This book was so captivating and had my interest and attention from the first page. I really love the concept of the story, and how intertwined the past and present are. I can't wait to see what more volumes will have in store. I don't want to say goodbye to these characters.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not what I expected, but it doesn't disappoint.

When I chose this ARC, I thought it was a graphic novel/manga, so my first surprise when I started reading was to realize that it wasn't. The second, in a long list of surprises, was the prologue… I think they should put a content warning so that readers don't stumble upon these kinds of scenes inadvertently. I'm not referring to the explicit content, I mean the no-con.

Third surprise… I thought it would be a novel with a renaissance plot, but it's not like that, at least not completely. Ionia and Leorino are two different people, except that Rino has Ionia's memories and while he sleeps he can access them and learn about Ionia's life.

I liked that Rino found a way to express his thoughts and desires despite the fact that the people around him insisted on pigeonholing him into stereotypes or making him fit into their own versions of what he should be.

Even though I'm not a fan of political intrigues, that part of the story was quite interesting, at times I got quite angry because certain situations could have been avoided if the characters stopped keeping important information to themselves. But hey, there's nothing we can do more than wait and see how it all unfolds.

I loved the illustrations at the beginning of the book. Many things remained pending, but I suppose they will be resolved in the following volumes.