To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is set in an intriguing fantasy world, with a fascinating premise. Colonisers from another world have invaded, and despite the magic many of the locals have, managed to devastate in an overwhelming initial attack due to their advanced science and technology (namely guns, planes, helicopters!) Twenty years later and there is supposed 'peace' brought by treaties, but there is widespread hatred and abuse from the Romans, and it seems a war is coming.

Ruying has a powerful gift over death, so when she falls into the hands of the Romans she is controlled and used by one of the princes.

I struggled to sink into the story at times. Part of it for me was Ruying's long reflections on her thoughts and feelings, with added world building, that regularly broke up dialogue and important scenes, taking me out of the action. There was some beautiful phrasing, but it made it hard for me to lose myself in what was going on. I started to get into it near the end when Ruying had finally woken up and decided what she was going to do.

I loved the writing style, the characters, the plot, and I’m a sucker for including any kind of folklore so the inclusion of Chinese folklore was fantastic!
One thing I will note is that I found the pace of this book to be of a slower pace, but I think that was due to some of the detail that is provided within this book.
I found myself following the internal conflict of the main character, whilst dealing the the external conflict that is going on around her, and as a reader it left me with a few questions; I was left questioning what extent are people willing to go for those they love, and how do they come to terms with what they may have to do to protect them, and ultimately how does this affect the needs of the ‘greater good’.
I am curious to see what lies in store for the rest of the series, as this was certainly a great opening to these new stories and characters.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was an interesting read for me. I liked how well the world was developed, and the characters were intriguing. I did find large chunks of the book repetitive, and some of the writing style threw me off.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Future romantacy nominee? Um yes. Yes I think so.

another ULTIMATE enemies to lovers recommendation!! Seriously I'm so obsessed this is real like actual enemies to lovers written to perfection!

The world building along the relationship was done in such a stellar way, we have so much romantic tension and fun banter while simultaneously exploring a super well detailed and written world that I'd love to lose myself in. I'm absolutely obsessesed with both the fmc and her li, as they are both fully fleshed out characters that were delightful to read of.

EDIT: March 2024. Following the discourse on twitter, we will be rereading this arc as we cannot much about it AT ALL. We want to ensure a fair review because of such.

It's hard to write something about this novel. I am not quite sure where the author wants us to go. I read about the problem with a colonizer romance, and I agree with it, but I think that it won't be the case. Antony is twisted and thinks he loves her, but she ends up choosing someone else (will he be the love interest, I assume we will know in the second novel). But I think it's interesting to see how colonizer can play with the mind and heart of a lonely girl, how a world which isn't black or white can lead anyone on a difficul path or do wrong things (or feeling something for the oppressor).

Nevertheless, my 3,5 stars note isn't really about the romance between Ruying and Antony, but about the plot and Ruying herself (and some other characters). Though I can understand most of her actions, she was often annoying and we spend too much time reading about her psychological turmoil. I felt like everything was going in circles "I will do anything to protect my family - oh damn I don't feel right about that - but yes I will do anything to protect my family - ohhh I don't know, I am so bad" and more than 300 pages to finally decide to turn away from Antony... But I liked all the questions about ethics and moral (is it ok to kill the few to protect the most ?), showing that the world isn't black or white. And I can just love the fact that we speak about Chinese culture, the way Occident is killing the Earth by polluting everything, and I was happy to read something about colonization. Too bad I didn't really like the way it's told...

- thank you Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC -

(Review wrote and published on Goodreads)

I really wanted to love this book but there are problematic theme's that I couldn't get past and author behaviour (doxxing) that I cannot support

I really enjoyed the Asian setting as well as the characterization as well as the engaging plot-line. I will for sure be picking up more from this author in the future

There is a pang in my heart as I gather my thoughts to write this review. I honestly don’t even remember how I chanced upon this book, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, but I recall seeing the author was Asian and then reading this is something like an ode to her heritage, as well as a love poem to her grandparents and family. I quickly went through the description and the praise the story got from other authors, and, naturally, expected a lot of good things from it.

I mean, it seemed just the right kind of story to immerse myself into, so I instantly requested an advance copy, which Netgalley and the publisher were kind enough to grant in exchange for a honest review.

Book Title and Cover

The title was an instant attraction. It lured me in in matters of seconds as it sung about old Asian myths, of fantastic realms, and seemed to be laced in religious aspects. I liked the metaphor and the image it created, and I found it thoroughly intriguing.

