To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is ultimately a mismatch of intent versus impact. I was looking forward to a China-inspired fantasy world with a strong-willed female main character. I was left disappointed with the overall reading experience in this book, but am hopeful for better additions to the series to come.

Ruying, a girl blessed with the power of death, must make impossible choices to protect herself and her family as she watches the world she loves descend into chaos. Years ago, Romans from another world came from a portal in the sky to colonize a fresh planet. The world of Pangu has not been the same. When Ruying is taken captive, she must decide between fighting and dying for her people or becoming a weapon for the enemy to protect those she loves most.

Even before reading this e-arc, there was a mismatch in the intention behind some of the marketing decisions and the impact they created on the reading experience. Originally, this was marketed as childhood-best-friends-to-lovers. Then it was marketed as enemies-to-lovers. I believe the former is representative of where the series is heading, but the latter is much more representative of the individual book's romance arc. Even still, there are issues with labeling this as an enemies-to-lovers romance at all. The relationship displayed has abuse, blackmail, and a colonizer/oppressed dynamic. I had hope that the story would become a commentary on these abhorrent aspects, but the attempt to do so near the end felt like too little too late to make an impact. I was already uncomfortable and put off by the overall dynamic.

There was a mismatch with the intention laid out plainly in the author's note and the impact of the theme written on the page. Taking inspiration from Unit 731 - a trauma experienced by the author's own family and ancestors - set this up to have strong anti-war, anti-colonialism, and anti-oppression themes. But by introducing the romantic arc with the oppressor, the author negated the intended impact. Instead of focusing on the atrocities committed by Rome and their modern day counterparts, I was left confused by the self- and community-deprecating monologues and actions of Ruying.

There are also glaring craft issues in this novel that did exacerbate the issues above. A few of these include: poor pacing, weak scene transitions, infodumping, excessive internal character monologues, overuse of incorrect sentence structure for stylistic impact (Think. Sentences. Like this. Over. And over.), and heavy repetition to state themes.

The majority of the book is incredibly slow. Painfully slow, even. The story does not pick up and become interesting until about 75% of the way through. The last quarter of the book is very promising and gives me hope for better additions to the series that carry the intended thematic impact the author has presented. However, this book on its own has too many issues for me to recommend it.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

**Many spoilers ahead:

I honestly had to push myself to finish this one. I think (hope) that the author just didn't do a great job of getting her point across and/or the theme will be developed more in the next book, but overall the theme of this book seemed to be pro-colonialism, which is a weird choice. The main character very easily decided to become a traitor and work as an assassin for the group of people that are oppressing her country? world? (I honestly don't know what to call it because there is zero world-building, but I'll get to that later). Then at every instance of her friends/family being like "yo, these are the bad guys. You aren't protecting us, we would rather die than on the side of the oppressors," Ruying is like "lol okay, but I'm going to keep making the absolute worst decisions because my captor is cute." I kept hoping that we were just waiting on Ru having her epiphany, but that never really happened. We started to get there towards the end and MAYBE it'll happen in book two, but who knows and I'm no longer hopeful.

Back to the world building, there is none. It took me until halfway through the book to figure out that Rome is a different planet than Pangu. They would off-handedly talk about "on the other side of the veil" but didn't give any descriptions as to what that means. The reader is kind of left to just figure it out. Rome is supposed to be a more scientifically advanced world that doesn't have magic and ruined their own planet through climate change and are now trying to exploit Pangu for its resources. Rome being "scientifically advanced" is incredibly vague. They never say what advancements they have except for basic technology (guns, ships, etc.). Whenever it is referenced, it's simply called "science". "How are we supposed to beat them when they have science?" "Rome will use the power of science to take over our world." What do you mean?? I desperately needed more background information.

