Thank you to NetGalley, Lara Buckheit and Sword and Silk books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this one at all and ended up as a dnf

I think it was the high school setting that I wasn't vibing with - the main character felt a bit too whiney for me

Valeria, or Val, is the princess of a magical realm called Empyrean, and she has been hiding on Earth for most of her life, where she has been raised and trained by Mistress Marjorie, and where she also tries to live a “normal” human life, until her 18th birthday when she will have to go back to Empyrean.

That’s about all there is to it for the first 46%. Not much politics or real plot, just Val dealing with jealous teenage girl drama, insta-lust, and a lot of whining, even though she insists on saying that she is a tough cookie, and she is NOT like all the other girls.

I hesitated before requesting an ARC of this one because the main character is a high school student, and I am VERY picky when it comes to school/academy settings. Sadly, this one was not for me, partly because of the immature main character, but also because of the plot. While the ideas were interesting, and the world-building was not bad overall, the plot just felt a little messy. Some things didn’t add up, and the first half of the book focuses more on teenage romance drama than the actual political plot I was led to believe this was about.

Val was a rather bland main character, and very annoying too. She has been trained her whole life for her return to her realm, to take up her role as a princess, but despite all those years of training, she seems to have no manners or grasp of politics at all. She is also portrayed as a badass that can fight, but she spends half of her time whining, and her inner monologues didn’t give us any insight, it only felt like she was narrating her daily life, which made it very easy to feel detached from her.

Val made many annoying/stupid decisions, and it made her seem selfish and bratty at times. As an example, her life is in danger, she got attacked, and she still insists on going to prom because she HAS to live this human experience, and she does not want to let the threat of demons prevent her from this special evening. I understand wanting to have a “normal” human life, but now she is putting her life, and her classmates’ lives in danger too and it made her appear selfish. The more self-centered reasoning makes sense if you take into consideration the fact that Val is 18 and still in high school, but it didn’t resonate with me at all. I am looking for more mature main characters in the books I read.

She also insists that she is a simple girl, she even says to one of her maids (once she arrives at the palace) to choose whatever she wants for Val to wear because she’s not picky at all, but 2 minutes later, she is stating that she will not be wearing what the maid picked because it’s something a grandmother would wear… So is she picky or not? Does she care about superficial things such as clothes or not? Because we get two different messages here.

Mason was not much better as a secondary character, to be honest. He was fine at first, but then he showed signs of a special ability, so they HAD to tell him everything of course, and he just took everything in stride. He asked a few questions but was basically willing to uproot his whole life for Val after hearing their info-dump about her true identity and where she comes from.

The romance… I feel that the author forced herself to add romance to the story, even if it was not really necessary. First, there is Val and Mason, and even though Val makes it clear that she is not in love with him and that it’s only a friends-with-benefits situation, she gets jealous when another girl flirts with him. She also gets excited at the idea that Mason might want her more than he did before he learned who she truly was, but then she just forgets about him once she arrives in her new realm. It’s as if Mason never existed, because she’s suddenly surrounded by better-looking and sexier men.

Then there is Gideon. I think his relationship with Val is supposed to be a hate-to-love because Val decides that she hates him for a not-so-good reason (in my humble opinion), but then there is this undeniable physical attraction between them, that didn’t spark anything in me by the way, it just felt bland and boring. Val then tries to make Gideon jealous? To get revenge on him for something that she didn’t really let him explain? I am not sure what the goal was here, but it felt as if the author just crammed a bunch of unnecessary events together just so she could add some drama, jealousy, and a few popular tropes while she was at it, but none of it felt relevant to the plot (that was still unclear at the 46% mark).

Valeria is ready to go to prom with her decidedly not-boyfriend, Mason, and graduate from high school before her dad drags her back home to fulfill her duties. Sent to live among mortals until she turns 18, Valeria is the princess of Empyrean, hiding from the demons who killed her mother and tried to kill her too until she comes of age. Everything changes when Mason reveals that not only can he see demons, but they’re surrounding Valeria in her daily life. On prom night, Valeria decides she doesn’t care that demons are out to get her and she’s determined to enjoy her last week in the realm of the mortals when the demons actually do attack and she’s swept back to empyrean by a ridiculously attractive man, but it’s not the same land she’s been told about all her life.

