I absolutely love this book. I have read the debut series from this author, and I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to meet her when she released this book and this book is her best work yet!

This book follows Zilan who wants to escape her poor life to become a Royal Alchemist. After studying and working hard and having a disadvantage to all the other alchemist, she sets her sights on completing the alchemy exam and fulfilling her dream.

However, dreams are not always what they seem to be and Zilan finds out very quickly that there are monsters all around her. A story of forbidden love, family secrets, personal growth, and discovering truths the story is entertaining from beginning to end.

I was really surprised on how much blood and gore was in this book considering it is marketed as a young adult so please have that mindset going into it. I personally loved it and it felt so raw and real and goes to show that life, even in books, have losses and devastation that you can’t come back from. Unless you have the power of an alchemist… then maybe the laws of life can be bent a little!

I definitely felt like this book needed just a little more romance to really build up that feeling of love between The two love interest in this book. But I like how the romance did not take away from the plot fantasy and political intrigue of the story. Yes this book has a sprinkle of historical fiction. But this author takes a lot of liberties in creating her own world from some historical facts which means that a lot of what happens in the book is not actually historically accurate which I felt just made it more fun and enjoyable.

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.