Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was very excited for this book after reading and enjoying the Blood and Ash novels. This book is related to those as part of a prequel story. I'm a little over half way though this book so far and I'm sad to say I'm struggling to get further. In my opinion there is a bit too much of Poppy and Casteel's story recycled into this one. I do acknowledge that some of these elements were surely intentional. The author intended for there to be parallels between the two stories and some of the characters in this story may be ancestors to the ones in the Blood and Ash books. However this feels a little too similar to the point where it's not its own story. The relationship dynamics of the main couple are extremely similar between the two, down to a particular violent act each lady takes against her male counterpart. The dynamics between Nyktos' friends and supporters are very similar to those of Casteel, unwavering loyalty with a side of quippy remarks. You could swap out Sera's step sister for Poppy's close female friend. Both leading ladies additionally have a protective and supportive father-like male who trains them how to fight, defend, and otherwise utilize their inherent fearlessness. Both women were raised to be extremely sheltered and also have a secret gift they don't understand. Basically if you swapped out some names I could be convinced that this is either a retelling of that story or a fan fiction that kept consistent characterization. Maybe this is intended to be done in a way that adds to this setting but to me it is mostly just feels recycled. If you're looking for a new interesting story this is just more of the same. If you want more of the same you will enjoy it.