Scarlett St. Clair CONTINUES to have a death grip on me when it comes to her writing/books.

I'm honestly not sure there's a character I disliked (that I wasn't supposed to anyways :p) however.. Cherub is easily my favorite (iykyk). Lilith is a strong, badass, take no shit, woman - who cries more than she wants to admit. She loves fiercely and will go to war for those she loves. Too bad she doesn't feel she's worth the same treatment.

Zahariev - this man is DOWN BAD for Lilith and everyone knows it (except Lilith of course). She's off limits... but Zahariev has never been much of a rule follower.

Found family, heartbreak, plot twists, and more took place in this book and I CANNOT wait to see where we go next.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bloom Books for blessing me with an ARC of one of my most anticipated reads of the year. It did not disappoint and I'll never shut up about it.

Wow! What a start to a new romantasy series! Scarlett truly knocked it out of the park with this book.

The story follows Lilith who is estranged from her family and finds refuge in Nineveh, the city of sin. She uses magic to steal for a living and comes in possession of blade. However, her usual buyer dies while inspecting the blade. Enter Zahariev, the ruler of Nineveh, the only person she can turn to. Although they are friends, Z has always been soft for Lilith and as they try to figure out the origins of this blade, they are forced to question their relationship and the "beliefs" they were taught growing up.

I absolutely adored Lilith's character. She is strong, blunt and defiant, Her female rage was everything. Zahariev is perfect for Lilith. The way this man respects and gives Lilith room to be her authentic self is amazing.

I cannot wait to see where this story goes in the future book! Thank you to Scarlett St Clair, Bloom Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

The world-building? Next level. The societal hierarchy mixed with the religious pompous asshole? Immaculate. It’s giving celestial politics with a dash of “what fresh hell is this” and I was HERE for it.

The Lilith retelling? Deliciously dark. Watching that mythology unravel through such a powerful, layered lens had me fully hooked.

And Lilith and Zahariev?? LORD. The tension between them was so intense it should come with a warning label. We’re talking thigh-tightening, mouth-watering, “I think I hate you but also maybe ruin me” energy. Every interaction crackled with power, pain, and temptation, and I was SCREAMING into the void. The slow burn was WORTH the wait.

I couldn’t look away. Every chapter was oozing in stakes, secrets, and danger. The writing wrapped me in this brutal, beautiful chaos and did not let go.

10/10. I need a fan, a confessional, and the next book immediately.

Seriously my jaw is on the FLOOR, I can't believe this was written and that my eyeballs read it.
amazing world building, story telling, and characters!

Favorite Quotes: “I would go to war for you”

Scarlett St. Clair does it again with another captivating read! Terror at the Gates is packed with magic, emotion, and high-stakes romance that will leave you craving the next book!

I absolutely loved Lilith, she’s a fierce and unapologetically strong FMC who does what she wants, when she wants, and no one can stop her! Zahariev, absolute top-tier MMC! The way he protects Lilith gives major #TouchHerAndDie energy, and I was here for every second of it!

This story is intense, emotional, and full of heart! There’s pain, passion, and a beautifully dangerous world that pulls you in and doesn’t let go!

Can we talk about Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St. Clair?! 
The tension between Zahariev and Lilith?? Literally so thick you could cut it with a knife. I was sitting there questioning whether Zahariev and Lilith were going to fight or make out. Either way, I was invested.
And every single side characters?? Not a single one felt like filler. I actually cared about every person in this book. Coco had me stressingggg the entire time. (Thanks to the ATOD series trauma 🤣)
Now that I’ve finished, my brain is spinning with questions. Waiting for book 2 is gonna be rough but I'm here for it.

Now the reason this is a 4 star and not 5 is because I feel it is missing a trigger warning of pregnancy/birth trauma. If I knew that was going to happen, I could have prepared myself for it.

4.25🌟
2🌶 once it hits

I am so ecstatic that I snagged an ARC of this. Scarlett St. Clair is an amazing writter and her world building is top tier. This book did not disappoint for me. I'm not usually an urban fantasy fan but she writes it so well.

