Wow. I mean, WOW. I was not expecting this book to blow me out of the water the way it did. I had tried to start it over and over and couldn't get past the first few pages, but once I did I was hooked. I finished this book in about 24 hours (and immediately after Iron Flame, which I thought would leave me a book hangover, but apparently this was the cure).

Firstly, the way that we're introduced the characters is amazing. Even getting Gideon's POV, we don't like him. The way the author had him grow on us was AMAZING. I was heartbroken not once, but twice, in this book. Literal tears near the end.

There's nice world building going on here, giving us lots of history for where they live and the characters directly. It also introduces and slowly explains the way magic works, which is nice. We get a good idea of their island, society, and the weird in between of historical/modern society that exists.

Getting Gideon and Rune's back stories and then their story together really has you rooting for them towards the end and let's just say I was in SHAMBLES.

BEWARE OF CLIFFHANGER.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I ended up enjoying this! There were times where it was a little slow for my liking, but otherwise I enjoyed it. Highly recommend for my romantasy lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. And, I'm ready for the sequel whenever you are!

Heartless Hunter is about a young woman named Rune who lives two lives. By day, she's a daft socialite and hero who turned in a witch. By night, she's the Crimson Moth, a witch who works to free captured witches. However, the one witch she's been looking for has been proving difficult to find and has recently been captured. This time she needs the help of her enemy, a witch hunter named Gideon to find who she's looking for. Gideon on the other hand is looking for proof she's not what she says she is.

I loved this book. I'm not saying that just because I received an eARC. I've been in a reading slump for over a month after reading book after book of weak female main characters. Rune is smart and actually useful. She's not easily manipulated and is well aware of the cat and mouse game going on. The spicy is slow burn and tasteful, not shoved into every crevice of the book in order to make up for lack of plot. This has a plot, and plot twists and characters with personalities. Faith in the genre has been restored.

3.5 ⭐️ I couldn’t put this down, and read it within 24 hours! I am looking forward to the next in the series. Like many fantasy books, I felt like this entire book was just a setup to the second. The main action doesn’t occur until the very end and there is a cliffhanger.

Welcome to your new Fantasy Series! Witches, Witch Hunters, Magic, Romance, it’s all here and it’s really good!

Rune is a witch. She didn’t know she was a witch until her sixteenth birthday. She also turned in her grandmother for being a witch. She is a witch and she is the darling of the Witch hating Blood Guards.

Once upon a time, witches ruled. Were they all kind and benevolent? Nope. And so there was a revolution and all the witches were hunted down and purged. A nasty word, that!

Rune is a clueless socialite by day and the Crimson Moth by night. Freeing witches and sending them to safety. But she has aroused the suspicions of her best friend’s brother, Gideon, the captain of the blood guard. His loyalty to the new government is firm. And he intends to find out if Rune is the Moth or not.

Adding to that drama is her BFF, Alex. Gideon’s brother. Alex is in love with Rune and knows what she is. As Gideon and Rune each play a cat and mouse game, love finds them both. But will he save her?

Full of really good characters and plots, this could very well be my next fantasy addiction.

Netgalley/ St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books, February 20, 2024

I absolutely think this will find the right audience, as it has a ton of well-loved tropes. And I do love a good enemies to lovers especially when it's centered around witches. But I just didn't love this particular romance in this one, it was too unbelievable and made me dislike the MC. It felt a too juvenile but I think that might mean a younger audience will love it. The pacing worked, and the magic system has real potential with a little more clarity and world building.

This is a new obsession! Seriously. This book took me by surprise at how good it is! I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it!

This book had me hooked from the beginning, full of twists and romance. Rune is complex and haunted by her past. She was always trying to do the right thing even when it was hard. Gideon has a rich backstory. He has trust issues, but it is understandable with everything he has gone through. The world comes alive as you read more and more. I would recommend if you enjoy YA fantasy with a little romance mixed in.

Okay, this book had no business being THIS DAMN GOOD!

The Crimson Moth (Heartless Hunter) is like a superhero vigilante mixed with witchy magic and witch trials. It was such a fun mixture that worked perfectly.

