What do you think?
Rate this book
Of Flesh & Bone #2
What Hunts Inside the Shadows
Once, I fell in love with a man who deceived me.
For weeks, he stood by my side, twisting his words into pretty half-truths. He enraptured me with his smooth temptation, leaving no corner of my being untouched. He consumed my mind and my body, then finally claimed my heart for himself. But Caelum’s true identity is terrifying enough to bring me to my knees.
Then, I discovered the truth of who he is.
Caldris is whispered in the Nothrek wind. The legend we only speak of with hushed words, in shuttered rooms, for fear of drawing his wrath once again. His intentions are a mystery, his desires impure, and he seeks to shackle me to his side for all eternity. With the Wild Hunt as our guard, he points us back to where it all began: the village of Mistfell and the boundary where the Veil once shimmered in the wind.
Now, another secret crouches, poised to change everything.
The Mist Guard have been sworn to keep us from crossing into Alfheimr and from treading Faerie soil, even if innocents must pay with their lives. They have orders to resurrect Mistfell’s shimmering barrier, but, once again, there’s a greater cost than what has been revealed.
Once, the people of Northrek blamed me when the Veil fell. Soon, they’ll want me to pay the price the magic requires.
Author’s Note: This book is intended for listeners who are 18 and older. It contains mature language, graphic violence, and explicit content with darker elements. This is book two in a series and ends in a cliffhanger.
For weeks, he stood by my side, twisting his words into pretty half-truths. He enraptured me with his smooth temptation, leaving no corner of my being untouched. He consumed my mind and my body, then finally claimed my heart for himself. But Caelum’s true identity is terrifying enough to bring me to my knees.
Then, I discovered the truth of who he is.
Caldris is whispered in the Nothrek wind. The legend we only speak of with hushed words, in shuttered rooms, for fear of drawing his wrath once again. His intentions are a mystery, his desires impure, and he seeks to shackle me to his side for all eternity. With the Wild Hunt as our guard, he points us back to where it all began: the village of Mistfell and the boundary where the Veil once shimmered in the wind.
Now, another secret crouches, poised to change everything.
The Mist Guard have been sworn to keep us from crossing into Alfheimr and from treading Faerie soil, even if innocents must pay with their lives. They have orders to resurrect Mistfell’s shimmering barrier, but, once again, there’s a greater cost than what has been revealed.
Once, the people of Northrek blamed me when the Veil fell. Soon, they’ll want me to pay the price the magic requires.
Author’s Note: This book is intended for listeners who are 18 and older. It contains mature language, graphic violence, and explicit content with darker elements. This is book two in a series and ends in a cliffhanger.
16 pages, Audible Audio
First published August 30, 2022
5386 people are currently reading
48148 people want to read
About the author
Harper L. Woods
11 books5,379 followersHarper L Woods A pseudonym used by Adelaide Forrest. Harper L. Woods is the fantasy romance pen name for USA Today Bestselling dark romance author.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,503 reviews
September 8, 2022
"You are the only star in my sky."
"You are the only light in my darkness."
Conflicting thoughts about this one but here goes the review.
Plot- 3.5/5✨
Spice-4/5🌶️
This one is definitely better than the first one. By a lot. But while it's better, it's still nowhere perfect.
It's 70% smut. 20% traveling. 10% actual action that contributes to the plot- which happens in the last 75 pages. There needs to be proper balance. While I enjoy smut, I highly dislike when it overshadows the plot.
I would have rated it lower but Caelum made me bump up the rating. His love for Estrella is so so pure, it's hard not to love him for that. The angst is good but quite repetitive. I found myself getting tired of it in the first half, but the second half of it was good.
The fated mates trope is one of my favourite ones, and it's execution was okay-ish. There's a long way to go in terms of writing for the author. But she certainly holds a lot of potential.
Estrella's love for Caelum is bland comparatively. Her strength definitely is not romance, it's her powers and what lies ahead of her. I'm excited to find out.
I do wish the author would bring more to the characters personalities. There's always one trait that dominates them. Also, the author really needs to do something about the constant traveling, it's tiresome.
Anyway, the ending was exciting, so I will definitely read the next book.
"You are the only light in my darkness."
Conflicting thoughts about this one but here goes the review.
Plot- 3.5/5✨
Spice-4/5🌶️
This one is definitely better than the first one. By a lot. But while it's better, it's still nowhere perfect.
It's 70% smut. 20% traveling. 10% actual action that contributes to the plot- which happens in the last 75 pages. There needs to be proper balance. While I enjoy smut, I highly dislike when it overshadows the plot.
I would have rated it lower but Caelum made me bump up the rating. His love for Estrella is so so pure, it's hard not to love him for that. The angst is good but quite repetitive. I found myself getting tired of it in the first half, but the second half of it was good.
The fated mates trope is one of my favourite ones, and it's execution was okay-ish. There's a long way to go in terms of writing for the author. But she certainly holds a lot of potential.
Estrella's love for Caelum is bland comparatively. Her strength definitely is not romance, it's her powers and what lies ahead of her. I'm excited to find out.
I do wish the author would bring more to the characters personalities. There's always one trait that dominates them. Also, the author really needs to do something about the constant traveling, it's tiresome.
Anyway, the ending was exciting, so I will definitely read the next book.
October 1, 2022
didnt enjoy this as much as the first book, but its still an entertaining enough sequel.
entertaining if you enjoy mindless romance. lol. because thats all this is. and i guess a little character development. and a tad bit of world building. but there is zero plot progression, which forces me to label this as filler.
but its filler i found worth reading because caelums love for estrella is what dreams are made of and the mystery surrounding estrella, what she is, and her powers is enough to keep me hooked.
i have a feeling the next book is going to a whole lot better in terms of plot, so im looking forward to that.
↠ 3.5 stars
entertaining if you enjoy mindless romance. lol. because thats all this is. and i guess a little character development. and a tad bit of world building. but there is zero plot progression, which forces me to label this as filler.
but its filler i found worth reading because caelums love for estrella is what dreams are made of and the mystery surrounding estrella, what she is, and her powers is enough to keep me hooked.
i have a feeling the next book is going to a whole lot better in terms of plot, so im looking forward to that.
↠ 3.5 stars
August 31, 2022
I was really looking forward to this book. I had high hopes for this author being a diamond in the rough and this series being their chance to really grow and shine. Instead, this book is one of the worst I've ever read.
Seeing all the other reviews, maybe I'm the outlier here, but this book is just porn, and not even good porn. Awkward, cringe-worthy, rape-fantasy porn. There is a moment early on in this book that reminded me strongly of The Witching Hour's "Make it rape!" scene, which is not a compliment.
All the things that were wrong with the first book in this series have been amplified in this book. The mate bond is not just a crutch anymore (in the first book, the author used it to force the female MC to like the male MC), now its a fully formed wheel chair rolling the plot forward. The crass and vulgar moments between characters are exacerbated, the mind-numbingly idiotic possessiveness and jealousy between characters is also played up to the point that it felt like they'd regressed to the age of teenagers (maybe its a young author? I don't know). In fact, a lot of the emotional pin-wheeling that the characters do in this book seems to be for no reason other than to stir up pointless emotional drama and hide the fact the book has no real action driving its plot.
Speaking of plot, I literally gave up reading about halfway. Too obvious where things were headed, and I didn't care enough for any of the characters in this raunchy, horrible book to bother continuing to watch it all play out.
This book was gross, and I don't mean the porn-heavy bits, although those were also plentiful and some of them quite gross, but not all of them. It was gross how the MC was character-assassinated in the interest of serving the author's goals of writing more sex scenes. It was gross how both violence and death were fetishized. It was gross how trauma was used as a tool by the male MC to get what he wanted from the female MC. This is a character who is supposedly centuries old, behaving like a cave man, storming out in a huff and unable to control basic emotional impulses. Leaving it to his comparably infantile 'mate' to soothe his needs with sex even when she's terrified of him. Sorry but I couldn't get past how unbelievably stupid the whole thing was.
Character driven storytelling has been replaced by will-she won't-she nonsense where the female MC vacillates on whether or not she'll stay with the male MC. 'He lied to me, I'll hate him forever or die rather than be with him! But he's hot and uses his infinite regeneration to protect me, I guess I'll sleep with him instead.' Toxic with a capital T...
I can't really proclaim loudly enough how insipid the writing for this book is. There were constant contradictory lines like
sprinkled liberally throughout this book. It read like mewling drivel. And honestly after reading the sex scenes, I almost wonder if this author has ever actually had sex? I'm voicing this as someone who understands a setup contradiction statement (ie "You'll never defeat me!"--villain) playing out as foreshadowing for that exact thing happening later on in the payoff. This was not that. Either the characters in this book have the memory of goldfishes, or their EQ is in the single digits.
