I read an earc of Venom and Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore. Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing.

This is a truly amazing story where I wanted to take the two main characters and bash their heads together. Val because she's a little chaos gremlin and tends to think on his feet, sure of whatever he's doing at any moment, and tending to throw knives at her problems. Cade tends to hide behind whatever he's being at the moment, and has trouble standing up for what he knows what is right because he feels that no one will take him seriously once they know that he is the oldest child, the supposed heir princess that they now think his brother assassinated in order to become the heir prince.

Oh yes, and most of the adults, including the Queens and Kings of the kingdoms that Cade and Val come from fallen asleep in an area that they can't be reached in.

Now, Cades's brother listens to advisors who tell him to continue a war fought by children, and Val meets him while pretending to be a fairy while she's looking for armor to sneak into one of his bases. Since she can't take armor from what looks like Philip (Cade's brother), she simply tries to warn him away from fighting. Then while Cade actually does try to stop the fighting because he dislikes it, Val get armor and because Gael, who is immediately captured by the enemy and later taken in front of Cade.

Through a series of ridiculous events, Cade figures out what Gael is hiding under his armor, and because he swore not to kill or reveal anyone like himself, he takes Gael back to his kingdom. While there, and pretending to be his brother, he once again asks for peace talks, and since the princess wanted one in the first place, she agrees.

The story from there is a lot of misunderstandings. Val as a dama and an assassin being a little chaos gremlin and throwing knives at people when they catch her at ill-thought out plans. Cade stops him, but never takes time to explain, though to be fair to him, when he does, Val immediately just tries to kill him again, so...

This is a fun romp of a story that I had so much fun with.

“Neither side alone is all of me, but together, they hold the light inside me.”

I revived an eARC of Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie and Elliott McLemore from Feiwel & Friends in exchange for an honest review. Here are my thoughts!

⚔️ Two enemy kingdoms are devastated when their rulers fall into an enchanted sleep. Desperate to find a way to reawaken their parents, the children of these rulers are doing their best to govern in their stead. Valencia is an attendant of a future queen, Gael is an assassin - few know they are one and the same. Cade McKenna is a prince who regularly doubles as the brother he relinquished the throne to. When these two cross paths they become cautious allies with more in common than they thought possible. ⚔️

Listen - when Anna-Marie McLemore releases a book I read it. That is a given. Venom & Vow, while not my favorite, did have its shining moments. This book features a trans prince and a bigender assassin, a lush and magical setting, different takes on living with chronic pain, and a lot more!

Unfortunately, with so much great content this book just felt rushed. The world was so complex and there were several subplots that needed more time to develop in order to pack the proper punch. Ya girl loves standalones, but this book needed to be at least a duology.

Overall I gave Venom & Vow three stars. I think it’s worth a read, but wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it. Check it out for yourself on May 16th and lemme know what you think!

This book has some of my favorite things to read about, deception, enemies to lovers, magic, and trans characters, but times two, because both of the main characters have POV chapters. Both of them betray people. Both of them hate each other………….Unless…. And they’re doing all that while transgender.
One of the first times I have ever read a t4t fantasy enemies to lovers, and it’s going to be hard to beat this one. I absolutely adored this book.

Venom & Vow is a work of art. The world-building, as always with Anna-Marie McLemore, was phenomenal -- it's evident there was so much thought put into the construction and expression of gender within this world, and I was incredibly impressed. The inclusion of disability was exquisite. I loved loved loved this novel!

I struggled with this book more than I wanted to. I was excited for the rep and the premise lured me in for an exciting adventure of disguises and fantasy, but the story ultimately fell flat for me.

I think a lot of early reviewers commented that it was confusing and hard to follow, and in some ways, I agree. However, what I think made it so was the intentional language surrounding the two MC’s. Val is gender-fluid and the language would change to fit what they felt and demonstrate their true nature. I actually enjoyed this aspect of the book because it showed how much the authors cared about the portrayal. I can also understand how this could lead to some confusion.

