i feel conflicted about this book. on one hand, i truly enjoyed the first 60% of the story, i loved selene, and i thought the development of the relationship between selene and elias was so fun to read. i feel like so many other fantasy romance writers should take notes on this one, especially in regards to slow burns, yearning, and actually having an interesting plot that parallels and supports the romance. 

ON THE OTHER HAND, the arbitrary age gap with a minor is so dumb and i don’t understand why it’s even here. the characters really feel that they are the same age and behave like it. kinda gross that it’s in here at all. i also felt like the ending was fumbled a bit.

the journey the characters go on was set up but it didn’t feel earned in the same way the characters relationship did. it felt like it flipped from a character driven story to a plot driven one and i didn’t care for it. at this point, i also really started to hate elias. like he needed to suffer more lmao. like my girl selene goes through so much physical abuse for him and it doesn’t feel like he suffered equally imo. considering the imbalances inherent to their relationship, i think he actually needed to suffer significantly more than selene especially towards the end. ik ik ik there’s MAGIC involved but i didn’t think that was well-developed at all either. there’s so many magic-based things that happen at the end that happen for apparently no reason (especially kurtons death) and i was honestly willing to forgive some of this but it really takes over the story. the magic forest flowers, the wolf thing, the shadow temple, etc like what even was any of that and why was i supposed to care about it. i kinda wish the whole story was still within the confines of the kingdom to keep it grounded.

overall, the first chunk was literally so good and well written compared to so many other fantasy romance books ive read so it’s really a 4 star book but loses points for the age gap with a minor and the ending i personally didn’t prefer. 

 Selene’s first mistake was poisoning the king, her second was falling in love with him.

What a beautiful book! The prose is exquisite and the character development remarkable. While Selene is the only POV, even minor characters feel real.

There are multiple references to a legend from a fictional book called The River of Reversal. The title is that of an actual short story written as a prequel to this one, and you can get it for free by signing up for the author’s newsletter.

Daughter of the royal physician, young alchemist Selene is part of a long line of healers bound to the royal bloodline. After living under the shadow of her alluring mother, Persaphe, she opens up to people who see the true her. We witness Selene grow from a bullied girl to a powerful woman who reclaims her position in court as she gains confidence in her abilities.

Being an age-gap romance with Selene being a minor for the majority of the book, it walks on the very delicate line of painting the male love interest as a groomer, but given their circumstances, the power shifts from one character to another and I never felt an abuse of authority from any of them.

Part coming-of-age and full slow-burn romance, this book is character-heavy and meant to be slowly savoured. I hadn’t even reached 10% and my heartstrings were already being pulled. I was enraptured by this tale from start to finish. 

A wonderful stand-alone fantasy novel which gets all the feelings going. We are thrown into a world of kings, queens, healers and legends. The story runs though multiple highs and lows and just when you think you are hitting the peak, a new twist is thrown at you. For example when I thought we had hit the discovery bam more twists and we have 30% of the novel left. 

The characters in the book are so well thought out and developed. 
Selena is a wonderful MFC who we get to completely understand inside and out. Her hopes, doubts, self depreciation and love. 

I could not put this book down and devoured it in a day. My only criticism is the continuous in your face statements that something bad was about to happen. With multiple paragraphs ending with sentences like:
 all was good, until the next day
Or
Everything was working, or so I thought. 
It’s almost like the author didn’t trust us to pick up the hints she was putting down. They really weren’t needed and ruined the flow of the book. 

This did not however take away from the story. Which really is a fantastic enemies to lovers, slow burn, twist and turns, witchy/healer, fantasy, adventure, romance novel.