I was losing too many brain cells on reading this to keep going. If anyone else makes it to the end, congratulations. I'd say don't waste your money if you're looking for an actual story. If you want erotic trash, this book fits the bill.
Seeing all the other reviews, maybe I'm the outlier here, but this book is just porn, and not even good porn. Awkward, cringe-worthy, rape-fantasy porn. There is a moment early on in this book that reminded me strongly of The Witching Hour's "Make it rape!" scene, which is not a compliment.
All the things that were wrong with the first book in this series have been amplified in this book. The mate bond is not just a crutch anymore (in the first book, the author used it to force the female MC to like the male MC), now its a fully formed wheel chair rolling the plot forward. The crass and vulgar moments between characters are exacerbated, the mind-numbingly idiotic possessiveness and jealousy between characters is also played up to the point that it felt like they'd regressed to the age of teenagers (maybe its a young author? I don't know). In fact, a lot of the emotional pin-wheeling that the characters do in this book seems to be for no reason other than to stir up pointless emotional drama and hide the fact the book has no real action driving its plot.
Speaking of plot, I literally gave up reading about halfway. Too obvious where things were headed, and I didn't care enough for any of the characters in this raunchy, horrible book to bother continuing to watch it all play out.
This book was gross, and I don't mean the porn-heavy bits, although those were also plentiful and some of them quite gross, but not all of them. It was gross how the MC was character-assassinated in the interest of serving the author's goals of writing more sex scenes. It was gross how both violence and death were fetishized. It was gross how trauma was used as a tool by the male MC to get what he wanted from the female MC. This is a character who is supposedly centuries old, behaving like a cave man, storming out in a huff and unable to control basic emotional impulses. Leaving it to his comparably infantile 'mate' to soothe his needs with sex even when she's terrified of him. Sorry but I couldn't get past how unbelievably stupid the whole thing was.
Character driven storytelling has been replaced by will-she won't-she nonsense where the female MC vacillates on whether or not she'll stay with the male MC. 'He lied to me, I'll hate him forever or die rather than be with him! But he's hot and uses his infinite regeneration to protect me, I guess I'll sleep with him instead.' Toxic with a capital T...
I can't really proclaim loudly enough how insipid the writing for this book is. There were constant contradictory lines like
sprinkled liberally throughout this book. It read like mewling drivel. And honestly after reading the sex scenes, I almost wonder if this author has ever actually had sex? I'm voicing this as someone who understands a setup contradiction statement (ie "You'll never defeat me!"--villain) playing out as foreshadowing for that exact thing happening later on in the payoff. This was not that. Either the characters in this book have the memory of goldfishes, or their EQ is in the single digits.
I was losing too many brain cells on reading this to keep going. If anyone else makes it to the end, congratulations. I'd say don't waste your money if you're looking for an actual story. If you want erotic trash, this book fits the bill.
May 17, 2023
4/ 5⭐
4/5 🌶️
I want my own personal Caelum/Caldris - You know the God of the Winter is that too much to ask?
I absolutely loved “What Lies Beyond the Veil” and was looking forward to this book. This book features fantasy, enemies to lovers, and fated mates. I did not know I could love a MMC as much as Caelum/ Caldris but DAMN. We get his POV which is perfection. This book we get Estrella’s journey of falling in love on her own terms and discovering her power. Estrella struggles with the true identity of her mate, facing betrayal and heartbreak. She goes back and forth between wanting to kill him and complete the mating bond. I felt like to took too long to get to the plot and Estrella to understand she love Caelum. The book had an amazing cliffhanger that really set up the rest of the series.
Quotes:
“That’s my star,” Caldris said with a chuckle. “Never pretend to be something you’re not. Never dull how bright you burn so that others may feel comfortable in your presence.”
“I will always choose you, min asteren,” he said, his brow creasing as he stared at me in something akin to confusion. “Your body is just the packaging that gives the other half of my soul a home. I have failed as your mate if you do not already know that.”
“Women needed to be better, to do better, because at the end of the day, every one of our actions could see us condemned—while men were free to fuck and murder, to steal and lie, and it was all just brushed off as another day under the sun.”
“I love you. In this life or the afterlife, my star. I will always wait for you.”
4/5 🌶️
I want my own personal Caelum/Caldris - You know the God of the Winter is that too much to ask?
I absolutely loved “What Lies Beyond the Veil” and was looking forward to this book. This book features fantasy, enemies to lovers, and fated mates. I did not know I could love a MMC as much as Caelum/ Caldris but DAMN. We get his POV which is perfection. This book we get Estrella’s journey of falling in love on her own terms and discovering her power. Estrella struggles with the true identity of her mate, facing betrayal and heartbreak. She goes back and forth between wanting to kill him and complete the mating bond. I felt like to took too long to get to the plot and Estrella to understand she love Caelum. The book had an amazing cliffhanger that really set up the rest of the series.
Quotes:
“That’s my star,” Caldris said with a chuckle. “Never pretend to be something you’re not. Never dull how bright you burn so that others may feel comfortable in your presence.”
“I will always choose you, min asteren,” he said, his brow creasing as he stared at me in something akin to confusion. “Your body is just the packaging that gives the other half of my soul a home. I have failed as your mate if you do not already know that.”
“Women needed to be better, to do better, because at the end of the day, every one of our actions could see us condemned—while men were free to fuck and murder, to steal and lie, and it was all just brushed off as another day under the sun.”
“I love you. In this life or the afterlife, my star. I will always wait for you.”
August 31, 2022
2.5 /:
this whole book was just them riding on a horse or sleeping in a tent. I don’t like when the entire story is just them traveling.
they were arguing, having sex, or she was unleashing some dark secret magic…
Like….. literally nothing happens in this book worthwhile. the last like 3 pages were very exciting but that was it /:
disappointed but will still read the third lol
this whole book was just them riding on a horse or sleeping in a tent. I don’t like when the entire story is just them traveling.
they were arguing, having sex, or she was unleashing some dark secret magic…
Like….. literally nothing happens in this book worthwhile. the last like 3 pages were very exciting but that was it /:
disappointed but will still read the third lol
February 5, 2025
4.5✨
“I told you once; I would burn the world for you if you so much as asked it of me. What do you think I would do if I lost you?”
☆ ☆ ☆
“I am going to love you until the stars disappear from the night sky and the sun ceases to shine. Until the world returns to the void from whence it was born and chaos reigns once again.”
I’m kinda speechless honestly? This book picks up immediately after the events of book 1 (we love to see it). Estrella has to come to terms with the crazy thing she learns at the end of book 1.
The Characters
I love love love all of them. Estrella went from indecisive and at war with herself to a strong bad ass fmc. I’m obsessed with her character development.
I need to talk about Caelum. I loved getting his pov and finding out how much he loves Estrella. He is a SIMP for his woman. He’s possessive, growly, and everything I love, while also empowering Estrella to make her own choices and grow into herself. What’s not to love.
The side characters in this added so much to the story. Holt, the wolves, and surprise faces that I won’t mention because spoilers.
The Plot and World Building exploded in this one. I loved getting more lore and building from book 1.
My favorite thing is when book 2 is better than book 1, and book 2 blew it out of the water for me. The character development was everything I wanted.
Read this series if you like fated mates, possessive mmcs, growly fae, and folklore inspired fantasy romance with hot af spice.
“I told you once; I would burn the world for you if you so much as asked it of me. What do you think I would do if I lost you?”
☆ ☆ ☆
“I am going to love you until the stars disappear from the night sky and the sun ceases to shine. Until the world returns to the void from whence it was born and chaos reigns once again.”
I’m kinda speechless honestly? This book picks up immediately after the events of book 1 (we love to see it). Estrella has to come to terms with the crazy thing she learns at the end of book 1.
The Characters
I love love love all of them. Estrella went from indecisive and at war with herself to a strong bad ass fmc. I’m obsessed with her character development.
I need to talk about Caelum. I loved getting his pov and finding out how much he loves Estrella. He is a SIMP for his woman. He’s possessive, growly, and everything I love, while also empowering Estrella to make her own choices and grow into herself. What’s not to love.
The side characters in this added so much to the story. Holt, the wolves, and surprise faces that I won’t mention because spoilers.
The Plot and World Building exploded in this one. I loved getting more lore and building from book 1.
My favorite thing is when book 2 is better than book 1, and book 2 blew it out of the water for me. The character development was everything I wanted.
