you like slow burn, enemies to lovers, witches and witch hunters, this story is for you. This book features many of our favorite tropes and executes it incredibly well. The characterization is phenomenal. Each character had their own personality and voice, and gray morality. That's right, there's no perfect characters in this book.
One thing I found interesting about this book is there is a hard magic system. There are checks and balances.
There is no one with unlimited power that manifests itself at convenient and plot-thickening times. Also, there are negative consequences to casting powerful spells. I like this concept a lot, as hard magic systems are rarely seen in YA/NA fantasy books. It was a fun system to learn about and super creative.

3.5/5 ⭐️
I enjoyed this book, but equal parts, it frustrated me. Overall, it was a fast, engrossing read, especially the second half. And I eventually became invested enough where I was forming theories and predictions. However, there are a couple reasons I gave it a 3.5
First, as I was reading, I was wondering if there should be a trigger warning? Blood magic is an aspect of this book’s magic system, which isn’t new. I’ve read blood magic be used a thousand times in a thousand books. My issue is that numerous times in this book, characters talked about how they needed to cut for the blood magic. But not like it’s the unfortunate means to an end. No, it was almost romanticized. I felt like we were supposed to miss and root for the witches who were hunted down. And they talked in nice light about how the witches used to cut themselves for their blood, but they did it where it carved pretty designs into their skin that they would show off. And I did not feel comfortable with that. Especially because this is being marketed as a YA book.
The rest of my issues are sillier in comparison to previous, like how I could not pin point what era it was. Yes I know it’s a fantasy, but if an author can give us a few cohesive examples, the reader can easily fill in the blanks for the setting and make less work for the author. For example, we very easily understood in The Hunger Games, the vibes of the districts were like Great Depression era, but the capital was otherworldly with its more modern, almost futuristic aesthetic. In this book, I had no idea. There were balls with dance calls and horses but then modern underwear and more modern interactions. It just threw me out of the story every time. Overall, the world building felt like it took a far second seat to the two main characters.
My other issue was the amount of telling. Especially in the beginning, there was so much telling by the narrators. Telling us the world building. Telling us flashbacks. Telling us important details. Telling us their relationships instead of showing the readers through dialogue and actions. This particular issue made me once again wish this book stayed just a tad longer in the editing stage. These issues to me are easy fixes.
Overall, the beginning was rough, it didn’t really get interesting until the 30% point. However, after that, when the cat and mouse game really started, that’s when I started flying through it and was mildly enjoying the story. But I also recognize that many people won’t notice or care about the issues I had and will really enjoy this story, so I’m definitely going to recommend it to people. But, I will end this review by saying: Alex deserves better. Justice for Alex.
Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

This was such a good romantasy book! It was so up my ally - give me anything to do with witches. Then you add in the enemies to lovers witch/witch hunter vibes and it was great. This is how you do fantasy with a strong romance plot. I’ve read some other witch/winter hunter books that fell a little flat for me as the characters motivations weren’t very explored - this was not the case in Heartless Hunter. Gideon was SO interesting and the last 30% had me gasping. The literal only negative is I was confused as I’ve heard people refer to this as the crimson moth and now this title is something different (nothing to do with the story but just had me realizing I’ve heard about this book prior)

I will for sure be purchasing for our library!

I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting! From the beginning this book captivated me. I really enjoyed the magic system as I felt it wasn’t too overwhelming for me to understand as a reader. I fell in love with the characters and really appreciated their back stories. As you learn more about the characters and their background, it really helps you understand why some of these characters were driven to their current actions. The tension and slow burn romance between the main characters was so good! This book puts you through a rollercoaster of emotions, but all in a good way. I can’t wait for the sequel to come out because I need to know how this series ends!

