This book missed the mark for me. I was expecting some great world building, but I got an info dump instead. It was hard for me to get into the story so this book wasn’t for me.

This was such a great opening book to what will be a fantastic trilogy!

The world building was impressive and once past the first 1/4 of the book I was completely sucked in!

Cass seemed awfully naive but perhaps that is just my take! Devyn is just perfection, please can we have more of him?!

This was wonderful there was no time in the book when it stopped flowing the characters were brilliant what drew me to it was the cover 5 stars for that and a definite 5 stars for the story can't wait to read the next one

A big thank-you to the publishers and netgalley for this book in exchange of an honest review.

Secrets of the starcrossed has a great premise but ultimately did not deliver on it. The book starts off with one of the biggest info dumps I’ve ever read - a mishmash of Roman and Celtic mythology with modern / futuristic technology all explained in one big section that became incredibly overwhelming and confusing.

Our main character was irritating and self righteous, and I suppose we are meant to like her but she can’t even remember people who have been in the same class with her for years so it doesn’t start too well. Within a very short time she’s already started swooning over someone she’s already ignored and the dialogue was very stilted. For me, this book just didn’t hit the mark. I understand there’s a lot of context that’s needed but I feel it would have worked better to be given to us more slowly as it overwhelmed me very quickly.

I just struggled with this book, it had a good concept but I just didn't enjoy it and found it hard to get past 5 or so chapters.

I feel if I had enjoyed the main character more then I would've given it a longer chance but I just couldn't get a long with them.

Unfortunately, I have had to DNF this book 30% in. I found that there were too many conflicting events occurring that were not adequately explained to get to grips with the events, even though there was an extreme amount of info-dumping. There was a lack of world-building, which made the concept hard to grasp and to be able to follow a particular plot point.

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book at all. It was hard to get into and the multiple elements of lore was confusing and not done well. I DNFd at 25%.

I don’t know where to start with this book as I really didn’t enjoy it. I actually found it quite difficult to follow as there’s so much to information dump throughout the story. I tried twice to get into it but I just couldn't. This book wasnt for me.

This book was a lot of fun. It wasn’t perfect, and it’s not one I’m going to be thinking a lot about, but it’s absolutely great if you’re looking for turn-off-your-brain empty-calories reading.

The premise of this book, to start with, is that the Roman Empire never fell, and Londinium is the westernmost outpost of Roman power. Only the southeastern part of Britain is under Imperial rule; the rest of the island was able to throw off the Roman yoke thanks to the magic that the Britons can wield. They exist in a stable yet uneasy truce, with advanced Roman technology able to keep Londinium secure.

Our protagonist is Cassandra, daughter of one of Londinium’s elite, coming of age and soon to enter into her arranged marriage with the city’s most eligible bachelor. Her life is, by general consensus, more or less perfect - until, acting on an impulse she doesn’t really understand, she helps one of her classmates hide his illegal piece of tech before the city’s praetor’s can catch him with it. She gets swept up in a web of intrigue and romance, caught up in the machinations of Londinium’s elite and the native British kingdoms beyond the Imperial borders.

It sounds rather cliche, and if I’m being honest I played it up a bit in writing that. But as I said, this isn’t a book you read for anything groundbreaking - this is a book you read because it is pure *fun*. I got really, really invested in Cassandra really, really quickly. This was an extremely hard book to put down.

That being said, there were other things that annoyed me. The worldbuilding is something of a mess (over a millennium of alternate history and the West End is still not only a thing, but a theatre district?) and doesn’t really bear up to more than a cursory glance. The characters, especially the love interest Devyn, spend a lot of time holding the idiot ball. Cassandra, Devyn, and Cassandra’s fiance Marcus are the only characters with any real depth. And the book ends on a cliffhanger, and I despise cliffhangers (fortunately I have book 2 already).

But despite all of that, I could. Not. Put. This. Down. And in the end, if a book leaves you wanting more, that’s a book worth reading.

I thought this book was going to be perfect and right up my alley but I'm afraid it was not for me. I found myself dragging myself through the first 100 pages before finally giving up — the plot wasn't engaging me and I found the characters a tad unrealistic (at least to the point where I couldn't empathise). I stopped reading after 100 pages so I have given a neutral rating.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for a eARC of this book. I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. The premise and the setting sounded so good but the characters, romance and the plot fell short for me. The characters felt very young for their age very naive the romance was full of YA tropes and instalove. The plot felt like a dystopian novel with an oppressive society, secrets and hints of a rebellion. Although it was easy to read I feel like I should’ve DNF’d this book at about 70% I just knew I wasn’t invested in the plot or the characters and wouldn’t be continuing on. However, I push myself through the final chapters in the hope of some conclusion at the end of the book however… Cliffhanger!

In the end I think I’m gonna give this pet either a 1.5 or 2 star because although I didn’t enjoy the plot or the characters it did intrigue me enough to complete the book I did like the setting

Before we begin, I apologise if this review reads more as a stream of rant consciousness, rather than an actual cohesive review.

Straight away, I was incredibly frustrated at how often our main character says "I'm not just a pretty girl" alluding to that "not like the other girls trope" that infuriates me. Not a good start, I'm afraid and these frustrations only grew more unbearable. Due to being urked so much in just the first handful of chapters I went to see what other readers had thought and was dismayed at the amount of negative reviews I saw bubbling on the surface.

I got more and more... not frustrated... because I didn't really care that much, but just baffled at ... Well... everything... the insta love confused me. I was getting this connection that was apparently there but also not and had also been like 3 days... then the pacing was weird. In no way did it feel obvious that weeks had passed. Then there was the age thing... I didn't think our main character was in her 20s... I thought I was legitimately reading from the perspective of a 15 year old, what with our main characters' general mannerisms and speech.
I honestly feel like they were aged up so more sexual scenes could be thrown in without it being inappropriate but it was still jarring because they acted so frustratingly young and naive and everything just seemed too random and convenient (I'm looking at you, bed that just so happened to be behind a random table, that wasn't originally mentioned when the room was previously described, but just so happened to be there when some sudden light fornication occurred).

Don't get me started on this brooding, mysterious bad boy situation. I just... *sighs in confused frustration*

"He had literally seduced me back to sanity"... um.. what?

The main character, who's name I keep forgetting, was so infuriating pointing to, what to most people was very obvious, saying "I'm not stupid" and how others' cryptic messages and half sentences didn't fool her... it was obvious what was happening and it just irritated me.
This whole supposed back and fourth word play, keeping information was just none existent.. Everything was so painfully obvious and added to the frustration when our main character was acting like she deduced the situation in quick time.

After reading the extra content at the back, it saddens me that I felt this way. I can really see how passionate the author is with history and the interest in alternate timelines, however, for me, it just didn't work out and I won't be carrying on with this trilogy.

This book wasn't bad. I love anything with Celtic people with magic. It was also interesting seeing it as an alternative history.

A very good read, with excellent worldbuilding and characterisation. Usually most YA's can feel like they've got the same old recycled tropes, but this was very different so made me excited to turn each page.
Top marks! Can't wait to read the next part of the series

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for sending me an e-arc.

The description of the book was what initially got me interested. We get to see what might have happened if the Roman Empire never fell.

To be honest, this book was not my cup of tea. I struggled to keep reading at the beginning, but I started to enjoy it the more I read.

Full review to be posted soonish.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for the e-arc received, every opinion stated is my own.

I don’t know where to start with this book as I didn’t enjoy it. I actually found it quite difficult to follow as there’s so much to info dump throughout the story. I did put it aside for a week but untimely I never went back to it and decided not to finish :(.

I wasn't sure how to feel about this book. On the one hand, I loved the premise, and I really wanted to love this book. On the other, I couldn't connect to Cassandra, and I just didn't feel her love story with Devyn. It's probably the way he keeps referring to her as "little girl" -- yikes.

Also, I loved the world building, but I did not appreciate hearing Greek mythology references in a world that is supposed to be based on Rome. But... that's a minor thing.

I am all for a book which draws you in and leaves you wanting more, and this certainly made me feel that way. I really enjoyed the way the characters developed throughout the book, and especially the romance aspect! I found parts of it to be genuinely funny too, especially the first scene of the party.

This book included a lot of different genres. Romance, historical fiction and fantasy, and i was living for each.

⭐ Rating: 3.5 ⭐

Book One in the series for the once and future queen.
We are introduced to Cassandra, a girl who is part of the elites from a wealthy family who could want for nothing. Things start to chance when she notices Devyn and begins to ask questions about the society and the code she has always followed.
Generally I liked the book and will be looking forward to getting my hands on other books within the series.

❤️ What I Liked ❤️

Premise: A world with magic and blended onto our own history to give us an understanding and foundation from the culture that this story is stemmed.
Character Development: We see how the characters grow throughout the story along with Cass. The supporting characters are not just one dimensional and it is interesting to discover their feelings and growth. It’s also interesting as Cass discovers more information to see how other character also react.

💔 What I Disliked 💔


Pace: I felt that the pace at the beginning was a bit too slow and took a while to get going, once it did it seemed to meld with the world building and in some places the pace would slow down again.

World building: Whilst this is interesting I found the visualisation a bit difficult and kept getting whiplash from the time period this should be set in, I kept going back to an older part of history with their capes and merchants only to be reminded about the computers and cameras.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.