Demons vs Exorcists?!?! That's a new one for me!!!! Really enjoyed this fun romantasy!!! Gimme more please!

This is not your typical demon-hunting tale, and I loved every bit of it! Enter the world of the Vatican, which deploys exorcists to battle the tide of demons inextricably trying to enter and destroy Rome. However, this isn’t your grandmother’s Vatican. In this story, the Deathless God remains in between life and death at the heart of the Vatican’s power, skewered through the chest. I really enjoyed the world-building in this book and how Clark wove her characters into the tapestry of this story. Our FMC Selene is a force to be reckoned with, but her stony exterior is slowly crumbled by Jules, an orphaned soldier who is more than he seems. I loved seeing how Selene became more trusting and really came into her own, and I couldn’t help but loving Jules and his sass. The burn of the romance and the snappy dialogue kept me reading late into the night! If you enjoy enemies to lovers, fake engagement, political machinations, and the grey areas between good and evil, this is the book for you!!

As always, thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Knopf Books for access to this eARC for review; all thoughts are my own.

For the first 20%, I was bored and confused. I could not keep the cast of secondary characters straight despite the helpful Dramatis Personae at the beginning, I had no idea what was going on and the opening scenes for Selene and Julian felt kind of rushed. Once their paths crossed, however, things picked up.

I enjoyed both Selene and Julian as characters, as they both have their convictions and secrets, and both must face some hard truths. They have good chemistry and their character arcs and relationship was relatively well developed over the course of the book.

The demon lore was a bit confusing at times, and some magic things were underexplained or hand-waved away, but I liked it overall. It's a interesting take, and I loved how it made them enemies but also committed to each other. The tension near the end was good and thankfully not drawn out.

My one major critique/pet peeve is that the tense would change during flashbacks. It would start past tense, but as the scene was established it would switch to present tense like the rest of the book, and I'd constantly have to go back and see if I misread that this was a thing that happened in the past. It was difficult then to find the end of the flashback and the return to the present storyline.

Typical romantasy with common tropes. Too insta love, cringe dialogue and weird pacing. The world building was good but that was the only redeeming quality of this book.

Thank you random house for the gifted arc!

2.75 ⭐️

I’m absolutely heartbroken that I didn’t love this book 😭 this is one of those times where I should’ve told myself “don’t judge a book by its cover” and listened 😔 like that cover is GORGEOUS?? But the book itself? 😬

The idea of this book is so unique and refreshing! I love the magic system and the lore behind the demons and the Vatican. I really wish the world building had been a bit more thorough bc there were times I wasn’t sure what was going on!

Im completely in love with our two MCs! Selene has so much depth and is so friggin badass but still has a soft side 🫶 and Jules was so fun and cocky and completely obsessed with Selene! I loved watching them grow as characters and together 😌

I think my biggest issue with this book is the pacing. I had a hard time following along with the plot at times and just couldn’t envision where we were in the story. The structure was also pretty choppy at times which made things even more confusing.

Overall, I think this book had so much potential but just didn’t quite hit the mark!

I read this right before a trip to Rome and right after the Pope’s death (rip) so it felt very ~timely~

I liked the majority of this book, however I think it really needed a little more world building and character development.

For example…
- I’m still a bit confused on the demons - I know there are two different factions? And they were at war forever ago? But for what reason? And what separated them originally??
- How was the Vatican getting powers from their “god”/demons? I know they took their like symbols/language and used them for magic, but were they also getting his blood too?

Are these things I should know and just totally missed?? Were they implied and flew right over my head? If not, I hope more is revealed in the next book!

Some of the scenes felt a bit choppy at times, like the switching of POVs or location/time felt a bit jarring here and there, but not to the point where I couldn’t generally infer what was going on.

I love that this wasn’t insta love, but also wasn’t too slow burn either! Felt like a pretty nice, natural pace and there wasn’t too much miscommunication or denial of feelings either. I love a fake “dating”/secret identity scenario, and the banter between the FMC and MMC was incredibly amusing and entertaining - really made me fall in love with both of them.

I wish we got a more solid picture of the other side characters though. I can tell that I really like Caterina, Lucia, and Sparrow, but they still seemed pretty surface level and like they were only around to drive the plot.

Still undecided on whether to continue, but if I do I’m hoping for a bit more action in the next one! (This is a demon-hunter story! We started hot in the beginning, but didn’t see much of it afterwards until the very end)

I'm so confused. Half the time I didn't know what was going on. The writing style is particular, the worldbuilding is lacking and the character development was inconsistent.

