First off, I LOVE this take on elves! I think when it comes to elves and fae in YA and New Adult books they often fall too easily into the same basic tropes so that even the most original characters are overtaken by the overly simplistic plot. That was not the case with this book! I enjoyed the unique plot and headstrong-female lead but most of all I loved that the magic system was something I have never before seen couple with elves!

I did like the main character and the fact it didn't feel like she was being forced into all the "chosen one" tropes. Unfortunately, a number of other characters did fall into tropes, but many of them ended up being less important to the story thane expected so I think it all balanced out. The book sort of felt like a contemporary set in a fantasy world, if that makes sense. It's set in an entirely made-up world but it feels like we're simply following the main characters everyday normal life the way YA contemporaries do. Rather than a fantastical journey the whole way, which I think lent itself very nicely to character development and world-building. I was a little disappointed that the beast didn't play too big of a role considering it was in the description AND on the cover, but I won't go into that too much or I won't be able to call this spoiler-free! I think it's safe to assume it will come into play more in the sequel, and like I said before this book was probably meant for the reader to get to know the characters and world as well as possible before just shoving a bunch of magic we know nothing about at us. In the end, it was set up well for the sequel either way.

The negatives were nothing overwhelming, a handful of typos, and sad heteronormativity that all fantasy books with a class system seem to happen into for no good reason. My other complaint is that it felt like there were a lot of small things happening on the side that went absolutely nowhere. One too many conversations, and discoveries with the main character that seemed like they were supposed to be very important only for them to be forgotten two chapters later. Perhaps some will reappear in book two but it didn't seem so.

Overall I was quite impressed with this book and found it easy to read quickly. For the sake of the Goodreads rating system, I gave this 4 out of 5 stars. As an added bonus I loved the author's message at the end "Creating a fantasy with characters that look like me is more than just about inclusion. In reality, we are present, so why not in the magical, fantastical, and the alternative."