Despite its queer representation and disability rep, I had a difficult time engaging with the story. Particularly with the level of disguises and miscommunication plot that took over the first half of the book.

The added twist at the end and the ensuing forgiveness was too quick in my opinion and I didn’t truly get a chance to engage with the action. It made me dislike the supporting characters who were presented as strong at the start.

While this story may not have been for me, I would recommend this book for those who want a YA fantasy book with queer rep and enemies to lovers.

*I received an eARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review

DNF @34%

I'm really bummed about this because I think the representation (trans, Latiné and disability) is great and the concept sounds good on paper. A trans prince in hiding and a bigender assassin from opposite sides of a war in a fantasy world? Sounds enthralling. Unfortunately the execution is painfully boring. I keep wanting to fall in love with the story because I am such a fan of what is being represented on page, but every time I stop reading I struggle to want to start again. Which isn't how I should be feeling with this kind of story. McLemore is at their best writing whimsical magical realism with big feelings, and unfortunately I don't think that is really translating to this sort of story that needs to have either amazing character work and relationships, or a compelling and propulsive plot. Neither of which I'm finding here. I hope others will enjoy this more than I did, but sadly it's a miss for me. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

While I absolutely love the cover and premise behind Venom & Vow, I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as I thought I would. The pacing felt very rushed, and honestly the book could have been longer and given more time to finish plot lines more thoroughly.

Give me all the fantasy enemies to lovers T4T books. This book is really good and has interesting plot, characters, and worldbuilding.

Val is bigender and has awesome skills of transformation. She can become a fae or a courtesan. But when you change faces so much, it’s hard to remember who you are. His journey to find who she really is and what that means is really sweet. Also she is really good with knives and I love a good knife wife.

Cade is unassuming and means to stay that way. Though he sometimes masquerades as his brother Patrick, they are both trying to find a way to end the war. Cade’s path to acceptance of his role, his power, and his confidence is action packed and fun.

I loved these two characters. They are both excellent fighters which makes for fun fight scenes. They’re both clever and that makes for a fun rivalry and a good team.

The world building is so good. With every side of the war having their own mystical animals to support them, a mystical changing castle, and monasteries that are for trans people to learn gender affirming skills, every point of this book is exciting. This is a really fun fantasy book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan
The two main characters are my favorite parts of the book. The secret identifies where interesting and really entertaining to watch unfold. Their romance had me giggling at parts, especially the training scene. So adorable! I was also so excited to see the mix of gender identities and sexualities presented.
However, the beginning of the book is pretty confusing. I found it hard to understand the magic and how the world functioned. Definitely could have used some more explanation but overall I enjoyed it.

This story was beautiful. The representation of cultures and gender was amazing.

Some pacing issues but overall I adored this book.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars // I spent this whole book begging for it to let me rate it higher, but it just never came through. I wish it had, because there was a lot to like here.

I have read several books by McLemore before, and they were in a more contemporary/magical realism genre where it's not really required to explain the world or the magic; the whole point is that you're not supposed to know what is real, and what isn't. However, this book is a high fantasy, and the same approach just doesn't work. I don't know why the two kingdoms were at war in the first place, anything about their structure, or how the court and its machinations work. The magic system is so soft it's a puddle of melted butter, including some random orbs that I truly do not understand, and the whole thing is built on a ridiculous misunderstanding between the two main characters. I went back to the beginning after I finished just to check if I had missed something, but I don't think I did. The book honestly just felt incredibly short for the genre, and all the missing content was the worldbuilding. It also switched incredibly fast between the two POV characters, sometimes a chapter would be literally half a page, and often it was a page or two. This created a somewhat whiplash reading experience. I will say that this book has two authors, and I'm not sure how they split up the writing duties, but I didn't notice any annoying difference in style or voice.

On the bright side, I was here for the characters and the diversity they represented and their cute relationship.