Afterwards, I noticed the cover, with a lady at the forefront, wielding some sort of magic, inspiring strength and decisiveness, resolution and conviction. The golden thread lost itself in the distance and I noticed it later, along with the funky castle in the background, but they all picked my curiosity. After all, the artistry of the cover seemed to indicate a strong heroine, and I live for the stories told by the women who faced all sorts of challenges and ended up victorious.

The Plot

The story revolves around Yang Ruying, a girl who was blessed by Death and who lives on the Pangu continent, in a world quite different from our own. We discover, from the very beginning, that her land was invaded by the Romans who brought all sorts of misfortunes to her people, including her family, the biggest one of them being an addictive substance known as opian. This substance is said to enhance the Xianlings’ powers, people just like Ruying, who are able to wield magic, however, this is merely a lie. Upon invading her land, the Romans used the substance to weaken and control the Pangulians. As you might expect, Ruying’s family also fell prey to their tricks, and while her father died, her sister still struggled with this addiction. Consequently, our main girl acts like a dealer of sorts, getting the drug from her former best friend and childhood crush, Baihu, and then gives it to her sister.

One day, upon returning from Baihu’s headquarters, Ruying witnesses a wealthy Roman gifting a poor woman a gold coin. Despite the rules and her status, the girl decides to rob the Roman and risk death, however fate seems to smile upon her as she narrowly escapes. Her victory is short lived, though, for the Romans, learning of her rare gift, soon invade her home and take her prisoner. It is now up to her to either fight for the Romans or against them.

The Characters

There are quite a few characters showing up throughout the story and I will briefly list them below.

Yang Ruying – our main character, a 19 year old who claims to be strong and only displays weakness. She doesn’t seem to be able to think for herself and is easily swayed when it comes to protecting her remaining family. Can tug at other people’s qi and end their lives.
Yang Meiya – the other half of our main character, her twin sister. The other side of the yin and yang diagram. She can heal, although she is an opian addict. I didn’t quite understand why she did not use her power to heal herself or escape her addiction. It was either mentioned or implied her magic was also quite strong. She is a fighter of the opposition, a rebel, but we never really see her in action. She only pops up two times tops.
Baihu – half royal. An apparent ally of the Romans. Ruying’s childhood friend and crush. I won’t say more due to spoilers, but I will mention this: you’d think he is the main love interest in this story, however, things are a little different. At least, in this first volume.
Antony Augustus – a Roman prince. The mastermind. The Serpent. Pretty much the main love interest, the enemy who becomes a lover. Or maybe not quite?
Valentin Augustus – another Roman prince. Unlike his adopted brother, he is a warmonger. More aggressive and violent.
The Romans – you’d think there was a reason why they are called that. I couldn’t frankly find it. Instead of the common expectation of them being actual Romans, they seem to be people from a far future, something rather American in demeanor, people focusing on science, sucking the earth dry, destroying land with their waste, and building weapons of mass destruction (they have guns, missiles, helicopters, bombs, you name it).

Thoughts

To be honest, there were so many things running through my mind as I finished this debut novel, but most of all, I was disappointed. And this is rather sad, especially seeing how much I have expected from it and with how much excitement I anticipated this read. Frankly, I am not even quite sure where to begin. For one, there would be the writing style which really didn’t fit my taste. There were a lot of repetitions and some chapters just felt like deja-vu to me. The vocabulary was rather limited, too, the dialogue spanned over most of the paragraphs, and the author relied a lot on telling and not showing. The descriptions were rather scarce and the Chinese text insertion was a bit off. I think this would have been way more effective had Chang used it on its own and added footnotes for the translations.

Then, there were the characters. None really stood out to me. I wanted to at least like the main character, Ruying, or maybe even Antony, as he had potential with his morally grey actions, but they both felt more like mere husks, half a shadow in the night. Ruying’s image, to me at least, solidified as a childish girl who liked to contradict herself a lot. Not only did she keep saying she had the power, although she was cowardly, but she also vowed to never serve the enemies of her country or use her gift recklessly, when, in turn, she did the exact opposite. She submitted to the Romans very easily, she used her magic without much of a second thought, and then, she randomly fell for the Roman prince. Of course, I didn’t quite understand Anthony either. He had nothing to do with the legacy left behind by great Augustus, Cassius and the rest, although he was thrown into their family line like it was nothing. His actions were also half baked, although he could have been cool and attractive through both wit and wickedness. The way he was presented, however, just propelled an image of a spoiled brat who did a little bit of manipulation and didn’t live up to his brainiac character at all. He was said to have been smart and the one to have discovered ways to use the Xianlings, but this was not proven anywhere.

