tomeaftertome 's review for:

Bound By Blood and Shadows by Gemma Pettinato, Gemma Pettinato
4.75
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
First of all—huge fanged thank you to BookSirens for shoving this sinful little gem into my claws. If this is this author’s debut? Babe… she’s lying. No way a first book has any right to be this polished, this seductive, this ready to sink its teeth in and drink you dry.

With prose as a harp as a dagger kissed in moonlight and worldbuilding the likes of Ravenloft meets Songbird and the Wings of Night— Pettinato delivers us a highly addictive storyline sprinkled with just enough D&D campaign chaos vibes that I half expected someone to shout, “Roll for initiative!” at any moment. And yes, my dice were ready. 🎲

We’re talking dark. Deliciously so. The kind of morally gray where you’re constantly side-eyeing everyone like— wait… are YOU the villain? Or are we all just pretending to be heroes in the shadows? Our MMC? Straight-up giving Astarion-from-BG3 energy. Broody, dangerous, and infuriatingly seductive. We are also blessed with an FMC fierce and fearless. Added to this are side characters that are so real, you will grieve and yearn alongside them.

Now, full disclosure— there were a few tiny hiccups (mostly grammatical) that a good beta reader could have smoothed out. But did it pull me out of the story? Not even for a heartbeat. The spice? Chef’s kiss— decadent, intentional, and wrapped in shadows.

My final verdict is this: Run. Don’t walk. Let this book take you by the throat and drag you into its world. And when you finish, you can thank me… preferably with offerings fit for a dark goddess from my Amazon wishlist in my IG/TikTok bio. 🤭

In all seriousness— thank you again to BookSirens for the making this connection possible, and to the author for trusting me with an e-ARC. Every thought here is mine, given willingly, and I’ll just be over here waiting for book two like it’s my next blood meal. No pressure… but also, hurry.
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