I went into this book interested to see how Olivie Blake would handle writing a retelling, especially since it is one of her older pieces reworked. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I was pulled into this story and its characters. I like how readers get to learn more about the motives of various characters and seeing what drives each of them in the chaos that is the families' feud. Marya, Dimitri, Lev, and Sasha are all such great characters on their own, and their relationships are so easy to route for. Something that truly stands out as a good quality in this book is how the characters aren't flat and doing the right thing by everyone. They are willing to manipulate situations if they need to in order to survive. The juxtaposition between the three main relationships that we see are truly fascinating in seeing the different types of love between partners, friends, and family. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes retellings as well as anyone who is into more urban fantasy novels in general.

I really like how this book is laid out, the whole Act 1 Scene 2 thing. It does make it feel like a Romeo and Juliet play and gives it a different feel than regular chapter headings. I also liked the story, the family dynamics, the rival families.

However, I absolutely hated the ageism where everyone over the age of 30 was ancient and decrepit and covered in wrinkles. If this was a YA book with teen characters I'd be able to understand that view of the world. It's not correct, but the that's just teenagers. This book is not YA. I wouldn't even put it as new adult. So it comes down to the author having a strange view of age and the usefulness or beauty of people once they hit a certain age.

The further this book went on, the less I understood the characters or their motives. At one point, it seemed the author felt the Supernatural route of bringing the characters back to life again and again was the right way to go. After the second time, it all got a little old.

The narration wasn't bad. I especially enjoyed her portrayal of Lev.

4.5/5

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. 

I put off reading this book for SO long; I was not a fan of The Atlas Six, so I assumed I would not enjoy this book as well. I was so wrong. This was a fantastic book that roped me in from the beginning. I fell in love with the characters and really enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet vibes the plot gave.

I was able to access this book from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

So to begin, I mostly really enjoyed this. I love Blake's style of writing, the drama, and the intensity she can evoke. The storytelling was engaging, the romances have you hanging on. In truth, I liked it more than I thought I might - the Baba Yaga/Koschei the deathless thing made me a little skeptical, but it ended up not being silly. I loved the Atlas Six series so I thought I would go out on a limb and try another book by her and I'm so glad I did!

There were elements of the middle of the book that I think could have perhaps been more tightly edited, it got to be rambly and a little muddled in the middle section of the book.

in the year 2023, no one is writing longing, yearning, and angst like olivie blake. every book i pick up by her, vast in different concepts, the writing and one liners she is able to string together just rendered me speechless. what a gift to the literary world and the lyrical prose readers (me).

this story is a mash up reimagining of Romeo and Juliet and A midsummer Night’s dream, which is a really insane combination. we get to see two different families, two different worlds, and two different timelines of power, love, and betrayal. this is a story about family, and sibling bonds, and love that feels too big too much of the time. but everything is also filled with magic, and fae, and secrets. i really did adore this, and it was very impressively crafted. i loved seeing all the different powers, and u think i lost part of my own heart upon finishing this epilogue.

trigger + content warnings: a lot of talk of drugs + selling drugs + drug use, alcohol, vomiting, blood, murder, death, loss of a loved one (a lot too), grief, brief mention of bullying in past, magical compulsion, violence, gore, suicide.

I was so intrigued by the premise of One for My Enemy and I had hopes that it would be the Olivie Blake book that finally won me over. Unfortunately, I rapidly lost interest in the story. Days would go by without me having any interest in listening to this audiobook.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of and their introductions were particularly difficult to process via audiobook. Despite the wide cast of characters, none of them felt unique enough to draw my attention. The character's motivations were nonsensical at times and I wasn't invested in any of the romance plots.

My biggest complaint with this book is the disastrous lack of world-building. The existence and importance of magic are established very early on. And yet the first half of the book contains almost no real magic. This makes it impossible for the reader to learn how magic works in this world or what the limitations might be. Then suddenly large feats of magic are being performed and it is important again. Blake fails to explain the logic behind any of the major plot moments in the book which made the story feel disjointed and underdeveloped. The setting itself is incredibly bland making it easy to forget that this is supposed to be set in New York.

One for My Enemy lacked substance and direction making it my least favorite Olivie Blake book so far.

Olivie Blake is simply a master at her craft. Every sentence she weaves is a lyrical masterpiece and while her books are more vibes than plot, she is extraordinary at it. The One for My Enemy audiobook was a purposeful and poignant read, with the narrator fully capturing this and bringing to life Blake's words that leave the reader entranced. I loved every moment of this ambitious and gorgeously written story.

A totally different vibe than previous books I've read from Olivie Blake, but equally as enjoyable! Olivie has moved their way onto my auto buy author list and One for My Enemy did not disappoint. I appreciated the nods to Russian folklore and Romeo and Juliet, while making the story entirely their own. The narrator was incredibly talented giving each character their own voice and mood, while keeping the overall tone of their narration in line with the dark theming of the book.

