I think this book could be better. The magic is interesting and the world is unique enough, but not memorable. It was also inconsistent and the characters are mediocre. The language used during the 16th century sounded too modern. The plot progressions felt too slow sometimes and then too fast at other times. The writing was OK, it's not horrible but it's not amazing either. I might still read it upon its release to see if it has improvements because I genuinely think it has the potential to be better.

A Wish Too Dark and Kind review

Thank you NetGalley for access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is a genre blend of fantasy, mystery, and horror and it’s full of with murder, mayhem, blood, betrayals, and of course, lots of magic. M. L. Blackbird invites readers to join the colorful cast of characters as they unravel the secrets a mysterious magic-user has in store. The story is at times confusing, but I think it's done in the way of the mystery genre where readers are meant to follow along and try to figure it out for themselves alongside the characters. I didn't love it, but I do think it was intentional. This book was really interesting though. There are multiple points of view which was interesting for world-building because each character has a unique experience with magic and use different magic systems. At different points in the story, these characters explain to each other (and readers) how these magic systems work. I liked this and found it helpful. I like that the story functions as a mystery box of sorts and that's also one of the settings which I thought was fun. I truthfully didn't understand everything (and perhaps I just wasn't reading closely enough) but I found some parts a touch confusing.

The concept of this book is compelling: a strange invitation from an even stranger sender that causes several strangers to meet and must solve a mystery about how they all fit into the puzzle their host has created. Although it was not my favorite, this book is a solid blend of fantasy, mystery, and horror.

3 out of 5 stars

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book and i was excited to get to read it, the stpryline sounded incredible and i expected it to be gothically dark and mysterious, however sadly it fell slightly flat for me, I enjoyed reading it just not as much as i thought that i would.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

I struggled to get into this book! The storyline at the beginning was quite confusing! I had to re-read the first few pages a couple times to fully understand it!

The cover and description is what pulled me in so was a little disappointed I didn’t end up liking the storyline!