A very interesting concept with an equally promising plot, and a cool book cover. Unfortunately, all of this wasn’t enough to truly make for a satisfying read, the characters were perplexing at times, the plot points a bit too serpentine and the writing, though not terrible, was a bit unpolished and repetitive.
Nevertheless, I see plenty of potential in this author.

First off, I really love the name Salome. The story was pretty good but I was looking forward to something a bit more enthralling. It was well written and interesting but not as captivating as I believed at first.

This one was rough. It's a great premise, but the execution missed the mark. The characters don't seem to mesh well, and while there *is* spice, the characters haven't bonded enough for the spice to be good.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

I love these kinds of plots so much. It's all so delicious—the planned union, the covert mission, the enemies who become lovers, the newly discovered powers.
Even though it started out a little slow, this book really picked up about the halfway point.
The two main characters have a creative, charming, and occasionally immensely frustrating chemistry—which I adore.

The material occasionally gets monotonous and a little confusing. There were times when I could not figure out who was talking to whom or how to physically picture the areas while I was reading.

Such a great book! I can't wait to see how this plot will unfold. I feel Sylvia is too upset, nothing the witches can do without causing harm to her will make her change her mind, she is beyond that. Vincent is too hurt because maybe he didn't lose her... but his court will never forgive her. Salome loves him even if she doesn't know how that feels and she will do everything in her power to keep him alive. The witches... they are totally keeping a big secret regarding Salome. The Alliance feels like a minor issue if you think about all of this but they are there too, bothering her like a mosquito at night. I hope to read more from you (soon)!

And this became the second (or maybe the third) book that landed on my DNF shelf. I hate that, but this was just such a choppy reading experience that about half way through I just could not do it any more. I am hoping that Costales continues developing her writing (plot, storyline, character and world development) because I want every author to succeed. And just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not someone won't like it.

3.5 ⭐
I am a sucker for this kind of storyline. The arranged marriage, secret mission, enemies to lovers, found powers, all of it is just so scrumptious.
This book, although a bit slow, became absolutely worth it at around half way through the book.
The chemistry and connection between the two main characters is creative and enchanting and sometimes unbelievably infuriating (which I LOVE).

The book can sometimes become repetitive and slightly convoluted at times. There were moments while reading where I became very confused who was talking to who and physically picturing spaces. But...that usually happens to me with intricate fantasy stories (thank you Sarah J Maas)..

THE ENDING THOUGH...I have no words to describe my anticipation for what comes next.

Overall good read, but it will take you some time to get through.

I really enjoyed reading this book! The world building and writing style were beautiful and one of the only reasons that i kept reading the book. I'll be honest there were multiple points in the book where i considered DNFing it because it is very slowly paced, and takes about half of the book to get truly interesting and immersive.

It was also really fun to see all the different characters and their dynamics, especially how the alliance and the court of witches operate.

It was nice to see the FMC start to fall for the king and realise that she might be in too deep, but i really didn't like that it ended on a cliff hanger without a happy ending, or at least a happy ending being implied. I cannot stand it when there is miscommunication between characters, especially characters that are romantically involved, and it was one of the bigger moments when i considered DNFing the book.

I really enjoyed this book. It is one of my favorites this year! It's a page-turner and hard to put down because some of the chapters leave you on a cliffhanger needing to know what happens next. I loved the relationship between the main character and the King and the way it blossomed over time but was also really quick to turn into something more.

While she is deceiving the King she starts to fall for him. From the moment she first saw him, she was doomed. She knew then and there this would be one of her most difficult cons, if not the most.

She continues to play her character so that the Alliance (a group of thieves and con artists that have held her captive for most of her life to do their bidding) would not punish her or worse, kill her. She meets the court's witches and begins to trust them when she finds that she too is a witch and has powers beyond her imaginings. She struggles to keep these powers under control doing terrible things that leave her feeling lost and hopeless.

The witches begin to teach her how to control her powers and learn more about them while she continues to deceive the King, even though she renounced her relationship with the Alliance and wanted to tell him the truth.

When the kingdom goes to battle with its rival, she helps fight in their war. Upon returning home after a victory that cost too much of her energy due to using magic, she finds herself in a situation where she feels she has no choice but to tell him who she is and why she was there.
She is immediately thrown into the dungeon and is awaiting execution when the witches come and break her free to help fight in the battle that started while she was detained. She ends up saving the King's life but it does not change her fate.
On the day of her execution, she tells the King she will see him again and before the executioner's axe can fall, she disappears into a void of darkness.

She will see him again. She will still fight for his heart, even though she knows she can't have it. But we have to wait for the next book to find out whether they are fated to be together or damned to be apart.

I enjoyed this book more than I anticipated! I really liked the writing style, however it did end up confusing at some points and there was no distinction between who the characters were talking about or interacting with. The imagery was beautiful and very descriptive. Once the book hits roughly 50% it starts to pick up pace.

I did find that there were certain elements that were incredibly repetitive, almost word for word, throughout the whole book. Some of the details and actual story ended up convoluted due to run on sentences.

The spice was good despite only being one scene, however the tension left something to be desired.

Although I enjoyed the book, the story didn't feel fully fleshed out. Some parts were definitely just filler but even some of the main points didn't feel refined.

A little slow to start, but once you get about halfway, it's a wild, action filled ride to the finish! Interesting take on magic and those who wield it. Definitely interested to see where this goes!

Overall I felt as if this book had a lot of ups and downs, and to be honest I did consider DNFing it a multiple points, but I pushed through. Sadly though it did not really seem worth it in the end.

So the general concept of this story was super interesting and really seemed like something I would love on paper, but the pacing worked heavily against it. It picked up super heavily at some points and then dragged me across the page for multiple dreary chapters. It just did not manage to hold my attention during these chapters and made it super hard to push through it.