The book had potential and I can see others loving it but it was just too confusing and underdeveloped for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

5-stars!

I looooooooved Cruel is the Light. From the setting, to the character banter, to the mystery, I enjoyed it all and can't wait for the sequel. Seeing our FMC, Selene, grapple with the corruption of her tightly held beliefs was relatable and heartbreaking and admirable.

Sophie Clark's writing was engaging and the world she built was easy to visualize through her words. I really look forward to reading more of her work, in and outside of the world of Cruel is the Light.

3.5⭐️ Thank you Netgalley and Knopf Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Cruel is the Light has all the ingredients that usually result in high ratings and squealing/kicking of feet from me. However, it was the execution of those elements that had me scratching my head at more than one point in the story and ultimately lowered my rating in the end.

What Clark did well was set the tone for the story with her alternate version of Rome/Europe. This was the perfect setting for an exorcist vs. demons tale, magnified by the religiosity that comes with a story set in Vatican City. What I struggled to picture in my head was if it was a modern-ish Rome with its cars, trains, and guns, or a more old-world version of it with some updated elements. This had everything to do with the writing style which, while lovely at times, I found very awkward and confusing, especially for the first 25% of the book. I felt I did not have a good grasp of the setting or plot until about halfway through the book. The pacing therefore felt sporadic with large swaths of the book trudging along, peppered with brief episodes of action. Many of the slower portions allowed for us to spend time with Selene and Jules, both individually and as a couple, but again the execution of their relationship was not the most convincing. Jules was definitely the more warm and likeable of the two and I loved his POV. While I think the author's intent was to make Selene enigmatic and badass, she just came across as mean at times. And while I certainly believe she's one of the best exorcists and warriors, I only know that because that's what we're told without too much concrete evidence. Like I get that she taps into her power in a certain way, but it (or any of the exorcists' power) is not described well imo. Their relationship was typical of a YA romantasy with some decent banter and tension, but nothing really stood out to me. And after the thousandth time Selene's waist grabbed/touched/or mentioned, my eyes had rolled so far back into my head one would have thought I was having a seizure. The biggest indicator that maybe this book didn't grab me like I though it would was the fact that I didn't feel the need to pick it up and it took entirely too long to finish. There is definitely an audience for this out there though, and there is no denying that the cover is absolutely stunning. Like would I fall prey to a Fairyloot or Owlcrate special edition? 100%. I will read the second book when it comes out, for peace of mind and holding out hope that it could get better.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Cruel Is the Light by Sophie Clark is a third person dual-POV YA fantasy romance. Selene is an exorcist and the Butcher of Rome, employed by the Vatican to destroy demons. Jules is a French orphan who is on the run after his entire troop is killed in Czechoslovakia. When the two meet, Jules is hired by Selene to pose as her fiance to uncover the answers to the recent rise in demon attacks, but their attraction will make things difficult.

That cover, that cover, that cover. This is exactly what I want out of a romance cover in any genre. I want the two (or more) romantic leads on the cover in a pose that conveys their dynamic and I want a very clear element that defines their story. This does all of that. The limited color palette also does so much to help because it doesn’t detract from their expressions or make the cover too busy. More of this, please.

Selene and Jules' romance somewhat reminds me of Anastasia and Dimitri from the classic animated film, but it takes a more typical grumpy x sunshine approach with Selene as the grump and Jules is the sunshine. ‘Sunshine’ doesn’t seem totally correct for Jules; he’s more of a flirt who is very romantic towards Selene with a more positive attitude. I actually really prefer this sort of shift in the grumpy x sunshine trope because it stops the book from feeling trope-y and it makes Jules feel like a person rather than a checklist.

As someone who was raised Catholic, I wanted to read this when I first learned about it. The Vatican sends out exorcists to kill demons and there’s a long-standing war between humans and demons? Crucifixion is still around? Set in early twentieth century Europe? Sign me up. It really hits the brief of a Catholic European fantasy without getting preachy or trying to convert people to Catholicism, which I really appreciate because I was not looking for that at all in my fantasy romance.

I would recommend this to fans of YA fantasy romance who love European Catholic worldbuilding and references and readers looking for a grumpy x sunshine romance a little bit to the left

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that fantasy romance element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall feel of this. It uses the forbidden love element that I was looking for from the description. The characters had that element that I wanted and enjoyed from this type of book. Sophie Clark has a strong writing style and I loved the use of the genre for this type of book.