✰ 4.5 stars! ✰
I really enjoyed this book! The characters were well written, and I liked how their suspicion toward each other didn't just disappear because of their attraction. Also, the romance! The tension was great, but I also enjoyed their sweeter moments. He literally sewed her silk flowers and a custom dress!
I'm excited to read the sequel, especially after the twists!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Rune spends her days pretending to be nothing more than a ditzy socialite who turned in her witch grandmother to be purged. But underneath her vapidness, she hides her truth: she, too, is a witch spending much of her time saving other witches. She's The Cirmson Moth. Gideon Sharpe spends his days as a witch hunter; particularly hunting The Crimson Moth, who makes his job much harder. What happens when their two worlds collide in a fast paced game of cat and mouse?
I love a good enemies to lovers story. And also a good forbidden romance. The slow burn and progression always make my heart truly happy. I was excited to read this one for that one trope alone. But blend in some witchiness and I was ready to be hooked. The summary gave me some Serpent and Dove vibes, and I enjoyed that series very much. But, this one fell short of that for me in a few ways.
Rune sells herself as a foolish and featherbrained socialite looking to find her Mr. Right from the social elite. But her true reason for a match is to find someone that will help her continue to pursue her cause of saving witches, without them having any knowledge of it. Rune is much smarter than she appears to be and I like this about her. When she's with her friends, she truly no nonsense and quite intelligent in her ability to think things through and use her own witchy powers to help her cause. While these were admirable qualities, I still found her characterization and development wishy washy. I just didn't like her. I wanted to have complete empathy for her situation but I just didn't have any endearment towards her at all.
I liked enjoyed the third person dual POV. It was nice to see the story from both Rune and Gideon's POVs. I feel like they were more heavy to Rune's side, though, and would have liked to see more background on Gideon. I wanted to see him change and grow and realize his opinion on witches was not always correct. But because he was never truly introduced to this from another perspective, he just comes off as arrogant.
As for the romance, I just didn't see the true blossoming of the relationship with Rune and Gideon. It felt forced and totally unnatural. It was never going to be strong enough to last through the book because of all the secrets Rune and Gideon were keeping from each other. And, while I understood this to be part of their character development, in the end it just didn't feel organic.
I did expect the twist with one of Rune's closest confidants, though. It was very truly obvious from me since the start of the book. However, I wish there was more foreshadowing of it. I got the sense the author was trying to do this at times but it never really left me truly wondering and interested to find out if I was right.
As for the action, that was fun. We did get to see quite a few tight spots for Rune which she predictably was able to thwart. But in the end, you knew she was somehow going to be found out.
The world building was enough to make me understand the magical aspect of the book. However, I did get confused at times with the timeline. It seemed like it might have been such a short period since the witches were purged, but then it seemed like it was more in the history. I never truly understood where I was in that timeline.
I've seen some call to list this one as an NA book, but I don't think it truly is. Yes, the characters are 18-20 years old. Yes we get some sexy, mostly closed door fade to black romance. But, honestly, the maturity of the characters strikes me as YA. So I think this is a good place for it to be.
Of course the ending leaves us on somewhat of a cliffhanger, so I am interested to see where the author might take this duology and how it may end. I'm always hoping for an HEA, which did not happen in this book, but I also understand artistically sometimes that is not the right call.

Entrancing! A glorious game of cat and mouse with the highest stakes. Darkness and light. Danger and Romance. Action and adventure. Heartbreak and Love. Magic! Such vivid writing that I could see every scene clearly in my mind. I loved every moment of this story. It had me absolutely spellbound. So much so that I just had to preorder both the US and UK versions. Don’t miss this one. I can’t wait for book 2.

I received an ARC of this story from NetGalley. So grateful! I will be reading this one again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC!

This was a solid 'romantasy' book. with the romance as the main focus. The enemies-to-lover trope is one of my favorites and kept me reading. The world-building and magic system was very interesting, and I wanted more of that. The writing style and easy-to-follow story made this a very quick read. Both of the MCs were flawed and pretty easy to root for.

This is three stars for me mostly because the plot almost fully centers around the romance and getting the MCs together. Which, if that's what you like, you'll love this book! For me, I like the romance to be woven into a deeper plot. I wanted more of the world-building and history and magic system. But it was still a very entertaining read that I finished in a few days. If you like fantasy that is easy to understand, quick to read, lighter on the plot and heavy on the romance, this is for you!

Honestly until the ending, I was kind of just cruising through Heartless Hunter. You know that feeling when you're not totally absorbed, but still interested enough to continue? I was waiting for the other shoe to drop - and while the ending shock definitely dropped the shoe, I'm still not sure I'll pick up the next one. For one, the premise that a sexual assault survivor has to 'sleep with someone' to make sure they aren't a witch and aren't hiding witches marks, made me deeply uncomfortable throughout the book. While that's challenged by the main character, I didn't feel like the other people got it or even stood up for him?

“It was no gift, being allowed to live while the one you loved most was dead—because of you.”

A witch hunter and a witch!? What could go wrong?

4.5 stars

“It’s not murder if you deserve it.”

Turns out, everything.

"The hunted had fallen for the hunter."

This was so good!! I absolutely love witch and witch hunter books so I was immediately drawn into this one. but the characters are what really did it for me.

“She was an informer. A witch hater. A darling of the New Republic. Rune was the girl who betrayed her grandmother.”

Rune was, on the outside, a shallow socialite who turned her grandmother in to be killed by the hunters. On the inside, she was the Crimson Moth, fighting to free captured witches before they were killed. She went through agony when her grandmother died, the guilt, for obvious reasons, she carries around drives her to never give up. So much so that she turned to the Captain of the Hunters to gain more information.

“You are not the things that happened to you, Gideon.”

I found the author wrote emotion really well, we felt what the characters were feeling, Gideon and Rune, and that always improves any story.

“None of us can escape our pasts.”

