Road to Ruin

Magebike Courier #1

by Hana Lee

An electrifying, gritty fantasy from debut author Hana Lee that takes a royal messenger on a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland, featuring motorcycles, monsters, and magic.

Jin-Lu has the most dangerous job in the wasteland. She’s a magebike courier, one of the few who venture outside the domed cities on motorcycles powered by magic. Every day, she braves the wasteland’s dangers—deadly storms, roving marauders, and territorial beasts—to deliver her wares.

Her most valuable cargo? A prince’s love letters addressed to Yi-Nereen, a princess desperate to escape the clutches of her abusive family and soon-to-be husband. Jin, desperately in love with both her and the prince, can’t refuse Yi-Nereen’s plea for help. The two of them flee across the wastes, pursued by Yi-Nereen’s furious father, her scheming betrothed, and a bounty hunter with mysterious powers.

A storm to end all storms is brewing and dark secrets about the heritability of magic are coming to light. Jin’s heart has led her into peril before, but this time she may not find her way back.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Adult

366 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2024

About the author

Hana Lee is a biracial Korean American science fiction and fantasy author. By day, she makes her living as a software engineer. Her short story "Bari and the Resurrection Flower" was included in the Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2024 anthology, and she is the author of the Magebike Courier duology (ROAD TO RUIN & FLIGHT OF THE FALLEN), which received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and was featured on the Locus Recommended Reading List. Her hobbies include fiber arts, gaming, and performing with her a capella group.

Reviews

[Krysta ꕤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was a wild ride both figuratively and literally. the world is very mad max- esque with a barren landscape and motorcycles. Jin-Lu is a magebike courier whose job is to transport things across the dangerous wasteland. the plot involves the princess Yi-Nereen, who wants to escape her arranged marriage and enlists Jin’s help in doing so. there’s a complicated relationship dynamic between Jin, Yi-Nereen and prince Kadrin being that Jin just happens to be in love with both .. (my disaster bisexual, i feel you girl lol).

“I’ve come to realize the things I find beautiful are not things of my own making. They’re wrought by other hands or the work of nature itself. Perhaps that is a sign I should invest more effort into creating beauty instead of relying on others to show it to me.”

there’s a whole lot of magic, twists, ancient ruins, push and pull, dinosaur companions and everything else you could imagine. the ending was non stop action and i was so invested with every turn it took. the story just surprised me in multiple ways and i was holding out hope that Jin, Kadrin and Yi-Nereen would get together and the author heard me and laid the breadcrumbs so i will be sitting here waiting for book 2 cause i was living for all the angst. i’ve never read anything like this.. so much fun! i was definitely feeling all the emotions.

[Rebecca Roanhorse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun adventure in a Mad Max-esque world with some nicely plotted twists and turns and a lot of bisexual angst. I feel like this book would have been a huge hit as a YA book but languishes under the radar as adult. I zoomed through it (pun intended) in a couple of days and enjoyed the ride (hehe... ok I'll stop).


*I received a free ARC from Saga Press which did not impact my honest review.

[nikki | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ . · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was an old courier expression: cities had hundreds of laws, but the mana wastes knew only one—survive at any cost.

sapphic mad max with magic and motorbikes 🏍️

i actually really enjoyed this gritty apocalyptic world with its mana storms, monstrous beasts, and isolated dystopian cities.

“A wanderer who sees beauty in every twisted corner of the world. A survivor who isn’t afraid to die when it counts. Someone who loves with all her heart, no matter how many times it breaks.”

jin and her yearning for both would-be lovers that she couriers their love letters has me totally rooting for a throuple ending to this. the magic system is very intriguing with the different abilities and the interconnection between the earth and creatures. i do think some of the rules of it could've been laid out more clearly, i was a bit confused when jin could suddenly sense other Talented individuals and what they were.

“I guess you have a type, don’t you, Jin? Girls who want to burn down the world and dance in the ashes.”

overall, it had a fast pace and i blew thru it bc i kept wanting to know what was gonna happen next.
definitely going to pick up the next book!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

YOU GUYS, THIS BOOK WAS SO FUN!

