thank you to netgalley for a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!
okay i was not expecting to like this. the beginning was a little slow and I think the writing could be a little bit better but this was so fun! good chemistry between gideon and rune and a great enemies to lovers story. this is what i want when i look for enemies to lovers, not just rivals but actual enemies! i'm hooked and can't wait for the rest of the series
i'm totally in my witch era now!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC of this book.

so basically Batman but with Witches.

Jokes aside, I think this was a decent first book. Definitely predictable, definitely some basic writing. But it was entertaining. I really enjoyed Gideon and his tortured old brother standpoint.

I’ll probably end up reading the second one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was immediately sucked in to the story and really didn't want to put this one down. This is a fun twist on the Scarlet Pimpernel, and I'm anxious to get my hands on book 2 to see where this story goes. We get some deliciously deceptive fake dating between witch and witch hunter, and the chemistry between our two mc's is top notch. I think one of my favorite things was that I really didn't see the plot twists coming (always a win, in my book), and they were really good, too.

There were one or two things that I didn't love, but they didn't really affect my enjoyment of this book. I will happily recommend this to other romantasy lovers and I'm excited for the next book!

This book was soooooo goood. I enjoyed the two main characters playing each other. The romance, the emotions, it was fast paced and I loved it! Being a YA book, some of the things had me giggling and loving those young girl moments, the period blood, the “looking between the legs” and many other things. I do wish we would have gotten more of Rune’s action saving witches.
Some of the twists were a bit predictable and the end seemed a little rushed BUT I know we were just being prepped for the next book. I CANNOT wait for it! I have so many questions thanks to the cliffhanger.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this advance copy!

wow just wow this book had me hooked from the first page and i devoured it in 2 days. If I would've started this on a saturday or sunday I would've finished it in a day. The deceit, the forbidden love, the betrayl but numerous people and the secrets kept were so well written and revealed at the right times that I could not put the book down until I finsihed it. I loved it and I can't wait for book 2 to come out!

This was a very solid fantasy/romantasy witch and witch hunter story. Perfect for fans of Serpent & Dove, very engaging story, fast-paced plot, Rune is secretly a witch in a society where witchcraft has been banned and witches are hunted and executed. By day she is a socialite but by night she is the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who frees captive witches to save them from death. When the captain of the guards seems to be on her trail, she begins to court him, but the two of them become entangled and real feelings start to emerge.
Will definitely be reading the sequel!

This was a great read with all the angst, tension, and betrayal you could want. It's going to be torture waiting a year for the conclusion.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for a chance to review this ARC.

I’ve never read anything by Kristen Ciccarelli, but wow, this was a great introduction. I am a huge fantasy fan, and I particularly like fantasy books that focus on magic and witches. This book has an interesting and well thought out (albeit simple) magic system that is enjoyable for novice and seasoned fantasy readers alike. It was unique, and I’m not sure I’ve read another story with a magic system quite like this one, so that certainly scores this book big points. It’s easy to rejig existing concepts, and hard to create something distinct - I think Ciccarelli manages to do that here.

The characters are interesting and fairly well developed - although again, simple - not in a bad way, but uncomplicated and without a ton of heavy backstory. I think she could have given us more in this area, but in order to keep this a shorter book, and for a perhaps younger audience, what she did offer was perfect. I could see this easily being double the length, if she’d wanted.

I’ve been in a pretty big reading slump this year, and this was one of the first books of 2024 that I couldn’t put down. Overall, 5 stars, and I’m v upset I have to wait till 2025 for the second book in this series.

Where to start even start with this one?! I am obsessed. I plowed through this. I also love witchy reads so I may be slightly biased— but the magic system in this book was SO unique. I have read a lot of witchy books and have never come across a magic system like this one.

Loosely based on The Scarlet Pimpernel, the story follows Rune, our witch, & Gideon, the witch hunter. Separately both of them decide to court each other for nefarious reasons. Time to gain intel about where another witch is being held prisoner, & Gideon to determine if Rune is The Crimson Moth— the vigilante who frees witches from captivity in the middle of the night.

This creates a cat and mouse dynamic and the start of enemies to lovers 👀

There is also some goood plot twists that I didn’t see coming and this ends of a cliffhanger that has me dying for book 2!!

The writing style is right to the point. It’s not fluffy, making this a quick, fast paced, and action packed read.

There are definitely some things I didn’t enjoy. The main thing being Harlow and her pushiness (if you’ve read this, you’ll understand). But regardless, I had such a fun time with this. This is the first book in awhile where I didn’t see the twists coming so for that alone…

5/5 stars ✨✨

This is marketed as YA— but check your TW before reading. There is discussion of abuse/SA/loss of a family member in the past tense.

romantasy at its finest. twisty and fast faced and I can feel the impending agony coming my way. bless me

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgally, however I did opt to listen to the final published version of the audiobook. As always all opinions are my own.