Read this series if you like fated mates, possessive mmcs, growly fae, and folklore inspired fantasy romance with hot af spice.
October 27, 2022
Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC of this novel. All opinions are my own.
While I really enjoyed What Lies Behind the Veil, the first in this series, I’m sad to say I did not enjoy this follow-on.
Trigger warnings: murder, violence, kidnapping, childhood trauma, suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, references to death, attempted assassination
What I Liked:
-I will forever love the fated mates trope and this has it in spades.
-Objectively, I do love a tale of a woman becoming more powerful and owning her power
-There’s a ton of spice and it’s great. So great.
What I struggled with:
-The pacing is entirely too fast. For a high-fantasy where we have seemingly complex dynamics, the details are glossed over as the plot just continues to progress without pausing to explain anything.
-There is so much shoved into this novel I couldn’t keep up and I didn’t want to. Instead of just focusing on 2-3 plot points, we got 5-6 and things jumped around so much that I didn't know what was going on.
-I needed more detail on the actual mechanics of the world, but it seemed that everything just moved so fast there was no time for details.
-The mating bond is too convenient. There is a rule for everything that makes things just oh so perfect for Estrella and Caldris.
-In the beginning, Estrella is struggling with Caldris’s revealed identity. Never fear though, 10 pages later she’s fine with it. The conversation they have however is so redundant and repetitive and Estrella sounds so sanctimonious throughout that I just didn’t like her from that point on.
-All of the sudden, Estrella has these magical powers that exceed anyone else’s powers. She’s special and unique and they’re not sure what she is but she’s oh so extraordinary.
-Estrella mentions that she either wants to die, would be fine with dying, should die, or is owed death at least 20 times throughout this novel. It’s concerning and also harmful.
-I was willing to overlook the writing in the first book, but I just can’t do it in this one. The syntax is strange, the sentences garbled and generally awkward. I had to read many sentences 2-3 times before I could make out what they were trying to say.
While I wanted to like it, I didn’t and I’m afraid this is the end for me; I won’t be continuing the series.
September 2, 2022
Yeah. Ok. This was just as bad as the first book, I mean by this point I should feel something for the male mc other then hate right??
This entire thing was just predictable and cringey with an abusive love interest and a female lead with zero brain cells.
This entire thing was just predictable and cringey with an abusive love interest and a female lead with zero brain cells.
March 9, 2023
Continuing to discuss or even contemplate this book any further may result in a noticeable decrease in my cognitive function. If you found great enjoyment in reading it, then I offer my sincerest congratulations to both you and the author. Conversely, if your experience was less than favorable, then know that you are not alone in your sentiments.
February 21, 2023
(2,5 stars)
"You who are so fragile, my vicious little mate."
Yuck. Since I really disliked this one, welcome everybody to another rage review of mine.
This is a two POV book told from the POV´s of Caldris and Estrella, out of which Estrella´s POV is the majority of the book.
I don´t even know where to start with this one. Estrella feels so weak in this book even tho the author is trying to present her as blood-thirsty and ruthless. However it´s hard to believe her being so "ruthless" when she goes from hating to loving the MMC to hating to loving him again every other two pages. Which also resulted for me in there being absolutely no tension or chemistry. It´s obvious that she will give in to him yet again on the next two to three pages.
What I liked was the side characters; I actually liked them more than the main characters, this is where the book is getting the half star for me. I loved Holt and Fallon and enjoyed reading about them more than I did reading about Caldris and Estrella. Would have loved to get a bit more backstory on Holt tho.
(This part of the review is where slight spoilers could come in)
Plotwise I don´t even really no where to start, because there is basically no plot. It´s just a bunch of traveling with some smut scenes sprinkled into it. Since for me there was absolutely no chemistry between the characters, I also didn´t really care about their "romantic journey". He´s basically dragging her along through the forest against her will waiting for her to develop stockholm syndrome. And you know when some things are kinda cute and kinda okay in books but you would hate them in real life!? Didn´t even happen here, the author didn´t even manage to make it kinda okay and kinda cute in my opinion.
I also have to mention that I think that him constantly calling her "Little One" as a nickname gives me the heebie-jeebies. It feels like he is talking to a child, which kind of feels wrong. And I am also not a big fan of the whole "stepbrother trope".
The pacing of the book feels so off to me and so slow. It really felt dragging and once or twice I thought about DNF´ing but decided to power my way through it.
Overall it wasn´t a great book and I am kind of glad I finished it now. I don´t think I will continuing the series.
trigger warnings: grooming (not done by the love interest), sexual assault, bloodplay, murder/death, loss of loved ones
"You who are so fragile, my vicious little mate."
Yuck. Since I really disliked this one, welcome everybody to another rage review of mine.
This is a two POV book told from the POV´s of Caldris and Estrella, out of which Estrella´s POV is the majority of the book.
I don´t even know where to start with this one. Estrella feels so weak in this book even tho the author is trying to present her as blood-thirsty and ruthless. However it´s hard to believe her being so "ruthless" when she goes from hating to loving the MMC to hating to loving him again every other two pages. Which also resulted for me in there being absolutely no tension or chemistry. It´s obvious that she will give in to him yet again on the next two to three pages.
What I liked was the side characters; I actually liked them more than the main characters, this is where the book is getting the half star for me. I loved Holt and Fallon and enjoyed reading about them more than I did reading about Caldris and Estrella. Would have loved to get a bit more backstory on Holt tho.
(This part of the review is where slight spoilers could come in)
Plotwise I don´t even really no where to start, because there is basically no plot. It´s just a bunch of traveling with some smut scenes sprinkled into it. Since for me there was absolutely no chemistry between the characters, I also didn´t really care about their "romantic journey". He´s basically dragging her along through the forest against her will waiting for her to develop stockholm syndrome. And you know when some things are kinda cute and kinda okay in books but you would hate them in real life!? Didn´t even happen here, the author didn´t even manage to make it kinda okay and kinda cute in my opinion.
I also have to mention that I think that him constantly calling her "Little One" as a nickname gives me the heebie-jeebies. It feels like he is talking to a child, which kind of feels wrong. And I am also not a big fan of the whole "stepbrother trope".
The pacing of the book feels so off to me and so slow. It really felt dragging and once or twice I thought about DNF´ing but decided to power my way through it.
Overall it wasn´t a great book and I am kind of glad I finished it now. I don´t think I will continuing the series.
trigger warnings: grooming (not done by the love interest), sexual assault, bloodplay, murder/death, loss of loved ones
Want to read
March 15, 2022BRUH I CANT WAIT TILL AUGUST
September 20, 2022
I'm slightly disappointed in this book.
The author seems to be really good at making you not like a book during like 75% of it, and then catching you good at the end so well that you have to read the next book.
Can I also just point out that in the first 30% of this book I read the line "He touched his forehad to mine" at least 906 times. Bye
All they did was travel and have weird sex. Like not even weird as in "wow that is a kink I will never try but good for you" weird as in "this makes no sense are you okay". I truly think theonly reason there were even sexual scenes in this book is because what else would you put in it? After Estrella was drowned in the hot spring, one of the guards, Holt, also the MMC's bff for all intents and purposes, sees her naked. Caldris gets so mad at that, he HAS to have sex with her in front of him. WHAT??? He was saving her life???? what the fuck. Caldris also at one point gets triggered by seeing a dead body hanging (he's the god of the dead but go off) and decides he then must go in a frenzy and fuck his mate. Why. just why.
Estrella's character growth in this book is unfortunately nonexistent. She is still very annoying and bratty. I will say, her standing up for herself and not taking shit form anyone is very admirable though. Also, she changes her mind every chapter. One-minute she's going to accept Caldris as her mate, then the beginning of the next chapter she hates him again, then in the next one she has sex with him because "being with him is inevitable and should stop denying it" then the next chapter she is trying to kill him to get out of the mate bond. Don't get me wrong I enjoy when the FMC holds a grudge (within reason) but this just screamed "I'm a hot mess express" to me.
Getting information in this book was also very choppy. There seemed to be more emphasis on the romance aspect of this book then literally anything else, but when you have a book with a world and political system this complex, you should definitely be putting more energy into the detail of everything instead of your characters having sex just for the sake of having smut in your book.
The ending of this book is honestly what is making me consider reading the next one. The plot twists at the end are probably my favorite thing about this book, you have to admit this author can leave you wondering what's going to happen next.
The author seems to be really good at making you not like a book during like 75% of it, and then catching you good at the end so well that you have to read the next book.