This book is a toss up for me. I think Val was immature and obnoxious, and the whole multiple love interests thing made her seem a little shallow and callous. She just hops around to different men with no regard for their feelings because *she* doesn’t want to catch feelings. The magic system needed more explanation, as did the state of the kingdom and *how* it got that way. The rebellion aspect and everyone needing vengeance was fun though.

This cover is what originally drew me in but the words on the book is what made me fall in love! I couldn’t put this book down! It was so good!

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this book. This book was so much fun but I will say I wasn’t the biggest fan of Valeria in the beginning she just seemed immature and bratty but I really started to love her as time went on. I adored Gideon and Malachi ‘s friendship! Gideon and mason were so great to Valeria and I honestly didn’t know who to root for. I really loved all the twists and turns in this book! I definitely didn’t see the plot twists at all and it made it all the more thrilling. I know I shouldn’t but I couldn’t help but love vemdour! I loved the detail of everything and the action parts were amazing! I hated the ending because it was the end of this great book! I loved all the characters and can’t wait for the second book so I can return back to this world! I need the next book now so I can read about everyone finally getting the happily ever after they all deserve.

This book has it ALL!!!! You won’t be able to put it down, it has magic, romance, enemies to lover, godly realms, and just a bit of spice. You can’t help but get caught up in Valeria’s world, her love triangle and the drama surrounding her mother’s death.
When Valeria is called to return home, but is met by a group of demons right before her departure, what adventures will unfold as she tries to find her true self?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of A Realm of Ash and Shadow in exchange for my honest review!

This book has a super fun fantasy vibe to it. The world building is well fleshed and immersive. It wasn’t until around the 50% mark that I was well truly sucked into the story.

Overall, I had fun reading this!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Valeria has been taken from her home to be raised with mortals after her untimely death. I liked that Valeria wanted a "normal" human experience of going to her graduation ceremony. I felt that this made her more relatable. Her "relationship with Mason, however, seemed too good to be true, which means it usually is.

The band marking isn't a new concept but the jealousy that Valeria felt rather quickly felt a little too convenient and towards the beginning, it seemed as though it was there mainly to push the plot along.

It's around the 40% mark that things start to get interesting to me and had a bit of a Defy the Night feel to it at one point.

I enjoyed the story once I had got through the first few chapters but I did come across some issues. Valeria isn't exactly likeable, she came across as whiny and negative and was quick to find a fault with anyone and find a way not to trust them. Gideon was a little too perfect (we now know why) and had a Captain America/Golden Retriever vibe which I see no issue with. However, Try to make the characters more nuanced and less one-dimensional. For example, Valeria could have more positive qualities or moments of vulnerability, while Gideon could have flaws or make mistakes.

This is the first book in a series and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Great and enticing plot, immersive world building. What more can I ask for? I was invested in the characters from the beginning!

Thank you to the publisher, author & NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I really enjoyed this book it gave me acotar vibes so if your a fan of Sarah j mass you will love this book. I was a bit disappointed with the ending and the spicy scenes could have been better but overall still an excellent fantasy romance!

🔥💫💀

I actually very much enjoyed this book. I love a good love triangle, fated mates, magic and darkness and this definitely hit the spot for me and kept me entertained. There were a few parts that didn't flow as nicely, but especially with the last sentence this series has me hooked and I'll be definitely checking out #2!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

A really good first-time fantasy novel with some amazing cover art! I highly enjoyed this Fantasy romance and will definitely be checking out the rest of the series. The love triangle was not cringe worthy like many others have been lately and the world building was done in a very organic way with no info-dumping or with being left confused for pages and pages. The main character felt relatable and had a good internal voice (something that can often be lacking in fantasy romance). My only compliant would be that some parts felt a bit formulaic but that comes more from me having read wayyyy to many fantasy novels than any fault of the author. Overall, I would recommend this book and be waiting for book 2!

