I will not be finishing this title after getting through roughly 25%, but I did want to give some feedback.

To start off, this is the first work of Legrand I have read so I cannot say with any certainty how strong of a writer she is, but this book felt very weak and riddled with overly descriptive "prose" that served very little purpose. Even if it was to show what kind of person Gemma was or was forced to be because of her illness, every description went on for longer than necessary. The physical descriptions of each and every character was also overkill and bordered on toxic. Gemma is obviously a girl very concerned with her appearance, and I can imagine there is some transformation or change that happens to her later in the story, but its so heavy handed up front that it grated on my nerves.

I understand this is the first adult novel for Legrand and I have to say, I wouldn't have guessed that by the main character. She is written like a young, vapid YA heroine, and that is doing a disservice to YA heroines because I have seen this character written better and stronger time and time again. But in this story, there is nothing redeemable about Gemma, nor anything about the story that makes you, the reader, want to FIND that redeemable quality.

I love fantasy and the description of this book sounded so promising, so I am disappointed in the fact that I cannot muscle through it to the end.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I appreciate that many people will love this story, but unfortunately, I found Gemma and Talan a bit bland. I stopped reading 40% in, but I encourage everyone to check it out yourselves. The things that didn't work for me might not be a problem for others. I give what I read 3/5 stars. Not poorly written, but not for me.

This sounded like such a good premise, especially when compared to ACOTAR and Bridgerton, but it wound up being a DNF @ 25% for me.

Let me start with what I liked about the story, because I loved the fact that there was chronic pain and anxiety representation in the story. The chronic pain and illness representation was done really well, and Gemma's anxiety was portrayed wonderfully. Both of these disorders impact her life in numerous ways, but she fights against it, often choosing to struggle through the pain to attend important events, like many people with chronic pain have to do. There's a part of the story where there is an influence exerted that removes Gemma's pain enough to let her function normally, much like painkillers do in our world, yet she chooses not to have that influence used on her, so that she doesn't become reliant on it.

However, I didn't like much of Gemma's character. She's selfish, vain, impulsive, shallow, and incredibly self-absorbed. I don't mind when an author takes some time to hone in on a character's negative character traits, preventing them from seeming too perfect, but in this case, Legrand did that a bit too much - there weren't really any positive characteristics in Gemma, making it basically impossible to like her even a little bit. She's the kind of character that's impossible to connect with, and I struggled to get invested in her story.

I was hoping it would get better once she met Talan, but rather than having them form a genuine connection, we get insta... something. It wasn't necessarily insta-love, but it was definitely lust and some kind of connection that just didn't feel very believable. They enter into an agreement very quickly, and he seemed shady. There's a lot we don't know about him, and there's definitely things that threw up some red flags for me. Simply the fact that they had that strange connection immediately made me have difficulty rooting for the two of them. Finally, he seemed kind of flat. He didn't have much of a personality that I was able to see - maybe this was developed further in the book, but by 25% he was still relatively flat.

There was a lot going on in this story, even a quarter of the way in. We have the strange connection between Gemma and Talan, the issue with the mist, the family feud going on, the demon, and the strange issue going on with Gemma herself - and all this was still relatively early in the book. I got the feeling that later in the book, there would be so many more plot threads going on, and it would be difficult to follow everything, especially since it was so difficult to follow as it was.

Finally, while this is marketed as an adult book, the writing felt very YA. I get that it's hard to crossover from YA into adult, but this book fell short. Overall, the premise sounded promising, but didn't quite come through in execution, at least to the point that I read.

Marking this as read, but DNF at 59%. I just couldn't continue.

This is supposed to be adult, but the main character acted like a young teenager. The most intriguing characters to me were side characters. I'd say of the 59% I read I truly enjoyed maybe 3 chapters.

All the scenes that were interesting and I actually liked felt rushed while there were long moments of reading about Gemma pining after Talan. The spicy scenes I read just came out of nowhere and always seemed poorly placed.

I would've loved to understand the magic system more, read more world building, etc. I would've also loved a multi POV of Farrin and Mara at the very least.