Gideon. Killer. Captain. Tailor. A broken man. I won’t say much about his character, I would classify most of his motives and backstory as spoilers, but his strength, his obsession with hunting witches, was justified…in a sense. Justified in killing bad witches, not innocent people. Reading his POV was heartbreaking at times, he was so sad, guilty, and grief-driven. But I love him so much. You’ll just have to trust me on this 😂

“Most of her friends still watched them, some of them smirking, others murmuring behind their hands. Were they laughing at him? Was she laughing at him? He thought again of another girl. Another party. One where he’d been paraded around and humiliated.”

The reveals and the ending!!! My heart was racing for the last like, 35% of the book 😅

“Cress was like that: pretty from a distance, tempting you closer. Like a fool, you were happy to approach.” He was staring at the space over Rune’s shoulder, his expression haunted. “It was only after she’d reeled you in that she revealed her true nature. But by then, it was too late.”
He met Rune’s gaze.
“She was already eating you alive.”




____

I need the next book 😭

Oh this cover is so stunning! This is what first pulled me in. This is first time reading from this author.

The writing from the author is amazing and i will definitely read more from the author in the future. It is great to read a story with a strong female lead that has secrets that can be deadly. This is a cat and mouse storyline which i really liked. I cannot wait to read book two in this series.

Story def keeps you engaged and wanting to stay up past your bedtime to finish.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin’s Press for an advance reader’s copy for an honest review.

The intrigue that Kirsten Ciccarelli creates in her latest literary work is astounding. This is my first time reading any of her work. Rune is a strong, brave, fearless female character with secrets that can have deadly consequences. Gideon is the older brother of a male friend and works for those who do know need to know her secrets. In the book, Rune and Gideon play the game of cat and mouse while he tries to catch the crimson moth left me with bated breath. High praises to Kirsten Ciccarelli for the Heartless Hunter and the amazing kickoff to the duology. I am anticipating the conclusion to this tantalizing story.

-Enemies To Lovers
-Opposites Attract (Witch | Witch Hunter)
-Love Triangle
-Political Intrigue
-Cat and Mouse
-Dual POV

"Heartless Hunter" is a must-read for fans of the Romantasy genre. From start to finish I was captivated by the author's storytelling and intricate world they crafted.

I went into this book with high hopes and it was even better than I had anticipated. The characters were so well-developed their struggles, fears and reservations really brought them to life. That ending, just wow!

My only critique is that I feel like portions of this book trend towards more of a NA rating rather than YA but that's just my personal opinion.

If you haven't pre-ordered this book yet, I absolutely think it's worth reading!

Thank you Kristen Ciccarelli, Net Galley and St. Martin's Press - Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC of this book!

3.5

I thought the world building in this book was quite good and I loved how the explanations of the different levels of magic were added as forenotes to certain chapters. It was a fun, easy, and fairy light read in terms of a fantasy.

And while I liked each of the MCs individually, their backstories felt solid and they each had personality, I thought that their romance happened way too quickly and I didn’t feel much of a spark between them. I just couldn’t see what they saw in each other. Seeing as their relationship was at the core of the story, the forced sense of chemistry let me down. I would have loved to see more of the dynamics of The Crimson Moth and Gideon meeting each other.

This was book 1 of a duology and while it didn’t blow me away it did end on a bit of a cliffhanger so I likely will be interested in reading book 2 to see how the storyline progresses.

This book was perfection as far as enemies to lovers. I loved the cat-and-mouse game and the relationship that developed between the two main characters. I thought that the world-building was easy to understand and there were some historical fiction elements thrown in as well. I think that the storyline was fast-paced which made me want to keep reading. I will definitely be continuing this series!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. I thought that the world-building was really immersive and compelling, and the magic system fit really well into this story. I enjoyed the way the characters were written, and I found their chemistry to be really believable and well done. I feel like sometimes the enemies-to-lovers trope can be a bit tired but it was done really well in this story! I've read a couple of stories where the main characters are a witch-witchhunter pair, and I do sometimes find their interactions implausible because I feel like the lifetime of conditioning and belief systems sometimes go by the wayside because *horny*, but I enjoyed the build up to the relationship a lot in this story.
I do think that this story is definitely older YA bordering on new adult, but in general YA could use stories that serve an older audience within the genre, so I didn't find the language or themes to be too much, necessarily.

I don’t know if I liked this one or didn’t my feelings are completely in between! So I’m settling in a 3 star review!

4/5 - this was so much fun!
The dynamic between witch and witch hunter is always *chefs kiss* and this was done so well.
The magic system was interesting and the world building was immersive.
I enjoyed my journey with the characters so much!
This was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and it didn't disappoint.
I'm a huge fan of the enemies to lovers and this scratched that itch.
I'll be reading the rest Kristen's books and recommending this to anyone who wants to read a fun, engaging fantasy romance.

gorgeous fantasy, though i don't think it's YA. it's really well done and i love the enemies to lovers vibe. Thanks for the ARC!

This book was super good! I ate it up as soon as I started reading. The use of period blood icked me though. I need book 2 😭