I love feminine rage and Lilith is top tier and her relationship with Z is amazing he is perfect. Once the spice starts it hits🌶. The are amazing allies to lovers and he gives off major touch her and die vibes.

I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!

Tropes
*Touch her and die
*urban fantasy
*allies to lovers
*religious trama
*mafia

Terror At The Gates was absolutely captivating. I don’t know how Scarlett St. Clair does it, but her books completely draw me in with their action-packed storytelling, witty banter, and spectacular characters.

The storyline never stopped delivering. It was packed with intensity, and I couldn’t get enough. I found the FMC and MMC so easy to connect with, their emotions and struggles resonating deeply. The supporting characters added even more layers, their motivations unfolding clearly throughout.

I loved how this modern retelling brought so much depth to the family dynamics. If you adored the Hades and Persephone saga, you’ll love this. It has all the magic, tension, and emotional pull that made that series so unforgettable.

Thank you for the earc. All thoughts are my own.

This is my first read by this author but it will not be my last.

The plot and world building were phenomenal. We got pulled into an intricate setting where religion played a huge role in the societal hierarchy. Relationships, familial and not, were complicated and well established throughout the story. They helped move the story forward effectively.

“Behave,” he said. My eyes instantly narrowed. “You don’t have what it takes to make me.”

Lilith as a main character brought a strong leading presence and I loved that she didn’t conform. Zahariev was the hero she deserved. His priority was always Lilith. Even when she didn’t know it.

“You don’t think I carry you wherever I go? You are unshakeable. A menace…”

I am eagerly committed to continuing this series. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Complementary copy received and voluntarily reviewed.

Here’s a little NSFW Quote 🔥

“I can’t stop wondering how often you’ve been this wet for me.”
His tone was low and rough, grazing my skin with every breath.

🖤Okay. Wow. Where do I start!🖤

Terror at the Gates has a little bit of everything you love in an urban fantasy.
(It’s giving Crescent City Book 1 vibes’ish)

There is slow burn with tension POURING from the pages between Lilith and Zahariev.
This has mafia vibes and “I would burn the world down for her”… along with a healthy dose of touch her and die.

I love a feral MMC who is absolutely unhinged for the FMC.
They’re frenemies… and he falls first (but she doesn’t see it 🫠)
The slow burn burns us all the way to about 65ishhh% and ALL the tension is worth it.

While this isn’t dual POV in the traditional sense, we have mini snippets from his POV—and they’re EVERYTHING. I absolutely love his POV.

“You act like this has to mean something.” Fucking brat.
She meant everything.

(See what I mean!!)

Lilith experiences so much—trauma, heartbreak—and is trying to uncover the mystery behind a dagger that’s come into her possession.

There is a pet companion: Cherub the cat 🐈‍⬛

“If this wasn’t a sin, you’d be a saint.”
Yes. He said that.

If you like:
– feral MMCs who would destroy anything for her
– slow burn + tension
– urban fantasy / mafia vibes
– feminine rage, high tension, and magic
add this to your TBR.

This book was like a love letter to everyone (especially women) who have been stepped on by organized religion, and particularly by parents who follow that religion to the detriment of their children. So many of Lilith’s feelings and actions were so relatable to me. I felt such a connection to her.

This book was definitely slow burn, but I loved the small pov snippets from zahariev. His dedication to Lilith and her head strong personality were so much fun to read. I really looked forward to those little pieces of him.

This book does leave on a little cliffy, but not an excruciating one. It so perfectly sets us up for the next book and I am SO excited to see where this story is going!!

Thank you so much to Scarlett and Bloom for this eARC! This was one of my most anticipated reads this year and it didn’t disappoint!

