Reading with teafortiffany

Hello friends!!!

It’s a late-night weekend review for me this week. Sorry about that. But I’m here! Last week I had nothing to share. It was a low reading month, and honestly, I feel like the monthly wrap-up posts just aren’t very interesting in the blog format. I need to think of something new to fill that slot.

In other news, Book Outlet had their $5.99 sale again, so I should have a haul coming for that, and I’m working on writing up a few different book box subscriptions that I have tried and received all the books for. Those take more time, unfortunately. Soon though!

Anyways, let’s get into the review for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and Angry Robot for providing me with a copy of this novel in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

There is no better way to start this review than to say that this book is absolutely amazing. From this point on, know that I will tell you everything that I love and nothing that I hate, because the only thing I hate is that I don’t own the physical copy of this book already. So, I guess I technically lied because I just told you something I hate. Moving on…

This book was such a surprise. One moment, I’m reading about queer magic boys, and then the next I’m learning about the nobles and how awful the king is. Suddenly, it’s a hunting adventure, then romance, and then horror, and then a rescue mission? This seems like a lot, but this book is stitched together in such a way that it doesn’t ever pull from the experience.

Character-wise, we have villains. Technically, at least two. They don’t matter. Who cares. They are there, they serve a purpose in the plot, but for me, they were not the main driving force of the narrative. I could be way off on that, but it’s how I read it. Yeah, the villains are there, and they suck (as they should, being villains), but the journey and development of our MCs take precedence over everything else. The two main characters, Sy and Anya, are from different backgrounds and of course they don’t click immediately. It takes work, change, and some understanding on the part of both of them. I love them immensely. Reading their story was a delight.

The magic in this novel is part blood magic and part wild magic, with the blood magic being the only “acceptable” form of magic and really only done by nobles (because they can afford it, of course). The wild magic is the magic of the forest (the best setting in this book). Nobody controls the wild magic but the forest, and I love magical things: houses, plants, entire forests, even simple objects. I’ve been seeing them more and more in the books I’m reading, and it brings me so much joy.

This is one book where I couldn’t tell you what the progression of my rating. I had no clue what I was going to rate this book until I finished it. Then I had to think about it. Then I decided. It has to be a 5-star rating. It was so good. I loved the characters and the magic. I loved the setting of the forest, and I loved that one moment it was horror and the next it was just fantasy. This is one that I will probably recommend most fantasy lovers give a try. It’s not super long, and worst comes to worst, you don’t finish it. I hope that you’ll love it as much as I do, though.

5 ★

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We are at the end of this ARC Review! I was surprised to love this book as much as I did. If you read it, I’d love to know what you think. I have pre-ordered it myself. I definitely want a copy of this for my shelf. It’s only $19.99 and a paperback. I personally think it’s worth it.

And that’s the end for this one. Until next time.

Bye friends!!!