The characters and their character development? 💋chefs kiss. 💋
The overall plot, a witch trying to seduce a witch hunter for information to save more witches from being murdered while the witch hunter is trying to seduce the witch to see if she is the crimson moth who has been eluding him. 💋chefs kiss💋

This book had me crying, screaming, kicking my little feet 🦶 I absolutely loved Gideon and Rune. The cliff hanger ending was the perfect ending to ensure I’ll be sticking around for book two!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC of this book. The above thoughts are my own!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin’s Press and of course the author Kristen Ciccarelli for giving me the opportunity to read and review this arc! Wow! This book is very well written. I felt like a movie playing in my head as I read and I love when books make me feel that way. The plot was really good, I loved the characters. I loved the witch signatures and how they make the markings in designs of different things on their body
when they cast. I had some guesses on where the story was going to go, and about halfway through I did have thoughts about the witch queen being alive and pretending to be someone else with the random killings but I did NOT guess how it was going to end!!!!! I loved how the author made the scenes where Rune is the crimson month full of tension and more “realistic” to what could actually happen, not just ope, she’s a witch and got away. She almost got caught, she was nervous, she was clever! I fell in love with sweet Alex, even though I tried not to knowing she would fall for Gideon so the ending broke my heart. The heartbreak, the BETRAYAL! My heart HURT when she overheard Gideon talking about her! Ugh! What a good way to put in some tension and a true enemies to lovers. The silk flowers?! My gosh. That is the sweetest! The romance was written very well. I CANNOT WAIT for book two!!!! This review is also posted on goodreads.

Spellbinding, heartbreaking and wonderful. Stepping into the world of the new republic from two opposite views was great. A wonderful enemies to lovers with lots of intrigue, plot twists and a soul shattering ending.

I loved how relatable the characters and their view points are. While neither are riotous they have their own very real reasons for doing what they’ve done and what they continued to do.

Very cool magic system where no one is all powerful and there is a code. Also that it is a “hard” casting system is very cool.


Very much looking forward to the next book to see how rune handles the new world she’s been thrust into and how Gideon will pick up the pieces .

Worth it for the twist. Liked the MC and the scarlet pimprenelle references. She was witty and someone to root for, Preferred the bff to the LI though. And the twist!! Will definitely read the next book.

I received this eARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I DNF'd Heartless Hunter. I was hooked after the first chapter but it became difficult to continue reading at about 50% through. The romance was the killer, I think. It was too unbelievable for me and made me hate the FMC. She just read as horny and I lost interest the further she fell for the witch hunter. Until around 200 pages in, the only motivation for her to fall for him was physical attraction, which seems really unbalanced with the weight of the tragic events she experience and the high stakes of the situation she's in. Even though she had supposedly been so careful for the 2 years since the rebellion/revolution, all that caution goes out the window when she talks to arguably the most dangerous person for her. It just wasn't believable for me and the plot wasn't moving at a pace that made me want to keep reading.

4.5 Stars

Summary:
The story takes place in a unique and immersive world where witches rule. That is, until the three witch queens were overthrown by a band of rebels. Now, witch hunters reign supreme, arrest anyone associated with magic, and kill them on public display. 

Rune's grandmother died in the first witch hunts, and Rune was the one to turn her in. Now, Rune is a vapid, rich socialite. Or so she pretends to be during the day. At night, she acts under the guise of the crimson moth, using the little magic she's able to cast to free other witches from capture. 

When her grandmother's friend is captured, Rune gets the idea to seduce the captain of the Blood Guard, Gideon to get information out of him. Gideon receives a lead on the Crimson Moth, pointing him directly at Rune. So Gideon also decides to seduce her to get information. The two outwit each other at every turn, and inevitably fall in love with each other.

Tropes/ Aesthetics:
-slow burn
-enemies to lovers
-witches and witch hunters
-cat and mouse game
-best friend's brother
-fake dating
-vigilante
-regency aesthetics

Thoughts:
This was a real page turner. 

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. I was a little hesitant at the start because I thought it was a little ridiculous for Gideon to design and make Rune the most beautiful dress ever. There was heavy emphasis on fashion in the beginning. But I grew to tolerate it and accept it as a way to display the oppulence of this era. There was so many other things in this book that drew me in.

I like that the magic seems to very personal to each witch. Rune feels the ocean sweeling beneath her when she casts. Every witch has their own scent to their magic. I also like how clear and straightforward the magic system is with hard checks and balances. I love that witches use the silver scarring as tattoos.

I didn't like any of the characters much at first but I was interested in seeing how their development would unfold. I ended up falling for most of them because their characterization is just so good! This book really focused on their flaws so they'll have a gorgeous glowup in the next books, and I can't wait to see that. 

