"Dark, dreamy, and addictive." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A moody, atmospheric dark romantasy that blurs the line between dreams and reality." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The romance has real tension — not just instant attraction.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A pop idol with a dangerous voice. A demon-boy who invades her dreams. One kiss will save the world—or end it.
When the world’s dreams start dying, pop idol Rhea is the first to feel it.
Fans are collapsing. Accidents spike. Something hungry is moving through the city—and it’s watching her.
Then Eclipsion, the unnervingly perfect new boy group, debuts. Their frontman, Laziel, sings like a promise and smiles like a threat. He invades her dreams, her music, her pulse… and Rhea can’t tell if he’s trying to save her, seduce her, or break her.
When the producers force Celestaria and Eclipsion into a joint Longest Night performance—with a staged on-air kiss—Rhea realizes the
The chaos isn’t random. It’s a ritual. And she’s the key.
To survive the Longest Night, she must decide whether to trust the monster who haunts her dreams… or kiss him and let the world burn.
Dark romantasy. Demonpop. Impossible love. One night decides everything.
I did not enjoy this book. The combination of the vagueness of the story and the writing style made it hard for me to push through. I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters because we hardly get to know them. The story tries so incredibly hard to be mysterious, but it’s just confusing. Some of the dialogue and the many comparisons just didn’t make sense - a lot was just way too cryptic.
The writing style was very… descriptive. To the point where it got annoying. I know exactly what every room looked like, what it smelled like, and what everyone inside was doing at nearly any given moment. At a certain point we also got to know what the air tasted like. It got quite repetitive too. I think the colors of Laziels mismatched eyes are ingrained in my brain at this point. Some of the smells also just don’t make sense (winter metal, the metallic bite of overboiled tap water, old sound - to name a few). Though I have to say that the over-explaining and just the writing in general got better starting somewhere around chapter 11. I’m sure there’s people out there that might like this style, just… not me.
The premise honestly looked really promising, but I was mostly confused throughout the story and barely got any answers. I finished the story and I’m still not entirely sure what it was about. I thought everything would make more sense the closer I got to the end of the book, but it really only got more confusing.
As far as characters go, I feel like everything stayed quite superficial. We hardly know anything about Calla, Jinny or Mira. We just get thrown into the story without any backstory whatsoever. Honestly, Rhea was the main character and I don’t even know much about her either.
There are also quite a few inconsistencies in the book. For example Nokreil’s name is mentioned twice before the spelling changes to Nockriel. They apparently also change gender, because both ‘he’ and ‘she’ is used to describe them. The spelling for hopeeater also changes to Hope-Eater. What bothered me the most though is that I’m very confused about Eclipsion. The first time they’re introduced, there’s Laziel, Vyrion, Nevros and Aerisyn. So I assumed that was the whole band. In chapter 10, Rhea is watching a clip which I’m assuming was of Eclipsion (it’s not literally mentioned), where she mentions that there are six boys with their backs to the camera. So there’s two more members that I apparently missed. In the unnumbered chapter between chapter 19 and 20 Rhea enters a room and tells us ‘Eclipsion already owns the room’. She then describes what Vane, Rowen and Eiri are doing. Those names were never mentioned before that point. So now we have seven names, but only six members? Though after chapter 11 Vyrion, Nevros and Aerisyn are never mentioned by name again.
The story introduces a lot of concepts and characters without ever explaining them properly. Key elements (like the Hope-Eater or Rhea’s shimmer-scar) stay very vague throughout the whole story. New names are added seemingly randomly without context (Somna, for example), which made it difficult to understand who they were or what their importance to the story was. I feel like some of the characters could have been excluded from the story without changing the actual storyline.
I feel like the main characters spend most of the time whining and being afraid of this danger that is never really explained instead of doing something about it. Let’s just say I like my FMCs a little more badass and a little less helpless.
This book is labeled as a dark romantasy, but this is hardly a romance in my opinion. I wouldn’t call this a romantasy but rather a fantasy with a minor romantic subplot maybe?
To end with something positive, the cover of the book looks great though. There’s also a character named Aster who is hilarious.