Cade is a trans boy who was accepted by some of his family, but has chosen to hide his identity from many people because this world is not without prejudice and, in fact, would have preferred that he was a girl. The representation was lovely and clearly written from experience, and gave the characters access to some forms of transition and acceptance. I thought it was cool that Cade was naturally quite tall and strong, able to keep up with and beat cis guys in fights and battles. He is also disabled, having to use a cane after he experienced a knee injury, but said cane is magic with an owl familiar that helps him in fights.

On top of the misunderstanding about who created the plot conflict, the second lead is bigender and sometimes appears in the guise of noble lady Valencia, others as the boy assassin Gael and Cade doesn't realize she is the same person at first. He ends up in several fights or scenes with Cade but I really felt that the whole thing was discovered and resolved too quickly, though it did lead to some nice conversations and moments of understanding between the two characters. She is also disabled and uses a cane, though the reason appears to be something more akin to severe scoliosis/a lifelong back injury.

The romance is very YA and not super deep, but it made sense with what we knew about the characters. They grew in some ways throughout the book, but honestly kind of remained static and it felt like we didn't have time to see them learn anything. This could have been a great book if the authors took more time to really build the world and understand the genre they were writing in. Especially after The Mirror Season I thought that the character work would be stronger.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC for my honest review! I almost always judge a book by the first line and this one DELIVERED. I’ve never read a fantasy book quite like this one, with such great representation. The story was fast paced and we all love enemies to lovers. My only criticism is that I would have loved for the story to be longer, to dive deeper into each of the characters’ histories and the magic of each of the lands.

Thanks to NetGalley and Feiwel and Friends for the eARC of this book. I found out about this book back in September when I did an author highlight on Anna-Marie McLemore for Hispanic and Latine heritage month, and have been looking forward to it since. The premise of the book is impeccable and I went in with (possibly excessively) high expectations. I have to admit, I was actually greatly disappointed for the first 30-40%. It was good, but it felt like they were trying to do way too much in one book. After finishing it, I still do think that this may have been better split into 2 books.

We are thrown into this fantasy world with little to no context, and expected to float. I will admit I was sinking. Every time I started to grasp at one element of the world and history leading to the moment the book started, a new element was thrown at me. I couldn't connect with either character as I was still trying to figure out how this fantasy world worked. But, as the characters' stories became more entangled, the more I could focus on them over the mechanics. At about 40% I was finally hooked.

The last 60% of the book was lovely and saved this from being a 3 star review. A lot of the elements still felt rushed, but Val and Cade were so intriguing that I was able to look past it.

The representation of gender in this book brought me so much joy as a genderqueer person, and is truly what got me through the first third of the book. The recognition of sameness that Cade and Val found in each other, which drew them together, was what saved the book for me. Also the whole sparring turning into kissing scene may be a new favorite trope of mine (Willow the TV series and upcoming novel Gwen and Art are Not in Love both have helped me figure this out.

Tl;Dr: I wanted this to be a 5 star, and had it been split into two books or one longer book, I think it could have gotten there. That aside, I had a blast reading the second half and am so glad this sort of representation exists.

Valencia, dama to Eliana's princess, can turn into whoever she needs to be--a skill that comes in handy as she spies for her kingdom. When she's caught by the enemy prince while presenting as Gael--the one identity other than Valencia that doesn't really feel like a disguise--the two rulers of the warring kingdoms finally meet. Suddenly, Valencia is at the Adare court, juggling both identities-- Valencia and Gael--plus a few disguises, while the enemy prince hides secrets of his own.

The world of Venom and Vow is so lush that I found myself awestruck on more than one occasion, especially when it came to the animals that protected the kingdoms. The characters were beautifully written, complex in ways that strengthened and softened them, and I kept just wanting more--in a good way.

I really, really loved Venom & Vow, and I know this book is going to stick with me for a really long time.

I loved everything about this book: the characters, the story, the writing, the world, and the representation. It was perfect and I adored every single second I spent reading it. I wish I could go back and read it for the first time again.

