A review by whenimreading
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

dark slow-paced

3.0

Rune Winters is a witch in hiding. After the fall of the Sister Queens, most powerful witches in history, witches are being hunted and purged. Fighting in memory of her grandmother, Rune becomes The Crimson Moth, a vigilante saving fellow witches from the Blood Guard and helping them escape the island. In order to get information on the whereabouts of a powerful witch, Rune will need to court a witch hunter, Gideon Sharpe. Believing Rune is an aloof socialite, Gideon plants clues to catch The Crimson Moth and soon suspects they are one and the same. 

Heartless Hunter was alike to Bridgerton with witches and a slightly gothic background, featuring the popular romance trope enemies to lovers. Although I liked the setup and atmosphere, it was very repetitive and slow paced at times. Especially in the first half in regard to different spells and blood magic, very simple system to follow so it didn’t need to repeat as much as it did. 

Like many YA novels, this book doesn’t develop to include many characters that are older than the demographic, it seems like the government is ran by young adults. I found many themes problematic. Witches are presented as female only, a menace to society making them out to be evil and dangerous (ie. to men), at the same time the only way for them to use their magic is by self harm. 

I wished there was more world building overall, it was very small and the romance felt forced. I didn’t think Rune and Gideon had chemistry or characteristics to make them stand out amongst the plethora of Romantasy novels on the market currently. The book was disjoined making it seem like two different novels from the first half to the second, ending in a lot of chaos and violence. 

Trigger warnings: self harm + scars, blood magic (a lot of talk about blood), death

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy to review. 
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