Can I also just point out that in the first 30% of this book I read the line "He touched his forehad to mine" at least 906 times. Bye
All they did was travel and have weird sex. Like not even weird as in "wow that is a kink I will never try but good for you" weird as in "this makes no sense are you okay". I truly think theonly reason there were even sexual scenes in this book is because what else would you put in it? After Estrella was drowned in the hot spring, one of the guards, Holt, also the MMC's bff for all intents and purposes, sees her naked. Caldris gets so mad at that, he HAS to have sex with her in front of him. WHAT??? He was saving her life???? what the fuck. Caldris also at one point gets triggered by seeing a dead body hanging (he's the god of the dead but go off) and decides he then must go in a frenzy and fuck his mate. Why. just why.
Estrella's character growth in this book is unfortunately nonexistent. She is still very annoying and bratty. I will say, her standing up for herself and not taking shit form anyone is very admirable though. Also, she changes her mind every chapter. One-minute she's going to accept Caldris as her mate, then the beginning of the next chapter she hates him again, then in the next one she has sex with him because "being with him is inevitable and should stop denying it" then the next chapter she is trying to kill him to get out of the mate bond. Don't get me wrong I enjoy when the FMC holds a grudge (within reason) but this just screamed "I'm a hot mess express" to me.
Getting information in this book was also very choppy. There seemed to be more emphasis on the romance aspect of this book then literally anything else, but when you have a book with a world and political system this complex, you should definitely be putting more energy into the detail of everything instead of your characters having sex just for the sake of having smut in your book.
The ending of this book is honestly what is making me consider reading the next one. The plot twists at the end are probably my favorite thing about this book, you have to admit this author can leave you wondering what's going to happen next.
May 17, 2023
Reread #1 (May 2023): Lovely reread! I liked this one much more the second time around because I already knew what was about to go down and could appreciate it more. My anxiety was much better because of that too. Book #3 here I come!
_________________
Trigger Warnings:
* This review has a lot of swearing and a few spoilers.
OK my notes on this book read like I was actively having an emotional breakdown throughout the entire 15+ hours of the narration. This series is officially under my skin. It's a drug and an addiction that I don't want to live without. It's too bad my dumbass decided to reread the series now and not a month later because the audiobook for Book #3 hasn't been released yet. Forgive me for what you're about to read next but FUCK THE CLIFFHANGER WAS BRUTAL AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT GODDAMN.
Personally, I didn't see a problem with the hero. Sure he's low-key villain adjacent but he treats the heroine like a damned princess, keeps her satisfied in all ways, and has stated quite a few times that he would burn the world down if she's not in it. Refusing all that? Couldn't be me but the heroine is surely doing her damnedest to try. Throughout. This. Entire. Book.
The hero is so swoony in the most fucked up of ways. He has quotes like "You were born to love me whether I deserve it or not". There are SO many more where that came from. Tell me how you walk away from that. He's made it VERY clear that she's his reason for living and has been for centuries. He wants nothing more from life except to love her and be with her. He will break the world if it means she's safe. He's so damned sweet and caring in the most violent of ways.
The heroine has this annoying habit of trying to die because of things she has no idea of that have been said to her. She's very happy to sacrifice herself at any small chance she has if it means that things stop with her. It's like she doesn't realize what will happen to the world once her mate realizes what was done. There will be a world no more if he has a say in it. Though on the flip side, Dark/Evil Estrela is a bad bitch and I'm here for the destruction she can and probably will cause.
On a complete sidenote in the most spoilery of comments:
By the end, I came to the conclusion that this book felt like one big filler but I adored every single second of it and the emotional damage it caused. Though one amazing thing came out of all this by the end: Lord Byron (I listened to the audiobook I have no idea how to spell anyone's name) is NO MORE. The cliffhanger for this one is rivaling the cliffhangers from the Blood And Ash series! Something I thought I would never say 😭
I'll be in my corner awaiting April 25th for the release of the audiobook for the next book. No I'm not ok but I will be when I get my hands on the next book 😭
_________________
Trigger Warnings:
* This review has a lot of swearing and a few spoilers.
OK my notes on this book read like I was actively having an emotional breakdown throughout the entire 15+ hours of the narration. This series is officially under my skin. It's a drug and an addiction that I don't want to live without. It's too bad my dumbass decided to reread the series now and not a month later because the audiobook for Book #3 hasn't been released yet. Forgive me for what you're about to read next but FUCK THE CLIFFHANGER WAS BRUTAL AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT GODDAMN.
Personally, I didn't see a problem with the hero. Sure he's low-key villain adjacent but he treats the heroine like a damned princess, keeps her satisfied in all ways, and has stated quite a few times that he would burn the world down if she's not in it. Refusing all that? Couldn't be me but the heroine is surely doing her damnedest to try. Throughout. This. Entire. Book.
The hero is so swoony in the most fucked up of ways. He has quotes like "You were born to love me whether I deserve it or not". There are SO many more where that came from. Tell me how you walk away from that. He's made it VERY clear that she's his reason for living and has been for centuries. He wants nothing more from life except to love her and be with her. He will break the world if it means she's safe. He's so damned sweet and caring in the most violent of ways.
The heroine has this annoying habit of trying to die because of things she has no idea of that have been said to her. She's very happy to sacrifice herself at any small chance she has if it means that things stop with her. It's like she doesn't realize what will happen to the world once her mate realizes what was done. There will be a world no more if he has a say in it. Though on the flip side, Dark/Evil Estrela is a bad bitch and I'm here for the destruction she can and probably will cause.
On a complete sidenote in the most spoilery of comments:
By the end, I came to the conclusion that this book felt like one big filler but I adored every single second of it and the emotional damage it caused. Though one amazing thing came out of all this by the end: Lord Byron (I listened to the audiobook I have no idea how to spell anyone's name) is NO MORE. The cliffhanger for this one is rivaling the cliffhangers from the Blood And Ash series! Something I thought I would never say 😭
I'll be in my corner awaiting April 25th for the release of the audiobook for the next book. No I'm not ok but I will be when I get my hands on the next book 😭
September 13, 2022
Negative first.... for me still a lot of unnecessary descriptions.
That being said....It was sooooo good!!
The story takes some twists and turns. We are lead down this path and have that moment of .... I know where this is going! You totally DO NOT know where this is going. LOVED THAT! More exciting and mysterious than book 1.
I cannot wait for book 3!
Happy reading,
DD 🥂
That being said....It was sooooo good!!
The story takes some twists and turns. We are lead down this path and have that moment of .... I know where this is going! You totally DO NOT know where this is going. LOVED THAT! More exciting and mysterious than book 1.
I cannot wait for book 3!
Happy reading,
DD 🥂
September 4, 2022
I’m truly unsure how to rate this book. I decided to DNF at first halfway through. Couldn’t let it go so I decided to finish it so I could form my opinion and thoughts in a less emotional state and with the whole narrative. So strap in this is gonna be a long one. I have so many thoughts so bare with me as I attempt to rope then together.
First of all the amount of errors in mostly the later 4th of the book were insane. More than I’ve ever read in a published book. It pulled me out of the story with how drastic they were.
Honestly this book wasn’t bad. The Male Lead, Caelum/Caldris, is my main issue and is what tainted my enjoyment of the book. This man was a little over the top in the first one and that’s my gripe with that one. In this book? He’s a walking red flag. Made me physically sick the way he treated Estrella his mate and so called love of his existence. We found out late in the last book that he is Estrella’s mate and a Fae God. I figured this out before the big reveal cause of the not so subtle hints sprinkled throughout. In that book he was just a bit too overbearing for my liking but I could get past that cause usually Fae and mated males are more possessive. His possessiveness was a little over the top for me. Anyway his behavior in the first book is not the issue here. He goes even farther over the top in this one.
Number one issue is the gas lighting. He is the most extreme gaslighter. It’s ridiculous at times. After he’s revealed to be a Fae and having lied to Estrella the whole first book he’s insistent that it’s her problem and she should get over it cause she loved him as a human. Like what? Dude you betrayed this woman then blamed her trauma on her. Him being a “bad guy” does not in my opinion mean he can treat Estrella like trash. He hammers on about how “oh she’s just denying herself she totally still loves me” is blood boiling. Never have a read a MMC so insistent that their mate just accept the bond like it’s her problem. One of the worst parts is he NEVER tried to see it from her point of view. He’s right, she’s wrong, she needs to just accept this thing she’s been terrified of. Oh and his so called bros and members of the Wild Hunt? Also abusive bastards. The leader, Holt, is just so upset that Estrella can’t just accept the bond and stop being so selfish “don’t you know this will help out in the realm you haven’t ever existed in and have no ties to?” Asshole.
