Thank you to NetGalley, Dark Hour Press and the author A.M. Dunnewin for providing me with this ebook.

3.75 stars

First off, I love the cover! It's what made me take notice of the book in the first place.

Second, I really enjoyed this book. You get thrown right into the story and the author does a fantastic job with the worldbuilding. It did start to drag slightly in the middle and I think there would have been room to developed the romance much more as it is a big reason for some important decisions our MCs are making later on and to me it just wasn't enough... But then the story quickly pickes up again and I loved the ending!

The best thing about the whole book however are the very well researched execution scenes and the life/laws/rules as an executioner! These parts were amazing!

I'm excited to see where this story takes us and will definitely continue this series.

This was EXCELLENT, I highly enjoyed and would recommend. I can’t wait to read the next one.

A slight criticism is that the dialogue was sometimes a liiiittle clunky and it seems a little pointless to split it into a trilogy, as each book ends up being closer to novella length, BUT I suppose that this form allows each book to reach a crescendo and then be followed by an epilogue taking place apart from the main narrative. Shout out to NetGalley for this one xoxo

The premise of the book is very interesting. I was immediately hooked by the idea of a story following an executioner who moonlights as a healer. The juxtaposition grabbed my attention and I really wanted to know more about what drove the character to both professions. Unfortunately, none of the characters in this book were dynamic and three-dimensional enough for me to care about.

A lot of this book is infodumping and telling the reader exactly what's happening, which makes for a pretty boring read, especially when nothing actually happens throughout the book until the very end. We are told that Joss doesn't love being an executioner, but her behavior suggests that she doesn't care one way or another. We're told that Joss and Aric have a pull toward one another, but aside from some short conversations between them nothing really happens to suggest that bond forming. It was very frustrating to read, especially since this book would have been so good if I cared about the characters and there was a plot to progress.

In addition to being intrigued by the executioner aspect of the story, I was equally intrigued by the assassin angle. I was kind of hoping for We Hunt the Flame or The Bridge Kingdom vibes but didn't get either. Aside from some flashback and thoughts about how much easier it was when he could move, Aric is too banged up to do much of anything. He basically lays around the cottage all day, until the very end of the book. We didn't really get any assassin vibes aside from those flashbacks and the action packed into the ending, which was disappointing to me.

The whole assassination plot itself was lacking, actually. I never really felt the pressure of figuring out who the masked people were, wondering how everything tied together, and hoping our characters would make it out alive. There was...nothing. Aside from two or three interactions with the masked people, the whole assassination plot just kind of fell together with no tension or resistance. I like the concept of it, I just didn't really care! It was a blend of absence and predictability that could have been better executed (heh) had more attention been paid to the character development and pacing of the plot. This book is incredibly short, and here's not a whole lot that happens throughout the book until the very last couple of chapters, then it was like whiplash trying to keep up with what was happening.

Now, I did like the worldbuilding in this book. I actually have one of the author's reference books on my tbr because it sounds so interesting. I enjoyed the descriptions of the society in which the characters lived, learning about the expectations placed on the town executioner but also the alienating nature of the job. Several mundane tasks were also described, which I actually found quite fascinating since it added depth to the setting, something the other areas of the book were missing. Things like cooking and doing the laundry were described in a way that really brought me into the scene and made it more enjoyable to read.

I also really loved Henrik. While he sometimes felt like the sidekick character to Joss, he still managed to feel like the most fleshed-out character in the book. I liked learning about his backstory and his motivations to stay with Joss despite their outcast status within their society. He seemed to have the most emotion between the three main characters, as we got to see his protectiveness alongside his sweet nature.

Really, there's nothing specific in this book that I can point out as being bad. I just really wish there had been so much more detail in regards to the characterizations and the plot. It's hard to enjoy reading a book when you don't feel strongly toward the characters and how their lives are being affected by the events in the book, and that's really where I struggled with this one. Perhaps readers younger than myself would enjoy this book, keeping in mind the sometimes gory scenes depicted. I just feel like readers who have more experience with historical fantasy and political intrigue/corruption will find this boring, much like I did. I don't know that I will read the second book, despite the good cliffhanger book one left off on.

