Review
Thank you to Bramble for an e-arc of this book.
I didn’t realize the dynamic (master/slave) of this book when I requested it, but after I saw some posts on social media I did. The dynamic isn’t necessarily one I go for or totally avoid. I love Roman history (it’s very intriguing) which is one reason I was interested in this book. I did like that it was a mix of “historical” but really kind of went its own way overall. I think giving it the background of Roman was helpful in grounding the story in a way that worked.
Juliette Cross’s writing is addictive and easy to read. I think I powered through the first 30% without putting it down because I was intrigued. She brings the world to life, and made it feel vibrant and believable. Again, I think that was helped by the fact she has it set in a place that was real, and essentially just modified some things to make it work for fantasy.
I loved Mina as the FMC in this book. I liked that she was a complicated character with complicated feelings. She was honest with herself, and I don’t always see that in FMC, often they’re in denial or recriminating, and Mina didn’t feel like that at all. Honestly, her nickname was perfect for her. Such a wonderful character, and one I can’t wait to see more of.
This book was told from two POVs, Mina and Julian. I liked both POVs, although I think I did enjoy Mina’s a tad more. But that is usually the case for me.
This book is definitely dark romance/dark fantasy/dark romantasy. While it’s not pitch dark like a lot of other books are, it is there simply because of the theme of the book. There are definitely very dark and bloody moments in this book, so I can definitely see why they said for fans of “House of the Dragon” because this book also has a very political element to it between family. That was actually one of the best parts of the book, I really do love a good book that has fantasy politics. And even better, this book has dragons. Shapeshifting dragons as well.
In other words, this book nails several things that I really love in a book. I will say this book is not going to be for everyone, especially if the main dynamic makes you uncomfortable. I did think the author in many ways did try to balance that out,
I can’t wait to see what happens next in this series!