Additionally, the relationship between the main character and the love interest was really not my favorite. There were very few actual scenes where they spent actual time together and felt like their relationship was forming and then BOOM out of where we had a pretty darn good spicy scene. But despite that these scenes were written well, they just did not fit in with these characters. The entire relationship just seemed super flat and uninteresting to me sadly.

There was also a lot of repetition that occurred in the book, specifically constant reminders of her past over and over and over again. And while the book was super descriptive it once again seemed to repeat the same thing again and again.

This story truly had a ton of potential but I felt like the right story choices were just never really made After all it is a story about a badass assassin who ends up being able to take the prince's fiances identity, and there is this whole big plan.... and its just petty theft. Stealing rings, broaches, and necklaces BUT there are constant reminders about the group's big plans yet it just felt flat and boring.

It felt very promising to start with but sadly had too many flaws for me to truly enjoy the book. Thank you to NetGalley and City Owl Press for providing an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book unfortunately went to the DNF pile for me. I tried really hard to get into, but I just couldn't.

The story got off to a rough start. There were so many named characters dropped at once that I was having a hard time keeping track of everyone. The story was kept vague at parts in an attempt to build suspense, but it got confusing for me since it was a little too vague. I lost track of what the objective was or what was supposed to be happening. There were also an overwhelming amount of details, but they were not about the appropriate things in the story.

Overall, it was confusing and hard to follow. I really enjoyed the premise behind the book and the story was solid. Unfortunately the writing style just didn't work for me.

I received an arc of this book. I really enjoyed the female main character but thought the relationship between the female lead and male lead character was lacking. The secret society did interest me but the book gave little information on it. I did struggle in finishing this book until I got about two thirds through the story and the book became an easier read. I usually greatly enjoy books with magic and secret societies but this book was not for me.

I NEVER DNF books but I just couldn't get through this. I got halfway through (literally, 50% according to my Kindle) and eventually I just had to give up, because I was just dreading picking it up again.

This is not at all a smooth reading experience. I constantly find myself confused and unable to take in the words, not because the story is complex or the writing is poetic, as with some fantasy books, but because the sentences don't feel right. The passages feel unnatural. It's hard to explain but there's just a lot that doesn't make sense or feel natural in this book and in the writing and it makes getting through it a chore.

To the author's defence, the writing is very descriptive and paints vivid images with beautiful descriptions of surroundings, etc.. However (judging from the amount I read) it could have been half as long, it's SO repetitive.

Half of the book (and especially in the first few chapters) feel like im just reading the same thing over and over and over. HOW MANY TIMES in different wordings do we need to read "the alliance found a muddy girl on the streets and she made them money but if they ever found out they'd torture her worse than death yada yada". I think I made 7 separate notations on my Kindle of the gist of this sentence reoccurring before I just gave up on trying to keep track of all the times.

Also A LOT of it doesn't make any sense. You're telling me Vincent who's extremely attentive and suuuper into "Rosalia" and spends a lot of time admiring her 1. doesn't recognize Salomes voice "without it's polished airs" 2. Doesn't recognize her lips?? They make out??? How many people are you making out with that you can't tell whether you're kissing the same person or not??

My biggest issue with this however is that the story has so much potential, this awesome girl is going undercover to perform an epic heist with some evil resistance organisation on the King, but she has her own agenda etc. It sounds awesome!!!! But then the epic heist is just.... Petty theft??? Stealing rings off nobles hands? Chipping off marble pieces with her "sharpened nails"?? Come on???

Like I said, I only got halfway through so maybe it gets a lot better and things start to make more sense later in the book but honestly, this book didn't do enough to make me want to get there. I guess the spice is good if that's important to you, so there's that.

Salome Visaya is nothing and no one—at least, that’s what the Alliance want her to think.

This was pretty mid. Nothing special, but I didn't hate it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

This one fell a little flat for me. I wasn't feeling the the relationship between the main two.. they spent most of the book apart? And he just sent her gifts and then there was random spice?

This is a tough one to review. The premise of the wicked Alliance, shadowy demons and darkness, and a protagonist female assassin/thief/queen gives off some Throne of Glass vibes, so I had high hopes, but ultimately I just couldn’t get hooked. Maybe it was the straightforward writing style — I don’t know exactly, but I didn’t feel any emotions for the characters so that was awkward.

3.7/5

Thank you to Netgalley and City Owl Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book has such an exciting premise, but I have to be honest and say, the first 50% of this book was wicked slow.

Salome is our FMC and she is a thief, a con artist and excells at forging letters and eavesdropping on conversations. Salome is such an interesting character. She is loyal to the Alliance only because she has no choice, but inside she yearns for freedom. There is constant mention of how the Alliance members protect eachother, but she has no friends and no one she can confide in.

King Vincent is such a cinnamon roll. He peppers Rosalia(Salome) with gifts, and how he treats her is so sweet. The chemistry from the get go between these two is off the charts. And for once, I will admit that I needed more spice, because I hung on every word.

The Witch Circus was an interesting bunch of ladies and I love how they made Salome one of their own. This book has strong found family vibes.

Good worldbuilding and the magic was interesting. The demons were quite eerie, but I just wish everything was explained a bit better. I still have so many unanswered questions regarding this world. The ending was a big surprise for me and I squeled when I saw our much loved fantasy creatures.

This book could have been a lot shorter. In the beginning we are constantly being reminded of how lethal the Alliance is. It is so intrusive at times that Salome trails off thinking about it in the midst of conversations. There was also a lack of lengthy conversations, which I feel is necessary when important things are being discussed. Spelling errors and words missing from sentences tells me it can go through another round of editing.

Overall not a bad book but could use some cleanup.