Road To Ruin is like Fury Road x Death Stranding x Borderlands but like add lightning and make it queer. It has magic motorcycles and love letters! Forbidden romance! Vengeance! Yearning! in a desert setting!

This is a perfect fantasy for people who want something light on the politics but heavy on action. There is a lot of movement and zoom zoom and pow pow. I think the main character literally says they don't care about politics and the topic is completely dropped. LOVE THAT. But there are heavy themes, like diaspora and blood lines and other social issues. All of that is interspersed with some cute romantic tension.

If you're in the mood for an action-packed badass little romp, Road To Ruin is absolute perfection. I had such a blast and need y'all to read it asap okay thanks.

And thank you to my faves at SAGA for sending me a copy!!

[Maja · Rating 2 out of 5]

E-arc provided by Edelweiss.

I really, really wanted to love this book! It had so many promising elements and seemed right up my alley.

Fury Road- inspired apocalyptic wasteland? Interesting worldbuilding, if a bit simplistic? Hell yeah.
Sapphic tension between a sheltered princess and the magical motorcycle courier who has reluctantly agreed upon smuggling her to freedom? Hell yeah.
Fighting back against a societal caste system and subjugation of women? BIG hell yeah!!!

I just wish more had been shown to the reader, rather than told. I was bored. The characters, interesting in theory, fell flat in action. I never felt Yi-Nereen or Kadrin’s connection to Jin to be more than superficial, and honestly didn’t care about Kadrin at all. Not for me, unfortunately!

[Maria reads SFF · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh!!! I'm too old for this "will they won't they" angst and misunderstandings and arguments over nothing.
DNF at Chapter 11.
This book has such an intreaguing worldbuilding and magic, but the interactions between the characters are so cliché!
Recomended for YA readers.
Not sure why this is marketed as Adult Fantasy, but that is a diservice to the book.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

no thoughts just motorcycles vroom vroom

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun! Road to Ruin is a fast-paced dystopian fantasy with Mad Max vibes. Jin is a courier who travels through the dangerous wastelands on her magebike (think motorcycle powered by magic) delivering messages and more from distant cities. After years of dispatching secret love letters between two nobles, the princess asks for her help in escaping an arranged marriage. She agrees, but there are forces at work that will get in their way. And Jin has a secret of her own- the feelings for both of the lovers that she has tried so hard to deny.

This is very action-driven in an interesting dystopian world with polyamory! I enjoyed it and would read the next book as well. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

[Grant Little · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have very conflicting thoughts on this book, and honestly a strong argument could be made in favor of either lowering it to 2 stars or rasing it to 4.

I loved this book up until about the 60% mark, at which point. From then on the book just felt increasingly more and more rushed, with characters being suddenly added with entirely too much significance (looking at you, Vann), only to barely do anything other than just move the plot forward slightly. And then the ending. Truly, from the bottom of my heart: fuck you all the way to hell, Hana Lee. That ending was so genuinely awful that it has the potential to make me never read another book you write. You managed to make an ending that combined some of the worst tropes in fiction, from power loss, to denying a character the chance to grow and develop in any way. And then topped it off with the having the book leave off without doing the thing you were building to the entire time with zero explanation and a sudden cut to black.

Seriously: FUCK that ending.

And as I write this, I realize the book does only deserve 2 stars.

[John Wiswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun mash-up of magic, Mad Max, and bisexual angst. There's a fun post-apocalyptic world here, with dinosaurs and old magic motorcycles that run on power in certain people's blood.

But by far my favorite element was the love triangle. You see, our heroine is a courier who brings love letters back and forth between a princess and prince. For plottish reasons, she's had to read all of them. And so she's developed a feverish crush--on both of them.

[Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook (11 hours) narrated by the award winning Natalie Naudus
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

This is the second book in a row that I have had the luck to have Natalie Naudus narrate and I have one more in my queue. Completely and totally a happy accident. Love Natalie! 🫠🤌🏻💗
The audio is flawless.

Road to Ruin is Hana Lee's debut novel. Yes, it is her real name. No, she doesn't personally know Puff the Magic Dragon, but she did sing the song often as a child because her name was in it! Too cute! 🐲

The novel started off great. Unfortunately, for me, I lost interest as the characters are more than a bit flat and I just really didn't care for them. I kept listening, mostly due to my love for Natalie, and when I thought that I should just move on I noticed I was 70% in so I just finished it. Nothing great happened in the last 40%.

