“Well, Tal,” she said, “I possess an ornamental dagger, a crown, and half a rabbit. What can you contribute to our shared survival?”

I read this that one time I tried NetGalley. Although I'm too much of a mood reader for NetGalley, I don't regret trying it, because I quite enjoyed this book, even ordered a physical copy of it.

The main characters are
- the Destroyer, the empress’s perfect weapon until a rebel attack leaves her with no magic and no memories,
- Tal, her bodyguard who has long since regretted his idealistic hope of saving the Destroyer, and
- Nyx, Tal's sister who is a rebel assassin sweared to kill the Destroyer and rescue her brother.

Maybe I was just not in the mood for this book at the time, because I got bored towards the end, but it hooked me right in when I started. I liked the characters, the magic system, the world building, and the funny moments like this:
“Sit down this second or I swear, I’ll turn down your proposal.”
Nyx stopped. She looked at Helenia. “What proposal?”
“The proposal where you get down on your knees and beg me to marry you even though— I repeat— you left me drugged in the woods while you ran off to face the Destroyer.”

I plan on rereading this and see if I can make it a 4 stars, because I've read it more than a year ago and certain scenes still live rent free in my mind.

Maybe I was just not in the mood for this book at the time, because I got bored towards the end, but it hooked me right in when I started. I liked the characters, the magic system, and the world building.

Despite its promising premise, the novel struggles to deliver a cohesive and engaging narrative, leaving much to be desired.

Thank you to Netgalley and Naomi Hughes for providing me an ARC!

Soooo I really liked a lot this book! It has a lot of world building, and it got me really into the novel. We have the two principal characters that are going to keep this history moving. I loved a lo Nyx, the Destroyer and Tal. I had my moments where I wanted to kill the Destroyer but I loved how we see her human side.

Overall Rating:
4/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Published: 03.15.2021
Read/Finished: 04.09.2021

This book at first I had a hard time to get into cause of the world building. But it eventually, this got better halfway through.

I did loved Tal and Elodie. Their character arcs were so well done and amazing. The amount of obstacles that they had to go through, hurt my heart 😭 They were fascinating to read about, and they were my favorite characters in the book. I wished this book wasn’t a standalone cause this honestly could have been a series. Or at least a trilogy.

The world building kinda had some elements similar to Throne of Glass but still different. The magic system itself is based on how powers come from certain metals in a person’s bloodstream. Metals are powerful and deeply respected.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC.

I DNFed this book just in the beginning as I was unable to connect to the characters, their emotions and feelings were not properly expressed. And I also felt that the story was too fast paced for my liking.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Loved the writing and the plot! Super interesting with a new take on the genre!
It wasn't my favorite fantasy novel, but the relationship between the two main characters truly gives what it takes for it to be a nice, quick and fun reading!

I really struggled with this book. Reading this as a 20 something year old, I felt as though this was very much for a younger YA audience. The author had to justify a lot of things that i thought made the book childish. HOWEVER, this was for a YA audience so I do believe this would be a great fantasy for younger readers

I love the idea of this book! Blood magic - yes please. The plot was fast paced, twisty and kept me interested and the characters were so well done. Wonderful world building as well.

This was a fun fast-paced fantasy. I liked the characters. However, I did not particularly like the romance which was the focus of the novel. The romance was very instant love. Still, this was a light fantasy.

this is so underrated and i'm furious that it isn't plastered everywhere. the characters have depth, the setting is lush, the plot makes sense, the action is engaging. what more do people want from a fantasy romance?!

Thanks to Netgalley to the advanced earc in Exchange for na honest review.
The book starts in an unexpected way. A pact of one of the characters with another... a pact that he wanted to make but at the same time, not really. I found this premise interesting.

The characters have a spectacular development, I was caught by surprise in all the plot twists, the world is so well built.

I really enjoyed it and recommend it!

While a fun read, I didn't think this was anything special. The romance, dialogue and plot were all very predictable.

I’m such a slow reader sometimes, I’m so sorry! But again with this book I only got about 40% of the way through and my time expired. So far, this book has genuinely surprised me. I love it when you get and eARC and you end up absolutely loving it. It makes you feel all good inside. I love this book so much so far. And I need to read the rest of it ASAP!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I honestly had a really hard time getting into this book. The plot seemed really intriguing, but in all honesty sort of fell flat. I wanted more dimensions to the characters, some sort of way to connect me to them. However I just honestly wasn’t able to find it.

Sadly I found the cover to be more intriguing than the contents. There was so much potential for the characters. Blood magic, a bodyguard with a dark past, and someone called The Destroyer!
Maybe my lack of love from the book comes from the fact that I wasn't invested in the relationship that was being built between Elodie and Tal. I think too much occurred off the page while he was serving as her bodyguard. That relationship build is what I really wanted to see as a romance lover, and what I think was really lacking.
Also the worldbuilding wasn't my cup of tea. I wish Hughes had gone more into the religion. Additionally, I didn't feel like she explained the magic system well, and there were a lot of holes of missing information that I wanted filled im.
I do appreciate that this story was contained in one book. I think this genre really loves dragging stories out over multiple books, and sometimes it's nice to get a self-contained fantasy.

Absolutely incredible book! The world building is superb and the characters are complex and just so well fleshed out. I absolutely adored the writing as well!

I didn't actually get the chance to finish this before it was removed from Netgalley but got about half way through and thought this was a really great book. The world building was beautifully written and immersed me immediately. I was worried about how the whole amnesia aspect would work out but it was pleasantly surprised.

i like reading off beat authors. it's a shame this author isn't getting more press. she wrote dynamic and complex characters.