Heartless Hunter is an enticing, enemies-to-lovers romantasy with witches, witchhunters, and forbidden magic.

Romantasy can be hit or miss for me, but I found myself completely enveloped by the story and the “will they, won’t they” tension between the characters. I love the magic system and how Kristen took the basic plot from The Scarlet Pimpernel and attributed it to a world of witches and witch hunters. The cat-and-mouse plot adds a bit of action and thrill to the slow burn romance, making this book hard to put down. I constantly wanted to find out what would happen next.

My only disappointment is a decision the female protagonist makes near the end that felt out of place and a bit distasteful after everything that happens. I realize that this is a duology so the characters can’t get together and be fully happy before book one ends, but I don’t feel like Rune’s choice helped the story in any way. It just made things weird. They could have easily had a falling out for a different reason and wouldn’t make me feel super icky about the supposed love triangle in this book. I’m also so tired of characters getting together and almost immediately fighting.

But overall, this is an exciting, swoon-worthy story and I’m eager to find out what happens next for Rune, Gideon, and all the witches in book two.

Heartless Hunter was such a fun read!! It’s been a while since I’ve read a witch / witch-hunter book and it lived up to my expectations. Heartless Hunter took me a bit to get into and didn’t start out as strong as I hoped it would, but by mid-point I couldn’t put it down and almost read the book in one setting.

Light on the world building, heavy on fun flirtation, it was an easy read and I look forward to getting my hands on the sequel asap!

Thanks to NetGalley, Kristen Ciccarelli and St Martin’s Press/ Wednesday books for the arc copy to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

I loved Heartless Hunter!
It was a fantasy romance, but also a cat and mouse game between Rune – a witch hiding in plain sight as a socialite, saving witches under the guise of the Crimson Moth, and Gideon – a Witch Hunter committed to the cause.
I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book!
I love enemies to lovers and it’s become this buzzword lately… half the time the so-called enemies are lovers within a few pages! I appreciated Heartless Hunters because Rune and Gideon were very much enemies and yet drawn to each other very reluctantly. It was the perfect way to execute the trope.
Definitely add this one to your TBR… it has forbidden magic, blood, betrayal, and the best romantic tension. Highly recommend.

The hunter... the hunted. Just another example of this; if it is enemies to lovers, I am getting it.

Kristen Ciccarelli did an AMAZING job in this category, the main characters truly DESPISE one another for their justifiable reasons, and it just makes their undeniable chemistry so much more heartwrenching. Lies, deceit, trickery, morals crumbling, perspectives shifting, hearts tugged in one way and then another. I was gripped with both hands right from the beginning.

✢ Witches and witch hunters

✢ Enemies to lovers

✢ Love triangle

✢ Cat and mouse

✢ Unique magic system

Overall the total rating I am giving Heartless Hunter is 4.5

It was sitting at a very steady 5 stars for the majority of the book, but I like to do this thing where I try to figure out plot twists before they happen, and in this case, I felt like it was very easy to figure out and it kind of ruined the ending to the book for me sadly. I wanted to give it 5 stars so badly guys, I was riding an emotional high through this book and I adore these characters. I just felt a heavy weight of dissatisfaction when I finished, and it was so disappointing due to how much I love this book.

Another thing I want to mention is my confusion with the era this book is set in. Sometimes it feels Victorian, with the elaborate dresses, courting, horses, and letters. But there are also running showers, guns, and other more modern-century things that just left me with a back-and-forth image of the scenes in my head.

I feel like we are just getting to hit the surface of Gideon and Rune, and I am beyond excited to read their next chapter, the amount of love I have for both of them is unmatched.

Thank you, Kristen, NetGalley, and St Martins Press for an ARC of this amazing book.

Thank you Netgally, St martins press and Kristen Ciccarelli for the ARC of The crimson moth.

Excellent a great cat and mouse and enemies to lovers book. The beginning started a tad slow but once it got into the meat of this story it got good. There were things I thought I knew were coming but was terribly wrong. I really enjoyed where this flowed and cannot wait to read the second book!

3.75

I feel like I was in the minority of people who weren’t completely obsessed with this book but oh well. I did like this book but the romance didn’t keep me hooked as much as it did other readers. Some of it was predictable but only right before the plot twist which was good and it was well written. I can see myself reaching for the next book in this duology because I think the author will wrap the series up quite well.

This book was a fun and intriguing read, which I devoured in only 2 days! I found the premise intriguing and the book itself enjoyable. It has complex characters, danger and mistrust, and solid world-building.

This book is a YA romantasy that follows Rune and Gideon, a witch and witch hunter. Rune must hide her identity as a witch for fear of persecution, while she saves other witches from death by the Blood Guard. By day, she is a shallow socialite, by night, she risks her life to rescue other witches with the help of her friends, Alex, and Verity. Gideon is a captain within the Blood Guard and personally killed 2 of the 3 witch queens during the revolution that marked the beginning of the Witch Purges. When he suspects Rune to be involved in the smuggling of witches out of the Blood Guard, he decides he must do anything he can to uncover her identity, including courting her. Rune decides this is a prime opportunity to uncover the secrets of the Blood Guard to rescue more witches – as long she doesn’t get caught. And so, we enter a cat-and-mouse game of fake dating, enemies-to-lovers.

