I feel that my opinion of this book was already heavily influenced by the "colonizer romance" discourse that was circulating and I could not unsee all the instances that made me feel that way as well..

I barely made it through 6 chapters before I had to give up and admit that this wasn't worth the slog trying to get through it. Putting aside the massive issue of the colonizer love plot (which I did not get to, as I couldn't even bear the experience of reading that far)--this could have used a LOT more editing. Most of the dialogue was overblown and melodramatic--Actual people do not speak in long, bloated speeches every other time they open their mouths. Add that to the repetitiveness of both the dialogue and the narration, plus the bludgeoning to death of the central conflict (Rome bad, I got it the first 15 times), and this one is just too much work to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to be able to read and review this book!

This cover is absolutely stunning. This story is so enchanting. I fell in love with it! 5/5

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

I’m not going to talk about the representation of colonialism and the way it is or is not sensitively handled. There are plenty of reviews that do that, and I think POC deserve the opportunity to process generations of trauma through books imperfectly without white ladies weighing in on how well they do that.

That caveat out of the way, this book is not good. World building was sloppy - it felt like Chang thinks the readers will just roll with it because she damn sure didn’t put thought into things. It often led to me being upset at small details that just didn’t make sense. Added to this, the decision to call the bad guys “Romans” muddied the waters - it wasn’t clear to me how much of “Rome” was “humans of earth” or how much shared history exists. Their motivations were confusing and poorly conceived and anything else I have to say on that matter will veer into criticism of the sort I promised previously to avoid, so I guess I will end the review there.

For a debut this book was really great! The writing was captivating and had me eager to continue reading! The cover for this book is also gorgeous and definitely grabbed my attention and made me want to pick up this book! The themes throughout the book was engaging and so well done.

Another incredibly beautiful cover that had me captivated at first glance! The first part of this book felt pretty dense, just a lot of info dump and I felt like I was so slowly trudging through. But it definitely picked up and I really enjoyed how the story began to unfold! I am looking forward to see where it goes.

“You shouldn’t ask the girl blessed by Death whom she’ll die for. You should ask her whom she’ll kill for.”

Ruying is living in a conquered world with death magic running through her veins. The invaders descended from the sky long before she was born and overtook the magic of her world with the science of theirs. She will do literally anything to keep her family safe, even if that means becoming the private assassin for the invading prince. In exchange for her gifts the prince offers to make sure her family is protected and vows that every death he orders will be for the betterment of the world.

This was okay, and I can understand what Ruying was doing and how she thought it was the right move, but I also think she was infuriating and didn't think things through. She spent her time just accepting her situation and never thought to do her own research and figure out anything for herself. She just assumed whatever she was told was true and that is a frustrating character flaw to spend 370 pages dealing with. I also did not see any appeal in Antony at all. With that said, the plot and world was interesting enough to make me entertain the idea of reading the next one to see where it all leads.

Unfortunately this ended up being a messy story with pacing issues. I wish it hadn’t been marketed as a romance because it didn’t seem like one while reading it, which was fine with me, but it is not sure what it wants to be.

I tried with this one but was unable to really get into it enough to give it a fair chance. I don't really have any feedback on it.

Unfortunately this was not the book for me. I felt that the writing style for me dragged a bit and did not hold my attention. I wish there would have been more balance between the stage-settings, character establishment, and plot developments to keep me hooked. It by no means it a BAD book, i just don't think it was written in the style for me.

This one took me a minute to finish. I just wasn’t vibing with it. I took a break from it and came back. I did get more into the book towards the end but so much of it wasnt sitting well for me. I don’t know if that was the intent of the author for this book to be so thought provoking specifically with how the state of the world is today.

The “romance” I think was what really got my gears going and my blood boiling. The main MC was nerve wrecking for me in many aspects. I gave this a 3 star but I don’t think I’ll be continuing this series.

I was haunted by this book. I didn’t know how to feel about it (mostly because I was lured in by the promise of a Zutara-like ship) and it was so HEAVY of a book. I will be tuning in for the next installment because I need to know how it ends.

This book started with an info dump, and then I read reviews that alerted me to the fact that this is a colonizer romance. No, thank you.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine.

The cover and premise really drew me into this book. However, the world building left something to be desired and left me a bit confused. While interesting, I struggled to understand the magical system within the book and found my focus wavering. I wanted to immerse myself into this magical world, but I couldn't. It is possible that I simply read too many fantasy books in a row and needed to read something else before starting this, because I had a hard time picking the book up.

The love story was not very convincing and I didn't connect well to the characters. The captor/captive relationship did not lead to a believable love in this case, the MMC was always threatening or condescending. I live for romance in these books and expect them to pick up my interest where the world building may lose me, but this did not.

Unfortunately I wanted to love this, but didn't.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads this year. The synopsis and cover drew me in, but I was disappointed to say the least. The story didn’t really grasp my attention. I kept putting it down and had to force myself to pick it back up again. I just don’t think this story was for me.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods sounded so exciting and different but between the writing and the main character, I couldn't get into the story and felt myself dragging through the pages. I put it down a few times in hopes it was just my mood, but nothing changed. I think this could be a great story to others, but I couldn't vibe with it.

This was a 3.5/3.75 for me. I felt it was a decent read, but wasn't in love with it. I know there was a lot of controversy with the "colonizer romance" though I don't think that was the focus of the story. I liked and appreciated the Chinese historical aspects.

I found this book enjoyable, though I have quite a few significant reservations. It achieved the one thing I ask of a book: it entertained me. Ruying is a frustrating protagonist—sometimes you just want to shake her—but I appreciated joining her on her journey as she’s a deeply unreliable narrator. It was intriguing to see how she coped with her choices, in a “girl, wake up” kind of way. Watching her believe her own lies and eventually start to unlearn them was compelling, but your mileage may vary. If you’re looking for a likable character who is confident in her choices, Ruying likely isn’t for you.

The plot held my attention, and the dynamics between Ruying and Antony reminded me of being seventeen, listening to a friend in a chaotic, toxic situationship while smiling and internally screaming: she hasn’t realized it yet, and you can’t say anything! But also, is she being naive? It’s a sea of red flags! I didn’t care much for their romance; it was clear that wasn’t the focus. That said, I found it a quick read if you can overlook the prose.

While I liked the story overall, the writing was some of the most brutal I’ve encountered. There were a lot of sentence fragments, and even though I managed to read it, I often found my eyes glazing over. It really came down to pushing through the prose for me. I understand this is an uncorrected ARC, but I genuinely think it could’ve benefited from another round of editing to smooth out the writing, as it felt choppy enough to disrupt the reading flow. Additionally, it felt a bit odd that Chang chose to use a futuristic version of Rome rather than creating a new name for it. Conceptually, it’s not a big deal, but it was jarring at first.

Overall, it’s clear this is Chang’s debut. While she has a solid grasp of her plot and intentions, the writing style does not do it any favors. There’s room for fine-tuning, and I hope the next book is more polished. Given the prose and the need for additional edits, I ultimately found this to be just okay. There’s plenty of room for improvement, and it won’t be for everyone, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve read, and I did take something away from it, so that’s a win. Thank you so much to Del Rey and Random House Publishing for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I went into this book hoping for a different story arc that avoids a controversial romance but sadly i was disappointed. I appreciated the historical relevance aspect of this book, but I had to dnf after it followed the oppressed & oppressor relationship stereotype that is heavily based in race. I was really excited to receive this arc after seeing all the hype around it, but it really wasn't for me.