Thanks for the gifted ALC!!

This is a soft dnf for me! The narrators are really hard to distinguish and the world building is already pretty intense so I’m having a hard time following. I def want to pick up a physical copy of this book!!

I really enjoyed this. I am a sucker for a vampire romance and this was amazing. I loved the fantasy aspect and the world building was amazing. This book had two amazing romances. Everything about this perfect and I just solidly enjoyed this.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and alc!

unfortunately, dnf @ 56%

i think once i realized how uninterested i was, i should have stopped reading, but i was hoping i would enjoy this unique twist on vampirism.

i did appreciate the sapphic vampires, despite my overall disinterest.

as for the audiobooks, i enjoyed the narrators!

this book will definitely find its audience, but its not me

Started strong but lost me bit by bit as we adventured on. The world building was deep and interesting at first and the book even started with quite a bang, but I just started to lose interest and am definitely not sure how you would milk this into a duology. I think a rewrite into a standalone would have felt less like it was dragging. The worst part was the characters also started off very strong and interesting, but I think it just lacked consequential conflict throughout. There were lots of chances to add it, but it just wasn't there. The narration was interesting, having 3 narrators. They all really tried to keep immersion high and I would say that was successful.

The following didn't affect my rating but was just pure second-hand embarrassment for the author. Author's weird behavior on GR includes 5star self-rating and monologuing while blaming everything but the book being really mid which is super common for a debut. I read through a lot of the feedback and it was all very valid and evident to anyone who read the book without bias. Like she said herself, reviews are reader spaces. If she can't handle them, maybe she shouldn't be hanging out in them. Originally, I was going to be open to book two as I have actually had this on my TBR for ages, but I think I will pass.

ALC provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I love when there are multiple POVs and multiple narrators! All of the narrators were good, there was nothing totally standout about any of the performances but I really enjoyed listening to this one along as I read it. It's a great quality audiobook!

Book review: When I heard Black sapphic vampires I was excited! The premise was intriguing, and I think the book was pretty unique. I enjoyed the backstory with the creation of vampires, and I liked all of the other magical characters as well. The big questions of what would you give up for love, and what would it cost you, what would the ones you love give up for you, etc. are explored, which is especially interesting when paired with vampires and seers.

As I was reading the prologue I was really invested in that story, and when I started the actual book I was kind of disappointed that the book didn't follow that story, and instead jumped ahead and added in a bunch of new characters. I feel like I'd have loved a whole book with the story from the prologue. I also think the world building could have been more cohesive.

This is the kind of book that I think could have been so damn good with another round of edits. It has so much going for it - a dual timeline with sapphic relationships, powerful queens, a war over a thousand years - but it kept getting in its own way with pacing that was all over the place and so much info dumping. This was a frustrating read because I could see the book it wanted to be, but unfortunately it was an uneven experience.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. The dual timelines and lack of distinct characters made it difficult to follow. While there were some interesting elements, the first 60% felt messy and confusing. I won’t be continuing.

Based on the cover and blurb for Where Shadows Meet, I had incredibly high, maybe too high of expectations. Staring with what I liked about this book - I loved the representation that Caldwell brought to this story. I’m also a huge fan of morally grey characters which Caldwell used well in this story. I also appreciated that Caldwell leaned into the darker and more violent nature of vampires. There were also parts that fell flat for me. I felt there was a mixture of both trying to do too much and also not doing enough depending on which element we’re focusing on. For this being a fantasy book, I wanted way more world building and the lore established earlier in the book. There just wasn’t enough world building for me in general but maybe that was by design since it’s the first in a series. I also felt like the book was all over the place with how the story was introduced - it jumped between story telling perspective, characters, and using journal entries to get information across. I did feel that this book ended on a high note that sets up book 2 quite well. For the audiobook, I did love the choice to use multiple narrators. With how the story was told, I think it would’ve been impossible to keep track of everything had only one narrator been used. I also felt that the narrators were captivating in how they told the story making for an enjoyable listening experience.