3.97 AVERAGE

adventurous fast-paced

The overall story is great. The pacing in the book is jumpy and weird, and I was lost several times with how fast everything moved.
adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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
adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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
adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

ebeyland's review

4.0

FBAA vibes but I still loved it. The mercenaries, the FMC willing to do whatever it takes to survive, the magic, everything. Super excited for a FULL SERIES that I can dive into.
adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
adventurous funny 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: N/A

I devoured this story. I went into it blind & oh my god it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I was put off by the title of the book & it’s been sitting on my TBR for a long time bc of that. That it the last time I’ll be judging a book by its cover (or title in this case lol). The characters were INSTANTLY lovable! For an author to not only make the MC’s likable, but a list of side characters at least 10 long… this was my first Stacia Stark book, and I can confidently say that she became an instant favorite. The magic system was fairly unique, and the separation of the Fae, Hybrid & human kingdoms was very intriguing. I saw the “plot twist” at the end with Lorain coming from a mile away, but it didn’t diminish the impact when the truth came out. Great writing, characters, background story, magic & slow burn romance! The hate to friends to lovers to enemies storyline was reminiscent to FBAA in the best way 
adventurous fast-paced