As for the characters, Ruying was naive and so stupid that it was unbelievable and annoying. The prince literally kidnaps her, locks her in a cell, blackmails her, threatens to kill everyone she loves, suppresses her magic, electrocutes and tortures her, and she's still going mushy over him because he's cute?? She'll literally be talking about all these awful things he's doing and saying and then end it with something along the lines of "but his eyes softened when he looked at me." Okay, so?? This is not a morally grey man, this is literally your oppressor. Then their romance developed in the weirdest way possible. The book is pretty much completely Ru monologuing, but there isn't really development of the romance from Antony's side at all (not that I wanted there to be, trust me I hated that this was even an aspect to this book). He's literally her oppressor and doesn't do anything to seem like he's actually a nice guy, except for give her a hug after he MAKES HER MURDER PEOPLE and she swoons. Be so fucking for real. It's bizarre and gives off middle school girl thinking her history teacher is in love with her or some shit. The entire romance aspect was so cringey and gross. Ru is so smitten by this prince that she turns her back on her family and friends (who are the only reasons she's supposedly doing this anyway?) and sells out her own people. Her childhood best friend (Baihu) comes and tells her that he's a spy, tells her how horrible the prince is, and shows her actual evidence of his evil-doings and she literally tells him that she doesn't care. The book starts with her hating Baihu for being a traitor but now she's the actual traitor and is totally fine with it?

Another horribly problematic portion of this book is the connection to Unit 731. The author mentions Unit 731 in her letter at the beginning of the book and how it is connected to her family. Unit 731 is a real historical event of tortuous human experiments. When this gets revealed in the book, it's made obvious that Prince Antony is the one in charge of this and has been doing these experiments for years, including on Ru's very good friend (who Ru watches die from these experiments, by the way). This book, which is marketed as an enemies to lovers romance, has the romance they want us to root for between an oppressed person and the oppressor that is carrying out these experiments on her people. That is so deeply problematic and disgusting. Again, Antony is not morally grey, he's straight up a bad man. It would be one thing if this book was being marketed as an abusive relationship or made it obvious in any way that this is not a good dynamic, but no, it's romanticized and wants the reader to root for this very disturbing couple. Colonizer romances in 2024 is insane.

I could go on for much longer, but I think my main points are made. Obviously I don't recommend this book.

This was one of my highly anticipated reads for 2024. The cover is absolutely stunning! I’m usually drawn to book covers, and I couldn’t resist this one. Unfortunately, I feel a bit underwhelmed.

I found the world-building in this book to be quite confusing. New elements are primarily introduced through Ruying’s inner monologue which felt very prescriptive. As a reader, we are being told things vs. shown.

The pacing felt off with lots of pauses to explain external factors contributing to the current scene.

Even though Ruying narrates this story, I still feel like I don’t even know her? The writing is so flowery and repetitive that I consistently lost focus. As a result, I failed to connect with her at all.

While there were some redeeming qualities, I don’t see myself continuing the series.
My rating: 2.5⭐️

I extend my sincere thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for providing me with a digital review copy.

Firstly, a HUGE thank you NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my very first ARC and I was SO excited to read it! As an Asian American, science nerd, and avid bookworm, I was insanely hyped when I was approved for this. The novel is an amazing concept– a war between scientific advancement and Asian culture and history. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a colonizer v. colonized, oppressor v. oppressed, novel. These heavy topics and intricately nuanced conversations must be approached with caution and reverence in writing.

Which, unfortunately, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods did not do.

The romance between the two MCs felt rushed and underdeveloped (nonexistent). Which, when taking into consideration the undercurrent of colonialism, made me pretty uncomfortable to read.

As a whole, I felt that the novel was underwhelming and difficult for me to read. I really really REALLY wanted to love this one, but

1) romanticized colonialism?
2) the world building left a little to be desired (what is “Rome”? Is it the same as our Rome? What kind of “science” do they have?)
3) The Prose. Was. Very.
Dramatic.
At times.
4) I really hate when authors use modern slang or pop culture references in fantasy novels. :(

I think one of the most uncomfortable aspect of this book for me was the depiction of Unit 731– a REAL LIFE EVENT– being utilized as plot development and characterization. I personally feel like there are lines we should not cross (even as authors and readers), and using true horrific deaths to push the plot of your fantasy world is one of them.

While the novel and universe had a TON of potential, I was ultimately left uncomfortable with the dynamic, actions, and the prose was (at times) borderline purple. Finally, I think the ‘relationship’ between our MCs should be marketed as a DARK romance, not a typical fantasy/romantasy relationship.

A very sad and disappointed 1/5 stars. :( Really wanted to like this one.

