*I was graciously given a copy from Netgalley

I absolutely ADORED this book!

This is my first book by Anna-Marie McLemore and I was majorly impressed. The magic and feel of the story left me wanting more and more and I could not stop turning the page. If you love royalty and assassination attempts while falling in love then this book is for you <3

I have read multiple Anna-Marie McLemore because I love the representation, and in theory I should love the lyrical writing, but oh my, this book was boring.

It has all the writing things, but somehow winds up being boring. I am not sure what it is.

While I love the concept of the book and I'm a devoted fan of Anna-Marie McLemore, Venom & Vow did not capture me. I like that the main characters are a trans prince and a bigender assassin, that there's a lot of diversity and disability representation. I like the magically, ever-shifting forest castle and the monastery for trans men. However, I could not get immersed in the story and felt bored most of the time. I never could figure out why the countries were at war, or how they so easily decided to come to a truce, going so far as having one royal family host the other in their castle. Over all, this has some solid ideas but it just didn't work for me.

DNF @ 34%

I was very excited about this one because the representation sounded wonderful. However, I’ve tried reading this about three times now and unfortunately have just found myself too bored to continue each time.

Thanks Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book to me.

This book was kinda disappointing, honestly :( I loved loved the trans rep, it was written really well, but the plot was pretty weak and all of the secondary characters were dry and I felt no connection to them at all. The saving grace for this one was that there are monasteries where trans kids can go and learn to be whatever gender they are, which is a cool concept.

I really loved this! It's got Trans, bigender, disability, and Latinx rep! I do have to say it was a bit slow to get into and sometimes felt a bit choppy jumping between pov's but overall I loved Vemom & Vow!

If you love YA fantasy with lots of adventure, magical creatures, and beautiful world buildings this is a must read! Even if you don't read YA this is amazing!

4.5/5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the e-ARC!

I wanted to like this book because the themes and premise were so beautiful, but it was just incredibly confusing. Between the dual POV, the different (and not always well suited) writing styles of the co-authors, and the cases of mistaken identity....it was just hard to keep track of everything, and that really pulled me out of the story. It didn't help that the characters were fairly flimsy at many points, often due to details that didn't make sense. (Carrying multiple knives in a braid sounds cool, but the amount I had to suspend my disbelief to accept that that was something that was both safe and unnoticeable....)

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.***

This started off a little slow for me, which made it difficult to get into at first - I tried like three separate times before I actually got invested, which for some folks might be the difference between finishing the book & DNFing it. For me, I'm glad to have continued - the payoff was worth it, and I found myself loving the ride once things really got going!

Tiktok did not lie, this book is SO GOOD! Are you into action and deceit? This is the one! Trans kiddos beating the world one swing at a time. And the whole twin switch with a twist is *CHEFS KISS*

Venom & Vow is about two warring countries that are dealing with a big loss. They try to put a stop to the warring but inner power struggles and a still unknown enemy cause a lot of court intrigue.

The best part of this book was the representation. I loved the community the authors built into the world for trans people, and I loved how much a part of the story this community was, not just the background. I appreciated that the two main characters were in different places in figuring out their gender identities, it allowed one to really help the other out. Both of the characters also have disabilities, and one of them is from a Latin-American inspired country.

The biggest problem for me was that I was just so confused most of the time. Not about the world building, which was minimal but cool (I especially loved all the animals). But about why the characters were doing any of the things they were doing. There’s one scene where two characters I could have sworn were really close get into a fight to the death and I still couldn’t tell you why. This made it really difficult to follow what was happening, and to connect to the characters and their motivations.

I also really struggled with grasping the pacing. In one instance it takes them days to get to a place, in another they go there and back seemingly the same day? But again, I was really confused, so I may have misunderstood?

Most of the book was driven by misunderstandings between the characters with murderous stakes. The major assumptions they kept making was starting to get a little too much, but it did get much better in the second half of the book.

There’s also an enemies-to-lovers romance. Their romance could have been developed a bit better but I loved that they were both badasses; Highly skilled at fighting and their specific skills.

Overall rating: 2.8⭐

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends and NetGalley for the eARC!

This story was unlike anything I’ve had the immense pleasure of reading before. What made me ask for an ARC was realizing there were trans characters at the heart of it. Cade is a trans man posing as his royal brother and Valencia (who is sometimes the boy assassin Gael) is bi-gender. As I read further I found Latinx representation as well as disability and chronic pain depictions. Venom & Vow is a YA fantasy about two rival kingdoms affected by the same curse who decide to attempt to work together to dispel it. But really, it’s all about owning your power and becoming your true self, no matter what.

Once again, Anna-Marie McLemore delivers an original concept in their unique prose. Elliot McLemore's added voice was superb and I can't wait to read more from this duo. Anna-Marie is one of my favorite authors, and Elliot only made it better.

I liked the concept of this one a lot. But I think I could have gone for a more of a complimentary tone. I don't know if that makes sense. The feel just seemed kind of strained between the characters.

Received an eARC from NetGalley. 3 stars for the representative of the characters but over all I thought the story was not well written out. The premise of the story was great but the execution was lackluster to me.