❤️‍🔥Terror at the Gates❤️‍🔥
By Scarlett St. Clair
Book 1 of the Blood of Lilith series

Read as an ARC via NetGalley & SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books. Thank you! 🙏🏻

Terror at the Gates is a Romantasy and the first book of a new series, Blood of Lilith, by Scarlett St. Clair. It has heavy religious aspects from multiple religions. The society is wholly ran by the church who uses religion as a weapon with spiritual abuse, trauma, violence and oppression. Check trigger warnings if needed. There will be some big triggers for some people.

This book has dual POV, though the vast majority is through the POV of the FMC. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a small POV from the MMC.

The story takes place in Eden. Eden is ran by the church and the commission which consists of the archbishop and the head of each district. It is split up into 5 districts, from "godliest," richest & most prestigious to less than:
Hiram - Financialists ruled by Lucius Leviathan (Father of the FMC, Lilith),
Temple City - Industrialists ruled by Victor Viridian,
Galant - Merchants ruled by Serafin Sanctius,
Akkadia - Artists ruled by Absalom Asahel,
Nineveh - City of Sin ruled by Zahariev Zareth, the MMC.

The FMC is Lilith Leviathan. She is the daughter of the leader of Hiram, the most important, richest, "godliest" district of Eden. She has a terrible relationship with her mother who is just awful to her at every opportunity. She gained her Elohai sex magic powers at age 18, left home not long after & ran away to Ninevah. Zahariev, being the ruler of Nineveh, agreed to let her stay, keep an eye on her and make sure she stays safe in the dangerous district. She's had a crush Zahariev for a long time, but never acts on it. Her father and the head of the church agreed to allow her to leave Hiram for Ninevah believing she would get there and realize how good she had it and run back home. After 2 years away, they are getting impatient with her and begin with threats if she does not return soon to fulfill her duty to marry. She is a very defiant and independent woman, knows what she wants & does not want for her life, & has no plans to ever return to Hiram.

Zahariev Zareth is the MMC. He rules Ninevah as head of the Zareth family follwing the death of his father and has one younger brother named Cassius. He is one of the most feared of the five bosses, even without a wife and her magic. He uses information as a weapon against those who think to cross him. It seems to me he runs it in a way similar to the mob. Ninevah is a rather seedy, dangerous district full of strip clubs, smugglers etc. It contains the South Gate, which becomes important, and borders the canal between Ninevah and Akkadia. It is obvious he is smitten with Lilith who he calls Lo or Little Love. He is always there for her, helping her in literally every way he can, and is a shoulder for her to cry on when she needs it. They have always been in each other's life. Its obvious early on that she takes advantage of Zahariev all the time, but he does not seem to mind. She can be petulant and pushes all his buttons all the time.

Being who he is and being who she is, Zahariev and Lilith cant marry or have a romantic relationship. Her father and the commission would never allow two heirs to be together. So, even though they may both secretly want it, they never touch each other in a romantic way (ok of course they end up very much touching each other in ALL the ways ;). ❤️‍🔥

One thing that I noticed about Lilith was everyone in her circle treats her with such care and love and support. It's like they inherently or subconsciously know she is an important part of the world and take care to treat her as such. Her roommate is Colette who goes by Coco. She works as a dancer at Praise, a nightclub owned by Zahariev. She is the definition of a BFF to Lilith. She brings home a tiny kitten that quickly becomes a part of Lilith's circle too, named Cherub. There is mention that Cherub is Lilith's "Familiar." Lilith & Zahariev have wonderful married friends named Gabirel & Esther who are expecting a baby boy, Liam. Lilith does not get along very well with Zahariev's brother Cassius.

Elohai is the name of the bloodline that gave each family their magic and the right to rule their district. The magic is only present in the women. The women are subservient to the men therefore the women are not allowed to use their magic without some kind of male oversight. Since Lilith is unmarried, her father would dictate how and when she uses it. With hers being sex or lust magic, he did not want anything to do with it. So, the men marry the magically gifted women in order to control and use their magic. The woman's father will pick their daughter's husband to be the heir of the family. The church says the women's subservient place in society is due to the tempting of the First Man.