Furthermore, the worldbuilding was mostly non-existent. Aside from the fact there was a mention of magic, portals to different worlds, guns and swords, the author doesn’t describe anything more about the two worlds and their inhabitants. I wished she took the time to bring us closer to the worlds and explain their inner-workings, the magic system, to dive deeper into the palace and the inheritance fights, the way the two brothers raced against each other, give Ruying a better reason to dive into the murders she committed and how she actually fell in love with the enemy little by little.

Overall, there was a lot of potential with this story, but the execution was very much lacking. There are obviously a lot more points I would like to address, however, I feel like this review would turn into a very lengthy rant, so I will stop here, for now.

4.5⭐️

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow! What an incredible start to a new sci-fi/fantasy series! And what an incredible debut! Molly X Chang has a bright future in publishing!

From the very start, this book had me hooked. It's a wonderfully original blend of historical Chinese-inspired fantasy and urban science-fiction, exploring the meeting of magic and science in such a unique way. I love how Chang subverted and crossed genres and tropes to create this incredibly refreshing world, with really strong worldbuilding that was also easy/accessible to follow.

Chang's character work, I think, is one of her greatest strengths. Ruying is such a fascinating protagonist. She is incredibly nuanced and morally grey and certainly makes many questionable decisions, but you still root for her from the first page to the very last. I'm very excited to see how she will grow and develop as a character over the rest of the series. The side characters and other MCs are incredibly nuanced and complex too. My opinion on Antony changed every few chapters, and I still cannot decide whether I hate him or love him (he's going to need a Zuko level redemption arc to restore my trust in him), and I can sense that Baihu is going to be a very interesting player in this world, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in the next books.

I think this book is incredibly relevant with the state our world is in now. It explores complex themes such as colonialism, genocide, war, racism, pollution, with such nuance and respect, cleverly staged in a sci-fi/fantasy world for our consumption. It's books like these that are so so important for people to read, and in turn learn and abandon prejudices that hold us back. I have so much respect for Molly X Chang for how she approached and handled these themes, and I cannot wait to see what she will do next.

I will say that the pacing at times seemed a bit off and jarring, especially with the frequent unexpected time jumps. Also, at times it was quite clear that this is a debut novel, as the writing was not always as polished and tightened as it could have been. However, I have full faith in Chang that she will grow and blossom as a writer.

I absolutely LOVED this book, and will be impatiently waiting for the moment I can get my desperate hands on the next! Definitely pick this up when it releases next month (April 18th!).

Thank you so much for letting me read an ARC of this gorgeous book!

It just had my heart from the start. I was rooting so much for the FMC, it hurt. I loved how we saw her in a conflict between who to save. She felt so layered and real for her feelings and thoughts surrounding her home, family, friendships and loves.

The history woven into this book is so clear and so emotive.

The writing is stunning and I was completely immersed in the world, understanding the magic completely. I loved the voice of the FMC and can't wait to see what she does next!

Superb fantasy book!

I was abit confused at first when this included roman’s in the plot, but it did add an interesting element. This feels historical but fresh and diverse.

Ruying was a character I partially did not like, she was compassionate and everything she did was for her family, but she was also naive and chose ignorance at every turn. I feel like book 2 will change my opinion of her.

All in all this was unique, powerful and I think it will be a tale of vengeance/retribution as the story progresses.

3.5 round up

“Heroes die. Cowards live.”

This has been described as a coloniser romance… it’s more of a corruption arc. If you’re expecting much romance at all, particularly enemies to lovers, be warned that this reads much more like grooming. However, it’s gripping: I kept reading because I wanted to scream at the first person narrator to wake up and smell the sinister coffee.

Ruying is gifted by magic: with the gift of Death. Struggling to support her grandmother and her twin sister, who has the gift of healing but is addicted to the destructive but power-enhancing drug opian, she is kidnapped by the invading Roman Empire from space (stay with me; it’s sort of an alternate Earth) and forced to serve as assassin to a prince. But as he becomes ever more convincing, kind and tender to her, and Ruying struggles with her own morality, she begins to tell herself she’s doing it for the right reasons.