The story has a decent cadence and a lot of great details. While Hana Lee says that it's her love letter to Mad Max: Fury Road, it reminds me a bit of Mistborn: The Final Empire, like in the ballpark. They don't burn metal for magic but it has a similar feel to it.

I likely will not finish the series, but I will check in for the next stand alone or start of the next series to see what's up.

2.5 stars for a decent debut that while I didn't love it, I did finish.

[Me, My Shelf, & I · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Mad Max: Fury Road. It's one of my favourite movies of all time. The inspirations are very clear here, even to the point that it says "shiny and chrome" in the early chapters.

But when I was ~70% in and going to sleep, my partner asked if I'm enjoying the book. And I had to think about it for a moment, but I think it's a no? Which surprised me, tbh, because I thought I was doing alright with it. Mainly I think my lack of investment comes down to execution and which areas of the story are fleshed out. And if I'm really honest, it's a gorgeous cover that's holding my attention and intrigue, but the book execution hasn't lived up to it.

YA or Adult:
Sometimes I think the first book in an Adult series can read much more YA than the rest of the series, but still gets classified as Adult because you can't really split up a series like that. Maybe that is what's happening here; we won't be able to verify until more books are released. But I was discussing this book with my partner and automatically defaulted to calling the characters "kids" because that's how they act. And then I had this startling moment of 'wait, I thought this was an Adult book? Is it actually YA?' and I went and looked it up.

So ymmv, but the angst, the emotions, the thought processes and focuses of the characters... they all read really YA to me.

World-building + Magic System:
Overall while I'm intrigued by the world and the magic, I don't think it's fleshed out enough. The author spends a lot of time focusing on the letter exchanges, the pining, the past relationships, the messy relationships, and a lot of teenage angst.

Suddenly her dinosaur friend is healed! Suddenly he's growing a lot! People have powers that were useless before the bikes were invented but are apparently really valuable because of the bikes and also have souls!

Idk, man. Nothing is fleshed out. Nothing feels true to these characters having lived their whole life in this world and only just now starting to question how basic and incomplete and easily disprovable their knowledge is as I, the reader, am being introduced to these things. I just don't think this is the aspect of the story the author really cares about and wants to spend time on (or they're doing a JJabrams style drop-a-lot-of-mysteries-to-build-intrigue thing that just annoys me). Which is a shame, because my interest is here and not with the romances.

The Ending:
The villain and the easily manipulated main characters and their simplistic thought patterns really cemented this as a pass for me. It's just way too YA and not in a fun, easily consumable way.

Cover's still a banger, tho.

Does the ~dog die?:
Her saurian buddy is super duper healthy; the healthiest saurian to ever live.

Audiobook Notes:
As always Natalie Naudus breathes life into the text and makes it very easy to listen to the audiobook all the way to the end.

Thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free copy for review.

TW-- Not for Jeeps:
There is a named child who spends considerable time with the protagonists who is killed (off page) and allusions to his sister having already been killed by the same perpetrator/s. His spirit lingers for a while to help and communicate with the protagonists and he doesn't seem as upset as you'd expect a murdered person to be, so that might lessen the blow.

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, and the .5 is for the inclusion of a FFM triad, which I will always applaud. However, that relationship, the worldbuilding and plot, while all having some flashes of brilliance, felt underdone to me. Alas.

So, the story: Jin-Lu is a magebike courier in the desert wastelands between cities. Her most long-running and lucrative job is carrying love letters between prince Kadrin and princess Yi-Nereen in different cities. It's on a run between these two cities that she has some trouble with her magebike, rescues a pteropter (flying prey bird) and gets chased by a raider who seems to be leading a storm - which should be impossible. Jin manages to make it to Yi-Nereen, who pays her to help escape an impending marriage. On their way out of the city, they get waylaid and discover there's lots more going on out in the desert than either one of them have been led to believe. Can they make it back to Kadrin's city and safety? Will Yi-Nereen find a way to escape her marriage? Can the three of them possibly have a future together?

