3⭐️2.75🌶️

Contemporary Fantasy
Dark Romantasy
Magical realism
1st Person
Dual POV
Fae
Enemies to lovers
Stockholm syndrome
Trials
Twist

Tw: sexual assault, confinement, murder

This is a fun time, more than a good time.

For how short this fantasy book was, there was a lot going on… It was trying to be a lot of things in 320 pages. Cliche dialogue, typical plot… but the ending had a decent twist that only had the tiniest foreshadowing. So it was a decent surprise.

The POV overlap was really not great. I was annoyed at reading the same moments but from a different POV. It slowed the pacing down a lot. The fantasy aspect didn’t start until almost 1/2 way through the book…it felt like a lot of build up in a world where none of the action took place. 

The FMC was portrayed as biology Barbie. Not really someone I wanted to root for. I was very confused by her as the FMC in a fantasy. It didn’t track. She starts out not cursing… and replacing words in a ‘The Good Place’ way, then curses in the second half of the book. She‘s inconsistent and not not a trustworthy narrator. 

The MMC is a prince who is numb except when he kills. That’s it. That’s his personality. Got it. And unoriginal with his shadow powers. It is what it is at this point. 

I’m hoping that the next book gets better. It was indie published and picked up before the second book was done, so maybe things get better with a good editor? It’s the same length… So jury is out. I’m reading book 2 because I got it from the library with the first one and I’m a little curious with the ending. If book 2 is the same, I’ll be done.

The longer I think about it, the lower i want to rate the book… but I was fine while reading it…

this absolutely read like an ao3 story, posted in chapters but then scooped up together and published with a few intro chapters to set up the world. the writing isn't the best and it would have benefitted from an editor review in terms of typos and grammar. it also should not have been written in first person - the twist at the end was interesting but it was too out of pocket for the whole book to have been in first person and the reader not having seen any foreshadowing. 
all that said, the plot and story itself are interesting. the cliffhanger does make me want to read the sequel when it comes out, but unless the writing is a bit better and the characters a bit more dynamic, ill probably pass. i read it in a day so definitely and easy and quick read if thats what you're looking for. 

I’d give this book a 3.5 ⭐️, when I first started reading the book I was confused at first with the biological aspects but I enjoyed it because it was something fairly new to me and not my first choice but I found the story unique enough to continue. The plot twist wasn’t anything shocking to me, I predicted her “killing” the prince and suspected that she lost her memory and she was really an assassin. I was right that she was an assassin not that she lost her memory. All in all, Jeneane really said ENEMIES to lovers and that was the best part honestly and I liked her story enough to read the next book.