The figurehead of the church is Archbishop Alarich Lisk. He leads worship in the First Temple in Hiram & lives on the premises of the church. The church uses the Book of Splendor as the religious doctrine that rules the society. Lilith has a horrible past with Lisk that started at age 9 and is one of the main reasons she left Hiram. Lisk is corrupt, abusive, and dangerous.

Now that's all out of the way, the plot line. At the beginning of the story, Lilith is using her lust magic in one of Zahariev's clubs to "acquire" things to sell on Smuggler's Row for money to pay her bills. Her magic locks on to lust creating a type of thrall she can use to make people do things or tell her things they normally wouldn't. She likes to get religious relics, they seem to bring the most money. This particular night she sees a bejeweled dagger on the hip of a man, so she approaches him to get it. It does not take her long to get him to give her the dagger. He tells her he stole it off of a priest before killing him. Since using her magic is against the rules and they have ways to catch magic being used, she is caught by Zahariev's men. Zahariev allows her to keep the dagger. When she goes to try and sell it, the buyer in the shop she uses keels over after touching it. Also, after Lilith acquires the blade, she begins having intense, realistic dreams that continue throughout the book. She finds out the blade is one of 7 that together make up a magical sword, the Defender. The main plot line has to do with other gods being locked behind the gates by the Messiah, an invader. Some of this story is a little hard for me to follow, not because the author, but because I believe it is a bit over my head. I need to take some better notes on the gods, who & where they are, some information obtained from prophetic words from Lilith's dreams, Tori (a possibly mentally ill citizen of Nineveh who would yell out about the gods while out in public), a witch, and Lilith's mother. I need to understand it better because what everything builds up to and what happens at the end........ holy cliffhanger!!!

I have read all of the Hades x Persephone's finished series, what has been released in the Adrian x Isolde series, and both released standalone Fairytale Retellings. I have loved every single book I have read from this author. This new book is such an amazing start to this series! I recommend reading it and all of her other books! Whew this was a long review. More like a book report!

Happy Reading! 📚📚❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

In classic Scarlett St. Clair fashion, this book was unputdownable! It was a great first installment to the series, and the ending left me with so many questions that I can’t wait to pick up the next one once it comes out.

My favorite part of the book was Zahariev’s chapters. They were short & packed a punch of depth and insight. It had me swooning even more than I thought was possible.

I absolutely adore Cherub and all of the side characters.

I’m desperate for more information and more Zahariev and Lilith!!!

Lilith was an amazing female main character. Sure some could say she makes rash decisions but I think she’s got so much room to grow and I love her character already. I can’t wait to see her evolve in the future books, especially as she continues to uncover more about herself and the secrets of the world she’s living in.

I'm gonna convince you to do yourself a favor, go preorder this book, get the signed copy and vellum overlays. I was so lucky to receive an early copy through NetGalley, hence why I am letting you know now.

I don't know what the FUCK she put in this book, BUT DAMN. CRACK. Spectacular, give me 14 of them right now.

This book is so complex yet so easy to read, and has easily influenced me to order that signed copy with the vellum overlays, and I will be chomping at the bit for the next one. In the meantime, I will probably reread, at least once. Lilith and Zahariev have easily become a Top 10 book couple for me. The yearning between these two is impeccable. I cannot rave about this book enough.

This book was everything and I absolutely devoured every second of it. The story was so well thought out and put together that it made it an easy and fast read. The romance and connection between the main characters was unmatched, and the slow burn was one of the best ones I've read and it was probably my favorite part of the book. This is a dark romance that I want to go back and keep reading.

I am so ready for the next book!