Dnf @ 17%
This book has an interesting premise, but I had to dnf it, because I’m not at all connected to the story or the characters, I couldn’t care less about them. The writing is so juvenile, which bothered me, considering this is an adult book. The main character is very annoying, she’s always talking about how beautiful she is and she comes off as a spoiled brat. It also seems like there’s an insta love trope and that’s something I don’t like. All in all, I’m just bored and I don’t want to hate this book, so I’m choosing to dnf it.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc for the book.

I normally try to push through books to give a better feedback. But I ended up DNFing at 33%. I think its rather off-putting to read 33% of a book and have nothing particularly significant happen. The plot moved painfully slow and in all I read I think only 2 significant events occurred. Besides that, it was all about Gemma describing her pain and lusting over Talan.

The chronic pain rep and anxiety were well written though. As someone who suffers from anxiety it's refreshing to have a female lead who has to struggle with the same suffocating feelings I sometimes go through. It was well described and explained. However, I felt there was an over dependence of this as means to prolong narration or the progression of a chapter. Yes we know she lives in constant pain and its horrible. Yes I love how Talan immediately came to her aid to ease her pain. But this happens in every chapter all the time and it ended up becoming repetitive. As if, the chapters needed this to make them long enough.

That said, the writing was probably my biggest disappointment. This an adult book. I even had that old-English type of dialogue that I was enjoying. The narrative overall has that adult feeling. But the characters felt so incredibly YA. Not to mention the insta-love trope which I hate and this didn't make it any more tolerable. I really wanted to like this book and see if it got better, but it doesn't seem like it will.

I'm afraid this title wasn't for me.
I've read the first 3 chapters and strongly disliked the main character. The worldbuilding and writing style didn't really appeal to me either.
Thank you for the opportunity.

I did not finish this book. I made it about 120 pages in and I couldn't do it anymore. The main character is not well fleshed out. I think she's meant to be calculating but it just comes off as vain and manipulative.
Her romance with Talan also started out of nowhere. Obviously, I knew there would be romance, but it started incredibly early and their whole relationship (at least as far as I got) was a little forced. They also went back and forth between really tender, heartfelt dialogue to bickering? And not in a cute enemies to lovers kind of way, it just seemed like they didn't like each other at points.
Also everyone was hot? Like too hot. Every person is described as beautiful or handsome or chiseled or something. Give us some interesting, weird looking characters! Give people flaws!
I might give this book another go when it's actually released, but as of right now, I really could not get into it.

DNF... I’m trying but I just don’t find this to be romance (which I was expected Fantasy Romance more so than Romantic Fantasy) so I feel I’m wasting my time! I like that Gemma is an unlikeable character - she’s vain and selfish. Content warnings (and representation) for chronic pain/illness and self harm. There’s a romance there between her and Talan but I don’t feel it’s the main plot. Often we go pages on pags without seeing Talan. I don’t always understand Talan’s motivations and am hoping he’s a villain in disguise (I skimmed ahead and they do get a HEA) who she loves anyway. But he’s just not a supportive enough partner consistently to Gemma. He’ll imply he’d do just about anything for her and then disappear when her monstrous side comes out. I also don’t understand a lot of the other characters’ motivations. The Basks don’t get along with Gemma’s family, but why is the way to resolve the conflict between them that they think a demon might have caused to continue the drama between them? Setting them up for humiliation just seems petty and like something that the two families already do to one another. Every time there’s an idea that interests me - let’s introduce Talan to society, let’s go on escapades in disguise and pretend we are married - it’s just glossed over. I’m bored. I keep dedicating so much time to this book and falling into it only to get bored or be let down by an underwhelming plot point.

DNF after two chapters.