Yeah, this is a DNF. This is by far the worst book I have ever read. The amount of word filling from the author is ridiculous.. nothing makes sense. Again with the over use of “ribs” I made it 120 pages and just closed it. Also, WHY does the author keep telling us what Laziel looks like?? I can see explaining it once or twice but I swear she’s mentioned his looks at least 6+ times already.
I wanted to like this, given the fact it’s based off of kpop demon hunters (we all know it is. Don’t lie) but this? This book is a joke….
Just save yourself the pain and misery. Don’t pick it up unless you plan on boring yourself to death.
I’m still reading this so I’ll come back and maybe edit my review. I’m about 110 pages in and so far, it’s horrible. This is the most boring, confusing, uninteresting book I’ve ever read. It’s taking everything in me to not DNF. The plot makes no sense, the characters are confusing, you have random people coming in with no introduction. It’s confusing. What’s up with the girls and their constant state of fear? You don’t have a minute when they’re not trembling, shaking, wide eyed, crying or on the brink of crying. It’s so boring. I understand this is a slow burn but I’ve read books with better slow burns than this… Also, what’s up with the over use of “ribs” ?? “Oh I feel it in my ribs” “I feel it deep below my ribs” the amount of times “ribs” is used, I can go and buy myself a submarine.. that’s how much it’s been used in 110 pages.
I’ll try to finish it but honestly, I don’t see myself finishing this.
It took me longer than I expected to finish this book. It took me even longer to write this review.
I tried to like the book, truly, I did. But even after I finished it and letting it soak in my brain for weeks, I still don’t really know what it was actually about. It was a very descriptive book, you walk into a room and you know what the room looks like, what every single character in the room is doing and what the room smells like. But not really though, because what IS the smell of winter metal, old sound, overboiled tapwater and dustless sunbeams? Descriptions like that pull me OUT of the story more than they pull me into it.
I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters, you don’t really get to know any of them. I pretty much disliked them all, I did like Aster though.
They are all living in a continuous state of stress and fear, and as a reader I had no idea what was going on. It’s okay to be confused at the start of a book when you’re figuring things out along with the characters. In this one, even when whatever was going on is ‘explained’, I still didn’t really get it.
Even after finishing, I’m confused. The only thing I know for sure is the color of Laziel’s eyes. Because that was repeated in pretty much every single chapter for some reason.
I’m glad to see there were some that did enjoy the read, sadly, I’m not one of them.
It did take me some time to get into this book, but once it had me in its grasp I couldn't get enough of it!!
The magic system is so unique, completely unlike anything I have ever read before (and I don't think I've ever heard about another book like it). Though, I have to say, there are some striking similarities between this book and a certain movie I recently watched on Netflix, it is unique enough and I still liked it very much :)
The main characters are great, but my favorite side character was Aster ... and of course, the cat ;)
What I wished I had more of is background info: Be it about the characters, or the world, or the magic system. I felt a bit thrown into the midst of it all, like some things are expected to be known, but this is meant to be a stand alone if I understood it correctly, so... I think there could have been some deeper explanation of the magic, demons and lore within the story, so we can fully understand it, and I would also have loved a more thorough descritpion and introduction of each character. I still don't really know what they all look like, except of certain details that kept being mentioned throughout the book. In one case, I imagined the character quite differently until her hair color was revealed, and we didn't find out where this story was set until we were already buried deeply within this world. I don't mind such details being kept in the dark completely or only revealed later on, if it serves the story, but here it felt like these things were simply expected to be known.
Anyways, should there ever be a second book set in this world, I would really love to read it!!
*** A huge thank you to the author, Grace of Darkness, for providing me with a free ARC. I really enjoyed reading it and am leaving my honest review voluntarily.
A beautiful twist on romance with a pop-star-centered paranormal experience! The plot is full and easy to follow; the romance is an enemies-to-lovers slow burn and the tension between FMC and MMC is palpable!
The bonds of friendship, denial, love, duty, and expectation are insanely relatable to my own life - juggling all the things you want, need, and must do really brings the story to life in a way that helped me truly feel connected to the MCs. The twists and emotions of daily life and responsibility walk a tight rope as a popstar is committed to saving the world and finds herself in a position to make an impossible decision.
I only wish that there was more of an initial introduction to the characters: character descriptions are sprinkled in with great detail, but I would have liked to see a paragraph or two describing each character at their initial introduction to the story so that my imagination remains accurate throughout the book (hair color, style, build, etc.). Overall, a beautifully imagined story or lore, love, and friendship.