I was really excited to read this book when I read that the female main character was an executioner. You could tell that the author did a lot of research while writing this book because the world-building in this book was so well done. Even though it took a while for the story to pick up, I enjoyed the read and would like to continue with this series and see how Joss and Aric's story will end.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to netgalley for an arc of this book!
Joss Brevyn, the sole member left of her excutioner family, comes across Aric Kayden, an assassin that failed to kill his latest target, bleeding and clinging to life on the side of the road. Despite her career of taking lives she spends her free time healing and chooses to heal Aric despite his mysterious injuries. A connection between the two is built but their bond begins to be tested when they find themselves in each other's crosshairs in order to uphold their duties.
although the premise of this story was quite interesting the story telling was quite slow and not engaging. i found myself putting it down and not needing to pick it back up multiple times

The plot and characters of this book were good. They were well developed and I was enticed to keep reading. I enjoyed the budding relationship and tension between Joss and Aric. I would have given the books 4 stars but the ending was confusing. and the switch to the epilogue with the royals made me confused as well. I do look forward to seeing what happens to joss an aric overall 3.5 starts

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Joss, an executioner, spends her off time as a healer. Arik is an assassin who has been left for dead after failing to kill his latest mark. Both are controlled by outside forces—what will happen when one makes a decision that will put both of them in danger?

I really liked this book! The idea of a female executioner who comes from a long family like of executioners was very intriguing. It’s a brutal job, but I really enjoyed putting myself in the mind of someone who is forced to do the job chosen for them whether they want to or not.

Joss is a very strong FMC. I appreciate that even though she’s been forced to make hard decisions and go through heartbreak, she still remains a kind and caring person. Arik is still a bit of a mystery, but I’m intrigued to learn more about his backstory. I really enjoyed watching their friendship grow as he learned more about her life.

Overall, I loved the slow build of this world and its characters, and I’m excited to unravel the rest of the conspiracy and see what will happen in the next book!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

4⭐️ I zipped through this. Very entertaining read. Joss has so much strength and you can definitely admire her as a FMC. Aric comes off as an entitled, shallow city boy up until literally the last chapter so he was meh for me.

I’m taking a whole star off for the writing and the POVs. It’s 3rd person, which is fine and whatever; but the perspective bounced around with no clear distinction that I got confused a lot with who’s POV we were reading through and super frustrated… I’m almost flip-flopping between 3.5-4 stars…. Anyways.

Still super entertaining, and a plot I havnt seen before. I’d consider reading the next one when it came out.

Oh! Also…. It’s considered YA but there’s some themes that I would argue make it more NA… just a thought, and know your triggers…

This started out really good. I liked the idea of a female executioner, given the job because of a family punishment. The assassin role was neat also as it had two main characters working to hide their true roles while also building a semi-normal relationship. I liked their engagement back and forth, but about 60% in it started getting wonky with the female just waiting for him to leave and the assassin thinking that everyone wants him to leave. Then the weirdo's in the masks were never explained - like why are they so stealthy? Why do they know so much? And then at the end we get introduced to a whole kingdom with a missing prince and brothers trying to over through brothers. It just went sidewise and felt like two completely different stories. It was a unique idea and the beginning portion was super interesting hence the 3 start rating. Hopefully the next book in the series lays a good foundation to let us know who this book is really about and give us a good idea of the characters.

I know it’s a trilogy but this fell short for me, I feel like as the first book is supposed to pull you in but I felt like it went from world building to nothing much else to all action for the last few chapters and it was just not for me.
Also being classified as a fantasy romance didn’t feel right to me, at least not from the first book alone. I feel it has potential and it will be a romance to remember! I just didn’t feel connected or into the romance!
Looking forward to seeing everything come together in book 2!

Not my typical go-to sytle of book. I wouldn't really clasify this as typical fantasy which was what it was described as. I however did really get pulled into the story and liked the writing style.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an advance reader's copy of this book. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

I loved this book so much. The writing is amazing, and the story was engaging and captivating. It was very interesting reading about a female executioner, and I found myself getting easily sucked into the world. Can't wait to read the sequel!

⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Dive into a gritty, dark fantasy with All the Dark Souls!

I was a little conflicted on where to rate this but eventually I settled on 3 stars and think that should be a fair judgement. Everything about this novel had so much promise and all of it was <i>good</i>, I just didn't find any of it <i>great</i>.

