I'm kinda sick of seeing everything pitched as "enemies to lovers" or relationships compared to the "Helnik" ship. At least if its not sapphics. I've gotten way more picky and I'm kinda thankful considering SMP strikes.

What can I say other than I loved this! So much so that I had to hit a physical copy! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an e-arc! Sorry it took me so long to read and review!

If you like magic, banned magic, enemies-to-lovers, action, heartbreak, and descriptive detail and prose, then this is for you. The journey Rune takes, the obstacles she faces, and the desire she has to find and save those like her, kept me wanting. I could not get enough of this!

2/5

I did not enjoy this book. Although the premise sounds interesting, I thought there were a lot of trigger warnings that warrants an adult label to this book rather than having the target audience to be teens/young adult.

Story wise, I honestly the plot had a lot of lazy plotting. For example, half of the book is about the witches scheming into the prison to rescue a witch, but they don’t even get to step foot in it. There were other cases where it just showed the author didn’t put thought into the plot. Like the access coin, they needed it to get into a very safe guarded prison. To think that the witch hunter Gideon would gamble it away, was crazy to me. That in itself deserved a more complex plot. Other cases like Gideon finding out the truth was so anticlimactic, he just walks into all the witches and Alex talking about breaking into prison? Romance wise, I didn’t find anything spectacular either. I hated Harrow a lot for baiting and pressuring Gideon to have an intimate relationship with Rune, just to see her scars was disgusting. I don’t know, it’s a mixture of characters I don’t like or particularly care about, and weird plotting that threw the book all off for me.

I also wanted to add the oddity of electricity in this story. I had to read that part twice cause the beginning gave me laturn/ancient age vibes, then all of the sudden people had guns and electricity? The world building was a little underdeveloped. But I will say it was different than most romantasies currently.

What a great book and one that there was so much hype around but it was well deserved. I loved it! Definitely one to add to your list.

That ending left me with my jaw hanging open..
it was a little slow in the beginning but by the end I was completely invested in these characters.. wow.
I loved the magic and the enemies to lovers aspect. The slow burn romance/ fake dating was delicious.
Would definitely recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. Due to the ongoing boycott I will not be leaving my full thoughts until the issue has been resolved.

This book was so good! This was an enchanting and exciting fantasy romance about love, friendship, betrayal, power and courage.

'Heartless Hunter' is such a great jumping off into a new series. The ending certainly leaves you impatiently waiting for the next installment!

This novel is fast paced enemies-to-lovers story with a minor love triangle. It is marketed as Teens YA but is definitely more New Adult due to the sex and age of the characters.

The world building is colorful and dynamic. The rules of magic are firmly established. The characters are endearing with deep backstory which makes you feel as though you really know them. There are several side characters who are even given their due.

What I am hoping to see more of in book two is the more cunning side of the Crimson Moth. She is supposed to be this superhero-esque character helping and freeing witches that are being hunted but spends a lot of this book planning a witch-heist that never really happens and trying to get information from the witch hunter by seducing him into a relationship. All the while, he suspects her, so readily enters into the relationship.

There are also some side characters that behaved oddly but nothing really came of it so I am wondering if they have more to reveal in the next book...I'm talking to you Harrow.

Overall, I loved this story and can't wait for the next book in the series.

This was an amazing retelling of the Scarlett Pimpernel. I truly enjoyed exploring this world and I look forward to more books by this author.

Very engaging and easy to read, although it wasn't a particular standout for me. Regardless, I can see many other readers enjoying this.

I could kick myself for not reading this sooner. Magic + Angst = ALL THE THINGS!!!! I barely saw a certain twist coming....I need the next book yesterday.

What a fun read!!! This one was right up my alley since it's basically witches set in what feels like the Victorian era with a sprinkle of enemies to lovers. I adore a scheming girlypop and this book is full of them. Our main character is a witch hiding her powers, doing everything she can along with her two best friends, to get other witches to safety. In her homeland, witches are hunted by the city's guards, and anyone can be under suspicion. The guard is led by, of course, one of her best friend's older brothers who has never liked her.