I would not call this “good” per-sey. I WOULD tell you that I’d have mainlined this back in high school. Just like frozen pizza, even when it’s bad it’s good, y’know?

Honestly, yes. I still breezed through this and I enjoyed it. It’s a super fun romantasy with the kind of heroine it’s easy to imagine being.

Exactly what I look for in a quick guilty pleasure read.

I highly recommend this to YA fantasy romance lovers!

There’s a lot going on here, and a lot of it is good. Buckheit has created a richly layered world system. In the beginning of the book, Valeria is living in the mortal realm. She knows she’s the princess of Empyrean, a realm in between heaven and hell meant to guard mortals from the whims of the gods, and she’s been exiled until her 18th birthday. All she wants is to be a normal high school girl and attend prom and high school graduation.

But the day before her 18th birthday (which also happens to be prom night), Val wakes up with a mysterious golden brand on her wrist. She suddenly finds herself with the ability to hear another person’s thoughts. But who? And why?

She’ll find the answer when a horde of demons threatens to derail prom night but a knight-in-shining-armor type comes to her aid. One condition: he’s bringing her back to Empyrean. To her evil father. And to the legacy she’s been avoiding her whole life.

I loved the four-world system going on here, and the world building was great. The pacing of this book is fantastic. There’s constant action but it doesn’t feel too fast, and there’s still character development. In an era where every author tries to make their book as epic (read: long) as possible, this book comes in at a lean 314 pages — the perfect length for this series starter.

I have a couple of minor critiques and then a bigger critique. Minor critiques: 1) this book falls into the same trap of many other YA novels where the female MC cares more about giving people the finger than about actually understanding her situation. She instantly hates everyone she comes in contact with because she makes a looooooot of assumptions about how they must be intent on evil doing… even when it’s clear several people actually are trying to help her. Hey, I was as angsty as the next teen girl, but I still think that if I’d been kidnapped in a world I didn’t understand, and people were willing to give me answers, I would have stopped telling them to F off for maybe one minute to ask some basic questions, like, “Why are you doing this to me? What’s the plan?” It’s frustrating when people are willing to give her answers but things end up being “surprising plot twists” because Val cut people off when they tried to explain what was happening.

Another really minor criticism, but I didn’t like how so many of the minor female characters defaulted to being catty and rivalrous with other females. Can we get some female friendships, please?

I really wish I could write a separate review with spoilers because I want this book to have a public review, but I also have a lot of thoughts on the three male characters 👀👀. So I will keep this spoiler free and suffice it to say I really hope this is a Sarah J. Maas-Rhysand situation. Because I really didn’t like the dude she ended up choosing. The other one is soooo much better and more interesting. Oh, and the third guy thrown in there for good measure? (Maybe the author, like me, was sick of every YA romance having a love triangle and wanted to make it a love… rectangle?) The third guy is absolutely terrible and I really hope that the last page of the book foreshadows what’s to come for him, because he has no redeeming qualities in my opinion and our MC would be better off without him.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC! I thoroughly enjoyed this and will be reading book number two!

Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC. I really enjoyed reading this book. I was hooked from the beginning.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I had hoped, I couldn’t get into the writing as it seemed almost middle grade, however in contradiction to that the characters frequently talk about their intense attraction to each other so it was difficult to put it in a specific box. If you are looking for a quick fantasy read you might like it

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to Sword & Silk Books for providing me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, I must clarify that all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Having read this book, I can confidently say that it was a disappointing experience. If it weren't for the book's constantly mentioning the main character's attraction to another character and the main character missing the feeling of being able to read spicy romance books, I would have thought this was a middle-grade book. A VERY badly written middle-grade book.

Let's unpack, shall we?

By the writing style, this book makes no effort to describe anything. Like nothing. You are left in the dark and it's on you.

Except of course when it's time to describe the lover interest's luscious blonde hair and blue eyes. Then you can have a whole page of descriptions.

