mold of that narrative, that, at the very least, someone who loves Beauty and the Beast (depending on the reasons) would likely be very interested in this book. It has a snow-covered castle lorded over by a strange man with strict rules about where the heroine may or may not go, an arbitrary timeline to solve a strange problem, a ball, and lots of wound care. The cadence of the plot follows that other one in some interesting ways, but getting into those details would be too many spoilers.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Violence, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death
Moderate: War, Alcohol, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Terminal illness
Minor: Child abuse, Excrement, Vomit, Torture, and Child death
kalmia31's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Grief, Hate crime, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Addiction, Drug abuse, Classism, Physical abuse, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Alcoholism
Minor: War, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Xenophobia
takarakei's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
2.5/5 🌶️
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty
sexual content very mild, pretty much closed door. animal testing mentioned briefly.bookbug_97's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma
girlonbooks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Niece to the queen herself, Wren Southerland might as well be a nobody. Sequestered in the Abbey from a very young age, Wren fought to establish her worth with her exceptional (and magical) healing abilities. Having worked her way up to Lieutenant in the Queen’s army, all Wren wants in the whole world is to be recognized for her value; to be told she matters. But when one moment of misplaced compassion leaves her at the mercy of an enemy spy – compromising her entire mission – Wren risks losing everything she’s spent years worked for. Getting back in the Queen’s good graces will require a bigger gamble than she’s ever taken before, and necessitate allying herself with the very enemy she’s sworn to defeat.
“Maybe the only difference between a monster and a hero was the colour of a soldier’s uniform”
This book really grew on me. I loved the narration from the start (Kathleen McInerney deserves her own genre of the word talented) but I took a minute to connect with the story. Once things get going, though, and the mystery “intensifies,” so to speak, I was officially in it for the long haul. Just something to keep in mind if you’re on the fence about DNFing within the first 50 pages.
✨ Read this book because: you want a cozy winter read with some mystery, the tiniest bit of sexual tension and a lot of politically motivated backstabbing.
✨ Content warnings for this book: descriptive medical stuff, graphic medical trauma, gore, blood, death, death of a parent, murder, poisoning, body horror, war, violence
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Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War
escapinginpaper's review
- 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
4.0
Main character Wren is a magic-user whose specialty is healing. She is kicked out of the Queen's Guard after one-too-many mess-ups, which devastates her because she has to leave behind the woman she loves, her chance at proving herself to her aunt, the Queen, and her chance to help solve the mystery of her comrades disappearing. When she's invited to heal the servant of a mysterious lord from a neighboring neutral country, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. However when there she discovers the "servant" is actually her mortal enemy & perceived war criminal, Hal.
This was a super slow-burn romance, high fantasy, and gothic murder mystery all-in-one. I really liked the vibe of the whole story, the setting, and the magic system. This has a lot of tropes, but they were done really well and I loved reading them – enemies-to-lovers; "there's only one bed"; mysterious, brooding hot dude with black hair.
My biggest complaint about this one is that it reads like it was rushed – especially towards the end. I think this would have been well-suited as a duology. The romance is really good... but ultimately the characters know each other for about two weeks and they decide they're in love. This bothered me... There are also other redemptions & character developments at the end that felt like they needed more time to... well... develop.
I did really like the ending, but it also really really made me wish there was a sequel! There is so much that the two main characters could do that I would really love to read. Overall, what a great debut novel – I can't wait to see what else Saft will write.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual content, and Murder