Thank you to NetGalley for access to this fantastic book.

I felt ALL the emotions while reading, following these painfully broken characters on their journey. Definitely hooked from the first chapter. It’s heartbreaking, and raw… examining all the pieces of yourself you’d break for love. I can’t wait for the next book!

First, the prologue???? I have never come to care for and be hurt by characters so quickly in my life. But I did and it happened. It honestly made it a little difficult for me to grasp onto the story at first because I was reeling from that, it really stuck with me. It also made me struggle to connect to Sybil for a while which made the book difficult to convince myself to read.

Despite that, Sybil's struggle made my heart ache for her on more than one occasion and I related to her a lot in wanting to ensure Quinn would be proud of her; her grief was very relatable to me. I may not have always liked her, but she had her redeeming qualities.

Raekin, though, was nuanced and I really enjoyed his perspective and the insight between his external appearance and actions and his mind. Chapters with him in it, especially early on, were such a welcome reprieve. And they only got better over time.

"He may have hated her, but he was only a monster when he chose to be. Now, the bigger monster was before them."

Then came the moment I was plot twisted and hooked and my heart was crushed all at the same second. It was a slow moving train I could not avert my eyes from despite knowing it was not going to be good. There is not a lot of joy and happiness to be found in this book, and I was reminded violently of that.

"You finally got it. You got everything you wanted."

I truly was so consumed with my feelings at this part that I couldn't stop thinking about it. This was about a third of the way through the book and it went from having to convince myself to read it, to convincing myself to put it down and needed to take breaks for my emotions. I was obsessed, enthralled, and utterly consumed.

I cannot wait for book two (I read on google that this was a book 1 to a series). I really thought this review would be different, I expected needing to force myself to finish, but instead I was met with a story that consumed me, characters I wanted to know more about (imperfections and all), and questions I need to have answered. I was mad and hurt during most chapters and honestly, that fits for the world this story takes place in. This is not a light and happy story, but if you're okay with stepping into the dark and hunkering down, this is absolutely worth the read.

If you're like me and the beginning is a little rough and you may not like Sybil, Varena made you want to scream, and you want to throw Killian against a wall.. stick with it. I'll be here not so patiently waiting for book 2. Because I am not recovering from this ending.