I was really excited about this one, as I have really loved some of the author's other work. Unfortunately, this did not work for me. I found the writing to be too juvenile for an adult novel, the FMC to be immature and vain, and struggled to take the audiobook narrator's masculine voice seriously.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review,

Perhaps one of more unlikable characters I have met in the fantasy genre, the FMC really is quite insufferable. She also bounces around from being "I am the best thing since sliced bread, my life is fabulous, and everyone wants to be me" to "Woe is me, I have the worst life, and no one cares about me." I really could not get behind such a character, and unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I think perhaps another round of editing would be in order for this book.

DNF at 12%

The main character is unbearably annoying and vain. She’s either feeling sorry for herself or describing how beautiful she is and I can’t take any more of it. I’m really bummed because I loved Furyborn, but this is completely different.

I DNF'ed this book at 16%

I had seen the ratings going into this book and was trying to keep my mind clear of expectations because oftentimes I will like books that others do not, but I could not make myself read any more than 16%. I wasn't invested at all in either the story or the characters. To be quite honest, I really didn't even like the main character. I dipped out of this very early so I didn't get the chance to see any potential growth, but she feels pretty childish to me, and this book is marketed as adult.

That being said, I thought the world and the magic were very interesting and unique! We had a mix of different powers depending on how much magic a person had, and this was weaved into a historical society of parties, fashion, and gossip. I can definitely see where the Bridgerton comparison came from. Despite not loving the main character, I actually quite liked how we are thrown into Gemma and her family's complicated dynamics. I got a good feeling for them and their background very early on. Gemma also suffers from panic attacks and chronic pain, which was written with a lot of care and thought. It was wonderful representation and I loved to see it.

Lastly, even in the first 16% of the book, the pacing was really off to me. Some moments dragged but then suddenly some of the other moments felt rushed when I thought they were actually quite important.

Despite these issues, I thought the writing was solid and I would still read another CL book, this one just wasn't for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

DNF @ 34% I am so sad to be writing this review.

When I am gifted a book for my honest review, I want to at least finish it, but this one I just couldn’t.

I have read Sawkill Girls from Claire Legrand and that one was great so I requested this one because I was so excited about it.

What this one does right is having a chronically ill baddie main character who doesn’t let her pain stop her from living life.

It also has an amazing setting and descriptions of the fashion. The plunging to the navel dress is great.

The pacing and the romance are where this just lost me.

I expected a lot more to happen in almost 150 pages, but it feels like nothing really has. The greenways are confusing, the plot jumps time in odd ways and I can’t keep characters straight.

And Talan is the most boring character I’ve ever read for a romantic hero to this sassy woman that is Gemma. I didn’t understand her attraction to him except that he can take away her pain, which is a great thing, but he should also have some good conversations with her.

I am bummed that this one just didn’t work for me, but I hope it works for other readers. I just expect more banter in my romances and this is not that. I also expect when there is talk of a demon for it to get to dark fast like Sawkill Girls did, but this was just so slow.

Thanks so much NetGalley for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate it greatly.

DNF 51%.

Gemma is the only person in her high class regency society that has an aversion to magic. Her older sisters are a warrior and a political mind, while Gemma plans parties. When a new boy comes to her family trying to find a secret, she decides to finally do some secret maneuvering of her own.

Don't let the author's past work or the premise of Bridgerton-meets-ACOTAR fool you: this book was infuriating, boring, and poorly constructed. Gemma made me think of how Jane Austen described Emma Woodhouse, as a protagonist that no one but herself would much like, except this time it was true. Emma Woodhouse is intelligent and charming despite her flaws; Gemma is naive, flighty, selfish, and has her priorities infuriatingly out of order. Gemma is by far the least interesting of her family members, yet the reader is tortured with following her. The love interest is so suspicious, especially because he can manipulate other's emotions to get what he wants, that he is not attractive. (Full disclosure, since I didn't finish the book, he could be a villain. If he's a villain, it's predictable and it's annoying she got with him. If he isn't, it's infuriating that he's the love interest.) This is also meant to be an adult book with spicy scenes, but our characters and world read so young that the spicy scenes feel entirely out of place (and were not desirable to begin with). The world here is not very well defined either. The gods have passed on from the world and left different families with magic, and those families are now supposed to be the regency elite. While we have ballgowns and manor houses, the characters feel too modern to keep with the regency setting. The fantasy aspects of the world aren't well established; everything feels randomly selected instead of a set logic/tone for the world (like in Furyborn). Lastly, the book was drawn out to the nth degree. No matter how much I read, there were still hundreds of pages left with no development in the plot or characters. I do not DNF books that were sent to me for review, but this had to be the exception.