And Estrellas flip flopping? SO ANGRY. She could not decide what she felt to make up her damn mind. And I get that’s a normal human thing to do but it was so drastic the turns she would take. She, almost immediately after learning of his complete betrayal and lies, sort of gets over it. I can’t fault her cause again this bitch is getting gas lit. When she finally accepts the bond, but not really cause we still need conflict between these 2, it feels so unearned. And of course he’s all “I knew you would eventually be so gas lit you’d think you were wrong and the cause of all this conflict”
Now we come to the most toxic thing he did that made me actually nauseous. Now dubious consent is admittedly not my thing but this scene was almost literally rape. He gets all alpha angry about a dead Fae and comes after Estrella to assault her whether she likes it or not. And one of the worst things is there is another character there begging her to just give him what he wants. The audacity. Then she actually cries whilst he “has sex” with her. She even describes that she’s in pain but you know she just has to do this for him so he won’t hurt anyone else. Just no.
Beyond that bullshit there were references to some modern things that jarred me and lifted me right out of the setting. Caldris mentions the concept of baby trapping as if that’s a concept that exists in a supposedly medieval world. He says that something must have been “a bitter plant to swallow” cause you know no pills in this world. Admittedly that made me laugh.
There was a lull in the story as it got kinda repetitive as they were traveling and only so many things can happen 4 times over before it’s boring. You wanna know what didn’t get a lull? The smut. I honestly didn’t think there would be a day that I would be complaining about the spice in a book but here we are. These 2 could not go more than a chapter without some kind of sexual encounter. Estrella’s nether region must be wrecked cause of course it’s one of those his dick is massive but it’ll fit. Which honestly I enjoy in most spicy books but the excessive amount of sex they had made it unbelievable that Estrella wasn’t in some kind of pain. And riding a horse all day afterwards? Straight up torture.
Even when she hated him he still roped her into sex cause she just couldn’t deny the attraction. The mating bond was a crutch in this book. It was toxic. And I absolutely love fated mates. It has NEVER made me this uncomfortable. It felt like a way to make Estrella do things she didn’t want to because of the bond.
And Caldris’ nickname for her? Not it. I was totally fine with “my star” but “little one” was way to childish for me. Way to remind us that your very old and she like 20. And again the massive age gap that usually exists in these fantasy worlds doesn’t bother me. This one was used as a way for him to look down on her. Oh she’ll understand in a few centuries. WHAT?!
All in all I’m super disappointed cause I enjoyed the first book for the most part and the mystery of what the fuck Estrella is is compelling to me. If the author could just drop the abusive bullshit and just have them fully accept each other that would be great. We’ll have to see how much I want answers when the next book comes out next year but at this point I’m not into it. Maybe farther removed I’ll feel less strongly about it.
Oh and the forced empowering quotes that I didn’t like in the first one? They are still here folks🙃
TLDR: Gas lighting is too real for this fantasy world.
First of all the amount of errors in mostly the later 4th of the book were insane. More than I’ve ever read in a published book. It pulled me out of the story with how drastic they were.
Honestly this book wasn’t bad. The Male Lead, Caelum/Caldris, is my main issue and is what tainted my enjoyment of the book. This man was a little over the top in the first one and that’s my gripe with that one. In this book? He’s a walking red flag. Made me physically sick the way he treated Estrella his mate and so called love of his existence. We found out late in the last book that he is Estrella’s mate and a Fae God. I figured this out before the big reveal cause of the not so subtle hints sprinkled throughout. In that book he was just a bit too overbearing for my liking but I could get past that cause usually Fae and mated males are more possessive. His possessiveness was a little over the top for me. Anyway his behavior in the first book is not the issue here. He goes even farther over the top in this one.
Number one issue is the gas lighting. He is the most extreme gaslighter. It’s ridiculous at times. After he’s revealed to be a Fae and having lied to Estrella the whole first book he’s insistent that it’s her problem and she should get over it cause she loved him as a human. Like what? Dude you betrayed this woman then blamed her trauma on her. Him being a “bad guy” does not in my opinion mean he can treat Estrella like trash. He hammers on about how “oh she’s just denying herself she totally still loves me” is blood boiling. Never have a read a MMC so insistent that their mate just accept the bond like it’s her problem. One of the worst parts is he NEVER tried to see it from her point of view. He’s right, she’s wrong, she needs to just accept this thing she’s been terrified of. Oh and his so called bros and members of the Wild Hunt? Also abusive bastards. The leader, Holt, is just so upset that Estrella can’t just accept the bond and stop being so selfish “don’t you know this will help out in the realm you haven’t ever existed in and have no ties to?” Asshole.
And Estrellas flip flopping? SO ANGRY. She could not decide what she felt to make up her damn mind. And I get that’s a normal human thing to do but it was so drastic the turns she would take. She, almost immediately after learning of his complete betrayal and lies, sort of gets over it. I can’t fault her cause again this bitch is getting gas lit. When she finally accepts the bond, but not really cause we still need conflict between these 2, it feels so unearned. And of course he’s all “I knew you would eventually be so gas lit you’d think you were wrong and the cause of all this conflict”
Now we come to the most toxic thing he did that made me actually nauseous. Now dubious consent is admittedly not my thing but this scene was almost literally rape. He gets all alpha angry about a dead Fae and comes after Estrella to assault her whether she likes it or not. And one of the worst things is there is another character there begging her to just give him what he wants. The audacity. Then she actually cries whilst he “has sex” with her. She even describes that she’s in pain but you know she just has to do this for him so he won’t hurt anyone else. Just no.
Beyond that bullshit there were references to some modern things that jarred me and lifted me right out of the setting. Caldris mentions the concept of baby trapping as if that’s a concept that exists in a supposedly medieval world. He says that something must have been “a bitter plant to swallow” cause you know no pills in this world. Admittedly that made me laugh.
There was a lull in the story as it got kinda repetitive as they were traveling and only so many things can happen 4 times over before it’s boring. You wanna know what didn’t get a lull? The smut. I honestly didn’t think there would be a day that I would be complaining about the spice in a book but here we are. These 2 could not go more than a chapter without some kind of sexual encounter. Estrella’s nether region must be wrecked cause of course it’s one of those his dick is massive but it’ll fit. Which honestly I enjoy in most spicy books but the excessive amount of sex they had made it unbelievable that Estrella wasn’t in some kind of pain. And riding a horse all day afterwards? Straight up torture.
Even when she hated him he still roped her into sex cause she just couldn’t deny the attraction. The mating bond was a crutch in this book. It was toxic. And I absolutely love fated mates. It has NEVER made me this uncomfortable. It felt like a way to make Estrella do things she didn’t want to because of the bond.
And Caldris’ nickname for her? Not it. I was totally fine with “my star” but “little one” was way to childish for me. Way to remind us that your very old and she like 20. And again the massive age gap that usually exists in these fantasy worlds doesn’t bother me. This one was used as a way for him to look down on her. Oh she’ll understand in a few centuries. WHAT?!
All in all I’m super disappointed cause I enjoyed the first book for the most part and the mystery of what the fuck Estrella is is compelling to me. If the author could just drop the abusive bullshit and just have them fully accept each other that would be great. We’ll have to see how much I want answers when the next book comes out next year but at this point I’m not into it. Maybe farther removed I’ll feel less strongly about it.
Oh and the forced empowering quotes that I didn’t like in the first one? They are still here folks🙃
TLDR: Gas lighting is too real for this fantasy world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2025
**I was provided with an ARC for an honest review.**
For a second book, I wanted....better secondary characters, more Estrella and Caleum: fight fight fight kiss kiss kiss, the lord to die, and what is their actual plan for returning to society?
Overall this sequel was an character entertaining fae-murder-smut roadtrip that left me...unsatisfied
꧁The Worldbuilding꧂
What really pulls this book together (and reason I keep going in the series...) the world is just fucking brilliant and fun. A veil separating fae and mates, evil queen, heroine learning powers, plots of overthrowing tyrannical kings, and did I mention fae gods?
"One day, I’d ask about the shock on his face when I’d touched the thread of our bond. One day, I’d gather that thread into my hands and play with its very creation."
See what I mean?? It has great elements but continually failed to actually engage the readers in it DURING the book itself. Looking back, these books honestly feels like prequels with overwhelming set-up and background hints that we are building up to something!! But… right now its really boring.
We are now in the SECOND BOOK and the author is still not letting the heroine engage with this awesome world. Instead, we were trapped in the goddamn wilderness— knowing ✨ fae court ✨ rebel ✨ war ✨ shit is happening. But nooooo, we’re stuck reading about the Estrella Caleum ROADTRIP... sigh ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ
꧁The Characters꧂
Estrella our heroine is back! She is violent, sassy, trying her best, and totally psychotic
“No wonder you killed him—” he said, his voice cutting off when I sank the blade into the flesh of his upper thigh.