Thank you netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really hoped that this would be the next fantasy romance. But it felt underwhelming. I was dying to read it. It didn't pain me to put down, which is when I know a fantasy romance is IT. The writing didn't wow me, the characters didn't wow me, and the romance definitely didn't wow me. I feel quite sad that it didn't live up to my excitement. Was it bad? No. But it wasn't incredible or great.

3/5 ⭐

What an engrossing read! The main character's moral struggles in the tumult of war and peace felt so real, even if I found myself struggling to root for her at times. Plus, the pacing was spot-on, keeping me hooked from start to finish. While the world-building was so very unique and fun, I found myself craving even more vivid descriptions. I enjoyed the magic system, and really appreciated the prose. I’m buzzing with excitement for what’s next from this author! Thank you for the opportunity to read it!

When you pick up a debut novel, you never really know what to expect outside of the promise of the premise in the synopsis and perhaps the different details included in the book’s marketing and publicity push. Such was the case with To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods – my initial interest had been piqued by the deal announcement; and though the premise sounded like it had the usual fantasy touchstones, I was curious to see what unique flavor the author would bring to the table. Unfortunately though, this novel ended up not being to my particular individual tastes.

On the positive side, it’s the potential that stands out. There are some interesting ideas here: an alternate world where the Roman Empire never fell, where science made it possible to rip a portal into the sky to access the magical empire of Pangu (basically China, especially given the author’s note that’s included at the start), where the conflict is between the science and magic, the colonizers and the colonized. The writing was also quite readable; it read faster than I anticipated it would, likely added by the fact that most of the chapters were on the shorter side.

But otherwise, this book just didn’t really leave a strong impression. The worldbuilding felt underdeveloped (despite the potential I already mentioned); it was almost as if readers were expected to already know the details after just one chapter establishing the basics. The plot was almost standard fantasy fare; I’ve read shades of this story in other books before and this one didn’t have enough to make it feel unique. The characters didn’t feel fully fleshed out, and came across more like caricatures of their roles (and I want to make it clear though, that I had no problem with them being unlikable, making bad decisions, etc; that doesn’t typically bug me). It ended up being a combination of so many underwhelming elements and that’s why it’s just an okay read for me.

Since I’ve finished the book, I’ve seen conversations about the historical events it takes its inspiration from and the romance. I can’t speak to the former, as someone who isn’t knowledgeable about that part of history. But as for the latter, the romance, I will say that: 1) the story only really starts having the romantic inner monologues and characters actions after the halfway point, 2) none of it felt like developed enough (characters or their relationship) so I didn’t buy the chemistry or the relationship was even legitimately happening and 3) it was pretty obvious to me where it was going to be by the end for the pairing in question. So, I wasn’t a fan of it either, to be honest.

TL;DR – To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is another new release that didn’t live up to my expectations; the lack of any elements to really hook me means that it’s not going to be particularly memorable after a little time has passed. While I don’t intend to pick up the sequel or any other books in the series, the author does have potential to write something in the future that might work for me, so I’ll be keeping them on my radar.

Ruying Yang believes her magical gift of Death is a curse and will anything to not use it. Her world is surrounded by Rome and the fragile peace they are living in. One day Ruying steal coin purse from a Roman to help her family. Little did she know that she would be turning her world upside down. Now Antony Augustus controls Ruying's life and magic for a better world. Ruying's not sure she believes him but what can she do about it. Will Ruying change the world for the better or not? Find out in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods.

This was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases. Sadly, it didn’t live up to the hype I had built up around it. I do look forward to more of this authors work however.

Special thanks to netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of the book

So, I've been hyped about this book since I learned of it last December. I'm not going to address the Drama surrounding the book or go into detail about what type of romances I think people should read because that isn't my job and I trust you can make your own decisions.

I rated it 3 stars but i would probably give it closer to 2.5 if goodreads allowed that sort of thing and here's why. (Spoilers ahead if that wasnt clear).

1.) I know that this is a debut so the author cant be expect to have hit their stride as far as voice/style goes but every idea was repeated several times. And, hell, the sentence structure. It's very much giving bad tiktok poetry. Paragraph breaks after a couple words. Short sentences. For impact. Makings things seem deep.
Deeper than they actually are.
As if it is more thought-provoking.
To.
Space out.
Your words.

