“They call it the Gift, but I have never seen it that way”. Olivia tried to reject who she was, but fate has come knocking and thrown her into a parallel world full of witches, vampires and more.
The novel had a sound concept, and as a long-time fantasy fan, the idea of a different world hidden in plain sight is always intriguing.
Olivia is passionate and driven, with strong ideals about how the world should be. I particularly enjoyed reading about her relationship with William; a tall, attractive and mysterious vampire. Despite William being jaded about the world, he is always the perfect challenge for Olivia.
Despite knowing Olivia was a political consultant when starting this book, the heavy amount of politics involved in the plot was surprising. The author made it very clear where she sits in politics, and whilst that isn’t inherently a bad thing, this heavy use of real-world politics brought me out of the novel and disturbed the fun, fantastical elements of the story. I wanted to know more about the Others and the Council, not Republican/Democrat American politics. Maybe we need to wait for more instalments of the series, who knows!
Overall I enjoyed this story and the characters within. I would recommend this book as a fun, easy to follow and light urban fantasy read.

⭐4.5

I loved this book!

I did not expect this to get as real-world political as it did, I know it says Olivia is a political consultant, but I expected it to not be as pointed as it is (not complaining, read the government for filth all you want).

I genuinely hate William, he just feels like a walking red flag. The relationship between Olivia and William felt unsatisfying and I wish better for Olivia.

Relationships aside, I thought the plot of this book was really interesting. A lot of ideas and separate(ish) plot points got to shine through without it feeling like too much is happening. I did call some things from the beginning, but I wasn’t mad about being able to call it.

I look forward to the future books in this series!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this book!
DNF @ 32%
2 stars

I realllly tried to give this book a chance. Mostly just because I feel bad for all the dnf-ing I've been doing for ARCs. But I just could not bring myself to want to keep reading this book. It's just not for me. I found the writing too dialogue-driven, the random jumps in time too missing on information (especially the very start itself), and just sorta bare overall. The summary also did mention politics, so this one is partially on me, but I vastly underestimated how much it meant by politics.

The author very much made her politic stances known in this book, which I'm not saying authors cannot do, but it's not really my preference. I don't really read books because I wanna hear more about American elections/political parties or MAGA. I thought I'd be getting more Other politics, less... us politics xD There was also a route this book was going with it's supernatural council that I didn't love. There's a chance it's setting up for said thing to be wrong, but for now it just feels ick to me and I'll never find out how it was meant to go.

So yeah, overall, this book wasn't for me. Others may enjoy it, though, especially if they're intrigued by the way supernatural creatures involve themselves in politics. There's also a hot southern vampire that plays in a band and challenges the MC. If this stuff sounds interesting to you, maybe look into the book :D

I am always on the lookout for new authors to love even though I really shouldn’t, but my absolute favorite genre (well, one of two) is hard to find these days. This looked right in the sweet spot of genres. I started this and was immediately drawn into the story. I loved Olivia, and how confident she was…well, most of the time. The story was interesting, and I quite enjoyed this book. There was one nit-picky thing, but nothing huge, that sometimes Olivia was a little too dramatic for who she is at her core: cool, calm, and collected. However, that could just be because she was just introduced to a new world. This book is well-written, interesting, and I’m ready to read the next one. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.