This was a fun new YA fantasy. If you are looking for something with magic and romance, but without the spice this is a good option. There is romance, but everything is pretty fade to black when thing get to that point between characters. This will be great for the teenager who wants to read something a bit more mature, but without all the details and language you might find in a more adult fantasy romance. As I was reading this, I was reminded Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter's Series, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, and Night of the Witch by Beth Revis and Sara Raasch. If you enjoyed those books I thin you will enjoy this.

This follows Rune a wealthy socialite by day, and a revolutionary by night. In a society where magic is hated and feared and witches are put to death, Rune is known as a friend to the Republic for having been an informant in the past. She spends her nights as a double agent freeing the women that the republic is trying to eradicate and that she spends her days pretending she hates. Gideon is one of the Republic's most repected guards and witch hunters. He has a personal vendetta against witches and he would love to catch the vigilante known as the Crimson Moth who frees the witches he and his comrades capture and mark for death. He and Rune enter into a dangerous game to gain information from each other, but their hearts get involved as much as their heads do.

I really enjoyed watching this play out. This had some twists and turns to keep the reader interested, but I did feel it was a tad predictable. The author did make some creative decisions that I did think were unexpected with a few of the plotlines. I enjoyed getting to know Rune and Gideon and the banter between them. I'm anxious to see how their relationship develops in the next installment. There is a major reveal and bit of a cliffhanger at a the end and their relationship will certainly be a big part of the next book. I also enjoyed the magic system, it was well explained and not overly complex. I always appreciate when the author takes the time to explain the magic system and the rules, and we do get that here. There is blood magic and the mention of blood quite a bit in this book, so if you aren't into that you might want to steer clear of this.

I'm looking forward to the next book and finding out what happens next for Rune and Gideon.

I completed this in less than 24 hours. Obsessed! I need more! Enemies to lovers to enemies. Wow wow wow!

At page 121, I'd realized that I have no emotional investment in these characters nor I am interested in seeing the development of their affair/various causes so I deciced to stop reading.

The book is alright. It checks things off the list, re: There are popular elements that should entertain its targeted audience. Regretfully, I was hoping for something more.

Deadly fantasy!
18yo Rune lost her only family to witch hunters two years earlier when Nan told Rune to betray her. Nan was a witch who knew her time was up and she wanted to save Rune. Nan made Rune promise to turn her into the witch hunters and denounce everything she grew up knowing and loving. After Nan’s capture and death, Rune became the Crimson Moth; a vigilante who rescues witches and helps get them to freedom. Rune attends social events to discover the witches who are next in line to be captured, so she can swoop in and save them. Her disguise seems to be working but one guard suspects her and will do everything he can to catch her.

Likes/dislikes: I enjoyed the mystery and the reveals. The world building was done well. The danger makes the story even more interesting.
Mature Content: R for on page sex.
Language: R for 28 swears, 8 f-words.
Violence: R for bloody deaths.
Ethnicity: The ethnicity consists of mostly white, with ocher and golden skin tones mentioned.

Heartless Hunter: The Crimson Moth is the first book in a duology set in the Republic of Red Peace, where witches once ruled, but are now hunted by witch hunters known as the Red Guard. Teenage Rune Winters, a wealthy socialite, is known for turning in her own witch grandmother to be purged. However, Rune was persuaded to do so by her grandmother, to save herself. To vindicate her death, Rune operates in secret as the Crimson Moth, who helps witches escape the Purge. Her grandmother charged her with finding the witch Seraphine for help, and to do so she courts Gideon Sharpe, the head of the red Guard, hoping to get a clue about her location. In turn Gideon suspects Rune of being the Crimson Moth and returns her advances, trying to catch her in the act. What they didn't expect was to fall in love. The complexity of the conflict paints neither side as wholly good nor evil. A dramatic ending sets up the sequel in which the two factions will continue their battle.

First of all, thank you NetGalley for the ARC of one of my most anticipated releases of the year.

While the romance in this book wasn't for me, I can see why others love it. For my fantasy romance, or romantasy, I prefer my characters to have a REAL and deep connection. I despise books with instalove, and unfortunately that is what we got here. We got Rune, a girl who at the start of the book is using vials of blood stored from her last period to cast magic. Until almost the ninety percent mark, she hasn't had another period. Which means that she fell in "love" in under four weeks? That isn't real or believable and didn't make me love the romance because they truly did not have a connection in my opinion.

Also, this under four week love story ruins any pretense of enemies to lovers. It had such a promising premise, and the story itself was really interesting, if not a bit predictable, that the romance was truly the biggest downfall. Friends to lovers would have made this much sweeter and believable since we had characters with a history and who accepted one another despite their station in life and circumstances, and that would have made for such a good pairing. I just want characters to chose one another in my fantasy books and not "the bad guy" for once! Is that too much to ask for?!