Cruel Is the Light is a compelling fast-paced romantic fantasy with quite a lot of action. What initially piqued my interest were the political aspect and the Vatican, which did not disappoint.

The characters have to be my favorite part about this book. Every character felt fleshed out, even the ones who may seem insignificant. Some may find Jules to be obnoxious, but I think I loved that about him. With his charm, the obnoxiousness reads more as being charismatic. Selene may be one of my favorite female protagonists. She is complex, especially when it comes to her relationship with family and religion. The theme of corrupt religion is prominent in this story. Selene’s struggle with accepting this truth is well written and I really felt for her. I enjoyed the relationship between Jules and Selene. Their chemistry and banter was so entertaining and made it difficult to put this book down. I would not necessarily call this an enemies-to-lovers romance, but more reluctant allies-to-forbidden lovers. Their fake engagement had me giggling, especially knowing how each of them felt with the dual POVs. Caterina, Lucia, and Sparrow were excellent characters as well and I hope to see more of them!

The world-building could have been a bit better. I struggled during the beginning of the book to understand certain terminology, but it was not too bad. The magic system is so incredibly intriguing that I wish it had been developed more. The book is well-paced—no parts felt like they dragged on or were glanced over. Overall, I had an amazing time reading this and I am excited to see where the next book takes this story! Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for the early copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

🖤DNF’d at 54%
I tried and tried to get into this book, but I just could not. The writing style made it difficult for me to visualize and enjoy the story. I was left always struggling to figure out what was going on, where they were, who was there and why they were significant. I felt the writing was a little lazy in regards to that. The attention to detail in the writing was shifted to other story details that I found less important. Just not for me.
I’d like to thank Sophie Clark, NetGalley, and Random House Children’s for the opportunity to read this ARC.

While the premise was promising, I unfortunately didn’t enjoy this book at much as I wanted.

The demon jargon at the beginning had me a bit confused and I just struggled to get into the story and connect with the characters. While Jules was charming and the most intriguing to me, I was just hoping to like them both more and feel more invested in their journey.

I think there is definitely a place for this book among romantasy lovers as it does has a unique setting and plot, it just wasn’t for me.

I love the premise of this book, and once it got going I was fully immersed. However, I found the writing style to be confusing kind of randomly throughout, having to reread parts to understand who was talking and what was trying to be said. I also found the up and down relationship with the FMC and MMC to be very whiplash inducing. Overall, I think that the book was a good spin on demons and gods, and pretty enjoyable, aside from a few things. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

I wanted to like this one more...once I got past some of the discomfort with the religious elements, I found that I really was engaged within the story! The pacing after the second act though fell flat for me. I do feel that this book with really gain a lot of hype with certain readers, I just don't feel that I was the right audience for this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's for this ARC.

I enjoyed this book to an extent. The world building and the religious aspect was a little much for me in the way that it was done. I’ll be honest when I say I made it to 50% then skimmed the rest. The relationship between the two main characters was fun and I liked the romance. 2.75✨

although this started out a little rough for me, i ended up really enjoying both the plot and the characters! i think it could have benefitted from a little more world building in the beginning.

the plot and setting of this book is unlike anything i’ve ever read before! it was interesting reading about the vatican and god and demons as someone who has grown up catholic all of my life. it did feel slightly like it is a sin to be reading about some of the stuff that goes down, but it’s fine it’s fiction okay!!!!

this book didn’t feel TOO young adult to me, so if that would be something to turn you off from reading it, don’t let it! i didn’t find it to be cringe at all and it wasn’t spicy but it wasn’t necessarily fully pg either in my opinion.

what really turned around the rough start for me was the characters once i got to know them, and the all of the crazy reveals that kept me on my toes! i love sweet jules with all my heart, and selene is such a badass. some of the side characters intrigued as well. there were multiple “plot twists” throughout the middle and end of this book, and they caught me so off guard i loved it. too bad i have to wait until may 2026 for book 2 🫠

thank you to knopf books & netgalley for the free eARC! cruel is the light releases may 20, 2025 ⚔️✨

This story delivers a dark and intriguing world, with a magic system that feels both unique and thoughtfully developed. The slow-burn romance between Selene and Jules was a standout - I really enjoyed their chemistry and how their relationship evolved. The gothic atmosphere and the premise drew me in right away, and while some details in the world building left me wanting a bit more clarity, the story kept me engaged throughout. A great pick for readers who enjoy character-driven fantasy with romantic tension and a hint of danger

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.