Well...I guess it isn't as bad as I imagined. I won't say I wasn't prepared for what was coming, I saw some quotes and experts on social media indicating its quality, but I was curious. I kept seeing it here and there, and I wanted to see for myself what it's about. To be fair, it isn't all that bad. The story is engaging, the romance is cute at times, and I genuinely found some moments humorous. Also, the lore and the world-building, in general, are based on precious stones, as most of the locations in particular are named after them, that are fascinating and original. Nonetheless, aspects of the book such as the writing, especially the dialogue, come off as cheesy and mediocre. I can excuse that to a certain extent, however. This is the author's debut novel and these qualities are actually somewhat expected in such cases. Who knows? Maybe the second book will be significantly better than the first one. 🤞🤞 This started off decently, I enjoyed Arwens character (at first), I liked where the story was going- exchanging herself for her brothers debt, her healing abilities, her exchanges with the ‘strange prisoner’, even the small plot twist with said prisoner, which was predictable, but I moved on. To protect them, Arwen makes the fateful decision to offer herself to the Onyx kingdom and this is how she finds herself faced with an uncertain future and placing her hopes on the shoulders of a handsome stranger.

As this is romantasy, you’ll also have an attractive thief and a broody powerful king somehow sparing verbally with Arwen and that felt like heated foreplay to me! EDIT: I’m adjusting this to 5 stars based on the fact that I literally can not stop thinking about this book. It lives in my head rent free and that deserves a full 5 star rating for me ❤️‍🔥🫶🏼 By the end of the story, we will have an emboldened Arwen, trusting in her abilities. She’s been put to the test and came victorious. I do appreciate a good character growth. From mouse to warrior. We truly have an original, round character in here, a strong woman who’s brave while still being soft and feminine, a girl who loves deeply but is specially loyal to herself. The last chapter was devastating but incredible when it comes to Arwen’s mentality shift. The secondary characters felt very one dimensional as well. They didn't seem like real people because they all had such distinctive purposes. Once they were used, they were discarded.

Moving on…. I wanted to make a point to really speak on the originality here. Yes, it’s true that this is an enemies-to-lovers, and yes it’s a “chosen one” fantasy story, and sure, some of the twists were arguably a little predictable. But Kate knew what her readers were looking for, and she gave it to them. This is not the type of originality I’m talking about. Instead, I wanted to talk about the settings and the mythology/lore of the story. For one, I found the idea of kingdoms named off of, and based upon, gems and stones to be really interesting. I was especially intrigued by the way that the kingdoms seemed to reflect the traits and even physical descriptions of the stones (gems? idk) in question. It was a great take on world building in my opinion. And then the mythology of the world. I found it really interesting that there was a unique blend of human versus fantastical. Unlike some stories where there may be two worlds or a veil of some sort, in this case, the humans learned about fae and creatures and such, but were so far removed from them, that they were taught about almost the way we are mythology. Like it was believed to exist, but there was not really concrete evidence to prove it. Idk, something about it really brought in my attention, and I found myself curious to learn more as the world was built up. well, i had a lot of fun with this book!! if i had to describe it, i would say that it is Blood and Ash meets A Court of Mist and Fury, but with a very different world. I really liked the beginning, I could see myself falling in love with the world and I was prepared to give this book at least 4 stars, but the author dropped the ball pretty fast. I was provided a copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Arwen and Kane's first encounter was pretty unconventional, but the tension was there from the beginning and you can only imagine how it escalated when they were forced to be in close proximity to each other.

This first book ends not so much on a cliffhanger, but with a lot for our couple to resolve (have delicious angst/tension over) in book two. The non-romantic plot is closed up a bit more, but hints toward a bigger battle to come.THE STORY was very fast paced, and the beginning was especially good at getting you interested in the story. So much happened in this book already and it’s set up well for the sequel. Mari’s mouth fell open, and Griffin stood up abruptly, his too-long legs banging the table and making the cutlery jump. i would say this was an extremely tropey read, but i'm not complaining bc it was exactly right for me atm and i. ATE IT ALL UP. i mean, just look at all these tropes: