CROWNED A TRAITOR is a turning point in the story of Lucifer’s daughter Klara. She is being groomed by Lucifer’s three queens – Lillith, Eve, & Abadan – to take over Hell. Klara doesn’t want to rule Hell and is looking for a way out. Before she can put her plan into place, she needs to visit her Father and replace the heart she lost in a fight. In effort to leave Hell and get her plan back on track, she tells her Father she has a operation she wants to complete. He agrees but soon after things go awry.

The world building, characters, and mythology were spot on and I like Klara’s story. There was some confusion for me with the dialogue at times. One character would be talking to another and sometimes it seemed it was all the first person speaking when really it was the second. I’m not sure if it was because of the layout or that was how the author intended. Also, there were spots of the story that were choppy. I could follow it, but it seemed the author assumed I would keep up with their intention. CROWNED A TRAITOR was a good story and I can only see Kate Callaghan becoming an even better storyteller.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and am leaving my honest review voluntarily. I will be adding this review to my website EveHallows.com.

#CrownedATraitor #NetGalley

I enjoyed this book. The storyline is right up my alley and the characters were interesting. I found myself immersed in the world and invested in the ending.

This book I thought was fine and it was fun to read. However, it wasn’t amazing.

One thing that I want to point out is that the blurb made this story sound different to what it actually was. I was expecting an epic fantasy and what I got was a decent one at best. Sure, Klara doesn’t want to rule and the Queens want her head but not for the reason the blurb makes out. I expected a gang of misfits working together to try to help Klara either run or take her birthright from the Queens and instead… well, that didn’t really happen.

The plot did feel original, I’ll give it that, but I did feel like I was promised a different book than what I actually read. Which I think is probably why I gave this 2.5 stars. It sounds like it should be an epic, sweeping fantasy and it doesn’t really deliver on that.

I felt that the characterization was limited. I felt that the characters weren’t fleshed out enough. I didn’t care for many of the characters and the ones that you were meant to care about I didn’t because I didn’t really know them. Klara I felt was sometimes not that interesting. She was the daughter of Lucifer, she didn’t want the Throne, so she ran away. She’s tough, brutally honest, had a tough upbringing, she can fight, but she cares about everyone and everything. Klara was a bit clique.

The only characters that I liked were Lilith and Lucifer, even though they don’t appear that much, but they felt very distinct compared to many of the other characters. A lot of the characters felt very bland and a bit two dimensional. And some seemed to have no reason to be there other than to help Klara. Yeah, I definitely would’ve liked more fleshed out characters in this book.

There was a little bit of romance but I felt that it was poor. I honestly felt like the romance in this book was completely unnecessary. I didn’t get the sense of any romantic feelings or tension between Klara and her love interests. Yep, there’s two. I just didn’t care for it and I think this book could have easily gone without it.

Whilst reading it felt like it jumped around sometimes. There were some scenes and conversations that didn’t make much sense, almost as if a chunk of text was missing that connected it. Thankfully this didn’t happen that often, I think it might have just been something that was missed during editing.

There were some plot points that were brought up, that I thought were really interesting, that were never brought up again. And if they were it was very vaguely. As this is the first book in a series then it’s possible that some of these things could be brought up in more detail in the future. But it did feel like a missed opportunity to make this book more complex and more entertaining and more engaging.

Now I don’t want to be completely negative so here are parts that I did like:

The description of the world. Every place that Klara goes I could picture vividly in my mind. Especially the Beanstalk at the start of the book, the mushroom den and the giants’ land. I felt like that was something that was really strong and helped me to visualise the world really well.
Klara’s unique power. It was unique to her and could only be used through touch. I liked that it was kind of limited but also that Klara wasn’t able to use it all the time either. Even when it would have been easier to use it but would have put herself and others in danger.
I liked that Klara didn’t want to rule Hell or Malum, even though her dad wanted her to. That was the whole reason he created her. I mean it’s kind of a stereotype, the heir to the throne doesn’t want to rule, but it was fun. It’s a trope that I quite enjoy reading. Especially when a new twist is put on it.
Some different and creative magical elements.
Such as a spider that can suture a wound. I thought that this was really interesting and not something that I’ve seen in a fantasy before.
Mushroom dens, they way that this place was described made me think of opium dens.
The hierarchy of the different demons and creatures in Malum. I liked that there were a lot of creatures and they all had different places in this world, and they were introduced and explained alongside the characters that were introduced. In some fantasy books there can be a bit of an info dump when it comes to the creatures or the hierarchy, which I felt didn’t happen here.
All the different rulers in this world had different powers, there’s five different rulers in this story; Lucifer the King of Hell, the Three Queens of Malum; Abadon, Eve, and Lilith, and the Fae Queen (I can’t remember if her name was ever mentioned).
I enjoyed this book, it was fun and very easy to read. It didn’t have a very complicated plot so I was able to easily read it during breaks at work and I could easily pick up where the book had left off. It wasn’t one that I was dying to find out what would happen next. I would say that this book is good to read if you want something easy and not too complicated.

Once I got past the first few chapters I did want to know where this story would end up. I did think that this book worked well as a first novel in a series. But I don’t know where this will go as a series. I don’t think I’ll carry on reading this series even though I liked this story it wasn’t one that I think will stay with me or I’ll want to continue reading.

Crowned A Traitor is a YA Dark Fantasy with an interesting premise and a complex story-line including a struggle for power and an abundance of paranormal creatures. There's a lot of promise here, but the lack of depth within either the world or characters prevented me from enjoying as much as I had wished.

Klara is the heir to hell, but she's desperately looking for a way out. Her guardians see her as a threat to their power, and her escape plan needs to be enacted quicker than she thought. The travel towards the Kalos, Fae ruled lands, is more perilous than she had anticipated.

As a teenager, I always loved the sort of fantasy depicted in Crowned A Traitor; I probably would have gobbled down this story. Unfortunately, my tastes have grown a little bit away from 'does this have paranormal creatures in it?'. Even still, I wanted to enjoy this, and it's certainly not an awful book, but it's not one I particularly enjoyed.

Kate Callaghan creates a world with multiple layers to it and an enormous number of different creatures to populate it. You've got Kalos (the fae lands), Hell, Malum, and presumably a human realm. I love complicated worlds, especially when mixed with the political intrigue this book promised, but there wasn't any depth to it.

The author probably knows every detail of the worlds she's created, but instead of slowly revealing this to us in a way that makes you desperate to know more, it's a book of info-dumps. Sometimes the info-dumps don't even make sense in the context of the plot, why would two characters discuss how their own world works?

I have to admit, I'm someone who loves world-building, so maybe if this isn't as important to you, you'd get along with this book much better. YA can get away with weaker world-building, but with a book with so many complex elements to it this needs more.

The characters also lacked depth. Their voices were easily interchangeable, and with a large cast that just made it all incredibly confusing. I can't remember liking a single person. Most characters were one dimensional with a lack of backstory or defining personality traits other than nice or bad. I love the idea behind most of them, but I don't have a reason to care.

Our main character, Klara, is the most developed, but even she was a weak character. Her motivation was to escape and leave the inheritance of a Kingdom behind, and that was it. I'm not usually the type to point and scream "Mary Sue", but Klara is one. She's so beautiful, and talented, and deadly, and kind to the poor people of the land, and her evil kind-of-mothers want to kill her, and her dads the devil, and she likes the boy she can't have. Nothing is interesting or new here.

The romance also didn't do much for me. With no connection to the characters, there's no reason to care. We're told the man she likes is an old friend from her childhood, now loyal to her father, and then suddenly they're making out? Then, later on, there's a lycanthrope, and they're slowly becoming friends, and then they're making out? There needs to be more internal monologue here, or something at least, to build up romantic tension.

The ideas of the book were brilliant. Especially towards the end, it had the level of trickery and secrets that I expect; I could see it going to great places. I want to support and enjoy this author's work because it's obvious she has interesting stories to tell. However, sometimes cramming in every type of creature possible isn't necessary, especially when it interrupts the depth of the storytelling. I know this isn't the most positive review, but I do think this book is worth checking out if you usually enjoy the genre.

Dnf 30%. I tried to keep going even though I wasn’t really into the story or any of the characters so far, but...

Crowned a Traitor, despite the cool name, is like a badly edited fanfic, something that feels more like a first draft that needs more editing and grammar checks than a finished book. It tells the story about Klara, the daughter of Lucifer, who at first wants to get out of the Forest and, needing money, ends up in a fight that leads to her showing off her (infodumping skills) powers and losing her heart. While she’s not in Hell, dealing with politics and assassinations attempts, she’s training (or being tortured) by the Queens (Abadam, Lilith and Eve).

The narrative itself is quite confusing, it’s all very messy, with lots of things happening at once thrown together. The characters tell each other basic knowledge that all of them should know, which makes everything even more annoying. I couldn’t make myself care for Klara or the plot, and with 30% into the book the other cast of characters, supposed to help her in her “journey”, haven’t even showed up yet. Sadly I won’t be reading more to meet any of them. Sorry!

This book had a great story, but I felt like the ending was very rushed and should have been more fleshed out. I did enjoy the characters, but sometimes I felt that they lacked personality. All the demons seemed the same and I couldn't tell you the difference between a lot of them. To be fair this ebook format was really odd and it was had to tell who was speaking when. Overall an original idea and decent read.

trigger warning
<spoiler> torture, child neglect, implied cannibalism </spoiler>

Today, Klara starts her new job as waitress in a tavern, which will bring her one step closer to be able to run away. She'll need money - she'll need to bribe people. Because her father is the devil and three wicked queens act as her guardians.

This made sense to me in the beginning. In order to pursue her dream, a free life, she tries to earn herself some money but loses her new position as she discovers her employees smuggle human flesh which a) is illegal because b) if the wrong creatures eat it, they'll turn into ghouls. It comes to a fight and as she has had supreme combat training, she wins, if wounded.
But as I saw that she just lost her heart to be very edgy and that her name is Klara Morningstar, I knew this would be a hard read because I stopped reading fanfics years ago with the reasoning that with published books at least a professional would have edited it.

Yeah, it read like a fanfic. Klara is not like other girls. She is lonely, isolated, has been tortured and is so brave and intelligent and cunning and beautiful and she's in love with the bad boy she can't have.

So, Lucifer shipped her from hell to a place called Malum which is ruled by three queens: Eve, Lillith and Abadon. A sorceress, a warrior and a demon. A big point is made about Lillith having been the person who trained Klara, a training so hard it was torture, so she can stand what life will throw at her later. Eve, who would have been responsible for her knowledge and magic abilities neglected to do so, instead pointing her ward in the direction of the library. Abalon was responsible for... ah... nothing. But still, we're told that all three of them left their mark and balanced each other out.
The author makes sure to let you know that Klara's magical abilities are mostly based on instinct, because apparently the library is rubbish when it comes to that topic - and yet, in the last third of the book, Klara has one amazing spell after the other that will help to solve a problem.

Klara wants to flee because her life has been misery. She knew, or thought she knew, that the queens hated her, wanted her dead, and she longs for a life without constant threat, without endless training. She has been isolated, parted from her best friend she also has a crush on, on purpose. She immediately takes to the travel companions she ends up with, and does everything to save them, especially a child. It's not explained why, and feels like character inconsistency as it's not adressed in any way. When was the last time she felt companionship? Does she remember that, or are these new feelings? Or does she feel more maternal? Maybe she even comes to realise she'll have to rule and will protect her own, or percieves them as her property?
There is no way to know. What could have been an interesting angle has been completely ignored.

I can live with there being a lot typos in an advanced reading copy that is not supposed to be the finished product. Yes, it was annoying, but I am just going to assume somebody will have done something about that before printing.
What I really, really, really dislike is the inconsistency in pronouns. In the beginning, I was glad as a demon was described with they/them pronouns. In the bible, angels are depicted as genderless, which makes them non-binary in my mind. Demons are fallen angels and their offspring. It makes sense to use they/them pronouns. That was a point I noted positively. And then it pronouns were used for the same characters, not once, but multiple times. Yeah, thank you for that one.
This non binary reader is not amused.

We could talk about the author sticking to Latin, but at this point I just want to get this review over with. Just let me say that Latin is not that old and totally overrated when it comes to fantasy as a genre. If you want to portray beings as being eons old, either give them more than one language or chose something that has been around for longer. Sumerian is always a safe bet - you know, the first language we have written evidence of. You could even ignore that and chose the language of birds the people supposedly spoke before the tower of Babel and all of that confusion, or invent a celestial language like they did in Penny Dreadful.

As it stands, I got the impression that they saw that Holly Black's Folk of the Air trilogy and Netflix' Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are popular and mashed everything together without thinking about it too deeply.

One star. Read it if you love reading badly written books, ignore it otherwise.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Crowned A Traitor had an amazing idea. I really enjoyed the ideas that this book presented with the daughter of hell literally getting her heart ripped out in the first chapter(so fun). Klara is a likeable character from the start who, while still a bit evil, really is different from the people around her. I liked the three "stepmothers" that she had and her half sibling even more. I do feel that the book was a bit dense especially in the beginning, but it does get a bit better towards the middle. I also felt the transition from her going to get a job at a pizza place to the rest of the story was a bit choppy. Overall, a fun read even if it did need a bit more direction.

Received a free copy from NetGalley, in exchange for a review.

Crowned a Traitor by Kate Callaghan is the story of Klara, daughter of Lucifer, and her escape from the dangerous land of Malum. She is pursued by dangerous Queens, various Creatures, and her own father.

The first thing to mention is the gorgeous map design. It was beautiful and I could imagine it being hand-drawn by Klara.
There were a couple of tense, comma, and capitalization issues throughout the book. These do become quite distracting, which is frustrating, especially during more intense scenes.

In terms of word-building, I really enjoy the mesh of our world and the other world, even extending to the food like with the pizza. I loved the suturing spiders. That was a brilliant invention for the world that I haven’t seen in other fantasy novels. I also loved the image of the River Styx being made of ink and water. There’s lots of really creative and visual things like this in the book. Additionally, I really liked all the detailed mentions of different stories and mythologies, it made Malum feel like an opposite enchanted forest.

The mythology is really, really complex, which is great, but a lot of it comes in chunks of exposition so it’s hard to wrap your head around it and get used to it. I wish there was a glossary of creatures or something. And on the opposite end, there’s a lot of creatures and bits that are sort of thrown in with no explanation at all. The balance wasn’t there yet.

There were a couple of really bold choices with the plot, especially with the Ghouls. That actually made my skin crawl.

However, I did feel that a lot of the book was an incredibly slow-paced intro. And then, the last 50 pages are a wild twist and turn of insane plot twists going way, way too fast with almost no build-up. Callaghan could have cut 50 pages from the beginning and used them to really flesh out the ending. There were multiple plot points that really needed to be teased or built up, because I didn’t understand them in the end. Namely, Klara’s wings and Arthur’s cuff. As well as, most of the ending plot twists, especially the one with Wolfgang and Frendallz

I didn’t really believe either love story, as I felt that we as the reader got little insight into why or how the romantic interests came about. I think Wolfgang was much more fleshed out than Frendall, but that sort of became a moot point.

I also wish the synopsis had been more accurate, because the plot it described hadn’t begun halfway through the book, and the characters it mentioned, beyond Klara, hadn’t appeared. I was interested in what was happening, but I’d been expecting that plot for a while now, which left me less focused on everything else.

You might also notice I’m not really talking about characters much. For me, none of them were very interesting or compelling. There were a lot of plot convenient mind changes or reveals, but not a lot of depth to anyone. Even Klara, I didn’t really understand her enough to see why she was doing things or acting in certain ways.

So. Did I love this book? No. But it was an entertaining read, and the world was really interesting. I’d like to see Callaghan give herself more time to dive into her intricate worlds, deepen her characters, and pull back on the plot twists (unless seeded).

For me, this one is a 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for Goodreads.

I was intrigued by the storyline of the book - daughter of Lucifer, in line for the throne of Hell, but she doesn’t want it. She attempts to run, but the Queens of Hell have different plans. Story ended up being ok, but it was not well written. Notes below:
Book needed some editing with paragraphing, some paragraphs seem to run together or gaps in the timelines aren’t split up well
Sentence structure is too much the same throughout the book - “Klara” used a lot to start sentences, change up sentence structure some
The story is very rushed. Very limited world building and no background on why Klara wants to leave hell. Story jumps very sporadically - daughter of hell is all we know before she’s running for her life. Why? - Also dialogue jumps emotion a lot, happy to angry to a totally different subject too quickly
Last comment - What’s the story with the Fae, all we know is they seem to be bad, no back story.

I don't know what to make of this book, it started out gruesome yet interesting, but went downhill for a bit. The pacing was off and even though this is just over 200 pages, it felt much longer and not in a good way. I also felt like Klara was all over the place with her emotions and actions. First she hates the Queens, then one helps her, then she protects them. Klara couldn't decide if she wanted to run away from her responsibilities or stand up and help others. Sometimes she was strong and you could see the potential leader, other times she acted like a child and was irresponsible.

The ending picked up in pace, but the twist made me feel like the whole book was for nothing. Characters I liked died and not even for a good reason. I suppose the ending was happy and I liked the romance between Klara and Frendall. Lottie is also a super cute character and I want all the good things for her.
I think the author tried to do too much with a short story and it got convoluted. Maybe a more straightforward plot would have been better.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

With an intriguing, never-before-heard-of summary like that, how could I pass up the chance to read this book? Unfortunately, despite the neat plot, interesting characters, and mind-blowing worlds of Malum and Hell, I can't bring myself to give this book more than 3 stars.

For starters, the pacing was a bit too quick for my liking, especially since so much happens within its pages that seem to be brushed over, including character relationships, action and events, and a lack of internal dialogue. Additionally, there were numerous formatting issues that made my reading experience problematic (e.g. the actual dialogue, which was mashed together making it difficult to decipher who was speaking and when; missing words, inconsistent tenses, misspellings, etc.). The truth is, I found the first half of the book to be far stronger than the second half, where it began to lose steam.

As for the things I enjoyed: the mythology, the magical elements (I'd love to explore more of everyone's powers), and the interesting twist at the end regarding one particular Lycaon. Although I wish the author would have given us more details and interactions to help the reader better connect to the characters, I actually really liked Klara, Arthur, and Lilith. Heck, I even liked this portrayal of Lucifer.

All in all, it was a story brimming with brilliant ideas...that just needs a bit of tweaking and expanding upon.

This book was totally different than what I normally read, and I loved it. I've been looking for books with morally gray characters for years since I read The Young Elites, and although I wouldn't classify Klara as morally gray, I think she bordered it. i thought the concept of this was totally unique, and as soon as I read the blurb, I knew I had to have it.

First off, the world building in this was amazing. The universe this is set in contains three worlds: Kalos (the Fae realms), Hell, and Malum. Despite every world being vastly different, I could picture each one clearly in my head. The inhabitants of each realm were loveable (or in some cases not). Our main character Klara, Lucifer's heir was poised to take over ruling both Malum and Hell, and I really liked how she actually had the priorities a heir should have.

So, I've mentioned a bit of the plot above, and I can't give much more because of spoilers, but the plot in this was also great. It was definitely action packed, and at times confusing, but it never lagged. It combined a few epic fights, a bit of politics, and a yearning for freedom masterfully until its climax. In the blurb, we are promised a leprechaun smuggler, and I was slightly disappointed that he only made a few appearances, but the rest of the crew was there.

Now, there is a slight romance in this, but its not a huge part of the story. I almost wish we had gotten a bit more of it, because it would've given the action a break. Regardless, I enjoyed its inclusion, and can totally see the characters thriving together. I liked all of the characters in this, especially Wolfgang and Lottie, who really added a bit of comedic relief to the story.

After all of my praise, my 4 star rating really comes from something that is a direct consequence of receiving an arc of this book. I struggled to enjoy this book at times because dialogue would be smashed together, making it difficult to understand who was talking, and because of some grammar mistakes. Both of those will hopefully be fixed, so then I can see my enjoyment of this going way up. I would totally recommend this book!

The story had me captivated, drawn in and engrossed from the beginning and I couldn't put it down. It is a well-written book, however there is a lack of conversation indentation/separators so it is hard to tell who is talking in each group or paragraph of words, some spelling and grammatical errors throughout the ebook.

Crowned a Traitor was far from what I expected. I absolutely loved this book and the characters (well some of them I didn't), they were written so well in how they behaved personally or..demonishly (completely irreverent)?? As well as how they interacted with others.

There are so many twists to this and quite a few things that I was not expecting at all!! I would have loved this book more if there hadn't been as many grammatical errors, spelling errors and other errors. Hopefully these will be corrected.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

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

Crowned A Traitor honestly sounded like a pretty cool and dark fantasy book that I needed in my life. However, the beginning started off pretty slowly for me. Then I had a few boring chapters that I just wanted to skim through. Yet, I kept chugging along with this book and even gave myself some - yay you read a chapter here's some cheese!

In it, you will meet Klara who is the heir to Lucifer. She isn't sure who her mom is but she has to play nice with the High Queen while they "train" her. Out of them all, I loved Lilith. She was the only who took her role seriously and protected Klara ruthlessly. She was her mother figure in a way without knowing who her true mom was.

Then you get the feeling that something isn't quite right. The entire time I was just focused on who the "traitor" really was. I also didn't trust anyone when it came to things in this book. I had so many theories as to what was going to happen and how.. but I was way off. Especially towards the end of the book.

"Crowned a Traitor" follows Klara, the daughter of Lucifer and heir of Hell on her perilous journey to escape Malum and the Queens that rule it. As she travels through Malum towards Kalos, she meets a Leprechaun, two Lycaons and an old Warlock who are all willing to help her make her journey and defeat her foes.

I really enjoyed this book and how it weaved different legends and myths together; it truly made for a unique world that I could fully immerse myself into. Not only that but the characters were all so different, multi-faceted and unique. I enjoyed the different relationships between the characters and how they developed over the course of the book. Klara was a great protagonist; she was three dimensional, had some cool skills and she had a pretty rad character development throughout the book (even though she did at times sway back and forth between her convictions).
The three Queens of Malum all had different personalities and specialties. On top of that the dynamic between themselves and between them and Klara was a joy to read about, especially as the story progressed, conflicts arose and sides were chosen.
The last quarter of the book was extremely fast paced with multiple revelations and plot twists that I didn't see coming.
The ending of the book expertly set up the next installment in this series and I cannot wait to read it.

The only thing that I can truly criticize is that the book got a bit confusing when the plot moved too fast. Other than that "Crowned A Traitor" is an extremely fun book and unlike anything I have ever read before.

I found the story and world in this book really compelling. It was incredibly interesting, and I wanted to know more with every page turn. I think, however, in an attempt to both world build and create excitement for a first book in a series- we lost some character development. It was sometimes difficult to tell who was saying what, and Klara’s internal dialogue was often…said aloud. Had this book been either a little longer, or, the sequel well promised already, I think we would have gotten more justice. I really enjoyed the way that Callaghan wrote of these classic characters in such a new way. The ending felt a little tidied up too much for my taste. It was then unraveled for there to make space for a sequel, and I feel a little confused about what the sequel would even be. I would love to see more of Lottie and Klara, and am intrigued if anything to see where this journey will go.

Read full review 9/7/2020

It was very difficult to rate this book. The first 80 pages were absolutely fantastic – bloody, macabre, and thoroughly entertaining. The main heroine Klara was the villainous lead I have been waiting for some time. As Lucifer’s daughter and Heir to Hell, raised by three cruel and demonic queens, she definitely had a tough head on her shoulders and was a skilled killer.

Alas, those first chapters were the best. Once Klara went to visit her father in Hell, a very unnecessary romance sub-plot was inserted. The first pages alluding to it set it up as something having more potential, but that was wasted for a classic mushy-gushy tortured love story.

Unfortunately, the book only went downhill from there. What I thought of as a 4-star read turned to be only worth 3. The saving grace of ‘Crowned A Traitor’ was Lilith. She was awesome as a queen and as a sapphic character in general. Her and Klara’s relationship was done very well. Their bond was unique and as loving as you can expect from a demon and their trainee.

The most disappointing thing was the second half/the ending. It went nowhere and in circles. When Klara was running into danger, her companions kept shouting “Don’t!” and Klara always went “I will!”. She never learned from her mistakes, no matter how many times her actions had consequences. The argument happened at least four times, and. every. single. time. Klara was proven wrong and yet…. It didn’t help that spelling and grammar mistakes became more frequent and more annoying. The final chapters weren’t good at all, and I don’t even want to discuss them.

I wish this were the 4-star book I was promised in the first pages. I loved them with all my heart.

Content warnings: blood, graphic violence, off-page mention of starving a character, mention of torture, minor self-harm for a ritual, off-page death of two queer characters, mention of cannibalism.

Unfortunately, this book didn't meet the expectations I had from it’s synopsis which made it seem really interesting, but unfortunately it was too chaotic, too much mixing of mythology that just didn’t work, it felt also like it needed more editing and work on the grammar etc . Just not for me unfortunately

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I had mixed feelings about this book. I was enjoying the book till about half way through. And without giving too many spoilers, the book brings on a huge trope. That I nearly put the book down to not finish it. But surprisingly it all turned out better then expected.

This was a good stand alone. It’s getting harder and harder for books to stay stand alone and then we get these 6-7 book series. Which is great and all. But I like me a good stand alone every so often.