Hunger Games meets A Court of Thorns and Roses.

I completely understand why this book is popular among ACOTAR fans, but even so was a little surprised to see it has an overall rating of 4.5. I really enjoyed this book, it was a perfect, mindless romance. The main character - Oraya - had all the strength, willpower, and wit of some of my favorite fantasy FMCs and her entanglement with Raihn was inevitable and a classic of the enemies to allies to lovers trope. Broadbent's writing is descriptive, easy and engrossing in a similar vein to the SJM writing I've come to love.

My main complaint about this book is just that I wanted more detail. For all its 532 pages, I felt a lot of background and depth were missing within the world she has built here. The characters were relatively surface level and the world itself, while interesting, lacked detail. While the twists were certainly shocking, I think they would have packed a harder punch if the reader was provided the background needed for a full impact. I wanted more depth on Oraya, why was she so hellbent on finding her human family and what she wanted to actually do if she won the Kjari. How did we go from "I'm just a human" for the entire book to

Spoiler

I'm maybe half vampire and the heir to the Hiaj vampires

? That was really lacking for me. Same situation with Raihn.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and if I need another simple, quick, and juicy romance, I might be persuaded to pick up the second, but as of now, I'm not dying to read it.