“Mindwalking was nothing else than reaching out for a face I'd seen, a name I knew, and seeking the impression that the world had made upon that mind. But that was all that it was - an impression - not the absolute truth.”

I had a good time reading this book. A fantasy story with enemies to lovers, love triangle, found family and rapunzel retelling with mindwalks and ghosts and war and power plots that will make your head spin and you yourself constantly question the situation. The events in this story take place ages before those in the main book in this series and it is a standalone. I only had one issue with it. I felt more than once completely confused and at loss as to what was happening to whom and who was whom. This might be probably correlated to the fact that the entire book was written in chapters detailing the events of the present alongside chapters with flashbacks from the past. And since they happen to be side by side, there are many things you don’t fully understand until the last third of the book. It felt pretty much like the first fantasy book in a series that you have to get into and comprehend but made a bit more difficult by this decision. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story and the main characters and I feel like having read book one, before this prequel, might have helped me out a bit. I appreciated that we got to know more about this world’s story and past. It did clarify some questions that I had. Even though that ending was definitely bittersweet … I feel like I would have liked more. But it makes total sense in the grand scheme of things.

“'The Red Maiden.
There were other ways, Blanche. But you wanted them to know your name, even one you made up for yourself. You wanted them to worship you.”

'Welcome to the Fallen Court. Let's get to work. We have quite a few walls to tear down.'