I sat on this review for a few days. What I keep coming back to is that this book (like most of Bardugo’s works) could have benefited from more pages.

Some of the lines in this book were truly beautiful and the ideas of ambition and lineage were interesting. That being said, I think the size of the cast was ambitious and because of it Bardugo’s strengths (characters and world building) got pushed into the background.

I could not find anything to love for the main character. She didn’t even feel like a full character to me. She always had to be sarcastic and witty without giving her space to also feel actual fear or other “weak” emotions. Santángel was probably the most interesting character at a glance; however, we didn’t actually get into his character as much as I thought we might.

Even his and Luzia’s relationship took me by surprise. I could see why they would be drawn together but in my opinion it needed a slower burn for the whole ‘I’ll let myself burn on a pyre for you’ thing to work.

My actual favorite character by the end of the book was Valentina. She’s not loveable but she had the most interesting character arc in the story and I think her ending was executed the best.

I loved how original this world felt and the magic in Luzia’s refranes. I also loved the exploration of magic and milagritos in the time of the Spanish Inquisition. I would have loved to see more exploration of this through either a longer story or a more focused one on Luzia and Santángel.

I won’t get too much into the ending, but I think some of it was rushed and lazy. There was no true explanation to Luzia becoming immortal. I could probably write a paper on the parallels between this book and the original Grisha Trilogy but I don’t want this review to be much longer than it is.