Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing the ARC.

Oh boy, I really wanted to like this one, but it did not work for me.

I spent a lot of the book confused, mostly because I felt the prose and world building were very overwrought and did not deliver much in the way of substance. The female lead was incredibly naive and didn't know it. Naivete is one thing, but when characters are so naive, they miss obvious things in front of them and it becomes painful for the reader. They male lead did not have a lot going for him either, and he very much felt flat to me. There was no chemistry between the two fo them, so their story never quite seemed believable.

This book held a lot of promise initially, but ultimately, it didn't work out for mem

I am absolutely in awe of this book.

From the very first page to the last sentence of that cliffhanger, I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down.

I am obsessed with the storyline and the romance. Starlight and Nyte are everything and I love that they are polar opposites that fall in love against all odds - or do they. The lore was well written and I cannot wait to read more about the history and what happens next.

This is your next romantasy obsession, and I cannot wait for everyone to be sucked in.

This one was so, so good. Great world building and an intricately woven story of deceit and betrayal. Astrea has escaped one bad situation and found herself in a few others. As she takes Cassia's place, she realizes that there is so much more to the kingdom and the war than she ever knew. She also realizes that there is a part of herself she's desperate to uncover. As Nyte guides her, we learn so much about the past and present. There were so many twists and surprises, I cannot wait to start book 2!

First and foremost, thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this arc.

I really did enjoy this book. I loved the male main character, but had some issues with the female lead. She was hustling too naive for me. She had her moments, but I think she could have been so much stronger by the end.

I enjoyed it…until I realized how much it was like From Blood and Ash. The ending is what made me go from a 4 to a 3 star rating. It’s not a bad book, and I know it can be difficult to not have heavy influences from other books. However, when you have a type of maiden, vampires, <spoiler> ASCENDED and a male lead with a hidden identity….</spoiler>it’s just wayyyy too similar for me.

I will continue to read this series. Again, I did enjoy it. I liked Nyte way more than Casteel (sue me). If I had not read From Blood and Ash before this, I probably would have gave this book a higher rating.

Let me start by saying the premise of this book was really good, fantastic actually. And I truly wanted it to be a five star read. But that’s okay, because four stars isn’t bad, it’s just an “I wish there was this.” And for this book, I just wished it was a little less drawn out and there was a little more emotion to the characters. The star? The forbidden love? Heck, forbidden communication? The who did this to you? All really well done. And then climax and ending? That was A LOT, both in good and bad ways, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t like being overly mean in reviews. I know people like what they like and just because I didn’t enjoy something doesn’t make it innately bad. So I’m going to keep this review short and just say I was so disappointed. The plot had so much promise but for me I found it poorly written, confusing, clogged with way too many superfluous points and full of characters that just made no sense and acted in ways I couldn’t follow. It’s a no from me.

This novel envelops you in a mystical world full of adventure and trials. The writing was a tad hard to follow the first 20% of the book and I often got confused on which character was speaking. The story, while similar to other novels, does make you fall in love with the villain. The author did bring the romance, that is one thing I will never forget!

To give the book another chance, I will be purchasing an edited copy and perhaps have an even better experience reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-arc.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook via NetGalley.

I wanted to like this book. The synopsis had so much promise. It had a lot of potential for world-building, different creatures and gods, and a cool magic system, but I felt like we got a minimal explanation for any of those things.

I did not find the FMC or MMC likeable. They had no chemistry to me. Basically I just felt like <spoiler>the FMC became obsessed over this mystery man she had a 2 minute encounter with. I swear for 60% of the book I thought she was hallucinating.</spoiler>

The saving grace in this book to me were the side characters. I found the other contestants, Astrea's best friend, and even the servants far more interesting than the two leading characters. I think that was the driving force for me finishing this book.

I know this is a really popular book on booktok/bookstagram, but I was sorely disappointed in it. The writing was so disjointed and unnatural to read that I struggled through the whole book. The plot feels forgotten throughout and the characters fall flat.

While the world building is of some interest, the overly wrought prose makes it hard to get into the plot as I spent most of the time trying to dissect the sentences. Overall, not for me.

This book wasn’t for me. I just didn’t feel connected to the story or characters. I normally love witches so I was a bit disappointed. There was a lot of political intrigue which was also not my thing.

Thank you for the ARC! I loved this book so much honestly.

You can’t trust anyone or anything. Humans, fae, vampires, celestials and who knows what else have been in conflict for centuries. Secrets hidden, identities stolen, histories forgotten. This book had me questioning everything and annotating everything.

This is a really good example of how to write an unreliable narrator. Our FMC not only can’t remember who she was before the last 5 years, but is also being challenged by her own senses (I’m not going to spoil what I mean by that.) She is doing everything to survive regardless and her character development and growth is beautiful. From being a kept in a gilded prison to going on a deadly adventure!

The MMC Nyte is definitely the dark, broody, shadow daddy that I wanted him to be. Question is , is he just morally grey or is he straight up a villain? That is what you have to read to find out! Either way, I really enjoyed his character, especially towards the end. If you like banter, you may like Nyte.

The end cliffhanger had me gasping! I need more immediately! I can’t wait for book 2 next year! I definitely want the special first edition for this book because I loved it that much! I can’t wait to continue the series!