Moving on, this book honestly feels like almost blatant plagiarism of popular books like ACOTAR or KotC like the plot points are the same there is no difference. Even some of the character tropes are the same but with ACOTAR AND KotC i can at least confidently say there is SOME kind of development and movement towards an actual plot but this book doesn't have that. This book is a pale imitation of popular tropes and stories and it does not deliver.

The biggest problem I had with this book was by far the main character, Valeria.
In my opinion, she is the most frustrating female protagonist I have come across in a while. She is incompetent, spoiled, and ridiculously stupid, and her every thought gives me a headache. Valeria's lack of manners, skills, and understanding of politics despite her years of training is astounding. She spends the whole book whining, trying to be a badass, but failing miserably, thirsting over a guy who kidnapped her, and talking about how she will save the world, which is unrealistic given her lack of experience and intelligence.

She IS not like other girls/princesses embodied and I have to ask why this trope is still a think in 2023 like come on. I thought we were past this.

As for the other characters, they are no better, and I hate them all. None of the characters undergo any growth, development, or have a backstory beyond "my mom is dead." Reading about these bland characters and their boring storylines was excruciatingly painful. If this book wasn't on my phone I might have thrown something.

Moving on to the convoluted mess of a plot. The storyline made no sense, lacked consistency, and the main characters' actions to fix it felt unearned. The entire thing was like if you have an old ball of yarn and you're trying to entangle it and make it make sense but you make it worse.

Next to the romance which was called enemies to lovers and as usual, it wasn't. It's just the main character having minor "ugh I hate you" moments and regardless of that the main character and their soulmate are just immediately attracted to each other and they spend a good majority of the book just talking about how badly Valeria wants him.

The only redeeming quality of this book was the world-building, which WAS interesting but unfortunately, the excessive amount of info dumping at the beginning of the book ruined it and that makes me very sad.

This whole thing feels like it's written by a child. A child's understanding of how love and lust work, a child's understanding of what a fantasy world would be like. A child's understanding of high school, royalty, and magic. It's sad. And speaking of that personal gripe with the book but as someone who studies economics and politics I genuinely find the worldbuilding insulting.

One of the realms in this book is supposed to be a utopia without the need for money but also the book mentions said realm has a barter system and I'm sitting here like how does that even work that would be such a big mess?
I gave it the benefit of the doubt but then this whole thing is never explained and I'm just taking one example here multiple times throughout the book the worldbuilding just makes absolutely zero sense and is the kind of thing I would have thought of if I was like eight.

Honest to god, if it wasn't for the fact that this was an ARC, I would have stopped reading after the first ten chapters. This might be my worst read of the year.

Thought this was a great story. The characters were well thought out. The story captured my attention from the beginning. Would recommend to anyone.

I absolutely DEVOURED this book! I love Valeria so much. My heart aches for everything she’s been through. The ending has me wanting to read the second book like yesterday. Gideon is a saint and I love him.
It has taken a long time to find a book I adored as much as ACOTAR but I think I found it. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

So to be honest if I wasn’t too stubborn to DNF books, I would have DNF’d this book. I don’t like giving bad reviews and I really appreciate the work that has gone into every story. The plot itself for this book has some really good and interesting aspects! But let’s get into the pros and cons.

Pros:
- interesting ideas with the gods and the worlds
- Fated mates trope
- A hint if political intrigue if you squint.

Cons
- I didn’t find that anything was particularly well explained, I came away not really understanding the world, the magic, the gods etc…
- Our main character Valeria is one of the worst characters I have had had to read about. She’s the obnoxiously epitome of the 2012 I’m not like other girls pick me vibe. She’s bratty and petulant, mildly better towards the end.
- Most of the characters fell very flat to me. Our initial villain (her Dad) felt incredibly 2D and his motives are never explained he was just an asshole apparently who wrecked everything. Then we have our god villain later on who we get to know more but I still know nothing about his motives.
- I feel like little/no time was spent building scenes or the atmosphere.

All in all it wasn’t unpleasant to read all the time but the characters don’t draw me in and the writing of the story is uninspired.