Man, what a fun fantasy story! And that cliffhanger?! I was really expecting this book to be a standalone, but the closer we got to the end the more I was stressing because stuff was not tying up nicely. Instead, we have two weeks before the new moon, two weeks for the current dilemma to be solved.
The one issue I had with this story is that I wanted more. Like, the magic system is interested but not really explained in detail. Could anyone use the magic cards? How exactly are they powered? How do spellwrites make them?! I even want more backstory on the characters and see flashbacks on some earlier cases that the MC did as a cursebreaker. While I did enjoy this story, it did feel very surface level on the worldbuilding, and I am left wanting more.
There is a bit of a slow burn, childhood friends to enemies to lovers, fake dating thing going on though. I knew from the start that he could not possibly be faking, and I could see all along that the MC was trying to deny her feelings too. Especially because, you know, all she had to do was order him to be truthful, and she still doubted his feelings were being real.
And let us talk about the curse for a second too. The kid literally has to follow any order he is given - yet there is still multiple points in the story where there is miscommunication. She could literally order the truth out of him, but instead would assume the worst and push him away. That part kind of drove me crazy but also.....I understand using miscommunication as a plot device.
I am interested in seeing where the story goes from here, and I would like to see how it could be fleshed out into a full second novel. This was a solid start to the story though, and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. Plus, the cover has some pretty foil on it, so it is worth looking at all around. The story isn't too world changing or anything, but it was a fun book and I enjoyed reading it.
Content warnings: abandonment, violence, death of a loved one, body horror
The one issue I had with this story is that I wanted more. Like, the magic system is interested but not really explained in detail. Could anyone use the magic cards? How exactly are they powered? How do spellwrites make them?! I even want more backstory on the characters and see flashbacks on some earlier cases that the MC did as a cursebreaker. While I did enjoy this story, it did feel very surface level on the worldbuilding, and I am left wanting more.
There is a bit of a slow burn, childhood friends to enemies to lovers, fake dating thing going on though. I knew from the start that he could not possibly be faking, and I could see all along that the MC was trying to deny her feelings too. Especially because, you know, all she had to do was order him to be truthful, and she still doubted his feelings were being real.
And let us talk about the curse for a second too. The kid literally has to follow any order he is given - yet there is still multiple points in the story where there is miscommunication. She could literally order the truth out of him, but instead would assume the worst and push him away. That part kind of drove me crazy but also.....I understand using miscommunication as a plot device.
I am interested in seeing where the story goes from here, and I would like to see how it could be fleshed out into a full second novel. This was a solid start to the story though, and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. Plus, the cover has some pretty foil on it, so it is worth looking at all around. The story isn't too world changing or anything, but it was a fun book and I enjoyed reading it.
Content warnings: abandonment, violence, death of a loved one, body horror