I didn't sympathize with either side, the witches or the hunters. They both did despicable things. But that kept me invested in who would win this war and how nightmarish the results would be. 

I thought it was so funny how Rune and Gideon kept denying their love for each other and saying they were just toying with each other for information. I never believed either of them from the very start.

I can't believe the book ended off with Rune losing everything that ever mattered to her. I can't wait to see how she will come back from that in the next, and what it means for the fate of her city.</spoiler>

I'm someone who adores books about witches and female assassins, so having this book be about both is music to my ears! I was completely consumed by Rune's adventures and they gave off major "Serpent and Dove" vibes. This story's premise is so different and exciting and I need the sequel right now! Even Rune's alter ego name, the Crimson Moth, is so epic. The lush worldbuilding, captivating characters, and enticing romance had me totally obsessed with finishing this book. The way that Rune and Gideon play off each other and their chemistry is excellent. They are both so clever and the twist that they're both courting each other to hide secret motivations? Outstanding!

Thank you for this chance to read this ARC. I really enjoyed it! Has everything I’m looking for in a fantasy book. Ennemies to lovers done right. I’ll definitely put more Kristen Ciccarelli on my tbr!

THE TENSION.

I love a good enemies to lovers, and this had the perfect amount of “will they / won’t they” for me.

The internal anguish of Rune broke my heart, I am very close with my grandmother so I felt very connected to Rune. To have to pretend she hated her grandmother to protect herself, and watch her die? It broke my heart for her.

Gideon, he isn’t the heartless hunter he shows to the rest of the world. I love seeing the softer side of him, and I hope he doesn’t slip back into his persona after the end.

This book was a rollercoaster of emotions for me, but I couldn’t put it down. It was a perfect game of cat & mouse and I can’t wait to see how they reunite in the next book.

Going off the synopsis, I really thought I was going to enjoy this book. It had the tropes I usually enjoy (enemies to lovers, unequal social statuses, and secret identities to name a few) but everything just fell flat for me.

I think one of the main problems is that rather than subverting our expectations, the author chose to play it safe. Like many, many other YA books it has a love triangle between two brothers (which I could not care less about considering how idiotic the younger brother acted). I expected the main heroine to be cunning and three steps ahead of the witch hunters but instead, she just felt painfully naive. Although she's manipulating her love interest, she's angered by him doing the same thing? And I honestly don't even get the point of her being rich vs her love interest being poor as nothing comes from it other than HIM being forced to apologize to her for telling her how tone deaf she was.

The plot in general was alright, and I thought the author did a good job of adding tension in moments that needed it, but it felt as though whenever one side of the pair figured something out about the other or gained a clue, they would brush it off by saying it could mean anything and then proceed to do nothing about it.

Last but not least, the sexual assault victim being goaded into sleeping with someone for their job felt very uncomfortable to me, with the whole sexual assault plotline in general feeling very pointless to me as we never get to explore them coming to terms with it or having difficulties in their relationship because of it.

I'm considering reading the second book when it comes out if only to find out how it ends for Harrow, Laila, and Gideon.

ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. The tropes are to market, and the character development was a breath of fresh air. I’m a massive fan a gray characters, they ground the character in a lore believable and realistic way, and this author nailed that.

I’m happy to see publishing finally embracing fantasy romance and taking the time to find the gems in this subgenre. Especially those that set a fast pace and keep it going for the entire read.

I also appreciated the hard magic system at play here. While I don’t mind authors paying it more loose with their magic and allowing for characters to act without much consequence, it’s refreshing to have a book every now and then that really embraces the consequences of magic use and grounds the world in a way. It eliminates a lot of “well why hasn’t x happened before?” questions from interrupting the reading process.

This was a a solid read for me and I’m looking forward to book two.

This was pretty good, but I didn’t feel like it was as good as Ciccarelli’s other novels. There was something about Gideon, the love interest, who just felt kind of off as the story went on. This may just be personal preference, but he wasn’t really as swoony as some of the description about the book made it sound. I wasn’t really feeling the chemistry. However, I did appreciate that he was respectful and didn’t try to take advantage of her, and the love scenes were not super graphic, making it more appropriate for teen audiences who want sex positive stories but not explicit content specifically made to arouse. Rune was an interesting female lead. I enjoyed her friendships and spirit. Also has some good twists. For some reason, I don’t feel super excited about the sequel, though. It was good but didn’t give me any kind of book hangover, if that makes sense.