It’s a weird but compelling premise and I definitely wanted to keep reading. The prose is a bit choppy with short paragraphs and sentence fragments if that isn’t your thing. But it’s also horrifying, gripping and interesting. Not at all romantic. I can’t stress enough that this isn’t a romantasy despite the fact there is some yearning.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Author of this book for allowing me access to an advanced copy of this book.

"But who am I? Who are you? We are not Gods. We cannot treat other lives as flowers to be plucked from a field"

Review:

In all honesty To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a book that had caught my attention because of it's stunning cover art. The beautiful tones and character art are just gorgeous.

While reading To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods I genuinely had the best time reading through it, and because of that I actually managed to fly through it fairly quickly, moving on to each page with anticipation and excitement seeing if my foreshadowing theories were going to be correct or not.

Summary:

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is the debut novel from Author Chloe X. Chang, and from what I can deduce from my research, this story has been around 8 years in the making and is based on stories that the author's grandparents would tell her as a child. Which gives the book great sentimental value.

The story follows FMC Ruying. She is a 19 year old girl that was born with the powers of death. Many of her people are born with magical powers although each is very different even if some have the same premise. Ruying has sadly lost both of her parents and lives with her grandmother and twin sister Meiya. Unfortunately Meiya is ill due to an addiction with Opian and Ruying will do anything to help her sister.

Their world is being colonized by the Romans. Ruying is pulled into a war as she is kidnapped by Anthony, the grandson of a Roman leader who intends to weaponize her powers against her own and use her as his personal assassin.

Characters:

The FMC Ruying alone is a very intriguing character and carries a very popular fictional trope. She essentially has death magic, something which is very exciting to read about when you're a fantasy reader like I am. Magic is something that has to be done well and I felt that Chloe X Chang wrote this character perfectly. She was ambitious yet flawed making her come across as more human than she actually could be given her magical powers that she possesses.

Baihu, the FMC's childhood friend and somewhat crush, I liked that their friendship was now questionable and complicated now that he is working for the enemy. But in all honesty I would have liked a little more of a backstory from him perhaps some more flashbacks when he and Ruying were young.

Anthony. Now this is a character that had me quite enthralled with this story. I felt a huge range of emotions when it came to him. He is one of the leaders of the Roman empire (where Rome is actually on a different planet, seperate from Ruying's home which in all honesty was a little confusing at times). But while reading, one minute I despised him for his actions being a colonizer and the next I was softening my facial expressions while saying "awww" out loud. If a character can make me feel a huge range of emotions then in my opinion, this is a sign of a very well written character indeed. He also delivers some beautifully written and emotional one liners. An example of this is - "Maybe one day I'll deserve you".

Tropes and Genre:

While reading To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods I was noticing a lot of similarities to some other much loved books in my collection. Such as Shatter Me, Shadow and Bone and Daughter of the Moon Goddess. So if you enjoyed these books then it's likely you will enjoy this one too.

This story is both a great mix of the fantasy and sci-fi genres and is classed as a Young Adult novel.

Tropes include:

⭐ Colonizer Romance (trigger ⚠️)
⭐ Love triangle (only a hint)
⭐ One bed (although no spice)
⭐ Forced proximity (as FMC is captive)
⭐ Enemies to lovers......to enemies

I have read other reviews online of this title also and many of them are very uncomfortable with the colonizer romance plot. I can completely understand why as it is an uncomfortable subject to read about. So please be aware of this when going into this book.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book, it surprised me as it was not what I had expected it to be, but this does not take away from the fact that I had a great time reading it. And I cannot wait for the release of book two!

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for providing me an eARC to review!

No one is more disappointed than me that this was unfortunately a flop :( I will say upfront that I am a Poppy War stan, so when you have a very similar plot about teched-up invaders coming to a magic land with opium and have EXTREMELY similar character names (Yang Ruying and Fang Runin are you kidding me???) I can't not compare the two. And where Rin was a truly morally grey, horrible character that you still rooted for, Ruying was a wet blanket unless you were being reminded every couple of pages that she was doing this all to survive.

I agree with the critiques that this is a coloniser romance - Ruying is on board with Antony's proposal and does his bidding with little internal conflict about what this means for her people and how she is now kind of complicit in their oppression. But his smiles make her fluttery and his jade green eyes...please!!! I wanted a manipulative baddie, who fully knew that she was in the wrong but genuinely believed it was the only way for her and her family to survive - but instead her character development was just constant reminders of "i'm a monster" shoved down your throat and that brand of martyrdom is so tired and predictable that it really limited Ruying's development.

