Concept and world building are really good, but the pacing makes me feel complicated. The first half of the book drags quite a bit, though I didn’t outright dislike it since it took the time to build out the world and the relationship between characters. But then towards the midpoint and last third the pace just starts racing away towards the end.
Minimal typos but more towards the end, making me further think it was a bit rushed.
SPOILERS
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The female leads partner turning out to be the adoptive brother who helped raise her for the first 10 years of her life… THAT was a big choice. Yeah they aren’t related, yeah he hadn’t seen her in 15 years but we ALL know this is a weird trope. I honestly should have seen it coming with the earlier references to the whole ‘pure blood vampire dna isn’t like human dna and they don’t really worry about incest’ type stuff should have really clued that happening. But it just takes so much from the story. Sure I get it, we brought in the mirroring of mythology and yes I am glad that the prince wasn’t the default lead, but it really is giving me the same icky feelings I get thinking about a certain werewolf being fated to a certain infant. It just feels a bit wrong.