I know this book is heavily inspired by Mad Max, but I think it relies too much on folks knowing the world of that story and other fantasies. This fictional world relies on something called "mana" which is never really explained. It runs the magebikes...and gives people other talents...and has to be smoked or infused or otherwise brought into the body to...make all this work? I read the whole book and I'm still not sure. I get that the exact nature of this stuff is part of the intrigue of the story, but I still felt like basic rules were not well established before they started getting questioned.

The story begins YEARS into the relationship between Yi-Nereen, Kadrin and Jin. The development of the relationship between Yi-Nereen and Kadrin is shown in letters that precede each of the chapters. Which, okay, I guess - but we have NOTHING on how Jin's relationship with either one of them developed, only her internal monologue about her already well-developed feelings for them both. Maybe author Hana Lee should read a few more romances because uh, you skipped a bunch of the good parts. None of their feelings for each other has the weight that it should.

I do like Jin, Yi-Nereen and Kadrin as characters. I like that Kadrin is essentially the "sunshine" of the trio, leaving the two women to be the badasses. I like that Yi-Nereen has a broader political view and is more of an operator than the beginning of the book leads you to believe (though this could have been hinted at better). But ultimately they still felt like "types" to me, as well as the all the other supporting characters in the book.

Every time I thought I would give up on the book, Lee threw a plot twist in there that kept me interested - usually a new fact about the world. However, the resolution of each of these reveals was either something that could have been taken from a movie (predictable), or raised more unanswered questions until I couldn't keep track of them all.

I honestly don't know if I'll read onward. I did not realize this book was the start of a trilogy; that's on me. Although I weirdly kinda felt like this should have been book two instead of one in that case?

I hope other readers enjoy this a lot more than I do, because I would like to see more threesome relationship stories in SFF. But for me, neither the SF nor the romance parts of this book really landed.

[KMart Vet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Mad Max-esque wasteland with magitech motorcycles, a polyamorous will-they-won't-they romance, and a runaway princess? The premise of Road to Ruin had me hooked before I even started, and it absolutely delivered. This book is a wild, high-speed chase through a richly built world, filled with danger, magic, and complex, compelling characters.

Jin is the kind of character I love—snarky and tough, but with a soft interior she refuses to acknowledge and hides at every opportunity. This is quickly demonstrated when she grudgingly saves a bitey little animal who almost killed her. As a magebike courier, she’s already living on the edge, but when she agrees to help Yi-Nereen escape her impending marriage and monstrous family, she throws herself into a whole new level of chaos. The polyamorous dynamic between Jin, Yi-Nereen, and Prince Kadrin was a slow burn and their interactions were my favorite aspect of the story. The love letters at the end of the chapters—especially the moments where Jin chimes in—added so much depth to the larger relationship and made me fully invested in their tangled emotions. And then there’s Sou-Zell. I was convinced he’d be a straightforward antagonist, but he turned out to be so much more—morally gray, fascinating, and way more likable than I expected.

The world-building here is phenomenal. The cities scattered throughout the wasteland are unique and make the setting feel alive and textured. And the magic system? Absolutely brilliant. Magitech is always fun, but the magic powers are also so cool.

Road to Ruin is gritty, fast-paced, and full of heart. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to burn the world down right alongside its characters, and I adored every second of it. I'm so grateful for Kerie's recommendation!

[StarMarie2529 · Rating 5 out of 5]

There had better be a book 2!!! I loved this book and I can't wait to reread it and I'm so mad that book 2 is not already here in my hands (even though book 1 hasn't even been published yet.) Seriously Road to Ruin was INCREDIBLE! High Fantasy Mad Max that I never knew I needed. Our protagonist, Jin, is wonderful. The type of girl who pretends to be tough and closed off but would give her last bit of food to the alley cat that just bit her. Kadrin and Reena are each wonderful in their own ways, both of them truly playing on the sun and moon imagery. Always bound together but still so unique. I hope we get to see more of Kadrin next time because I feel like we really got to know Reena well, see her intelligence and her desire to do the right thing even when she's not sure what that is. I also want to see more of Sou-Zelle even. I fully expected to hate him the entire time and while he still has a long way to go I can see the seeds of change planted in him. Pre-Order this book! Read this book immediately! It was SO GOOD!!

