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A review by abby_ace_of_books
Cruel is the Light by Sophie Clark
3.25
This book used the word "bicep" 37 times...and also all of my annotations about Jules call him "Lacroix Boy."
Cruel is the Light is a YA urban romantasy hat deals with the Vatican, something I'm not the most familiar with. I'd also like to admit that urban fantasy typically isn't my preferred setting, but I thought that with the focus of the book being exorcists and demons, it might not feel as "urban." Also, my review might be biased because I've been extremely busy lately, so I just want to throw that out there as a reason why I might not have loved this book.
The book follows two characters: Selene - an exorcist living in Rome - and Jules - a French footsoldier fighting demons on a distant war front. Their paths cross after a series of particularly brutal demon attacks, and suddenly they're forced to work together against the supernatural forces plaguing the Vatican city. I found this book to be very trope-y, so readers who enjoy the only-one-bed trope, the knife-to-throat trope, and the faking dating trope might enjoy this book more than I did. While it was supposed to be an enemies-to-lovers story, I found it to be a bit instalust-y (but I'm also not always a fan of romantasy). I enjoyed the action scenes and the unraveling of the mysteries. However, I also found the plot twists to be fairly predictable (I called one of the main plot twists before I even started reading the book). Also, despite the huge chunks of worldbuilding before the story itself even began, I still felt like I didn't have a great grasp of some parts of the world and the plot.
My other big issue is that I wasn't a huge fan of the main characters and their romance. Selene could have been so interesting, but she changed her mind abruptly on things I wished she'd created more tension on. Jules was fine on his own (I've seen a bunch of characters like him before), but I wasn't a huge fan of how quickly the relationship progressed between him and Selene. I really liked the scenes Caterina and Lucia were in; they seem like a super fun duo. Kian reminded me of Boq (I don't know what that means). Sparrow was my favorite character though I don't know why because he also gave me the ick. The villains and the other characters were fine, but no one really stood out to me so I wasn't super invested in anything beyond the mystery elements.
Cruel is the Light is a YA urban romantasy reminiscent of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters series and perfect for readers who don't mind certain tropes.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
3.25/5
Cruel is the Light is a YA urban romantasy hat deals with the Vatican, something I'm not the most familiar with. I'd also like to admit that urban fantasy typically isn't my preferred setting, but I thought that with the focus of the book being exorcists and demons, it might not feel as "urban." Also, my review might be biased because I've been extremely busy lately, so I just want to throw that out there as a reason why I might not have loved this book.
The book follows two characters: Selene - an exorcist living in Rome - and Jules - a French footsoldier fighting demons on a distant war front. Their paths cross after a series of particularly brutal demon attacks, and suddenly they're forced to work together against the supernatural forces plaguing the Vatican city. I found this book to be very trope-y, so readers who enjoy the only-one-bed trope, the knife-to-throat trope, and the faking dating trope might enjoy this book more than I did. While it was supposed to be an enemies-to-lovers story, I found it to be a bit instalust-y (but I'm also not always a fan of romantasy). I enjoyed the action scenes and the unraveling of the mysteries. However, I also found the plot twists to be fairly predictable (I called one of the main plot twists before I even started reading the book). Also, despite the huge chunks of worldbuilding before the story itself even began, I still felt like I didn't have a great grasp of some parts of the world and the plot.
My other big issue is that I wasn't a huge fan of the main characters and their romance. Selene could have been so interesting, but she changed her mind abruptly on things I wished she'd created more tension on. Jules was fine on his own (I've seen a bunch of characters like him before), but I wasn't a huge fan of how quickly the relationship progressed between him and Selene. I really liked the scenes Caterina and Lucia were in; they seem like a super fun duo. Kian reminded me of Boq (I don't know what that means). Sparrow was my favorite character though I don't know why because he also gave me the ick. The villains and the other characters were fine, but no one really stood out to me so I wasn't super invested in anything beyond the mystery elements.
Cruel is the Light is a YA urban romantasy reminiscent of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters series and perfect for readers who don't mind certain tropes.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
3.25/5