2.) The author uses a lot of phrases that have been used in social media justice campaigns that in context feel cheap ("be on the right side of history" and "history is written by the victors"). I feel like i know what the author wanted the reader to get from these phrases being used, but in all her monologuing Ruying lacked the nuance to convey why these phrases and the way she used them were... not right.

3.) A good portion of the book was Ruying's inner dialogue about her wanting to do anything she could to protect her family even if it meant killing people. That's being generous even. More accurately, every page she waxed poetic about how much she was sacrificing of her own morals for her family. Which. Fine, whatever. But it got old, fast.

4.) Because a good portion of the book was spent beating readers over the head about Ruying's motivations, not a lot of it was spent on worldbuilding. And what was there just felt... lazy. Like the other country/world the princes come from is called Rome. (Is it what the world is called? Or just the country they come from on the other world? No one knows). The have hellicopters and "science" but fucked if I know what the science actually means. Vaccines? Smartphones?

5.) but.... the romance? not even touching on the colonizer aspect (which if i hadnt received it from netgalley before i learned of this i wouldnt have read it bc ik i am not interested in those but alas ... i tried to remain neutral ) -- there was just absolutely nothing to even suggest they should have these feelings for each other? They meet after he kidnaps her, locks her in a cage for a week, and makes her use her powers to (almost) kill some kid. And then he blackmails her into killing MORE people for his...*checks notes* .... bid for world domination? And, due to the time skip and Ruying creepily watching her family from afar, that's basically all the one on one we get with those two. Ruying spends a lot of time going on about reasons why he is bad and shouldn't be trusted but, aside from a few kind words and some (unkept) promises.... they don't interact on page enough for me to see any chemistry? It's so flat and uninspired. She is monologing about how many people she has killed for Rome, expressing how she doesn't think they're all necessary for his plans to rule and maybe could actually be working against what he said his intent as ruler was. And then suddenly she's in love with him? I hate the "show not tell" cliche but i feel like it would have come in handy here. In fact, the way she defends him and straight up says she "doesn't care" that Antony is commiting genocide against her people crosses the line from morally gray fmc to just... evil. I felt sick reading some parts. The romance is unbelievable and actually disgusting.

6.) The thing that makes her believe Antony is bad isnt her childhood friend (who she admitted to having feelings for before he "betrayed pangu" by working with the Princes from Rome (GIRL.)) telling her straight up that Antony is a bad guy and doing exactly what she has been trying to convince herself he has been doing for the last six months (this was the time skip and we never really saw her training as or being an assassin) No. It's her childhood friend (who is a spy btw and isnt actually working FOR rome) taking her to see where Antony is ACTIVELY experimenting on kidnapped people where she watches her other childhood friend die a horrific needless death. She was all for Antony commiting genocide until he broke his promise and didnt spare her BFF from being murdered. Ruying was so selfish and willfully ignorant through the ENTIRE book it made me sick. Absolutely i wanted to hurl.

7.) "With great power comes great responsibility" - Ruying's grandmother.

Honestly this isn't even all I took issue with, but it's all I have the energy for. I know the tone of the end probably suggests that Ruying will turn on Antony and kill him but i don't think this can be redeemed for me.

"History is a melody sung by the victors. Truths and lies are what I make of these chords."

Ruying is blessed by Death and the ability to kill silently, but powerless against the conquerors and their science that came through a portal in the sky. All she wants is to spend her days caring for her opium addicted sister and her elderly grandma. But when she's captured for her gift, the prince of Rome offers her a bargain - kill for him and he'll work with his war hungry grandfather to broker peace between their worlds. Peace is all she's wanted - but it comes at the cost of her own soul and life - as he wants her to kill her own people.

Antony claims he wants to save them, but Ruying is truly an unreliable narrator. I think it would be easy to write her off as selling out to colonization but she's in an extremely unstable and unsafe position with Antony, and he's able to gaslight her into truly believing in him. Which is where I think the true brilliance of this novel comes in - with her slowly seeing the cracks in his world and coming to her conclusions of the truth.