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will most likely be my favorite book of 2024. This is one of the most unique adult SFF books I've ever had the pleasure to read. Lee has crafted an amazing world of dinosaur-like creatures, mana magic, and purple and blue lightning storms ravaging a wasteland. Add to that a courier who delivers packages on a motorcycle, and how much cooler could you get? The politics and world were built so intricately that the world felt REAL. The main character Jin was easy to love, and her snarky voice lent a great humor to the book that really added to the story. And of course, I loved the queer poly w/w/m romance. The Mad Max: Fury Road vibes were perfect! I honestly can't believe this is a debut. It reads like a seasoned SFF author wrote it. Safe to say I am a fan of Hana Lee's work from now on and can't wait for the sequel!

[Kaity · Rating 5 out of 5]

ETA: Reread a year later and still fantastic!

Hana Lee took so many of my favorite movie and video game tropes and wove them flawlessly into an incredible novel. She created a complex magical desert wasteland world with a completely messed up society that I could Not. Put. Down. How is this her debut novel?!

MFF, desert post-apocalypse with magic (mad max inspired), on the run, multipov, epistolary element, magical dino pet

I await your reply, in which I expect to find out precisely how much offense I have incurred. Since I am oblivious by nature, it may take a lot of letters to drive the lesson home, and long letters at that. Please employ whatever insults you can think of. I expect to be granted no quarter.
With utmost sincerity,
Prince Kadrin

[liv ❁]

what do you MEAN wasteland motorcycle wlw

[Nursebookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you @SagaPressBooks #SagaSaysCrew for the free books

TITLE: ROAD TO RUIN
AUTHOR: HANA LEE
PUB DATE: 05.14.2024

An electrifying, gritty fantasy from debut author Hana Lee that takes a royal messenger on a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland, featuring motorcycles, monsters, and magic.

THOUGHTS: I love how fun this book is and all the tropes -from a badass motorcycle maven, forbidden romance, and a fun apocalyptic setting - think about Mad Max in a fantasy desert landscape, with a princess and a prince exchanging love letters, and a brewing love triangle. This is a strong debut and fantastic start of series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

[Weronika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool world building and interesting storyline. Reminded me a bit of Kate Daniels - Magebikes and a pet pteropter named Screech. It had a lot of back and forth with the love interests but I enjoyed it for the storytelling.

3.5⭐️

Thanks to Saga Press for the free book.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one started off strong with a cool premise: courier-mages, magical tech, dinosaurs and climate chaos made for a fresh setup that had me intrigued. The pacing pulled me in early, and I was genuinely curious where it would go.

But as the story progressed, it started to lose momentum. The character dynamics didn’t quite resonate, and the love triangle felt more frustrating than compelling. By the second half, the tension had fizzled out, and I just found myself ready for it to wrap up.

It wasn’t bad, just okay. A solid concept that didn’t quite deliver all the way through.

[T.J. Dallas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5* Lots to love, but not 'quite' enough for me, mainly around the ending. Loved the setting (wastelands, magebikes, sparkriders, pteropters, mana, princess etc.) and the book cover is gorgeous! But the MC didn't get the only thing she wanted (rather she was offered, and she declined??) so kinda felt a bit anticlimactic. Whole story was very well written, though, and I'd still consider reading book 2 (when it comes out June 2025.)

[Genoveva Dimova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this the sapphic Mad Max fantasy we've all been waiting for? My answer is a resounding yes! Road to Ruin is an accomplished debut, featuring a vivid, atmospheric world, an intricately built mystery, and a cast of complex characters I loved getting to know.

I struggle to pick what was my favourite element of this novel. At first, I fell in love with the world. Part Mad Max, part Charlie Jane Anders's The City in the Middle of the Night, part Lee's unique invention, I felt fully immersed in this desolate, desert landscape where strange creatures roam and getting caught outside during a storm can cost your life. Sprinkled among the desert are city-states, each with its own distinct culture and politics. The magic system was both extremely imaginative and insanely cool—I mean, it includes motorcycles powered by mana!

