Callie is a small town Biologist who is determined to find Actias luna (or luna moths), when she discovers a mushroom is the answer to all her questions she sets out to find this rare alluding mushroom in the forest. Callie indeeds finds the mushroom, but also finds herself falling into a strange new world and on-top of the moral grey and disturbed Unseelie Prince. 
Callie must fight to survive or she will never return home.

WOW
I must say I was SCARED to read this book after the hype around it on booktok, but I am so glad I picked it up, this is my first 5 star read of 2024! It is slow to start but honestly what Fantasy book isn't, you have to build the story. 

What I liked
-Duel POVs
-Developing characters
-Easy to follow fantasy 
-Morally Grey MMC
-Strong willed FMC
-Plot twist 
-Adventure and Action Packed 
-Spicy
-Enemies to Lovers??

Spice Rating: 🌶️ 🌶️ .5

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I'm really glad I did this as a buddy read and had friends who pushed me on with this one because I think the twist is what saved the book a *little* bit for me.

Callie is a scientist living in the middle of nowhere studying luna moths and the parasite that is slowly killing them. As a small, beautiful blonde woman, Callie's life is ROUGH (cough, sarcasm, cough) because she's quirky and single. One day, Callie discovers the mushrooms that might save the luna moths from the parasite, but when she tries to harvest them (in spite of multiple warnings not to), she's swept into a portal to the underground world of the Unseelie fae. Callie lands on the Unseelie prince, who is known for his hatred of humans, leading the Unseelie to believe she is a trained assassin sent to kill the prince. In order to make her way home, Callie has to survive three trials and try not to fall for the Unseelie prince--after all, he is the bad guy... as we are repeatedly reminded.

The good: The twist at the end did have me. I was ruminating on some theories throughout my read, but I enjoyed learning what really happened.

The bad: This book heavily relied on archetypal characters, overused tropes, and cheap shock value. The writing was predictable and just... not very good. I felt the characters were underdeveloped and shallow. Though the twist was interesting, I wish the book would've focused on those revelations and background (IYKYK) instead of the "relationship" between Callie and the Unseelie prince, which was basically insta-lust. 

I don't think this book was for me, but I can completely understand why people enjoy this book. It was almost like a Wish version of ACOTAR, which seems to be common in the romantasy genre. 

I did, however, preorder book 2 because I'm morbidly curious to see what happens. 🤷‍♀️ 

This book. THIS BOOK. Omg yall, this book was a wild ride. The pace is slow in the beginning, but don't let that fool you! There is so much more to this book, so pay attention. 

Callie was a strong, albeit two dimensional, fmc to go through everything that she went through in the Unseelie realm, and still be determined to fight. Even though I really don't know much about science, I appreciate all that we learned through Callie and her job, and how she used that knowledge to her advantage. I do feel like the struggles and friendships that she had in the human realm were superficial, until Earl, but that is explained later so I don't really feel like it counts. There definitel  was a missed opportunity to bring more depth to Callie and her background. If we would've gotten some povs of the people that she left behind in the human realm when she got trapped in the Unseelie Fae realm, that would've added an interesting layer to the story.

Now, Mendax. Oh, Mendax. I don't even know how to feel about him. He's gorgeous, unrelenting, murderous, and tortured by his attraction to Callie. Their back and forth was so good, but I wish there was more tension and a slow burn instead of insta-lust. I do like how possessive he got over Callie and was willing to do anything to keep her safe, despite being the one trying to get rid of her. The dual pov was great to be able to see Mendax's internal struggle.

So, I'll be honest, the writing style does leave much to be desired, however I feel like it might've been done purposefully. It reads as a mundane book at first, which I believe sets you up because, then BAM, the ending knocks you off your feet! I was shocked. I was running around my living room. The scream I scrumpt. The ending literally flips the whole book upside down and makes you question everything. Let's all get our clown makeup out because Ms. Jeneane was playing right in our faces and we didn't even see it coming! Those last two chapters ROCKED me. I am waiting on pins and needles for the next book because I NEED to know what happens next. I should've listened to the dedication because I am definitely finished.

I didn’t realize how much I loved this book until I got to the end. HOLY. I NEED BOOK 2 NOW. Definitely getting the e-book in Feb, no way am I waiting for the physical copy in April 

Like I don't hate it, but I also didn't love it, but I also want to read the next book!?!

I found it fine enough till the end. The main twist I didn't agree with, but maybe on a reread I will see it better. 

This is purely speculation, but methinks someone is paying for reviews because it is beyond me how many people have rated this book above 3 stars. Honestly, it's wild. This book is very poorly written and under-edited. It feels as though Jeneane had absolutely no beta readers or legitimate editors. After I realized fairly soon into the book that this belongs somewhere in the deep, dark depths of kindle unlimited, I decided to take a red pen to the book. I circled, marked, and crossed out miss spellings and redundancies, circled anything that was worded in a confusing unclear way, and marked up ever moment the story was at all unbelievable or disturbing, which was quite a bit even though I am a connoisseur of smut and fantasy. This book feels like a raw dream journal that never went through the creative process of making sense, which, in turn, made the story structure and dynamics hard to consume as a reader. 
The introduction of the story takes a good 90 pages and the entire book isn't even 400 pages long! The characters are incredibly difficult to enjoy. The female main character is as flimsy and as fluid as water. You cannot get me to believe that a biologist, no matter how scatter-brained, would forget a high-end microscope (it's mentioned that it costs as much as a car) in the woods. You additionally cannot get me to believe that she would then not spare a second to change out of her "going out" clothes but instead wears a little black dress (that hardly covers her assets) and HEELS to go search the woods. Not only is Callie, the main character, ditsy but she morphs into different characters as the story proceeds suddenly having a "dark side" or suddenly having her one wish be that she find love, when initially, all this girl wanted was to swear off love and a personal life and join a society of wildlife biologists. Then we have Mendax, the Prince, who to be completely honest has no redeeming qualities. I understand that he's not meant to have any as a dark/villainous character but there should be SOMETHING that attracts the reader and FMC. Alas, there isn't. We don't even really get to know what Mendax looks like aside from dark hair and blue eyes. You don't even learn he has pointed ears even until page 216. Additionally, the way Jeneane describes his "smoke wings" causes me to believe she doesn't know what wings are. I struggle to imagine wings you can grab and choke someone with. There is no build up in the romance of the story. 
With the love story, Mendax flips like a coin. He goes from hating Callie and all humankind to not being able to live without her and waxing embarrassingly poetic. It's cringey and riddled with cliches that belong on 2014 Wattpad. However, their first "romantic" interaction isn't even all that romantic. He eats her out pushing her face into a blanket and the consent is very, very dubious. For the rest of the novel, Callie battles her 'feelings' for Mendax even though he is objectively awful and has subjected her to multiple types of abuse including maiming and the attempted r*pe from a forest bog. Within the love scenes between the two main characters, Jeneane seems to lose all sense of anatomy. I spent time rereading multiple instances in which Mendax would need at least three hands to maneuver as described. 
I understand what Jeneane was trying to accomplish here. I do. The short synopsis actually drew me in! I love bad boys and magical bad boys are even better. However, this book needed several more drafts and professional eyes before publishing.
Lastly, the next time Jeneane O'Riley writes the word 'amber' will be much, much to soon.

The plot twist was PLOT TWISTING!!