The magic system was well done and easy to understand, with descriptions of different kinds of spells littered throughout the book.
I found the cat-and-mouse game played by Rune and Gideon intriguing, and it was hard to know who had the upper hand throughout most of it, with the tables constantly being turned.

One thing to note about this book is the content. There is a sexual assault storyline that, in my own opinion, was not well handled. This may be dangerous for younger readers if they are not well-educated on the topic, as it may normalise some of the toxic behaviour shown on the page. I believe this book may be suitable for older teenagers, however, caution should be taken and content warnings available before reading.

Overall, a fun and easy read! If you like enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, witches, and Regency themes, then you should give this book a go!

Content warnings:
Graphic violence, death of family members, sexual assault, genocide.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This review has been posted to Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, and Goodreads. This review will also be posted to Amazon on the release of Heartless Hunter.

I don't consume a lot of witch hunter / witch stories so this was a nice break from the norm.

Our 2 MC's are Gideon and Rune. I liked Rune and her story. I liked learning about what she'd been through and why she was doing what she was doing. I liked feeling like I understood her and I loved her strength as much as her vulnerability. Gideon was gruff but you still learn so much about him to love.

Although I saw the twists and turns coming in this one, I still loved following the story along. I definitely didn't see where the end would leave us and I liked the conclusion we got. I found the steamy parts not overly-spicy and appreciated the subtlety. I loved the description of the magic! The leftover symbols, the fluttering moth left by Rune. It sounded like such a unique and interesting piece to the magic and I loved picturing it!

This definitely left it open for a book 2 and I plan to read it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Wow, okay - where did this book come from?! I was not expecting that!! This will probably be one of my top reads of 2024.

This story is about Rune, who is a witch that has to hide what she is and the only person who knows is her best friend Alex.

Alex is secretly in love with her and his brother, Gideon, is a witch hunter.

Gideon stays away from her for multiple reasons- but a big one is he knows his brothers feelings.

As you can see there is a ton of conflict and tension between Gideon and Rune. It’s described as a “cat and mouse relationship” and it definitely brings that energy!!

This book has everything I like in a Romantasy, and I don’t have one bad thing to say about it!

Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

⭐ 4-4.5

I enjoyed this a surprising amount! I am also a fan of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Big fan. So I saw it was inspired and I was immediately hooked.

This book is very much romance first, vigilante/cat-and-mouse-game second, an aspect that really made the story an inspired book and not a retelling, so if you have no interest in the Scarlet Pimpernel, you'd definitely not feel lost. That being said, I really ended up loving the romance! The witch hunter x witch aspect of the story was fun, much more so than Serpent and Dove in my opinion (I didn't enjoy that book at all), but I found myself always wanting for more magic. The ambience wasn't very immersive in this regard. I wanted more fog and blood and arcane trickery.

I was neutral about Rune. I did enjoy her friends and Gideon was surprisingly sweet, he's the classic "tall, dark, and handsome" love interest but he's softer than you'd expect. The fact he sews is adorable and I was constantly going "Awww!". If you like One Dark Window, Bridge Kingdom, or ACOTAR, I recommend this book! The romance feels like something you'd like as well.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Oh my God I AM OBSESSED!!but this was absolutely magnificent!My new favourite read. i can't stop thinking about it! I preordered 2 special editions of it and can't wait to have it on my shelf!!I devoured this in one sitting! Absolutely perfect. I am not even a big fan of triangles but this was done just right. I love everything about this book I cannot honestly find anything wrong with it. The plot , the characters and the writing style were impeccable. I am looking forward to reading more work by this author.10 stars.

*thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

.

This is an absolutely spellbinding read! It has a great cast of characters and I got pulled into their world...that makes a fantastic read for me.

Rune is a witch hiding in plain sight from Gideon, the witch hunter trying to capture her. Rune needs information from Gideon in order to rescue a witch, and Gideon needs proof of Rune's crime. A potentially deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

I liked that Gideon and Rune grew throughout the book while becoming vulnerable to each other. I highly recommend Heartless Hunter and am looking forward to the sequel.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Heartless Hunter simply took my breath away - from its detailed world-building to its emotional love story and every point in between. I found myself instantly pulled into its world and sped my way through all of the action, tears, and subterfuge, and now I have to patiently wait for its conclusion. In saying that, I LOVED that the story ended in a soft conclusion or a transition point. It would have made me even more of an emotional wreck than I already was had it ended with a cliffhanger.

The story is a loose retelling of the Scarlet Pimpernel, but you see that the most in the tragic aspects of the tale more than anything. Unlike Scarlet Pimpernel, Heartless Hunter has magic and witches, which I loved. The magic system is well described, and the power struggles between the witches and the humans are described just enough for the reader to understand the situation, but not in so much detail that it slows the pacing of the story down.