Then, I thought it wasn't the world I loved most, after all, it was the way the mystery plot twisted, turned, and kept surprising me. Characters we thought we'd left in the past returned. Ancient ruins came back to life. Political struggles and old magic turned out to be more complicated than they seemed a first. At no point I could guess how it would all get resolved, and I kept turning the pages, hungry for more.

Finally, just like our Jin coming to terms with her complicated feelings towards Yi-Nereen and Kadrin, I realised, along the way, I'd fallen in love with Road to Ruin's characters. Jin, our protagonist, quickly won me over with her sharp, snarky voice and her tough exterior only to reveal a much softer interior. The two royals, I'd dismissed at first as vaguely boring and preoccupied with their budding romance—I was completely wrong. They're both fully realised characters in their own right, both brilliant in their own unique ways. The supporting cast were all fascinating, from Faolin's desert people to Yi-Nereen's scheming father—but I have a particular soft spot for Sou-Zell. What a glorious bastard. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Overall, this is a very strong debut and I'll be impatiently waiting for the sequel.

[Benji · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars- Mad Max-inspired science fantasy with an FFM romance subplot. The world has been reduced to a post-apocalyptic wasteland with dystopian cities, a classist society that only values people with magical abilities, and magic-less people are thrown out into the wastes to become raiders. Magebike courier Jin has been delivering love letters between Prince Kadrin and Princess Yi-Nereen for years while slowly falling in love with them. Out of the blue Yi-Nereen tells Jin that an arranged marriage has been set for her and asks to be smuggled out of her city to be united with Prince Kadrin. Things go south quickly.

I think this book is more fun in theory than in reality, the world was too simplistic and Yi-Nereen is a terrible villain who only needed a minute of convincing before she was ready and willing to commit genocide yet she was written as a sympathetic heroine. There’s a lot of infodumping that makes the book drag in spots and some one-dimensional antagonists. On the other hand, Kadrin was charming in a dandy kind of way and I liked the prickly ex-fiancé Sou-Zell.

CWs: eugenics, classism, genocide, child death, misogyny, murder, abuse, kidnapping

[LA Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Road to Ruin

4⭐

Mad Max, Jurassic Park, and the alphabet Mafia all rolled into one.
Mage courier, Jin-Lu is in love with a prince and a Princess which is how she was convinced to rescue said princess from an arranged marriage...

Least to say that's the most boring part of this book. A non stop adventure filled with magic, motorcycles, and mystery.


It was short and enjoyable!

[andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of this book is right up my alley and there are so many things to love about it, but the execution leaves something to be desired. It feels like Lee tried to cram too many complicated and messy relationships (normally my favorite type of relationship) into this book without giving the reader any time to get attached to any of the characters involved.

There are so many cool dynamics to be explored here, but we don't get to sit long enough with any of them to actually do so. This is especially confusing to me after finding out that this book is going to be part of a series; why was everything so rushed in this book when we could have explored it all in more depth in a second installation? I love a fast-paced read, but Road to Ruin is one of those rare books that I wish would have slowed down because I really love the world that Lee created, and I would have loved to have spent more time in it.

With that being said, this book is still a great time. I loved that last scene between Jin and Falka (I will never not be a sucker for toxic sapphic yearners), and I'm anxious to see what the second installment brings for them as well as Kadrin and Reena (and maybe Sou-Zell a bit too. He sucks, but I like him nonetheless).

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a lot going on and it's pretty fast paced. I didn't like that it started off with immediate conflict. There was no buildup to it and the stakes just kept getting higher. We don't get any time with the characters, so it's hard to get emotionally involved at first. They did grow on me though! I'll be checking out the sequel I think I'll like that one more
This is a poly romance so I gotta give it at least 3 stars. Beggars can't be choosers 😔

[Ariel (ariel_reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid read and loved the premise overall!!! Very excited to read more of the author's works.

[Hillary (abookishmarriage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was very fun!!! Is fantasy that feels like sci fi a genre?

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm SO mad this had an open ending!! I thought this had such a good set-up for a polyamorous relationship in a SFF setting and the characters and their dynamics were definitely what kept me reading :)