Instead, what we got here is a sexual assault victim who is leading the campaign to eliminate an entire group of people, but who is then pressured into having sex with another girl in order to inspect her body for the telltale scars left behind by practicing witchcraft. I repeat, THIS. IS. NOT. LOVE. This is gross. Thinking about it now, this book should not be classified as young adult. This definitely read more NA in my opinion.

Overall, I did like this and I will probably be picking up the next book when it comes out to see where the author goes from here.

Overall: 3.75/ 5 ⭐️
Spice: 0.5/ 5 🌶️

🖤 witchy Bridgerton
🖤 witch x witch hunter
🖤 third person POV
🖤 dual POV
🖤 fake courting
🖤 blood magic
🖤 love triangle

Originally believing herself to be a powerless human, a young Rune discovers that she is, in fact, a witch. She must maintain her pretense of being a vapid socialite in order to stay hidden. In a world where witches are persecuted, Rune and her friends must work covertly to help captured witches flee to safety. Her best friends Alex and Verity have their own motives for helping the witches, and Alex’s brother Giddeon is a witch hunter/ captain of the guard. Rune and Giddeon pretend to be courting each other in a deadly game of cat and mouse to try to uncover each other’s secrets. Gideon is desperate to discover the identity of the Crimson Month and capture her. Meanwhile, Rune will stop at nothing to fulfill her grandmother’s final wish and rescue the witch, Seraphine. Which of the two will succeed and who will be caught in the crossfire?

What I liked:
-the story was well paced
-characters and world were well developed
-ALEX
-the sense of urgency was well executed

What I didn’t like:
-the chemistry between Rune & Gideon was not believable to me
-GIDDEON – honestly, he’s just such a jerk
-HARROW – always appearing unexpectedly, the suspicious timing, and always pushing for Giddeon to sleep with Rune to find out if she’s a witch…honestly, the whole thing was weird and gave me the ick.

Favorite quotes:
“The sight of him was like coming home. Like wrapping herself in a warm blanket on a chilly day”

“she reminded him of the sea: steal-your-breath beautiful on the surface, with the promise of untold depths beneath.”

*Goodreads review posted, Amazon review pending approval

I enjoyed this more than I expected to! It's a relatively predictable fantasy, written in a YA style, but some of the content is not appropriate for YA, especially towards the end. I've seen it listed as YA in some places, but I believe it is meant to be an adult book. Fans of Defy the Night will probably love this, I found myself comparing aspects of the two books.

It was a fast paced and exciting read, even though I was able to predict quite a bit of the end. Sometimes seeing if your predictions are right is what makes it fun to keep reading. I likely wouldn't re-read, but I will keep an eye out for the sequel when it comes out.

The characters had good chemistry and reading their internal struggles were described well to understand motivations without feeling stuck in a character's head for too long.

Some things to be aware of if you're squemish or otherwise concerned about content:

The magic system is blood based. There are some descriptions of bloody scenes/murders for the sake of this blood magic. There is also the use of menstrual blood for this magic which was kind of gross to me.

There is an explicit sex scene towards the end and lots of comments about sex and using it as a tool to get information throughout. I wouldn't recommend this book to teens despite the YA writing style.

“𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝘀-𝘁𝗼-𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗞𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗶𝗰𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶’𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆.”

I loved it! For me, it was exactly what it was supposed to be, but I’m easy to please when it comes to #romantasy. Give me a sexy MMC, a steamy game of cat & mouse, & a little magic and I’m all in! If the story hits, the sexual tension is well executed, and there’s enough high-stakes to keep me interested, rest assured I read and enjoyed it.

“𝙍𝙪𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙧, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧. 𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙬, 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙞𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙚’𝙙 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙩.”

I would compare the plot/story level to that of the Letters of Enchantment and Belladonna YA fantasy series in both style in storyline. Letters of Enchantment in the way I was absolutely invested in the main characters from start to finish, and Belladonna in the dark, yet whimsical vibes it gave.

“𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙂𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨, 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙖: 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙡-𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧-𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚, 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙝𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝.”

The book ended on a cliffhanger that has me more than happy to read the next book; it will be a duology. This was a fun YA fantasy with depth, a captivating magic system, and very well executed romantic storytelling. What more can you ask for in romantasy?

This is the first book in the Crimson Moth duology. I was sucked into this new world. I immediately wanted to know more about Rune, the main character, and her backstory. And we meet Gideon early on and their enemies vibe is intense. I loved the cat and mouse courtship that had real vibes and cold strategizing all mixed together. And the side characters... they were so well fleshed out, and I wanted to know all of their secrets too. I enjoyed the storyline too. There was definitely a plot with lots of action the balanced well with the banter and character development. For me this was the whole enchilada. I'm counting down until the next one.

Thanks to the publisher for sharing a copy. All opinions are my own.