Overall, I've enjoyed this author's previous books, but this could not have bothered me more.

A rather mediocre book really. I spent a lot of the beginning confused which is expected when starting a new fantasy book but I ended up with too many loose ends and eye-roll-worthy reveals. I know this is book one of the series but I had hoped for a more cohesive ending. The sudden kidnapping and curse-breaking felt so unnecessary and forced.
I didn't like Talan. He was always too good to be true, manipulative and toxic as hell. Gemma practically cut off all of her friends following this man around on some wild goose chase but she still ends up with him after all of the lies? Revealing he was the demon was predictable. He was so toxic I knew he must be bad. Gemma was wrapped around his finger so quickly it was nauseating.
Gemma and her sisters were cool. Well fleshed-out characters. I also enjoyed Gareth, he was a great character that I wish we had more of.
The world-building was nice. Felt interesting but man, I wish there was a map as I got quite confused about where things were.
Gemma and her powers were well done. I liked the mystery and the build-up to that reveal, it felt natural and exciting. She suddenly realized she wasn't as weak as she thought. The sudden reveal that she may be part fae though, that was far too sudden given the fae were never previously mentioned. A few more mentions of it earlier would've helped that feel less jarring.

Overall it was an okay book. I finished it because I was hoping more would be cleared up/revealed but I was a bit disappointed. I am unsure if I will read further into the series as I just had so many issues with it.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this ARC. I got about 25% of the way through and I couldn’t finish it. The FMC felt incredibly contradictory to me in a way I did not understand.
I can tell that the author is trying to bring mental health into this book, but I didn’t like the way it was done.
For me this just didn’t hit the mark on character development, plot, enjoyment, or readability. It was a struggle to even get to 25%.
I do want to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for sending me this advanced reader’s copy. I wish it had been a better match!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I ended up DNFing this book at around the 20% mark. I haven’t had the best luck with fantasy lately, so I thought that it might just be a me thing, but after having a look at this book’s reviews, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I haven’t read any of this author’s work before so I had no expectations going into it, but I was still disappointed. This book is pitched as ACOTAR meets Bridgerton, and with a description like that, you’re bound to grab readers’ attention. I will say that it’s a pretty accurate description – I definitely got Bridgerton and ACOTAR vibes from this – but that’s all I got. There was no unique voice or anything that kept me interested in the story. I was intrigued by the fact that the main character gets sick when she’s close to magic, but other than that, the plot felt pretty weak.

The writing was okay, but quite juvenile for an adult book (which I only just found out it was, I thought it was a YA book, and even then I thought it was immature). I also couldn’t stand the main character. I understand that she’s supposed to be an unlikeable character, but being in her head all the time was insufferable and also really repetitive. Overall, I don’t think this is a horrible book, but I just didn’t enjoy any aspect of it so I thought it wouldn’t be fair to myself or the book to keep going.

Legrand is still good at dropping some surprises! This was a slow starter. It is a fantasy with strong romance features (and on the the spicy side). Although there have been some themes of betrayal that had me questioning judgement and ultimately I think this is why I haven't connected well with the characters. The world and the magic concepts are exciting and kept me going. There seems to be much history and lore to be learned. If you've enjoyed the Empirium trilogy, you should give this one a try too. (3.5 stars)

2/5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a review copy.

Unfortunately this book was just… not for me. I found the worldbuilding confusing, I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, and I honestly found myself dreading reading it after a while. The romance was rushed and I didn’t feel like there was enough development. I did, however, like the focus on panic attacks, as that is something I’ve suffered with. I thought the descriptions for that were very accurate.

I’m disappointed. 😞