Let's chat about "Night in His Eye" by Alisyn Fea and Emma Alisyn – keeping it casual and spoiler-free!

So, I picked up this book with high hopes but needed more time to hit the mark for me. The storyline seemed promising, but the execution left me wanting more depth and connection with the characters.

Characters? They felt one-dimensional. I struggled to connect with their personalities truly, and their development throughout the story left me wanting more complexity.

Plot? It had potential. The premise was intriguing, but I hoped for more twists and turns as the narrative unfolded to keep me in my seat.

Writing style? It was decent. The prose flowed well, but I couldn't shake the feeling that certain scenes lacked vivid descriptions and emotional depth that could have elevated the reading experience.

Romance element? It fell flat. I expected a more captivating connection between the characters, but their interactions left me wanting more depth and emotional resonance.

Ending? It wrapped up neatly, but I couldn't help but wish for a bit more resolution or a more substantial emotional impact to leave a lasting impression.

In summary, "Night in His Eye" didn't quite capture my attention as I hoped. While the premise held promise, the execution and character development left something to be desired.

Aerinne Capulet's mother was killed by Renaud, an Old One connected with the House of Montague. For most of her life, she and her house have been seeking revenge for her mother’s death. Currently the two factions are in a stalemate. But Renaud is waking and presents the greatest danger, the potential for finding the secret locked in her brain being a major concern. But when Renaud finally finds her, he has no intentions of harming her.

This is the first book in a series and it sets up the meeting between Renaud and Aerinne. I do find it hard to reconcile the fact Renaud has been “sleeping” for so long with the fact he is responsible for Aerinne’s mother’s death. It just isn’t very clear to me. Otherwise I am enjoying the story so far and look forward to reading the next in the series. I also question the idea of enemy to lovers at this point. I presume a romance is definitely in store.

It would seem there are supposed to be parallels with the story of Romeo and Juliet, considering the two houses who are at war. I’m not too sure where that connection is going at this point but it does make an interesting starting point.

Overall this was enjoyable and I give this three stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Hard Candies for giving an advanced reader copy. I have provided this review voluntarily.

I was honestly really confused about this.
It's a fae book but the girl knows how to fight but lives in New York and talks of laptops and modern day music. I wasn't sure when this book happens or where the far lands are.
Arienne vows to kill the prince that has just awoken from a slumber but of course she falls in love with him instead.

Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖 (I felt like a lot wasn’t explained yet)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (judged by kiss scene length)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): only kisses
Humor: just a bit – it’s mostly sarcasm
Perspective: First person from the heroine’s point of view

Should I read in order?
This is book 1 but yes, definitely yes. Don’t read book 2 before this one as it’s a direct continuation of this story and picks up at the cliffhanger at the end.

Basic plot:
Aerinne is the Lady of House Faronne and she’s been waging war against House Montague for over a decade. Her mother dead, she wants vengeance. But...the Prince is waking. An Old One hasn’t been within the Court in centuries. And all of it is connected.

Give this a try if you want:
- Slow burn – definitely a slow build of tension over the course of the book
- You’re okay with a cliffhanger (book 2 is out and the story picks up immediately)
- Low steam (in this one) – only kisses but they are developed and explicit
- Fantasy romance – Fae, humans, magic skills, avatar
- Plenty of fighting and action scenes, including death and torture

Ages:
- heroine 27, hero is like 10,000 + (I have no idea but heroine is ‘not even half a percent of his age’)

My thoughts:
I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I didn’t think I was going to, because the beginning was kind of confusing for me. But as I got into it, I really feel into the author’s writing style. I really, really loved the writing. This descriptive, angsty, slow burning, emotional prose is exactly, exactly what I love.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy – I’m pretty new to the genre. So I was a touch overwhelmed in the beginning with all these new things I was being introduced to but didn’t understand. I knew there were fae, but we also have avatars, skills, various houses with different cultures within them, a mix of high fae, low fae, humans, and Old Ones. There were references to modern things but I didn’t feel like the world was modern (I’m writing this after I have started book 2 and want to note there are definitely more details regarding these things as the story moves on). I did struggle a bit with the timeline. The book begins with a scene from about 3 weeks in the future, then goes back. I’m sure this is just me but it just made me more confused haha and I struggled with finding my grounding in this new world. I think I needed a bit more background on this world we were entering. Computers, therapists, New York is mentioned, but the lifestyle seemed very ‘historical’ feeling so I couldn’t quite get a concrete feel for what was going on here. (I have been rereading it through writing this review and it flows much better to me now and makes a lot more sense so I think it was just my personally struggling with grasping this)

Arienne I loved and got a touch annoyed by. She is so strong and I loved her confidence. I truly loved her when she was in battle – she was amazing to behold and I don’t even usually like battle scenes! She can make dumb decisions, but this is also reflected on. I do think some of her sarcasm and banter made her seem really young and immature (very ‘sassy teenager’ feeling) but other than that, I am amazed by her, intrigued, and rooting for her to conquer her demons. I’m hoping I’m going to fall for her even more in the later books in the series.