I enjoyed this story so much. Every part of the story felt filled with the perfect amount of tension, whether it was about the FMC running for her life or bantering her way through a tenuous conversation. The friendships were so full of love and care that I was jealous reading about them. And talk about the beginnings of the love story! The MMC starts out hating the FMC for being a vapid socialite until suddenly he has to court her as a ruse to prove if she's a witch or not.

The only thing I struggled with here, was the age of the characters and the quickness of the romance. The characters are only 18-19 here and that doesn't make a lot of sense for me, especially as an adult novel (unless it is YA, I've seen two different views on this). I think this book would have made more sense with older characters but maybe that's my bias. I also think the romantic relationship could have developed a little slower, but I always think that in enemies to lovers. Everything moves too quickly and suddenly they're in love by the end of the first book in a series. I do like that the author brought in some strife at the end that should keep the contention high for the next novel.

All in all, I loved this fast-paced romantasy! I would recommend this book to readers who also enjoyed something like Serpent and Dove or A Fragile Enchantment! I can't WAIT for the next book to come out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC!

**An absolute huge THANK YOU to NetGalley for providing me with a digital arc of this beautiful book!**

This book is about a young witch named Rune who is hiding in plain sight. By day, she pretends to be a ditzy, superficial socialite, but by night, she runs around as the Crimson Moth, saving other witches from death. Gideon Sharpe is a witch hunter. When he learns of the possibility of Rune being the Crimson Moth, he pretends to court her. Rune pretends right back to throw him off her trail. But what happens when a witch and a witch hunter start to fall in love? Both of their goals are bigger than themselves, and only one of them can win.

This book was insane. I was trying to describe it to my husband in my excitement after finishing it, and all I could say was gibberish. A witch and a witch hunter fall in love. Friendships crumble. Someone who was dead might not be so dead. A whirlwind engagement. An ex-girlfriend wanting to extract revenge. It all sounds so random, but somehow makes absolutely perfect sense and results in one hell of a book. I was so upset at the ending, and just hope that there is some happiness and better sex scenes in the next book. Please do yourself a favor and rip your heart out with this one.

On the surface, Rune is a flirty and vapid socialite. But only her two closest friends know that she is actually the Crimson Moth, a witch who spends her nights rescuing other witches from being purged. When she’s too late to save her grandmothers oldest friend, Rune takes a big risk and allows a witch hunter to court her so she can get information on where the witch is being held. Gideon loathes witches and is willing to do anything to find the Crimson Moth, even court the girl his younger brother is in love with.

I was so excited for this book. The premise sounds so good and I always love a good enemies to lovers story. But because of Alex, Runes best friend and Gideons brother, Rune and Gideon start the book already half in love with each other. So I missed a lot of the angst and tension between them. Also I wasn’t expecting so much of the book to be focused on their courtship. It was really slow and lacked a sense of urgency (you’d think needing to find who was captured and about to be killed would require quicker action but I guess they kept putting it off for no reason?). It was probably a solid 3 for most of the book. But the last 20% shocked me and the last few chapters KILLED me so it’s now a high 4.

I’m excited for the next book!
Thank you NetGalley for the arc. Please ignore that this is months after publish 🫶🏽

I loved this romantasy! The world building really set it apart from other series in this genre. It was kind of slow in the first 100 pages but once I got through that I finished this book in one day! Rune and Gideon might be my new favorite book couple, the tension and romance was top tier. The ending was a little rushed and I wish what happened with Verity was a little more fleshed out but the cliffhanger overall was perfect! Made me so excited for the next book without feeling like I was missing something. I will definitely recommend to everyone!

I will say I think the title Heartless Hunter was a major mistake, the title The Crimson Moth that that they used in the UK fits the story so much better. The cover also doesn't really suit the story and does not give off historical romantasy vibes at all which I feel like could be misleading on bookshelves at stores.