The enemies-to-lovers chemistry between Rune - the main character and camouflaged witch - and Gideon - our male lead and witch hunter - is palpable, making their story much more emotional. I loved that will-they-won’t-they angle with the added complication of Gideon’s brother being one of Rune’s best friends who loves her in secret. It’s such a deliciously messy situation, and watching it play out took me on a complete emotional roller coaster.

This fantastic story swept me away into a world of witches and witch hunters, and I can’t wait for book 2 to come out!

This was such a fun read! Witches and witch hunters, enemies-to-lovers, lots of secrets and lies--I loved everything about it. The characters were well-developed and engaging, the world-building was excellent, and the sexual tension was delicious. The pace was quick with a good bit of suspense built in, a few unexpected twists, and a major cliffhanger at the end. I am definitely looking forward to reading the next one in this series!

Overall I liked this book, and I will finish the duology when the second book is released because I do want to know what happens next. It was fast paced and kept me engaged. There were some things I had an issue with that resulted in my lower rating. Some character relationships and plot points didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Also the climax and ending felt rushed. I’m not a huge fan of the writing, it felt a little juvenile at times. I’m definitely curious where the author will go with the second book since there are only two. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for allowing me to read an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

eARC - thank you netgalley, Kristen Ciccarelli, and St. Martins Press

I loved this story and am already anxiously awaiting the next installment.

In Heartless Hunter, a revolution recently occurred kicking corrupt witches out of the ruling elite replacing them with humans. In the wake of the revolution, witches are hunted and purged out of fear that they could once again regain power. We meet Rune, a witch in hiding, who uses her wealth, influence and daring skill to rescue apprehended witches awaiting their fates. Her counterpart Gideon leads the force in charge of capturing witches and their sympathizers. Gideon and Rune’s hunter and the hunted story ensues.

I really liked Rune’s character. I liked that she had the world at her fingertips. Many times our FMCs in fantasy stories have very little control over their lives and is along for the ride. Rune is in complete control over how she interacts with the world and how she chooses to spend her time. I also like flaws in character are acknowledged pretty quickly. Rune and Gideon have known ulterior motives in everything they do in relation to one another; they call themselves out on double-crossing the other often. The bits I didn’t love: I don’t like a love triangle to start and this one gives the reader whiplash. Big nope. I don’t particularly like Harlow all that much either. I do think she’s going to have her own twisty story coming for us later on; for now she can kick rocks goading Gideon into doing things with Rune he doesn’t want to do. Boooo!

All that to say, I really think you should read this so we can chat about it!

I love the potential of this and really liked the antagonistic relationship and chemistry between Gideon and Rune. It was really fun getting the bits of worldbuilding in this with the witches and all, and the back-and forth was pretty fun too. This is more of a me thing, but I hate love triangles so that really bugged me about this and on top of that, Alex deserved so much better than both Rune and Gideon with how the two of them think and talk about him.

But the main reason why this is a 2 for me is I was appalled by Harrow being insistent on Gideon on being more thorough about checking Rune's body for scars and while Gideon is obviously attracted to her, it does really just feel like he ended up doing it all for the job. The buildup didn't make sense to me and I hated the way the ending played out.

Rune is a witch forced to hide who and what she is for fear of being executed like her grandmother. However, Rune has made it her mission to save witches from this fate under the guise of the Crimson Moth, since she’s able to blend in with the elite posing as nothing more than a vapid socialite. Gideon Sharpe is a witch hunter determined to catch the Crimson Moth. When he learns of a lead that links Rune to the Crimson Moth, he’s determined to court Rune. This leads to the start of a dangerous game between the two that has the potential to leave devastation in its wake.

Ciccarelli has written an engaging cat and mouse tale that you will not want to put down. It’s simply that good. The world building is very well done and shows the stark contrast between those that are well off, the underprivileged, and those that were witch sympathizers. I also found the magic system to be intriguing particularly how the witches used to take pride in there marks and making them into art. I am obsessed with Rune’s character and how she plays those around her for fools. She knows what they expect of her and ultimately uses that for her own gain. I also really enjoy the banter between Rune and Gideon. Watching them slowly open up and come alive for each other was such well written character development. I also really enjoyed the major plot twists Ciccarelli wove throughout her story. They were so well done to be complete surprised but looking back you can see the clues were all there. The one element I didn’t enjoy was pitting the brothers against each other as potential love interests. I’m just personally not a big fan of love triangles in general let alone when they’re siblings. However, I know plenty who love this trope, and it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. Overall, I highly recommend picking this up, but make sure you have plenty of availability when you start reading it, since you may not be able to put it down.

I was drawn in by the premise, but this wasn't for me. I had a hard time connecting to Rune, and the writing style wasn't a good fit. I know many romantasy fans will love this one, though.

This book was such a fun read! I loved Rune as a whole character. She's a witch who's undercover and she's also the a witch who wants to save her kind from termination by the Guards who hunts them. I love the enemies to lovers trope. Gideon is this Hunter who wants to do justice by being the best. I love the banter, connection, and of course I loved seeing as their story progressed. It was a great journey and the world building gave off Bridgerton vibes. I want more and hope the next book stars them both. Thank you St Martins Press for allowing me to read this novel. Thank you so much!