Holy crap! This was amazing! Strangely enough, i have no notes on this one. L Evelands talent in MM Romance Fantasy is perfectly demonstarted here and i was able to get super engrossed in the world, story and characters (i binged it in a day lol) -- her contemporary romances have sometimes left me wanting more but THIS was perfection *chefs kiss*. I loved this as much as her A Dream of Flames and Shadow book series.. if not maaaybe a little bit more bc of the pacing of the plot so this as a book 1 does get to end on a nice HFN. But if you liked that book then i think you'll LOVE this one - provided your on board woth the general themes, check the content warnings for yourself!

This is a brilliant beginning of this series. These two are excellent enemies to lovers (truly fr fr - not "rivals" or "mild dislike" lol). I also like that there is respect there even tho they are enemies - it helps to add some "gray" to the relationship and i loved that aspect. The build up to the spice is a slow burn but feels very true to the relationship they have and it made me happy that spice between the two MCs was valued and handled with more care than i thought it would be considering the captor/slave circumstances. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey to the spice and am looking forward to more in the rest of the series. 

The pacing of the plot is well done and even though the ending is such a cliffhanger, it's just made me super excited for the next one in the series (some cliffhangers have left me feeling frustrated but this one leaves me feeling really "jump around the room" excited!).

Also side note: i love seeing trans and nonbinary characters in the main cast (not MCs) here, it brought me joy, ty! 💜

Also, personal note: im the first to post a review! Hehe pretty cool 


*I got an arc copy of this book so i avoided being specific with plot points