The Prince has already utterly ruined me. And we barely know him. He open his eyes and my heart beat faster. He spoke, and I began perspiring. And when you actually see him pursue, battle and banter, I was completely wrecked at his feet in love. (Also want to note that you start to get scenes from his perspective in book 2, which I don’t think happened in this book, though you still get to know him through Aerinne.)

Absolutely continuing with the series and I’ll probably reading this author’s back list as well

Wow, this was a really interesting book! It had an interesting world with complicated politics which I often find lacking in steamy books. Altogether, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. I found the romantic interest to have good chemistry with the protagonist and it was definitely a page-turner. I will 100% be looking forward to the next book and getting it since it does end on a sort of cliffhanger.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed this book! It was a great intro in the wonderful fae world! Its a fantastic enemies to lovers trope with get characters and an awesome world build. It does take some getting use to with the main character being so angsty lol but it was a great read! I look forward to more from this series! I recommend this book to fae lovers, fantasy lovers and enemies to lovers trope lovers!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hard Candies Publishing LLC for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love Aerienne as a character, and can I just say, reading a fantasy book with a bad a$$ main character is AWESOME! I love the dynamic between Aerinne and Renaud. I'm constantly wondering when she's going to go too far. There was that one scene that the dinner table.... if you know, you know!

The last few chapters had me strung tighter than a tight rope. I can't wait for the next one. Keep 'em coming!

I liked the characters in this book but everything felt rushed. At the same time I could read this book very fast and it was fast paced. It was interesting but I am unsure if I would read a second book.

Very nice read!! This book was a fun romantic fantasy read, liked the characters and loved following them as the fell in love!

3.5 stars

This one was okay if a bit incomplete. It's the first in a series, but it didn't really feel like there was a clear plot for this book. Most of this book is the FMC being pissed off and acting like a petulant idiot and the MMC being a bit creepy-rapey-intense. It wasn't an unpleasant read, it just felt a bit shallow and hollow and unsatisfying. The author did warn that this was the first in a series and ended on a cliffhanger, but you can have a cliffhanger and still have your first book have like, you know, a fleshed out plot. I don't expect a series to come to a head in book 1, but I would like book 1 to bring something to the fucking table aside from being the introduction to the rest of the books. This book is described as an "adult high heat, slow burn Fae fantasy romance," but there isn't any banging if you were looking for that. Meh. I'll forget about it instantly, but I would still read the next one if it was free and I had nothing else to read, which sounds really negative, but there are a lot of books that I wouldn't read even if they were free and I had nothing else to read so make of that what you will.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me at 20%. The thing I hate about first-person narrative and why it's so hard to do well is that sometimes you are getting a running dialogue of the main character's thoughts. Aerinne jumped around a lot in her thoughts and at times lost me. This book is 287 pages. Better editing and story blocking could have helped these authors. And that's what happened here, all the sentences were just too much, overloaded with meaning.

Overall, the story was overly descriptive and riddled with metaphors. I wanted to go through and highlight them but will add one here to give you an example: "The scent of moral ambiguity combined with barely checked ambition." followed by: The rot of age entwined with semi-eternal youth." I felt like I was reading Aerinne's live journal.

And the plot: Aerinne, half-fae, murders the fae Prince's son, thus waking him up from a 200-year sleep. She's made a vow to kill him or get revenge because he killed her mother. The Prince decides he wants Aerinne for himself. Also, the hypocrisy of Aerinne's actions, her eye for an eye justice, didn't make sense. I did skip to the last chapter to see what the cliffhanger was and was pretty meh. Also, the backstory wasn't as compelling as it could be. Aerinne, a 20-something, is being pursued by a thousand years old fae and she's kind of a brat.

However, I will second what others have said, Aerinne's inner voice and guide, Darkan, showed a lot of promise.

This book was not for me, but I might check back in with the authors later in the series to see if they work out some of these problem areas.

Night In His Eyes follows MC Aerinne and Renaud. Aerinne is seeking to avenge the death of her mother and vows to kill Renaud in the process. In general, I really I liked this book! It was fast paced, easy to read, and there was a slow burn romance. I also like the world building, the magic, and the difference between the fae houses. I did think at some times there was a little bit too much “fluff” but overall I really enjoyed the book and read it in one sitting.

I had such an unbelievably hard time getting into this book and ever wanting to pick it back up. The obsessive amount of details on everything was annoying, but could be ignored. What couldn't be ignored was the main character, Aerinne. Oh my gawd, I cannot even begin to tell you how much I absolutely HATED her.

