Respectfully… I ate this up.
The atmosphere in this feels SO heavy in the best way. Rainy corridors, forbidden magic, suspicious professors, emotionally unstable students wandering around with secrets and magical trauma , exactly the kind of academic environment that would get a real university shut down immediately.
And the romance? Absolutely catastrophic for everyone involved.this book genuinely did not come to play with the chemistry because WHY was every interaction between them so charged
Mira and Aidric have that perfect enemies-to-lovers dynamic where they technically should not trust each other at all, yet continue being emotionally obsessed anyway. Which is personally my favourite type of poor decision-making.I love when the FMC actually feels capable and layered instead of just existing to stare at the hot shadow man. She’s dealing with trauma, discovering dangerous dark magic, getting dragged into mysteries, and still managing to hold her own with Aidric’s chaos. We love to see it.
Aidric especially feels designed in a laboratory specifically for romantasy readers. Arrogant war-scarred man with secrets? Dark magic? Emotionally unavailable but secretly understands her better than anyone else? Oh ok cool so this book is trying to ruin lives intentionally.
The tension also feels genuinely sharp instead of playful. Every interaction sounds like it’s balancing between attraction and violence, and honestly those are the best kinds of fantasy romances because nobody is safe for even five minutes.
I also love when fantasy books mix murder mysteries into magical academia because suddenly everybody becomes suspicious. Every side character starts giving “future betrayal” energy and I immediately start accusing random people for fun.
And the whole “embracing dangerous dark powers” storyline?? Inject it directly into my veins. There’s just something so addictive about characters slowly realising the thing they fear most about themselves might also be the thing that saves them. This was one of my most anticipated reads and it definitely delivered!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of this book.

Set in a world of dark academia reminiscent of a Tim Burton film, Mira is pulled from the world of casters and light magic she knows into the cold and unexpected dark magic of wielding. I loved the world building, it felt organic and earned rather than inserted for the sake of it.

Mira is a fighter, her backstory is written and delivered in a way that makes you empathise with her from the start. She's tenacious in her quest to remove her scar and find a way to live with her PTSD. Then comes Aidric, intriguing right from the start with his mysterious background and his own trauma to match Mira's. As a result, the development of their relationship feels natural and inevitable. I loved the supporting characters, especially Ella and Rylan, and would have loved more of them.

The action scenes were brilliant, not rushed and the detail into Mira's emotional state really raised the stakes and got you invested. I really liked the pacing of the story up until the twist at the end. It was interesting and exciting but ended up a little rushed, occurring after what I initially thought was the main action sequence. I think it could have been introduced earlier, interwoven with other plot points and given the page space it deserved for a bigger impact.

This book is perfect for romantasy fans who like the characters, action and romance to truly feel intertwined and organic rather than a bundle of tropes smooshed together.