The world building and pacing was also weird - it felt like a lot of elements were thrown in for convenience sake without being well established (like her grandmother showing her how to kind of slit throats without killing people while running JUST in case she would ever need it). I just think there was so much potential here for a really unique and interesting story about survival at any cost - it reminded me a lot of books I've really enjoyed like The Poppy War and These Violent Delights (and though I didn't enjoy as much Immortal Longings) cause it had a lot of the same themes about colonialism and intersectionality with class and gender. But the character development was just so much telling rather than showing, which really didn't get you on Ruying's side and to understand why she was making the choices she did. Sure becoming the coloniser's pet is a way to get by, but doesn't that kind of make you hate yourself? Or at least something interesting?

Maybe my hopes were just too high, especially as I have been falling out of love with YA recently. But I also think that the bones were there to have something really special, just the execution fell short. I think there is potential for book 2 to deliver more of what I was hoping, but sadly I won't be continuing.

Okay guys let's... get into it.

As many other reviews have pointed out, yes the coloniser romance is definitely there. And while Antony's character is designed to be charming and have you trust him, it's still a really weird thing to do. While I appreciate the intention of enemies to lovers, I don't think very many of us would fall in love with the person whose nation is supplying a deadly drug to and could not care less about the people of our country. I hope that in the next book Ruying finally hacks herself off from Antony, because that is long overdue.

I changed my rating of this book a couple of times, but I think 2.5 is where I'm landing. The one-sentence paragraphs annoyed me from the very beginning, there was so much unnecessary repetition -- in general and in rephrasing -- and I kept putting it down. I thought Chang definitely had a strong premise with this story, but even a morally-grey protagonist should be able to know that the enemy prince doesn't have her country's best interests at heart, even if he is handsome. The novel got a lot stronger after the 60% mark, but just not strong enough.

I may still read the sequel, if only to find out how things are going to be tied up. Last time I judge a book by its cover, I suppose.

This was a gorgeously written debut novel with an excellent focus on the insidious nature of colonialism. It was a masterclass in manipulation, only weakened by the main ‘romance’, which dropped my rating. However, the little we know about the sequel seems to promise to resolve some of my issues. I still think it is a promising start to what looks to be an interesting series.

Ruying is a common girl who possesses the power of Death, her people who also possesses magic has been oppressed by Roman modern civilisation since their invasion 20 years prior. When a roman prince spot Ruying gift she must become his private assign in order to protect her family and avoid a disastrous war.

First of all, this book was part of my anticipated release for 2024 and unfortunately I finished my reading with mixed feelings.

The weird thing is that if you’d ask me right after I finished my reading I would have said ‘yes it was a very good read’ because I read it easily and super quick, I was hooked. But taking a step back and analysing a bit more the book I noticed some things that at the end made me review my rating down.

🏮 World Building: I like the mix between fantasy and science-fiction, asian culture and the clash with roman modern civilisation. It definitely has potential but at the end some parts of the world building were insufficient or lacking. We only learn halfway that we are dealing with 2 different worlds (literally)and basically the roman civilisation represents a bit what our own civilisation could become in the future. We have very little information on how the romans discovered this portal to Ruying world. It was a bit messy.
- Writing was for me very good, I saw some reviews highlighting the short sentences thing but honestly not a problem on my side, on the opposite, I found it really easy to read.

🏛️ Characters :
- Ruying can be seen as strong at the beginning as she ‘sacrifices’ herself to protect her family but I found her very naive, she is brainwashed too easily by Antony, and don’t want to see the truth which was frustrating. I would say that she is ‘morally confused’ about where to pledge her loyalty which can be understandable as she is being manipulated but towards the end she changes side when’s she ‘finally’ sees the atrocities that Antony is doing but she didn’t want to hear about pages before…We also get to many internal monologues on her feelings and it's repetitive and heavy.
- Antony is a ‘vilain’: honestly all along I wasn’t sure about what he was thinking, if he was playing a twisted game or if he was showing true emotions and feelings for Ruying. It’s a shame we only got 1 chapter of his POV, I would have loved seeing more of what’s inside his mind. He is a twisted character.
- Secondary Characters were unfortunately left aside, under developed: Ruying sister addiction and loyalty to the rebellion, her grandma which she adores but we very little of her and interactions between the 2, Taohua, her best-friend….Baihu the ‘traitor’ ex best friend does have potential and I feel we’ll see more of him in the next book but, we see him being worried about Ruying and we don’t see him anymore for months and then he reappears…

🏮 Intrigue: I found the plot good and it kept me turning the pages wondering what was Rome looking for in Ruying world, we have information being dropped along the book but that didn’t disturb me much.