*I was lucky enough to receive an ARC for this book, but all my thoughts and feeling are my own*

WOW
Scarlett St. Clair has done it again. Besides being beautifully steamy, Terror At The Gates built me up, tore me down and then put me back together again. Lilith was the best kind of fmc, she didn't feel like a copy and paste of every other badass fmc, she was so grounded and real. I am so excited for this to come out next month, I know people will be TALKING

Scarlett st. Clair delivered a whole lot of 5 freakin’ stars in this!! 🤩 If it wasn’t for work I would have finished this in one day 🤯 Zahariev is now officially fighting Hades for my favourite character of hers !! The tension, OMG THE TENSION 🔥🥵 between Lilith and Zahariev was so 🤤. The little tidbits into Zahariev’s mind was too damn good, it just added to the mystery and hotness ( yes I said hotness) of him. Lilith is my favourite kind of FMC, takes no shit and does what she wants but has the fire in her to do what is right. My heart broke for her … so many times!! Hopefully her little Cherub will bring her some comfort 💕 loved how the cliffhanger also left so much unanswered!! Plus, we all know that man is gonna have to hit the big 10!! 😉 I am so happy I got to read this ARC, can’t wait to see what else this world has in store for us 😈

I would definitely recommend taking into consideration trigger warnings before reading !

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Source books/ Bloom books for the eARC :)

Terror at the Gates is a dark fantasy retelling of Lilith with Cursed Fates, Prophecies, Witches, Magic, Enemies/Friends to Lovers, Forbidden Love & Found Family that had me glued to EVERY page.
The world building is easy to understand along with character relationships/personalities. This is a single POV told by our FMC Lilith following with a small POV from our MMC Zahariev after each chapter.

**AS ALWAYS BEFORE READING CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS**

Lilith Leviathan is our FMC & the daughter of Lucius Leviathan who governs the territory of Hiram, the financial district. Lilith has run away to Nineveh to escape the Church & her family's unbelievable expectations & constant disappointment.
Zahariev Zareth is our MMC, the head of The House of Zareth & Zahariev governs the territory of Nineveh where Lilith has decided to start a new life.

The friendships & emotional connections within this book really did it for me, Lilith is a FMC who truly FEELS her emotions but is still so strong within her struggles. If I am being completely honest this book & every situation Lilith had to go through in such a short time had me in tears, Lilith needs a streak of goodness after all she went through in book one. *cough cough, Scarlett PLEASE*

Zahariev had me obsessed with how much he cares for Lilith -

“Promise me something” he said, still watching me.
“What?”
“If you ever feel like you don’t want to do this anymore…tell me. Give me the chance to bring you back.”

LIKE UGH I’m obsessed.

This was a 5 star read for me & I am truly so excited for book two, as book one left off on a MAJOR event that I am dying to have more answers too. I loved the Hades x Persephone series & I believe this series will be just as captivating if not more!


Thank you so much to Scarlett St. Clair, SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books & Netgalley for gifting me this eARC & the opportunity to read this book!

This was the dark urban fantasy book I needed now. The focus on feminine rage against a patriachial society was cathartic at this momment in time, especially. The characters, especially the main character Lilith, were well-constructed and intriguing and I found myself surprised by the developments of the story's mysteries.

Often, I find myself guessing the answers to book's trying to present mysterious. However, even at the end of this first installment, I was left with a sense that there is a mountain of unseen world-building and the main characters and I have yet to sort out. The idea that those in power in the book's society have hidden the truth of its past was prevalent, and I found myself wanting answers that won't come until future books.

That being said, I felt it ended at a great stopping point, though I did want to throw my reading device at a wall. In a good way.

Thankyou to netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Wow, Scarlett St. Clair does it again! Terror At The Gates is the start of a new fantasy series, our fmc is a strong woman which I love but she does cry a lot which did start to get annoying. The beginning was a little slow but once the story got going I couldn't put the book down. I'm really excited to see where this series goes and discovering more of the world. I highly recommend to any urban fantasy lovers out there who want a slow burn romance that gets really spicy towards the end. Overall rating: 4.5☆

Tropes:
♡frenemies to lovers
♡he falls first
♡slow burn
♡mafia
♡animal sidekick
♡urban fantasy