I truly don't know how to rate a book like this because on one hand I just want to SHAKE the MC and say "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT HE'S USING YOU"?? but I also admire the author and her ability to write SUCH A realistic perspective on what stockholm syndrome looks like.

It's giving Darkling x Alina in the worst and best of ways. These two are mirrors of each other - each wanting to use and control powerful women for their own power. You can clearly see that Ruying hates him by the end, with both eyes open, and I'm eager to see how she takes him down in book 2.

rep// Asian MC

cw// drugs, death, murder, guns, opium, torture

Thank you to the publisher for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for this ARC for review!

I requested this ARC a few months ago because the cover is stunning and premise intrigued me, and then a huge wave of drama covered my social media surrounding this book. In general, I try not to read too many reviews before I give my own, but given the context I did read many of the very mixed reviews before I began this book. I wavered on if I wanted to read it still and if I wanted to review it and even be a small drop in the ocean of people talking about this, and eventually came to the decision that I would read at least 20-30% and DNF if I wasn’t enjoying it. Once I made it to 20% I quickly finished it in a couple of days! Needless to say I was completely enthralled with the story and dying to know what happened next.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the novel for me was the magic system, I love the idea of twins that are blessed (or cursed!) with powers of life and death. I wish that Ruying’s sister Meiya’s gift was shown more, but I’m expecting that she will be more involved in the sequel and very much looking forward to that! In general, I wished for more inclusion of the other Xianlings powers but I found Ruying’s internal struggle with being grateful for the protection of her gift and feeling cursed by the constant temptation of Death very interesting.

Ruying is such a complicated character and I wanted to grab and shake her consistently throughout this book but! I think that a lot of the upset over her and Antony’s relationship (while valid, he is the worst) overlooked that at every turn, Ruying was smart and saw through his bullshit! In nearly every instance of beginnings of their romance, Ruying is thinking about how she knows he is lying, she knows he is evil, she knows he is using her, she knows! She was being manipulated by someone who was incredibly good at lying and hiding things and had THEEE biggest power imbalance you can imagine over her. Colonizer romance is gross, but I just didn’t see that here. Aside from Antony being described as handsome, I have a hard time imagining how anyone would read this story and feel like he is meant to be someone we should fall for. The main character cannot even convince herself that he is someone worth falling for! I wish that Ruying had been less trusting of him, and I wish that she had been more trusting of her childhood friend, Baihu, who tried to save her from Antony early on… but I am rooting for her. I’m excited to see what happens in book two.

Things I really liked/found interesting:
- The magic system in general (though I wish it had been elaborated on more!)
- The magic VS science
- The world-jumping as colonization to escape/save the world they destroyed
- The rebels being led by the Phantom and being called Ghosts! I can’t wait for more rebel content!
- Ruying’s (misplaced) determination to save her grandmother and sister above all else. While I kept wishing for her to snap out of it and be less selfish, I can’t say I hated or didn’t understand her tired, angry decisions.
- The flowery prose! The beautiful descriptions!

Things I disliked:
- At times I found the writing to be really choppy and weird, but not enough to really bother me too much. I kept reading and ultimately enjoyed the book. It kind of made sense and fit Ruying’s thoughts/thought process.
- Obviously, the romance. But I can admit that really it was just that it was marketed as enemies-to-lovers which it really isn’t! I saw another reviewer say it was more like dark romance which is true…r than enemies-to-lovers. I just wasn’t convinced by the romance and it didn’t really seem like Ruying was either. Just experiencing mixed feelings and trying to survive.

Once again, I’m looking forward to reading the next book. After the backlash this one faced I saw the author say that the sequel will be titled To Kill a Monstrous Prince and THAT! Has me on the edge of my seat! Monstrous is the word indeed! Ready for the Ruying redemption arc and for these nasty men to get what’s coming to them!

First off, I opened this book and immediately was reading into the historical background that inspired the plot line. After diving back into the book, I do wish there was more historical connections instead of leaning towards the captor/captive love story with Antony. Ruying is a strong female main character and her powers are turning her into a tool for other people to use. Waiting for Ruying's moment to take control of her own destiny and drive out the Romans (including Antony)!