“What the fuck was that for?” he asked, his voice wheezing in pain as I pulled the blade free and returned it to the sheath it called home.
“You looked at me,” I snarled, the monster feeling closer to the surface than ever before.
I did enjoy that her mortal background might not be as ...straightforward as we might have thought. But she really needs to assert herself on a higher level. Not just as a warrior, but as a Leader and Decision-maker that choses her next movements, and isnt just being strung along almost a death march to the fae world.
Caelum i love everything about his character. literally everything.
from his endless support
“I wouldn’t dare to deprive the world of your vengeance,” he said, dropping his forehead to mine. “And when he makes his way to Tartarus for his crimes, I’ll have an eternity to make him suffer.”
to his tragedic background
"Feeling your heart flutter for men who would never have been able to give you what your soul craved in the end, and knowing that, I was trapped on the other side of the Veil waiting for you. Just waiting for centuries to be able to hold you."
to the amazing sass
"Trust me, Little One; if it’s a hate fuck you’re after, I would be happy to oblige you right now."
This sequel also introduced some other secondary characters that have some importance to come I guess.
I had some high hopes for Fallon, her introduction into the supernatural world really set up some great possibilities. However, their friendship together was explained rather than shown. I desperately wanted more bonding between the two. seriously I know nothing about her character and personality. just a vague background explanation that they are now forever bffs
Holt sounds very promising as a character! he gives me total sassy wildhunt general, dare I make a Cassian comparison?
“Have I told you how much I despise you lately?” I asked, narrowing my eyes into a glare that felt like it dripped venom.
Even if he couldn’t see it, I wanted nothing more than to solidify that glare until phantom talons clawed down his back.
He twitched, rolling his shoulders as he spun to look at me with a shocked expression."
꧁The Writing Style꧂
Build-up. Set-up. Beautiful. Slow.
I mean seriously. As much as I enjoyed the characters, the sass, and more build-up of the series. I AM BORED. I WANT ACTION TO HAPPEN NOW. I WANT THINGS TO HAPPEN NOW, NOT JUST FORESHADOWING OF THINGS TO COME.
no matter how beautiful of writing is for the characters inner turmoil.
"There was beauty in knowing who I was, and in embracing that in spite of the potential consequences."
꧁The Sass꧂
“You think they’re watching us because they want to see us squabble?” he asked, leaning into my space. “They’re watching us because they’re hoping I’ll bend you over and fuck the attitude right out of you, Little One.”
꧁The Critiques꧂
sadly this book had all the critiques from the first... then added a couple more offenses
✨Cliche✨ This is a dark fae romance book. It will contain every fae alphahole trope from jealous motherf*cka to i will protect you even from yourself. Either ya like it or ya dont.
✨Basic✨ There is no subtle foreshadowing. We allllll know whats coming but we still have to GET there.
✨slow af✨ This series plot is moving like goddamn sloths combined with the basic foreshadowing makes the read very boring. I mean its entirely character dynamics and no action. I looked back and was so ridiculously unsatisfied by the plot this sequel, its just been long journeys in the wilderness
Overall, this was just a fun trashy fae novel that is just failing to take things up a notch. Yes I am going to keep reading because I enjoy the world, I like the characters and the smut is fire. But this sequel was an opportunity for this series to really wow me. and it didnt.
For a second book, I wanted....better secondary characters, more Estrella and Caleum: fight fight fight kiss kiss kiss, the lord to die, and what is their actual plan for returning to society?
Overall this sequel was an character entertaining fae-murder-smut roadtrip that left me...unsatisfied
꧁The Worldbuilding꧂
What really pulls this book together (and reason I keep going in the series...) the world is just fucking brilliant and fun. A veil separating fae and mates, evil queen, heroine learning powers, plots of overthrowing tyrannical kings, and did I mention fae gods?
"One day, I’d ask about the shock on his face when I’d touched the thread of our bond. One day, I’d gather that thread into my hands and play with its very creation."
See what I mean?? It has great elements but continually failed to actually engage the readers in it DURING the book itself. Looking back, these books honestly feels like prequels with overwhelming set-up and background hints that we are building up to something!! But… right now its really boring.
We are now in the SECOND BOOK and the author is still not letting the heroine engage with this awesome world. Instead, we were trapped in the goddamn wilderness— knowing ✨ fae court ✨ rebel ✨ war ✨ shit is happening. But nooooo, we’re stuck reading about the Estrella Caleum ROADTRIP... sigh ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ
꧁The Characters꧂
Estrella our heroine is back! She is violent, sassy, trying her best, and totally psychotic
“No wonder you killed him—” he said, his voice cutting off when I sank the blade into the flesh of his upper thigh.
“What the fuck was that for?” he asked, his voice wheezing in pain as I pulled the blade free and returned it to the sheath it called home.
“You looked at me,” I snarled, the monster feeling closer to the surface than ever before.
I did enjoy that her mortal background might not be as ...straightforward as we might have thought. But she really needs to assert herself on a higher level. Not just as a warrior, but as a Leader and Decision-maker that choses her next movements, and isnt just being strung along almost a death march to the fae world.
Caelum i love everything about his character. literally everything.
from his endless support
“I wouldn’t dare to deprive the world of your vengeance,” he said, dropping his forehead to mine. “And when he makes his way to Tartarus for his crimes, I’ll have an eternity to make him suffer.”
to his tragedic background
"Feeling your heart flutter for men who would never have been able to give you what your soul craved in the end, and knowing that, I was trapped on the other side of the Veil waiting for you. Just waiting for centuries to be able to hold you."
to the amazing sass
"Trust me, Little One; if it’s a hate fuck you’re after, I would be happy to oblige you right now."
This sequel also introduced some other secondary characters that have some importance to come I guess.
I had some high hopes for Fallon, her introduction into the supernatural world really set up some great possibilities. However, their friendship together was explained rather than shown. I desperately wanted more bonding between the two. seriously I know nothing about her character and personality. just a vague background explanation that they are now forever bffs
Holt sounds very promising as a character! he gives me total sassy wildhunt general, dare I make a Cassian comparison?
“Have I told you how much I despise you lately?” I asked, narrowing my eyes into a glare that felt like it dripped venom.
Even if he couldn’t see it, I wanted nothing more than to solidify that glare until phantom talons clawed down his back.
He twitched, rolling his shoulders as he spun to look at me with a shocked expression."
꧁The Writing Style꧂
Build-up. Set-up. Beautiful. Slow.
I mean seriously. As much as I enjoyed the characters, the sass, and more build-up of the series. I AM BORED. I WANT ACTION TO HAPPEN NOW. I WANT THINGS TO HAPPEN NOW, NOT JUST FORESHADOWING OF THINGS TO COME.
no matter how beautiful of writing is for the characters inner turmoil.
"There was beauty in knowing who I was, and in embracing that in spite of the potential consequences."
꧁The Sass꧂
“You think they’re watching us because they want to see us squabble?” he asked, leaning into my space. “They’re watching us because they’re hoping I’ll bend you over and fuck the attitude right out of you, Little One.”
꧁The Critiques꧂
sadly this book had all the critiques from the first... then added a couple more offenses
✨Cliche✨ This is a dark fae romance book. It will contain every fae alphahole trope from jealous motherf*cka to i will protect you even from yourself. Either ya like it or ya dont.
✨Basic✨ There is no subtle foreshadowing. We allllll know whats coming but we still have to GET there.
✨slow af✨ This series plot is moving like goddamn sloths combined with the basic foreshadowing makes the read very boring. I mean its entirely character dynamics and no action. I looked back and was so ridiculously unsatisfied by the plot this sequel, its just been long journeys in the wilderness
Overall, this was just a fun trashy fae novel that is just failing to take things up a notch. Yes I am going to keep reading because I enjoy the world, I like the characters and the smut is fire. But this sequel was an opportunity for this series to really wow me. and it didnt.
September 4, 2022
JAKDJDJSKJDJDJF no thoughts, only Caellum 😭😭😭
August 27, 2022
I continue to be mesmerized by the world Harper has built of fae, gods and primordials. The world building is excellent and brilliant and I really loved the mixture of magic/fae with gods/primordials/religious culture.