Rune is a witch. A witch hiding in plane sight during a regime that hunts and purges witches. When she was younger, she turned her grandmother over for being a witch and had to watch her die... Now, Rune's life mission is to save and free captured witches as the "Crimson Moth". The guard in her town is lead by none other than Gideon Sharpe who just so happens to be he best friend's older brother. When Gideon and Rune both begin to court each other, neither seems to know that they are attempting to use each other for information...

Really good enemies to lovers, slow-burn, romance. That cliffhanger though... I'm definitely ready for the second installment of this series! I feel like I would've given this 5 stars if it hadn't been so hyped. I think I just had REALLY high expectations.

Thank you to Netgalley, Kristen Ciccarelli and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’’ve got conflicted feelings on this one because I really wanted to like it but something about this felt…..unoriginal. This was basically just Serpent & Dove told slightly different.

I also feel like the “new adult” genre fell apart and this book’s identity is somewhere in that mix. The content feels more for adult audiences but the characters, since they are teenagers (18), reads YA.

I’m also saddened and tired of the sacrifice of good, noble, interesting characters for the sake of the MC’s character development.

I think this novel is the enemies to lovers that people have been asking for , and I do think it will have an audience with those who are fans of romantasy. Personally, this one just wasn’t for me and I don’t know if I’ll continue the series.

Rune is a witch living in a land where witches are hunted outlaws after a revolution killed the witch queens and sent her life into chaos. In order to survive the hordes of the revolution, Rune's grandmother forced her to turn her in as a witch so she could escape suspicion. Now, Rune has spent the last two years as the Crimson Moth, secretly helping captured witches escape in an attempt to assuage her guilt. The stakes are higher than ever and the only way to save an important witch is to seduce her best friend's brother, one of the most devoted witchhunters, and risk everything she's worked hard to attain.

I wanted to like it, I really did. It's technically everything I would love in a story yet it feels overly sentimental and overdone, and I'm not even going to go into how tired I am of the overdone love triangle. Ciccarelli lost me the second it was obvious that it was going to be an overly dramatic triangle with only two sides actually engaged in the romance and the other one thrown in for the drama. It's one cliche after another with no special twist to make it its own. Not even solid writing could save this one for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books

Heartless Hunter follows a Witch named Rune who is being hunted by Gideon the captain of the Blood Guard. The beautiful quotes and moments in this with their relationship got me so much! This is packed with action, romance, and so emotional. I didn’t think I would react so emotionally to this! There were moments I felt a scene reminded me of Pride and Prejudice and it was just so BEAUTIFULLY written!
My heart was ripped out at the end! I still don’t even know how I fully feel. It was just emotional pain, and any book that can make you feel so deeply is an incredible book.
So so good!! 5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this book in exchange for my honest review

I was eagerly anticipating this book and was honestly disappointed. The worldbuilding was intriguing but it was the characters I had the biggest issues with. Rune is supposed to be an incredible secret agent witch whose saving witches left and right, yet we never actually see her going on any successful missions. We never see any scenes in the book that warrant this fearsome reputation she has. A reputation so fearsome it catches the eye of Gideon, a notorious and ruthless witch hunter who wants to hunt her down. So you guessed it, these two have an enemies to lover romance. The problem for me was these two had absolutely zero chemistry. Gideon was an insufferable murderer who was happily committing a genocide on witches and didn't care at all that this is something he maybe sorta shouldn't be doing. His history at the hands of a witch was handled sloppily and for shock value to me. By the end of the novel there is a major betrayal with these two firmly on opposite sides. I wish she would've chosen his brother to be honest, he was better suited and always supportive of her.

What is so frustrating to me is this had such potential to be an amazing story. It had all these amazing elements but the characters were cardboard cutouts. I am interested in the conclusion of the story but I fear it will again be tropey and predictable, like this story was.