Aerinne is half fae, half human, but also technically the leader of her house after her high fae mother died. But she's obsessed with fighting and stupid, so her human father is leading the house in her stead. Like I said, I hated her. She is 27 but acts like she is 12. She cannot, for the life of her, keep her goddamn stupid mouth shut. We're given the impression that her temper is just who she is and she simply can't help herself. NO. If she wasn't such a coddled, spoiled, little shit, she would have learned to have respect for people and to think before opening her damn mouth with more of her self important garbage. She lives for nothing more than to avenge her mother's death and to kill her supposed enemies. Despite the fact that her mother knew exactly what her actions would bring, and the fact that she has absolutely no idea why the other house is supposed to be the enemy. Oh, and she also murdered an innocent non-combatant for the sake of her revenge as well. She acts like she cares about her people, but in the end, every decision she makes is made because of how high her temper was at the time. I'm not sure if she was written as she was to be some sort of a badass chick, but I can say that if that was the intention it failed so hard. Just because she can fight in a battle, does not make her a badass.

As for the fae prince Renaud, I actually really rather liked him. I'm such a sucker for super powerful, possessive, and violent guys. So it's such a disappointment how much he indulges Aerinne's attitude. Being as old as he is, Renaud and others like him tend to sleep away large chunks of their lives. Aerinne just so happened to cause him to wake sooner than he planned. But he is immediately taken with her, claims her as his, and effectively puts an end to the fighting by stopping his people and calling for peace talks.

Of course Aerinne fights him every single step of the way. She's appalled that he would even want to claim her in front of the other rulers. But what is even worse to her is how her body responds to everything that is Renaud. From his voice, to his body, to his power, and even his violence. It all calls to her and she can so easily see herself as his. But she refuses to submit. Making matters worse, she made a fae vow to kill him. So now, if she doesn't (which she has even acknowledged is impossible) it's her life that is forfeit. Renaud refuses to let her die though, so it would be interesting to see how they get around that.

I absolutely loved everything about the ways of the old ones because it was all quite interesting and definitely fun with Renaud. And I even loved the entity inside of Aerinne's mind that isn't actually inside of her mind. There was so much about this story that I really liked. So the fact that Aerinne completely ruins the relationship forming with Renaud (not to mention the entire story) has me hesitant to even think about wanting to read the next book. Because this most definitely ends in a cliff hanger. And dammit how I want more of Renaud, but not at the expense of the story because of how annoying and stupid Aerinne is.

I really enjoyed the tension and dynamic between Renaud and Arienne. The world and magic was really interesting and it served as a great introduction to the series! I do wish the story was a bit longer as it would have helped it to be more fleshed out. Cannot wait to read the next installment!

HUZZAH!!! A SLOW BURN WHERE THE PLOT ISNT SLOW!?!? The world building was not that good and I think it could have been more stretched out. The characters were cute and ooh girl don't even get me started on the spice.

(Received an ARC copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Night in His Eyes follows our main character who seeks revenge on a High Fae due to her mother's death and her brother's capture.

This book was a promising start to a series. The concept was interesting and our main two characters felt well-developed. I found myself wanting to read more when the story ended on a cliffhanger and I am definitely interested to see what happens in the next instalment. I will say that other than our main two characters, I felt little connection to the rest of the characters. This could however be due to the length of book which is less than 3oo pages. The world-building was fine, a little lacking at times for me but overall a quick and intriguing read. I eager to learn more about these characters and the world in the next instalment.

Three and a half
I adore enemies to lovers and I'm also pretty obsessed with stories about the Fae but this book which is the beginning of a new series sadly just didn't quite engage my attention all the time. I loved that like West Side Story it's a salute to Shakespeare but at times found most of the characters unlikable and well frankly certainly initially it did drag a bit.
Our heroine Aerinne is desperate to fulfil her families expectations and has vowed to slay Renaud the Prince who killed her mother but with her brother a hostage the war is simply dragging on. So when the Prince returns to his people Aerinne is absolutely horrified to realise that he has taken a very carnal interest in her !
I do get that the author is establishing just how different to humans these Fae are but honestly just didn't connect with the cousins, allies and bodyguards we are initially introduced to and to be blunt Aerinnes father was just a wimp . However what was really interesting was the Darken who whispers to Aerinne leaving her wondering if she's imagining it or is it her subconscious or the ID if you will. I found their conversations really interesting but alas we don't get much of him particularly towards the end. That's when Renaud steps up his game and I found him cold and not at all sexy. I do have thoughts and a strong suspicion about something but obviously my lips are sealed. I will however say this ends on a cliff hanger as its made abundantly apparent that if Aerinne doesn't kill or even want to kill Renaud then her Vow will reverberate and actually end her own life ! To be continued as they say .........
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Loved this book! I loved the imagination and world building. Can't wait for more! The character dynamics were great. The humor was cute!

This was a very interesting book! Definitely a dark romance book, so not really suitable for my school. But I would definitely buy it for my home library. The pacing was good, the story interesting, and the characters well fleshed out.

Thank you to the authors and Netgalley for providing a copy.

Ok... I struggled with this one. The start was just all over the place and messy. I couldn't wrap my brain around what was going on. The characters were also extremely unlikable, though I can't say for sure what threw me off of them.

The only thing I truly enjoyed was the front cover.

I DNFd at 20%.