The storyline itself is SO GOOD - fae marked humans being rounded up against their will by the Wild Hunt to be united to their fated mates now that the barrier keeping them apart falls? The religious zealots who are in control of the human side of things trying to kill them to prevent the fae from reaching their full power/potential with their mates at their side?? Mab, the evil queen of air and darkness controlling the fae in twisted and fucked up ways for her own gain?? The witches and their part to play as the middle ground between the humans and fae?? So many subplots and I LOVED THAT. I just wish we got more of it in the beginning!
Reading Estrella trying to hate Caelum almost killed me I think.
CAELUM IS SO ROMANTIC AND PERFECT AND POSSESSIVE AND AGGRESSIVE AND LOVING AND NURTURING. IF YOU DON’T WANT HIM, I WILL GLADLY TAKE HIM OFF YOUR HANDS. 🤤
"𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧," 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. "𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐚 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.”
Like ok, how are you not melting for this dude? You already fell in love with him when you thought he was human?? How are you holding onto this grudge, when human men are the ones who have abused you your entire life??? 🙃
Caelum and Holt told Estrella exactly how I felt as a reader towards her hating Caelum for almost the entire first half of the book basically just because he is fae. “See how brightly you burn when you lean into all that hatred in your heart? Think of what you could do if you didn’t waste it on the one person in this world who loves you more than anything” “He is the same male he was a week ago. The only thing that’s changed is you” etc etc. 😩 It made her internal struggle feel that much more frustrating.
Once we got about 50% through and the story focused less on Estrella accepting Caelum, THINGS HAPPENED 👀 Estrella became more familiar with her unknown magic, we see her continue to grow into this absolute powerhouse. Literally the things she was able to do had me screaming YES QUEEEEEEEEN WE ARE NOT WORTHYYYYY. 🙌🏼
The secondary characters also got exponentially more interesting and solid in the second half of the book. Imelda and Holt 😏 Fallon and Estrella’s friendship 🥹 The wolves are incredible. THE CLIFFHANGER WAS BANGIN. Things I thought I knew… I most certainly did not 🤯👀 If only we had the next book to read 🥲🥲🥲
I’ll touch on one last thing about the subject of Estrella taking forever to accept the bond between her and Caelum - because really I’m a huge fan of slow burn and tension and enemies to lovers. Why it frustrated me so much is that we already kind of had all of that in book 1, and now are going through it again a second time when Estrella learns Caelum is the God of the Dead and her fated mate. It felt unnecessary and a little redundant for being such a primary conflict in the first half of the book. 🤷🏻♀️
The storyline itself is SO GOOD - fae marked humans being rounded up against their will by the Wild Hunt to be united to their fated mates now that the barrier keeping them apart falls? The religious zealots who are in control of the human side of things trying to kill them to prevent the fae from reaching their full power/potential with their mates at their side?? Mab, the evil queen of air and darkness controlling the fae in twisted and fucked up ways for her own gain?? The witches and their part to play as the middle ground between the humans and fae?? So many subplots and I LOVED THAT. I just wish we got more of it in the beginning!
Reading Estrella trying to hate Caelum almost killed me I think.
CAELUM IS SO ROMANTIC AND PERFECT AND POSSESSIVE AND AGGRESSIVE AND LOVING AND NURTURING. IF YOU DON’T WANT HIM, I WILL GLADLY TAKE HIM OFF YOUR HANDS. 🤤
"𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧," 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. "𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐚 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.”
Like ok, how are you not melting for this dude? You already fell in love with him when you thought he was human?? How are you holding onto this grudge, when human men are the ones who have abused you your entire life??? 🙃
Caelum and Holt told Estrella exactly how I felt as a reader towards her hating Caelum for almost the entire first half of the book basically just because he is fae. “See how brightly you burn when you lean into all that hatred in your heart? Think of what you could do if you didn’t waste it on the one person in this world who loves you more than anything” “He is the same male he was a week ago. The only thing that’s changed is you” etc etc. 😩 It made her internal struggle feel that much more frustrating.
Once we got about 50% through and the story focused less on Estrella accepting Caelum, THINGS HAPPENED 👀 Estrella became more familiar with her unknown magic, we see her continue to grow into this absolute powerhouse. Literally the things she was able to do had me screaming YES QUEEEEEEEEN WE ARE NOT WORTHYYYYY. 🙌🏼
The secondary characters also got exponentially more interesting and solid in the second half of the book. Imelda and Holt 😏 Fallon and Estrella’s friendship 🥹 The wolves are incredible. THE CLIFFHANGER WAS BANGIN. Things I thought I knew… I most certainly did not 🤯👀 If only we had the next book to read 🥲🥲🥲
I’ll touch on one last thing about the subject of Estrella taking forever to accept the bond between her and Caelum - because really I’m a huge fan of slow burn and tension and enemies to lovers. Why it frustrated me so much is that we already kind of had all of that in book 1, and now are going through it again a second time when Estrella learns Caelum is the God of the Dead and her fated mate. It felt unnecessary and a little redundant for being such a primary conflict in the first half of the book. 🤷🏻♀️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2022
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
ARC Review
Safety gang:
- No cheating
- No OW/OM drama
- Cliffhanger
This starts up right after the cliffhanger in book 1 and the twists/reveals kept happening throughout the book and the spice was 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.
I didn't think this one would top book 1 for me but it did. The loyalty and devotion from Caelum was perfection. I am so glad we got his POV and could see inside his mind and his feelings for Estrella. He is obsessed and absolutely in love and possessive but he also inspires her to find her strength.
Estrella did push away a lot because of the events at the end of book 1 and I understand her hesitation to allowing herself to trust Caelum again and giving herself completely to him but you know deep down his love for her is true and real. To find out he has been celibate in every single way for the last 300 years was amazing. The moment he found out about her existence he no longer persued others and truly waited for her. I love these types of MMC's.
I figured out one of the twists after a certain event but I really did not see that ending coming. The last 2 pages were intense and insane. You are led to believe something and it's proven over and over again but of course it couldn't be that easy right?
You are slowly pealing away at the history and finding out more and more information about the past and how things actually work (rather than what humans implemented into history). I love the connection of greek mythology mixed with the Fae world.
We find about Brann and why he was acting the way he was in the first book. He has been her guardian for centuries and kept her protected. We also find Fallon who is the other girl who has the crescent mark and could possibly be the Queen's long lost daughter. However we are led to believe it's Estrella with all the powers she is displaying but once they go to the Fae world - Fallon starts changing and it's revealed it's her. So what the hell is Estrella??? She is captured and Caelum is probably taken prisoner for his betrayal.
I really enjoyed this and I love Caelum/Estrella. I know the third book won't come out until early next year but I wouldn't mind if it was released a little bit sooner. I need answers!
ARC Review
Safety gang:
- No cheating
- No OW/OM drama
- Cliffhanger
This starts up right after the cliffhanger in book 1 and the twists/reveals kept happening throughout the book and the spice was 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.
I didn't think this one would top book 1 for me but it did. The loyalty and devotion from Caelum was perfection. I am so glad we got his POV and could see inside his mind and his feelings for Estrella. He is obsessed and absolutely in love and possessive but he also inspires her to find her strength.
Estrella did push away a lot because of the events at the end of book 1 and I understand her hesitation to allowing herself to trust Caelum again and giving herself completely to him but you know deep down his love for her is true and real. To find out he has been celibate in every single way for the last 300 years was amazing. The moment he found out about her existence he no longer persued others and truly waited for her. I love these types of MMC's.
I figured out one of the twists after a certain event but I really did not see that ending coming. The last 2 pages were intense and insane. You are led to believe something and it's proven over and over again but of course it couldn't be that easy right?
You are slowly pealing away at the history and finding out more and more information about the past and how things actually work (rather than what humans implemented into history). I love the connection of greek mythology mixed with the Fae world.
We find about Brann and why he was acting the way he was in the first book. He has been her guardian for centuries and kept her protected. We also find Fallon who is the other girl who has the crescent mark and could possibly be the Queen's long lost daughter. However we are led to believe it's Estrella with all the powers she is displaying but once they go to the Fae world - Fallon starts changing and it's revealed it's her. So what the hell is Estrella??? She is captured and Caelum is probably taken prisoner for his betrayal.