🏛️ Romance: I liked the romance but I found that it tend to be a dark romance as Ruying has feeling for her oppressor and the guy that threatened her family, make her kill people, experiment on her people so be aware of this side before reading it. Only issue I had is that there is a 6 month gap in the book where our characters bonded but we don’t see any of that and that could have been good to get more closeness scenes between the 2 to get more attached to their relationship.

At the end a 50/50 for me on this one, but I’m inclined on reading the next book because even though some parts were disappointing I’m still hooked by the intrigue and I want to see Ruying ‘waking-up’ and taking a stand!

An interesting interpretation of what it is like to live under occupation, something that the author pulled from her family’s past in China but a topic that is very scarily still the case in various countries today.

Essentially the civilization of Pangu which one assumes to be Asian, probably Chinese has been occupied by the Romans. Pangu is a green, vibrant bustling place. Many of the people there have magical gifts, family and friends are important and until the Romans appeared they lived quite happily. Now they are squished into half their land as the Romans took the rest, they are excluded from their own shops and culture and worryingly many of those with magical powers are simply disappearing. I initially thought that this was set in the past, but the Roman science advances and technologies they employ has it firmly in the near future.

Ruyling, the granddaughter of a famous Pangu warrior is a compelling character, as is Anthony the Roman Prince. There is a web of lies, deceit and people desperately doing what they have to just to survive and hopefully have families survive with them. We are left as confused as Ruyling is about Anthony’s real intentions and feelings and upset with Baihu, her childhood friend now a hardened businessman and friend of the Romans. Her sister is an opian addict and her grandmother grows old. Living is pure survival and not easy. So when Ruyling is snatched in the middle of the night and offered the chance for them to live comfortably she does what she has to to protect them. But Ruyling is conflicted; it is difficult to know what or who to believe and when new emotions are added to that mix one can really empathise with the uncertainty she lives in and the anguish of trying to make the right decision.

There seems to be a mix of colonial and occupation history here with the opian given to the locals to control them, the greed of one world or ‘civilisation’ ruining another instead of living more within its means combined with the brutality of occupational forces.

Definitely the first in a series as the end was left disappointingly open. I had questions and a number of possible scenarios going through my mind and it is frustrating to have to wait until the next book when this one isn’t even quite published yet.
The book will work for YA and adults. I’d keep it to 15+ years.

I was completely sure that I would love this book, but sadly, it really wasn't for me.

Let's start with the basics: I was first thrown off by the info-dump in chapter 1. All of the recent past of the world is basically explained from the get-go and it's not exactly easy to read or digest.

Still, the action is quick to pick up and I was soon swept away by the premises. I liked the descriptions of the traditions and customs, of Ruying's relationships with the members of her family. I also found the oppositions between magic and science, colonised and colonisers, very interesting and I couldn't wait to see how it would evolve during the book.

After the first third of the book, the pace gets really weird. The informations we get on the conflict are SO repetitive, it's always the same facts that are repeated to us: the fall of Ruying's family, the wickedness of the Romans, the colonisation, etc. There's nothing new, no evolution of these basic facts, despite Ruying's constantly reminding us of their existence. The writing style did nothing to alleviate this, because it's so fragmented and dramatic. It works well to add a bit of tension during key scenes, but when it's used all throughout the book, it's just annoying.

These were my general grievances. I could have pushed past if it weren't for the main problem: the coloniser romance. I love a good enemies to lovers just as much as the next person, but this isn't just morally grey: it's straight-up evil AND he's the oppressor. At first, I thought it would be okay, because Ruying's corruption arc was well done. She's a selfish character who thinks she uses her powers for good, even though she's in denial, and it just works well with the story.

I can understand why Ruying would fall for him, in a sadistic, Stockholm-syndrom kind of way. She's basically in denial the whole time because it's easier for her to live with herself that way. But what really bothers me is that all of the marketing done around the book paints this guy as a love interest, and that's NOT acceptable.

Thank you NetGalley and RandomHouse Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.