Thank you Net Galley for providing this book and allowing me to read it in advance. I was unable to personally get into this book but that is the power of reading. There’s books for everyone. I know someone else will adore it!

This is definitely an "it's not the book, it's me.." kind of vibe.

DNFed at 43%...However, I recommend it to anyone who loves Romeo and Juliet.

My thoughts: I was very interested in the beginning. The magic system was pretty cool, the main love interests really drew me in. I was certainly enjoying it. But then we shifted gears completely and started to focus on another couple who I had no repertoire with nor did I care much about. As such I began to lose focus in the story. I'm not the biggest fan of Romeo and Juliet but I see the appeal. I likely would have been more interested had I physically tried to read this rather than listen to it....b/c I did like the " Act 1, Scene 1" shifts/chapters. I've enjoyed other books of Olivie Blake, this one was just a miss for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the an audiobook ARC.

What started with potential, quickly poisoned itself with too many plot lines and uninteresting characters. Russian mobster Witches in NYC, based off of an Italian romance should have way more draw than this. I did not mind the Act formatting or the narration, but the characters held absolutely no connection for me and it felt like 2 different books smashed together.

Beautiful, haunting, and heart-breaking. Really loved this twist on a romeo and juliet retelling.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

This reworking of Romeo and Juliet held my attention the entire time - but with witches and powerful families in Manhattan! I loved Masha and Dima and Sasha and Lev. The shifting timelines added depth to the story, and the morally grey characters evolved so brilliantly. Blake’s prose was stunning, and the narration was on point. So exciting!

I'm a huge fan of Blake's THE ATLAS SIX, but I had mixed feelings about this one. I thought the first half (which adheres most closely to Romeo & Juliet) was a well rendered and interesting adaptation, but the book jumped the shark for me at 50%. I kept going despite the hard veer into melodrama, but I also kinda felt like the book came to a natural end at 50% and this might have worked better as two books. For me, the second half really dragged and I struggled to care about the epic back stories for each of these families, I wanted to love this one, but it just didn't hold me in its grip as the Atlas series did, and I think this one felt distinctly more like an apprentice book to me.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook! A great narrator, too.

I have tried to listen to this 4 times now and I still only remember half of this, and what I remember is good but it unfortunately is easily forgettable for me. I am going to try again when I can find it on a platform that plays faster because NetGalley only working up to 2x speed makes it much harder to retain a book this long.

One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake boasts both well-developed characters and intriguing plot points. I enjoyed the audiobook and the narrator.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

AAPI Heritage Month #14

author: Filipino American

This is clearly a case of "it's not you, it's me," because nearly all of you seemed to enjoy this. Don't come for me.

I read the premise for The Atlas Six. It gave the same found family vibes as Six of Crows, so I went for it. I didn't make it very far before giving up.

I also have issues with Olivie's Dramione fanfic. Maybe I've outgrown Dramione. Or maybe she is just wordier than I prefer.

In any case, I was doomed before I began. I have issues with Romeo and Juliet. I have issues with Shakespeare. So a white Englishman is writing about Italians. These Italians are turned Russian-esque for the sake of what? Did we even research Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless before using their names?

I'd like to hear from an actual Russian, but the only great Russian-esque series written by a non-Russian appears to be The Bear and the Nightingale. Do not come here if you liked Shadow and Bone's wannabe Russian undertones.

If after all that, you are still interested, and want to know more about this book, please read the other reviews, because I found myself zoning in and out. The characters are alive. The characters are dead. No, the characters are alive. The end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of one for my enemy. this was great! we had multiple pov, magic and fantasy in the modern day. romance between multiple people. this was a mix of the tale of babayaga and Romeo and Juliet. I like that it wasn't just multiple povs of each side we also followed different members of the family and characters outside. This was a fantastic listen.

This is a story about the stars that incline us.

I loved this! I wasn’t sure about the formatting going in, but it was such an enjoyable read. The drama! The Russian culture! The star crossed lovers! Olivie Blake never disappoints.

Thank you so much @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for the book! I enjoyed it so much.

*3 stars*

This was an interesting reimagining of Romeo and Juliet with witches. It had a long cast of intricate characters.

I feel like this had so much potential to be a really amazing story but just fell flat for me. This was my first Olivie Blake book, and I did enjoy the writing style. I liked that we got to look into the motivations of each of our main characters at one point or another. However the pacing was off and the story felt like it lagged towards the middle of the book. It felt like the plot was trying to do too much at once and the result was very chaotic. I also would have liked the story to focus more on the magic system and world building as they felt almost forgotten at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.