I was invited to read and review Venom & Vow as part of the review tour hosted by the authors and Turn the Page Tours. Thank you to all for inviting me along and for the gifted book. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

In this review, I am going to give you five reasons why I think you should read this book. Choosing only five reasons was a difficult task for me because there was so much to unpack after reading. As I already said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

5 Reasons To Read Venom & Vow

1. It’s a really good YA Fantasy! It has all the things we want in a fantasy:
– adventure – fantastical creatures
– intrigue – worldbuilding
– mystery – sword fighting
– magic – romance
– kingdom politics – great characters
2. Transgender main characters. This is the first book I’ve read where a story doesn’t just throw in a character and say, “oh, by the way, they are trans.” To me, that’s important. You come to love and care about these characters. Their stories matter.
3. The characters’ personal journeys. We learn a little of their “coming out” journey, but only to a few people. We learn more about the secrecy, being afraid of the repercussions of others finding out their truth, the feelings of never being able to be truly oneself, and finding the strength to come through all of that even better than when they started.
4. The enemies-to-lovers, forbidden love romance. This one is so back and forth, it could go either way. But once you see that spark, you know. Even in this, though, the universe seems to be against them. You just want to see them get their happily-ever-after.
5. The hope. Stories like this, especially in the current climate in my country, gives me hope. Hope that wars can be ended, people can love each other freely–no matter their differences, and, maybe most important of all, the actions of a few truly can make a difference for all.

Okay, so I might’ve cheated a little with my “5” reasons. I told you it was hard with this book. There’s just so much to love about it.

I highly recommend this book to fans of ya fantasy, transgender main characters, magic, kingdom politics, enemies-to-lovers romance, and forbidden love.

“There are always challenges, she told me. In every generation - yours, mines, the ones who came before and the ones who will come after - there are those who want things to be different and those who want things to stay the same.”
—Venom and Vow
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Anna-Marie McLemore has done it again. They have written a world so detailed, so lush, that I was totally and utterly sucked into completely, and won’t forget any time soon. Beyond the world building, though, Valencia and Cade are heroes that you want to win, even when they are fighting one another.
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“Asking for all of me to be acknowledged like this seems like asking him for the moon and all the accompanying stars.”
—Venom and Vow
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I am not typically one for fantasy without romance, especially not YA fantasy, however, Venom and Vow was fast paced with enough intrigue and action to keep me engaged.

Oh, and the representation in this book! Latinx inspired, with a good amount of Spanish words sprinkled throughout; Cade, a transgender prince and Valencia, a bigender dama to the princess. Oh, and they are both disabled! The overwhelming message throughout this book is to be true to yourself.

Thank you to @turnthepagetours for including me on this tour! Head over to my blog to see more of my favorite quotes from Venom and Vow.

So much phenomenal rep in VENOM & VOW! I wouldn't expect anything less in a book with Anna-Marie McLemore's name on it. My students who write and/or read fantasy are going to love the rich world-building, the twists, and all the complicated relationships. Will definitely be recommending this novel quite a bit this summer! I do wish the book had a list of characters or some reference; there were a few times that I couldn't keep up with all the characters and their relationships.

Welcome to my stop on @turnthepagetours' book tour for Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore! Today I will be sharing my review but be sure to head over to my blog (link in bio) for my favorite quotes from the book and for the full tour schedule!

Once in every hundred or so books, I read one that reminds me why I love the genre of Young Adult Fantasy so much. Venom & Vow is one of these special few books! I find that the best YA Fantasy novels are easy to start reading, but are almost impossible to put down after that point, which was the case with Venom & Vow! The worldbuilding, while fantastic and in-depth, never overshadows the characters or their journeys, letting each of them shine as individuals. The multiple perspectives that the story is told through are both effective and distinct, making reading even more exciting for me as I tried to untangle the threads connecting each of them to the world and the other characters around them. Additionally, the representation in this book was fantastic- a Latinx-inspired high fantasy world with a trans lead and a bigender one, both of whom are disabled is exactly what the world needs to read today!

My Recommendation-
If you are a fan of The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas, you absolutely have to grab a copy of Venom & Vow! I would especially recommend this book to fans of the YA Fantasy genre as a whole!

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of venom & vow. This was such a fun read if you're into that style.

I’ve really wanted to read books by Anna-Marie McLemore for a long time, but so far only managed to read a short story by them in SERENDIPITY: TEN ROMANTIC TROPES TRANSFORMED. I loved the short story, and when I saw this book up for grabs as a review copy from MacMillan, I knew I wanted to read it.

To be honest, I had kind of a mixed experience with this book.

First, I loved the characters. Cade is a transgender prince who should be next in line to rule, but has complicated feelings about that. Instead, he impersonates his brother, Patrick, when Patrick needs things taken care of.

Valencia serves as a dama to her princess, but also as an assassin as Gael, a boy with an affinity for knives. Valencia wrestles with questions about whether her identity as both male and female is something her people will accept. Gael also makes some powerful enemies, which could be bad if those enemies connect his identity to Valencia’s.

The story world is definitely rich with magic and interesting elements that seem both inspired by Latine culture and Scottish culture. Super cool. The Eliane people are protected by Quetzals and other magical creatures that emerge from their tapestries. Sea monsters guard the Adare.

While the story world has some rich elements, I felt like there were also some confusing aspects. We know there’s been a curse, which removed both kingdom’s leaders and a few others. Descriptions of that night are choppy, which makes sense at first, because it’s a memory from years ago and both Cade and Valencia were not close enough to make out all the details.

As the story progresses, though, there were times information kind of got dropped into a scene and it felt like it was something we were already supposed to know, but yet was new information.

The progression of events from scene to scene felt choppy, too. At one point, a scene ends in the middle of a battle, with one character appearing to be the victor. The next scene opens with the apparent victor lying dead, but we never learn how they were overpowered or what happened. Stuff like that.

I did really enjoy the relationships between the characters and getting to see the representation of both Cade and Valencia/Gael. Both have chronic pain as well as queer identities.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.