⭐️ 6/5... yes, you read that right.
🌶 3/5
❤️ 3/5
⚔️ 3/5

Don't ask me how many times I have read this book. This entire series owns its own place on my bookshelf.

This series is on my Roman Empire God Tier list.

Emelin and Creon.... far out. WHERE DO I START WITHOUT DOING THIS VERBATIM?!🤔

👉 So Emelin is a human girl who is living in the human world, wanting the midnight train going anywhere... she also has some accidental magic and can totally change the colour of items around the house, and explodes some things - total inconvenience to her parents 🤷‍♀️

👉 She wakes up one night, and her house is burning down, and her useless POS parents are no where to be found - total inconvenience. In her panic, she runs outside into the arms of death - no wait - the Silent Death 💀 (otherwise known as the scary evil murderous fae male sent by the evil queen... often used to scare children into submission, but also actually kills loads of innocent people).

👉 Anyway, I digress. Emelin now goes with the Silent Death back to his house, because, why not 🥲 He proceeds to make her pancakes, lots of tea, makes her read books, yells at her with paper because he can't actually talk - yes he is mute, hence the SILENT part, moving on - he shares his ONE bed, ONE couch, and ONE beach 🤔 Yer, so he is slightly ✨️dramatic✨️ and hates sharing his beach.

He eventually admits to his name - Creon, swoooooon 🥵 He has BIG wings *cough* and a BIG bed, and BIG.... heart? Yes. That. And he has scars 🥹

They make a bargain (fae bargain of course) to kill the evil queen, and then a whole bunch of learning soke really unique colour based magic systems happens, LOTS of letters, and some cute love languages, and compromises.

There is SO MUCH more I could share, but I withold to keep those beautiful and chaotic moments a surprise.

I will forever obsess over this series.

Series complete:
❤️ Books 1 to 4 are about Emelin & Creon.
❤️ Book 0.5 is about a very specific couple in the series (READ AFTER book 2)
❤️ Book 4.5 and 5 are on their way to releasing soon.

TROPES:
💙 Morally Grey Dramatic Fae Prince
💙 Mute MMC
💙 Clumsy Human FMC
💙 Fae bargains
💙 Found Family
💙 Some Spice
💙 Unique Magic System (a favourite)
💙 Heartbreak
💙 Sacrafice
💙 Personal Growth
💙 ROMAN EMPIRE

Tropes:
Wound tending
Snarky banter
Witty characters
Fake relationships
Enemies to lovers
Romantic tension
Colorful magic
Sign language

Thank you to NetGalley and author, Lisette Marshall, for allowing me to read this book. When scrolling through NetGalley, I was drawn to the title, and then after reading the description…I knew I wanted to read it!

I was immediately drawn into the unique magic world that is based on colors…yes, you read that right. Lisette’s masterful storytelling centers around a colorful magic, unlike any books I have read to date.

The story centers around Emelin and the Silent Death (aka Creon), their unlikely partnership, serious romantic tension, and the need to save the world by destroying an untouchable queen. To top it off, Creon is mute, his voice taken over a century ago by the vicious Queen…leaving his only way to communicate by writing or by allowing himself to learn to sign with his hands (something he has refused to do before Emelin).

The book ends on a cliffhanger…and thankfully the next few books are available on KU, with the author currently working on book 5!

Rating: 5 🌟

Favorite character: Creon (of course)

Favorite side character: The Mountain ⛰️

Intriguing storyline: 5 🌎

Spice level 3/5 🌶️

Language level 1/5 👄

Quotes:

I hadn’t been forgotten at all. Quite the opposite–I had been remembered.

I'd rather be your equal in danger than your toy in safety.

Note: this review differs from that linked on my GoodReads.

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I had hoped I would. This book was on my TBR for a long time, and I was so excited when my NetGalley request was accepted. That being said, this book did not meet my expectations fully.

Em’s back and forth decisions made this book lag a little for me. Every other chapter, her feelings for Creon changed. She’d hate him, then she was in love, then she hated him again. It made it hard for me to enjoy the book with her constant back and forth. Similarly, I felt like there were chapters missing in this book. Things kept getting mentioned that I didn’t remember, so I would back track to reread, but the content just wasn’t there. I felt like this really took from the book because the characters are talking about things we never saw happen, making their actions and thoughts feel less real.

There were some positives to this book though. I really liked how Creon wasn’t able to verbally communicate and the role that played on the story. It added some extra elements of mystery and drama that this story needed. I also loved the magic in this book. The idea that magic relies on colors and just the right color combinations added a great element of intrigue to the story.

While I had negative comments on this book, I absolutely will keep reading the series to see what happens next. The cliffhanger left me wanting to know what happens to the characters, and whether or not Em and Creon are okay.

This book was a great length and kept me on the edge of my seat in the final chapters.

Thank you so much to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for an ARC of this book.

Alternate reviews have been posted on my Goodreads and Instagram, linked below.

all together, I really enjoyed this fantasy book. the magic in it was creative and interesting, and the characters had a lot of chemistry. the storyline didn’t really click for me, but I thought it was an overall pleasant read!

You’ve got me hooked here. I’m a big sucker for the misunderstood, brooding death machine hotties. What drew me in was the complexity of Creon’s backstory. It felt really well thought out and the compassion it elicited from me left me heartbroken for him (not the usual emotional response for me with these type of books). I’m not head over heels for the FMC but I’m hanging on for the next book to see how all the plot lines connect.

Also pleasantly surprised by the labyrinth. A little cheesy at first but it grew on me.