Maren will do anything to protect her family from her abusive father—but when she’s suddenly kidnapped and taken to a mysterious fae realm, she must find a way to survive and return home. When she learns that breaking a powerful curse might be her only way back, she reluctantly agrees to help her captor, Rhydian, in hopes of reuniting with her loved ones.
So, I have thoughts.
This story had a strong start and an intriguing premise. I love Beauty and the Beast retellings, and this one offered a creative take on the story. The setup and concept were interesting, and I especially enjoyed the side characters—Nico, in particular, was an adorable standout, and his relationship with Rhydian added a lot of heart.
That said, I found myself wishing for more depth in the writing and character development. The story relied heavily on telling rather than showing, which made it difficult to fully connect with the characters or feel the chemistry between Maren and Rhydian. The romance, while enemies-to-lovers, didn’t quite build naturally for me—it only really started to come alive toward the end, however, by then, I didn’t believe in the romance. I won’t get started on how I TRULY felt about this “relationship”. Rhydian is also supposed to be morally grey, but this was never backed up with action, only inner thoughts that he had. To me, he was simply grumpy.
I also would have liked more world-building and explanation about the fae realm. Such as why or how is there a separate world, why or how is there a portal, just something to explain to me as to why there’s a separate Fae world, and no one knows about it. It’s such a random concept and it had so much potential. I think expanding on the lore would have made the story even stronger.
I also noticed quite a bit of repetition within and between chapters, which caused the pacing to slow down and made certain sections feel drawn out. Combined with limited world-building, this made the story harder to stay immersed in at times.
Despite some pacing and development issues, I did enjoy the overall story, the ending helped. I’m curious to see how the series continues and how the characters grow in the next installment.
Thank you to the author for the e-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.