This was a fun book! I enjoyed the new aspects this book brought to the genera. Mainly that it wasn't enemy to lovers (though I will always love that troupe) and the puzzles. Some of the twists are a little obvious but I also read way too much fantasy. Took off a star because the audio book had Jacci Prior doing most of the book and all the female presenting characters and Corvin King doing the male presenting. Corvin has a great voice but he didn't really change his voice between characters. I got lost a few times but did always figure out who was talking after a second. Overall a fun time and I'm excited to find out the meaning of that dang cliff hanger!

I was very much looking forward to this book, but quickly realized it wasn't for me.

What I liked: I liked the side characters more than the two main. The side characters had more depth and range of emotion than the two main characters.

What I didn't like: I don't think I've ever read a more predictable book. I called the ending almost to a T within 30 pages. I don't know if that's what the author intended by including the preface that early laid out the entire plot?

The tension was good, but our MMC fell so quickly that his whole character was just praising our FMC. Truly, both of them were boring.

Nyte seemed to contradict himself every other chapter. Will die for her, will burn the world down for her, but then the next chapter, "we can't be together because it'll end worlds." Choose a side and stay there please.

I do think there are tons of romantasy fans that will eat this up, Raven Kennedy fans especially.

Thank you to Bramble Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

DNF pg162

Was this the most revolutionary book out there? No, but certain people would probably enjoy it. This book was absolutely impossible to get into, I know it’s kinda the point to not get it for a while BUT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO KNOW WHATS GOING ON AT THIS POINT, I just have better books to read tbh. The characters were fine themselves, nothing special but bearable.

3.75-4 ⭐
This book has so much going on at times it was hard to follow but as a series it has so much potential.....I will be reading book 2 to find out what happens next.
I feel like this book can be divided into two sides......one is the FMC trying to overcome and grow as well as retrieve her lost memories and self and the other is the rest of the story and plot. One should be driving the other but I feel like our FMC isn't concerned with what happened to her and those are the answers we need to drive this plot further.....until then it is the side cast and characters that keep this plot moving. Because of this I feel like sometimes the pacing is off but if the author can bridge those two I think this will be an amazing series.
The world building and romance are good and I want to see where that goes.
Overall I would recommend this to someone who likes to having more questions then answers in the first book and likes to be kept uncertain about what comes next. Almost like a mystery waiting to be solved and you are just waiting for the right clue.

I liked Astraea the FMC and Nyte the MMC. Astraea does not recall her past beyond the last few years of her life. She has to go through a lot before she understands why. This definitely had some surprising moments in the book. I am ready for the next in the series already. I need to know what is going to happen next. This book kept my interest throughout and I really liked the characters in it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy books.

I originally requested this book because of the title and I am so glad I did! 🫢 I felt very drawn to the storyline even though admittedly I had a hard time following what was going on at first. The book threw me into a world that relies on the balance between two kingdoms to survive (basically light and dark). The overall way this works however, was confusing and this could be due to all the events introduced in the book. There was ALOT going on with vampires, trials, celestial beings, the fmc figuring out who she is etc… Therefore there was a lot of history to cover and I might have missed some important points. Even so I would definitely continue this series! Astraea and Nyte had so much tension and I was obsessed with all of their interactions. 🤩 I mean seriously, who doesn’t love a dark haired mmc with “who did this to you” vibes and who turns out to be the villain?! 🫢😭😍

I just can’t resist a good fantasy book with vampires, fae, celestial aspects, and romance. I think the author did a great job overall with the idea of this book but I do feel like the pacing was a little off for me. I’m not sure if that impacted how I understood the plot line but I did feel like there were many events taking place while also having to explain backstories for Astraea. But even so, I loved this book because of the many twists and betrayals. I read this book in two days on my kindle because I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next! 💖

*minor spoiler ahead*

Overall I desperately need book 2 right now to get a better understanding of the kingdoms, how they keep balance, the history in general, and of course to see where book 1 left off! It would also be interesting to read more moments between Astraea and Nyte as well as seeing who her “bounded” is in the next book.

This book is for you if you like;
💫 Villain gets the girl
💫 Slow burn romance
💫 Vampires, fae, and celestial guardians
💫 Memory loss
💫 Light x dark
💫 Trials to win

This book had similarities to From Blood & Ash, The Serpent & the Wings of Night, A Court of Thorns & Roses, and Of Darkness & Ruination. ✨🥰

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC!

Unfortunately I DNFed this about 2 chapters in. I really did not enjoy the writing style and it made it entirely unreadable :( Thank you to the publisher for the gifted eARC!

I am DNFing this book at about 50%. The beginning of this book was a lot more enjoyable, but I will say I did not go into this book knowing that it was vampires and trials. I honestly am just getting sick of those two tropes and am needing a break of them there was also some like odd pacing moments within the book. I did get this as an advanced reader copy and I got an advanced listener copy but most of the time at that point that stuff should be solved. I also just didn’t love some character choices that were made some felt super random and again, some just felt so trophy and I’m just sick of that. I think that if you have not read a lot of fantasy romance books you like this book, but someone who has read a lot. I just can’t deal with the same tropes over and over again.