Sigh. This pains me to rate this one so low, but y’all…we have GOT to stop romanticizing our colonizers. Understanding my Filipino history and the ongoing effects of colonialism to this day IRL (from beauty standards to corrupt governments) had me cringing reading about another Filipina falling in love with a white man (how many times is the word “pale” used as a romanticized descriptor? I lost count). I believe there were ways Thea could have handled this and explored the issue in a meaningful way, but by the end of book 2 I am losing hope that she will. 🥲 

So outside of that icky aspect, I found this to be about 70% romance and dealing with our “it’s not love, it’s just attraction!” enemies-to-lovers duo. While I understand this IS a romantasy and that’s the whole point, I found the political machinations (a key thing when there’s a war going on???) to be left undeveloped and ultimately confusing due to how little refinement it received. Quite disappointing especially with the twist at the end that had me scratching my head and going “ummm…okay I guess?”

Also the supposed climactic moment that we were working towards throughout the whole book was over and done with in about two chapters. And everyone was so chill about it?? Bizarre. 

I loved spending more time in Ninevar and experiencing a Filipino-inspired fantasy world. The banter between Alaric and Talasyn was quite enjoyable. But outside of that, I had too many problems with the rest of the story. 🙃