I had a hard time paying attention to this book. It just didn't grab my attention and I got into 29% of the book and felt like nothing was really happening to keep my engaged. The writing was pretty i just couldn't stay engaged.

I’m sorry to say that I was disappointed by this book. The premise sounded so interesting, but the execution fell short to me.

I was really curious about her hearing loss and how she would navigate this sudden change, because representation in books is so important, but Cassandra spends so much time just wanting and relying on Lyme to present a cure to her that she doesn’t actually do anything herself to actively look for a solution. If the book meant to portray the denial and bargaining phase of going through late stage hearing loss I can understand that, but as a major plot character device it didn’t really do much for the plot line about whatever was going on with the witches.

The POV the book was in was hard to connect to and the book did a lot more telling than showing in the initial chapters. The book also suffered from a lack of world-building that still has me confused after finishing. I don’t really understand the fantasy world they live in, the backstory of the creation of witches, why they are being persecuted, where does the magic come from and how does it work, why is the villain hunting witches, etc was not established in the beginning nor by the end. I felt as confused as Cassandra but even more so when she started to understand the world but I didn’t.

This book focuses too heavily on the romance, which doesn’t even have a solid foundation, as it’s basically insta-lust with a man who she thinks may be the cause to her hearing loss. The actual plot is lost in the push for romance, and because of that, it really felt like nothing was happening for the majority of the book. His ability to manipulate her emotions and her lack of concern for that was concerning to me, especially with how many times he kissed her unexpectedly without her consent. And the whole imprecation storyline was absolutely bonkers and out of nowhere.

I also didn’t really like the FMC. Her decisions and reasoning for trusting people makes no sense. This, coupled with the lack of development for side characters made me fell distant from Cassandra’s story. There were so many characters introduced but we don’t actually get to spend any substantial time with any of them to make the relationships seem believable.

I also think there should’ve been a trigger warning for the substance abuse, dragging, and addiction in the hook, because it’s a major plot point and it might be triggering for some.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Goodness me, this was such a good book. Highly entertaining. Would definitely recommend to others, that's for sure!

I was confused by what everyone's powers were, I think it would have been helpful to have a guide that we could flip to at the end. I found it annoying how trusting Cassandra was that Lord Lyme was telling the truth about the cure, even after it was blatantly obvious that he would never help her. I also found it unbelievable that the witches were willing to help her even though she was handing them over to a known witch hunter. She was betraying witches for her own selfish motivations, and I just can't imagine the other witches wouldn't have had more of a problem with it. I also did not like the surprise pregnancy aspect of the story (I find it sketchy that Niko gave her a rock that promotes fertility and didn't tell her that it did). I am still unclear about what his actual intentions for that rock were.

2.75 stars

this book was a solid 3.5 for me. for the first half of the book i was hooked and then i started to get a little bit confused towards the end. for me it was the magic that confused me as to who had which powers and what they could or couldn’t do. this is a good read for anyone who loves historical fiction with witches and magic and fantasy

⭐️ 3.5 ⭐️

A beautiful historical romance with witches!

There’s nothing I enjoy more than a book that brings you back in time to when the witch trials took place. This was a very interesting take on this subject with a witch actually teaming up with a witch hunter to use her ability’s to detect other witches within the area.

While I enjoyed the premise of this book, I found the magic system very confusing and unsure of what everyone’s ’abilities’ truly were.

I enjoyed the relationships within the book and found they were developed really well!

The way this book was written really keeps the reader on their toes as we never truly know who to trust.

I enjoyed reading this book and will definitely continue reading other books by this author.