The world-building was amazing and you could really tell that Dunnewin had done their research and knew exactly where they wanted their story to be placed! I felt like the world building could have been spaced out a little better so that we didn't get paragraphs of information dumped on us every second page. It might just me a me thing, but my memory is shot and I prefer being drip-fed lore throughout a story rather than being beaten with it all upfront.

The characters were great - particularly Joss and her assistant, but I would have loved to see some more genuine development across the board. All of the plot points we progressed through were standard for a fantasy in this genre so none of the plot twists really threw me for a loop. Not that it's <i>bad</i> to reuse these tropes, stacks of authors do and do it well, and I think that if Joss and the rest had a bit more meat to them the twists would have worked perfectly. The romance in particular really fell flat to me and I've got my fingers crossed that the sequel is going to throw a Rhysand plot-twist at us and yeet Alric out a window for someone actually worthy of how badass Joss is.

Overall the characters had promise and the world was great. I have high hopes for the sequel now that we (hopefully) had most of the worldbuilding out of the way. With the novel's short length this felt more like a setup than an actual installment and I'm really hoping that the sequel gives us exactly what I was missing from this one.


<i>Thank you, NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an arc copy of this book.

4/5 stars

Things I loved:
Loveee dark fantasy aspect
Two povs
Love that a woman is the executioner
Things I didn’t love:
Character development- felt like there was a lot of internal monologue rather than real life conversation between characters.
Action only happened in the last few chapters

I am excited to see what else this triology will bring.

Twisted, exciting, dark story to lose yourself in.
Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Thank you NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


All the Dark Souls wasn't terrible - but it was, unfortunately, pretty boring. For being only 202 pages, it really dragged at certain points. I've never read another book by this author, but there were some odd moments to me. I think the author would've benefited from doing a bit more showing instead of telling - there were several descriptions of someone being annoyed/mad/sad, only for the author to then literally say that they were annoyed/mad/sad. While I understand getting the point across, it felt a little tiresome at some point.

I also had some qualms with their societal structure. Firstly, everyone is stunned that there is a women executioner - which is interesting because the author did not display in any way that the society was sexist, other than showing every man being surprised at a women executioner. I feel like we could've benefited from seeing why society cared, and showing some emotion about this. Instead, we just got a lot of people acting shocked and then immediately getting over it.

Secondly, why are executioners TORTURED and murdered when they can't kill someone in 3 tries? Why did they settle on THREE tries? Why do they have to be tortured? Why aren't they just fired, or excommunicated? I feel like torturing people who had a bad day is pretty dramatic, and I didn't feel like there was a satisfying explanation for why anyone would agree to these rules - and why executioners weren't running away left and right.

All in all, All the Dark Souls wasn't horrible, but it wasn't a book I'd necessarily recommend, and I will not be reading future books in this series. I would perhaps give this author another try, though. I did think they invested a lot of energy in their world-building, which I appreciate.

I loved this book! At 166 pages it was easily read in a day but A.M. Dunnewin did a fantastic job at building a world, characters, a little tension, and a lot of drama in this story. To be an executioner let alone a female and the last of her line Joss is one amazing woman. I won’t give spoilers but I will say the twists and turns this story took left me hooked from the first page!

i was pleasantly surprised by this read! the plot was intriguing but the author did a great job of telling this story. enjoyed it so much i preordered the sequel!

This was a really nice short read. It threw me right into the action and immediately into a world where nothing would go according to plan. There was lots of twists that I enjoyed and the characters were great.

Joss was an interesting character I wanted to know more about, she held a lot of burdens and I felt sorry for her. Then Aric, I didn't see much of his character but the parts I did see were interesting.

That being said, I kind of wanted more. I would have liked for the stakes to be higher, and to truly understand Aric's terror at failing. And more emphasis on the prince story line.

Overall, this was a fun read.

All the dark Souls is a fast paced dark fantasy which follows Joss, who is an executioner and Henrick her assistant . The pacing of this book is good as it sucks into the story quickly without being too wordy with the world building like most fantasy books. I liked Joss's character and I especially love her and henrick's relationship. I don't really understand the relationship between her and Aric. I understand Aric sees her as his beautiful saviour and that Joss finally found someone that learned who she was and didn't run away but I don't really feel the romance blooming between them.
Overall, it was an ok read. I look forward to the rest of the series, to see how the plot develops.