I am leaving an honest, voluntary review and many thanks to Grace of Darkness for providing a digital Advanced Reader Copy to me at no personal expense.
Hmmm....Let's start with the positives. The premise was intriguing and I liked the cover. The author's pen name is really cool. My favorite character was the cat which I'm assuming was like Rhea's familiar. I liked that it has some Kpop demon hunter-esqe vibes, but in this case, I enjoyed the movie more. Now, I really wanted to like this book but it was just not for me. I needed to fill in a lot of blanks and there were too many plot holes for me. i was lost throughout this entire book, hoping the ending would be redeemable but that also fell flat. It was just..eh.
I had to use my imagination to figure out where this story was supposed to go. I still have no clue who Celestaria was supposed to be..? Actual demon hunters? Hunters and witches? Still no clue what was so bad about Yule. There's no backstory on any of the characters, their powers, nothing....not even crumbs of information. Maybe if I had some background info and world building first, I would've enjoyed this more. There was more dialogue than action and Rhea was so annoying. And poor Mira. Maybe if we got the story in a dual or multi POV. This book had potential but it was unfortunately a disappointment. I will still give this author a second chance.
This book is definitely a Kpop demon hunter vibe type of story. 4 girls singing and being on stage working against the darkness who turn up as a boyband. Character wise I did enjoy the smaller characters but the main characters didn’t do much for me, it didn’t improve for me until the last few chapters where I found there was more character development in the book. I found the book a bit hard to read and get through to at times, especially when there were certain parts of the story that were about the songs, lyrics or dreams it was hard to determine which part was what I really think that if these parts were more obviously then it would read easier. I found the story to be very cliché and predictable at times and it didn’t really catch my attention. For me the way of writing made it hard to follow the story you need a lot of focus to be able to follow the story completely. However I do think the writer has a good style of writing and building up the story. The way the world was detailed was great and amazing the details were clear and visual! I absolutely loved the cats in the story and the role they portrayed.
Dark Journey. I really struggled with this story. I didn’t really understand who all the key players were, their “roles” and what the overarching significance Yule represented. Rhea and Laziel we interesting main characters to follow. Told mostly in the first person by Rhea, we got to see the depth and breath of her very dark thoughts and feelings. Still, it was extremely difficult to understand exactly the path that she was hoping or needing to follow. With other worldly or paranormal things in play, it was also challenging to figure out what was happening for real/in a dream as well as in the human world or somewhere else. Although 90% of the story had very dark themes, it was nice to see something more uplifting near the end. Perhaps it is the writing style of this author, but it reduced my pleasure in reading it. Perhaps a 5* for the story concept but 3* for my pleasure level so I’ll compromise with 4*.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily
• Dark Romantasy • Demonpop / Idol Romance • Enemies-to-Lovers • Dream Invasion • Forced On-Air Kiss • Rivals on Stage, Lovers in Dreams • Dangerous Boyfriend Energy • Slow-Burn → Catastrophic Chemistry • "He Shouldn't Want Her. He Does Anyway." • Glamour, Temptation, Supernatural, Corruption • One Night, One Performance, One Impossible Choice
A pop-star-centered paranormal experience! The slow burn filled with tension, enemies to lovers was so good! The twists and emotions of daily life and responsibility walk a narrow line as a popstar is committed to saving the world and finds herself in a position to make an impossible decision. I was hooked and couldn’t put this down! Reminding me a lot of the k pop demon hunters which I loved, so I threw myself into this 🔥 loved the chaos and twists and turns this read took me on. I’d definitely recommend this book. It is unique and different keeping me turning the pages.
This story was pretty cool and an original idea. But it seems to fall really close to a anime cartoon that recently started airing on TV. Coincidence? Who knows. But I did enjoy reading this. The dark element, and the being made to choose has to be taxing in the FMC. Does she let the world burn and take her chances with the guy or does she do the opposite?
This book pulls you in because of for original it is. I’ve never read anything like this before. And just for that reason, it made this a good read. Definitely outside of what I normally read. I loved the chaos and the twists and turns in this. I’d definitely want to read another if a second one was written.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.