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

(DNF at 53%.)

The beginning of this book held a lot of promise for me. I really loved the aspect of making drug abuse a key component to this story. I've seen a lot of rep for mental illness and other illnesses in fantasy novels but never seen a book target addiction. However, I started to lose interest once the prince got involved in the story. I tried for days to continue to read. However ultimately, I decided this book just wasn't for me.

This was a very emotional story. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. Thank you to NetGalley for gifting me this arc.

This was one of my more anticipated reads for 2024 and unfortunately it fell flat.

The summary was intriguing and I was excited about the magical aspect. Any book that has death magic always piques my interest and I enjoyed the idea of the sisters having almost opposing powers, one that can kill and the other that can revive.

That said, the magic system felt underdeveloped and inconsistent. It’s repeatedly said using magic takes a toll on the user but that isn’t shown at any point. There also was almost no character development or even reasoning behind why Ruying makes the choices she does.

Beyond the plot and world building aspects, the writing made this a chore to read. It was flowery and metaphor heavy, overly descriptive and repetitive. I found myself struggling to finish largely because of the writing style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an unbiased review!

For my first ever ARC, I hate to say that I was severely disappointed by one of my anticipated releases :( While I think the magic system was something that could have captivated me the most, I don’t think it was totally necessary to be honest. For the most part, we really only ever see Ruying use magic and it’s only ever talked about that other people have magical abilities that are unique to themselves. And while that’s all fine and Ruying is the main character, I felt that the magic system could have been fleshed out a bit more and not just used as something to explain why Ruying can do what she does. In my opinion, it was just a cover up for her to have an ability.

I also found the story to be incredibly repetitive. I think this could have been about 100 pages shorter and it took a very long time for me to get into. I basically forced myself to read it hoping it would get better but I hardly enjoyed my reading experience unfortunately. The first 100 pages were all an attempt at world building but I don’t think it was fully fleshed out and didn’t really make any sense to me. I initially thought Rome was just a city in a neighboring country, or even another country itself, but instead it turns out to be a potentially entirely different planet or dimension or something that is never really explained so I’m honestly not sure what it’s supposed to be. And while I read the authors note, I was expecting this to be a recount of a historical event, and some parts definitely read as such, but the majority of it did not follow that pattern. I was expecting this to be something following the 1800s or 1900s based on the explanation of the state of the advancements in Pangu, or lack thereof, but the advanced technology that the Romans brought contradicted this and made the timeline somewhat confusing.

And lastly, I found Ruying to be incredibly annoying and naive as a main character. She calls her childhood best friend a traitor and won’t listen to him, but when she gets captured by the enemy’s prince, she IMMEDIATELY accepts his offer and trusts him, and continues to defend him throughout the entire book! Even when her childhood best friend tries to confront this and explain the truth to her, she doesn’t listen and blindly follows a man she’s only ever known as her enemy and develops feelings for him and does his dirty work without even batting an eye. The entire relationship progression in this story seemed very forced and at no point could I ever get on board with the relationship as the prince is very much portrayed as nothing but an invader and Ruying is just too naive to see it until it’s slapped in her face.

Overall, there were still elements I enjoyed about the book, but I unfortunately cannot see myself continuing the series and am giving this a 2 star rating.

I just was not into this book at all. Im sorry. It just didn’t hold my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Publishing for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book got me into a reading slump…☹️
(DNF at 22%)

!!𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 & 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗫. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗰 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!!

3/5 Stars

I really enjoyed this Asian fantasy world! Set in a world who is being conquered by an enemy from another realm, the main character chooses to use her magic to fight.

There are a lot of awesome one liners in this book that I kept highlighting. I love the idea of the phantom, and Baihu’s character! The main character and the Roman prince were hit and miss for me. I feel like the ideas were all amazing, but the execution missed the mark.

It felt like the relationships were forced and very rushed. The main character gained feelings for people at the blink of an eye and was very indecisive when it came to choosing sides. I also felt like we were told about her fighting / powers far more often than we saw it, so I had a hard time imagining her as an assassin or body guard. The book is also marketed as adult, but reads very YA.

That being said, I would still recommend this to anyone interested in a light fantasy romance that is very politically powerful.