Okay, I have so much to say about this book! Firstly, the amount of representation in this book is so wonderful. I love the growing representation in the fantasy genre. I think it is so important, and the authors of this book did a phenomenal job doing this. Secondly, the world building in this book is one of the best I have read in a while. I think there was a lot of thought put into building this world and the descriptions of the world felt effortless, and whimsical. Normally I find reading fantasy books quite info heavy at the beginning because of all of the world building, but I didn't find that the case with this book. The enemies to lovers trope was absolutely *chefs kiss* and the story telling was amazing. I loved every second of it. It has redeemed YA fantasy for me!

3.5

This could've been a lot longer and I would've loved it all that much more. I love the ideas in this book, and it has so much potential, but overall, I felt like a lot of plotlines were rushed, so it didn't have as much impact as it could've had.

I will say that the representation in this book is INCREDIBLE. It's this perfect balance where the characters (particularly the protagonists) are not just diverse for the sake of being diverse - they each have distinct characterizations that include but are not exclusive to their gender identity or disability, however these aspects still inform their motives and are relevant to the main plot without feeling forced/oppressive. I loved this representation of diversity in a fantasy setting, especially for how complex it was. No characters are explicitly bigoted which is SUCH a relief, but even though they are accepting, our protagonists still feel uncertain and alone because no one around them is "like them" and they don't know how people would react.

Otherwise, though, I just wanted more. I went into this book expecting a deep, expansive, maybe even dark fantasy - it is so much lighter than I anticipated. Which is a great thing actually! We need more lighthearted (for the most part) fantasy. But the book just felt unfocused, especially in terms of an antagonist. I think it would've been fascinating to play with the idea of the "antagonist" being old ideals and tradition, and it seems like this was the intention, but there were too many side antagonists that distracted from this. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to care about these subplots and their conflicts because they all came up too fast. Not to mention almost all the characters seem to love jumping to conclusions, and many of them love not directly challenging these conclusions. They'll be accusing each other of things they didn't do, and then they just stand there NOT REFUTING them!! There were so many fascinating dynamics and side character conflicts that were left unresolved/not fully explored, and it left me... not really caring that much about any character individually.

This is an incredible premise that takes an inventive spin on the classic "enemies to lovers on two opposing sides" fantasy. I would say read it for the representation alone - that, and it's a relatively quick read.

Wow! What a page turner! Our transgender prince has such an emotional transformation, This is a book to inspire owning your own power and you are at the edge of your seat trying to figure out what happens next!

Venom & Vow is a fast paced YA high fantasy novel with an enemies-to-lovers romance sub-plot.

Two rival neighboring countries are dealing with all their adult leaders being under a sleeping spell in a forest. Our two main characters, Cade (who is transgender) and Valencia (who is bi-gender), both know each other as someone other than who they are- Cade as his prince brother and Valencia as Gael, a boy assassin whom Cade has sworn to protect.

I love how much the book centers around identity and watching two characters that are in different places in figuring out how to show who they are to the world. I also appreciate the disability rep and seeing how both characters navigate it in their everyday life.

Venom & Vow is an extremely fast paced book and I felt myself struggling to keep up with who was who at the beginning of the novel- mainly because so many different names were being thrown at me all at once. I do believe the book could benefit from ~100 more pages to enhance some of the storylines. Also, the part that I thought was going to be the main climax of the book ended up happening about 2/3 of the way through the book. With that being said, I did fall in love with some of the characters and I’d love to read another book in this world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing for a digital ARC of this book.

I'm a bit unsure about how I felt about this book. I loved the queer and Latinx representation that is a classic with Anna-Marie McLemore, but I felt that some of her classic well-defined characterizations were missing. Cade felt so well written, I could clearly see all of his motivations, whether it be pretending to be his brother, or fighting an assassin, it felt true to himself and the character he was. Valencia/Gael didn't feel the same to me. Frankly, they just seemed stupid to me, they missed any social or physical cue, they did;t think things through, and they practically ruined everything for everyone. I enjoyed the plot and how it developed, but a little less Val and a little more of anyone else would make this book amazing.