I really enjoyed this and I love Caelum/Estrella. I know the third book won't come out until early next year but I wouldn't mind if it was released a little bit sooner. I need answers!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2023
★★☆☆☆ - 🌶️🌶️🌶️
What a god damn wreck 🫠 this was such a disappointment, because I truly did like the first book in the series. However, it fell apart somewhere around the 40% mark and continued almost all the way til the end. Too many plot holes, so many back and forth/mixed feelings on Estella’s end. Also, it’s like the author threw away the good personality characteristics for both MCs, and was like how do we make them both irritating and unlikable in general🤔 I already pre-ordered book 3 in the series so here’s to hoping that that one is a vast improvement
AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE AMOUNT OF TYPOS THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE BOOK
What a god damn wreck 🫠 this was such a disappointment, because I truly did like the first book in the series. However, it fell apart somewhere around the 40% mark and continued almost all the way til the end. Too many plot holes, so many back and forth/mixed feelings on Estella’s end. Also, it’s like the author threw away the good personality characteristics for both MCs, and was like how do we make them both irritating and unlikable in general🤔 I already pre-ordered book 3 in the series so here’s to hoping that that one is a vast improvement
AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE AMOUNT OF TYPOS THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE BOOK
October 26, 2022
fun fact: while i had plenty issues with the first book in this series, i found it addicting. i did not want to put it down so i knew i wanted to read this one. did i think it was good? no. but i was looking forward to this one because i had hoped i would enjoy it more.
unfortunately for me, i found this one both too long and too fast-paced in term of what happened to the characters' feelings and development. on the one hand, this book is literally just the journey to the fae realm which was incredibly boring. on the other hand, in terms of actual days it's too little for what actually happens with feelings and how the fmc feels about the mmc, for how the feelings progress and where we end up. but most of all, it was just really boring and it felt stretched out. i can't help but think the pacing for the story overall would have been so much better had this book been half or a third in size and the feelings development had happen through-out more time.
what else? yes there's a lot of sex. there's nothing inheritably wrong with that, but it made me doubt if we hadn't changed genres to erotica because of how much there was, which i don't think helped for the actual plot. again, this one might be that i'm not the target audience (if it's smut i want to read, ao3 is always a perfectly fine stop as far as i'm concerned, and free. i'm not the target for erotica books)
caldris is still as awful as he was in book one. this guy is supposed to be centuries old and yet several times basically loses it when estrella tells him she needs some more time. he's violent and demanding and i find him childish... and it just escapes my mind how i'm meant to find him a good romantic partner for estrella. i just don't like this whole 'he becomes mindless with rage' thing, it gets on my nerves. estrella is boring for the most part so she's not compelling as a main character - she has her moments of showing some sort of a personality, but they happen very sporadically through-out the book and after not caring for most of the book about her, i couldn't bring myself to care about her when she decided to show she had some personality after all.
overall, this book was just too boring for my taste. i read it because i had read the first one, but i can't bring myself to care about it by now. while i am a bit curious about the twist at the end, it's not enough to make me read the third book with all that i found wrong in this one, so i'll guess i'll never know. i can live with that for now.
*
oh i'm done finally. i don't even know if i want to write a review for this one i just had a bad time. maybe i'll return to it eventually but most of all i'm happy at having finished it.
unfortunately for me, i found this one both too long and too fast-paced in term of what happened to the characters' feelings and development. on the one hand, this book is literally just the journey to the fae realm which was incredibly boring. on the other hand, in terms of actual days it's too little for what actually happens with feelings and how the fmc feels about the mmc, for how the feelings progress and where we end up. but most of all, it was just really boring and it felt stretched out. i can't help but think the pacing for the story overall would have been so much better had this book been half or a third in size and the feelings development had happen through-out more time.
what else? yes there's a lot of sex. there's nothing inheritably wrong with that, but it made me doubt if we hadn't changed genres to erotica because of how much there was, which i don't think helped for the actual plot. again, this one might be that i'm not the target audience (if it's smut i want to read, ao3 is always a perfectly fine stop as far as i'm concerned, and free. i'm not the target for erotica books)
caldris is still as awful as he was in book one. this guy is supposed to be centuries old and yet several times basically loses it when estrella tells him she needs some more time. he's violent and demanding and i find him childish... and it just escapes my mind how i'm meant to find him a good romantic partner for estrella. i just don't like this whole 'he becomes mindless with rage' thing, it gets on my nerves. estrella is boring for the most part so she's not compelling as a main character - she has her moments of showing some sort of a personality, but they happen very sporadically through-out the book and after not caring for most of the book about her, i couldn't bring myself to care about her when she decided to show she had some personality after all.
overall, this book was just too boring for my taste. i read it because i had read the first one, but i can't bring myself to care about it by now. while i am a bit curious about the twist at the end, it's not enough to make me read the third book with all that i found wrong in this one, so i'll guess i'll never know. i can live with that for now.
*
oh i'm done finally. i don't even know if i want to write a review for this one i just had a bad time. maybe i'll return to it eventually but most of all i'm happy at having finished it.
March 9, 2023
DNF at 56%…life’s too short to read books that I can already guess the ending of (and it’s annoying).
This book was like A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire had a baby with A Ruin of Roses, but not in a good way because all the characters and plot points felt recycled from one or the other of those two stories. Nothing original or exciting enough to keep me going, sorry.
Guess I really am a fantasy romance snob 🤷🏼♀️😂
This book was like A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire had a baby with A Ruin of Roses, but not in a good way because all the characters and plot points felt recycled from one or the other of those two stories. Nothing original or exciting enough to keep me going, sorry.
Guess I really am a fantasy romance snob 🤷🏼♀️😂
September 26, 2022
Was it better than book one? Yes.
Is that saying very much? No
Is that saying very much? No
September 2, 2022
DNF at 22%.
I wanted to like this. Truly I did. I tried so hard. But almost a quarter of the way into the book and…
- ONE day has passed in the storyline
- the same cyclical dialogue has happened 194757292 times
- I thoroughly hate the FMC
- the words “centuries” and “hate” are repeated so many times I almost threw my kindle
I get it. She’s mad. We want him to grovel. But also something else needs to happen. The amount of dialogue and inner monologues dragged this so far down, because, THEY KEPT REPEATING THE SAME CONVERSATION!! “I hate you!” “I’ve spent centuries waiting for you / loving you” “well I HATE you” “but I have spent centuries waiting for you” “ok I still HATE YOU” and so on forever and ever, I am done, the end.
I wanted to like this. Truly I did. I tried so hard. But almost a quarter of the way into the book and…
- ONE day has passed in the storyline
- the same cyclical dialogue has happened 194757292 times
- I thoroughly hate the FMC
- the words “centuries” and “hate” are repeated so many times I almost threw my kindle
I get it. She’s mad. We want him to grovel. But also something else needs to happen. The amount of dialogue and inner monologues dragged this so far down, because, THEY KEPT REPEATING THE SAME CONVERSATION!! “I hate you!” “I’ve spent centuries waiting for you / loving you” “well I HATE you” “but I have spent centuries waiting for you” “ok I still HATE YOU” and so on forever and ever, I am done, the end.
March 20, 2023
4 ⭐️
3 🌶
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year! 👏🏼
I really enjoyed this read, however, Estrella was a little “too” stubborn for a little “too” long it felt like while reading their back and forth/lovers to enemies to lovers shenanigans. 😂
I just love death daddy Caelum so much & I totally would’ve forgiven him so much quicker lol.
You should read this book if you enjoy:
• Fated Mates
• One Horse
• Enemies to lovers
• Praise
• Primal Play
• 🩸 Play
• Forced Proximity
I can’t believe I have to wait until March now for book 3! Ahhhhhhh!
3 🌶
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year! 👏🏼
I really enjoyed this read, however, Estrella was a little “too” stubborn for a little “too” long it felt like while reading their back and forth/lovers to enemies to lovers shenanigans. 😂
I just love death daddy Caelum so much & I totally would’ve forgiven him so much quicker lol.
You should read this book if you enjoy:
• Fated Mates
• One Horse
• Enemies to lovers
• Praise
• Primal Play
• 🩸 Play
• Forced Proximity
I can’t believe I have to wait until March now for book 3! Ahhhhhhh!
June 13, 2023
Caelum acting like an adoring fan most of the time when it came to Estella was adorable. My favorite part is when Estella would do something completely unhinged and Caelum would walk up and be like: 😟 no, my star. What have you done, my star? I love you and want to kiss the blood from your talons but we can't do that, my love.😟👀😘
On a separate note, every time Estella and Caelum had conversations about covering each other in cum so that everyone around them knew they were mated I wanted to bend the laws of time and CRAWL back to a moment where I wasn't even a cell in my mothers body. 😄 A. Not wiping off cum is the most unhinged thing I've EVA heard. That shit is actually painful when it dries on skin. B. Why do people need to know like that? Why, Estella?
Listen I'm into whatever makes you feel good, girlie but... not everyone wants to watch your mate fuck you around a fire? Idk maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the consent from the Fae Marked (who were being enslaved and forced into marching to the Fae world and forced into relationships with people they didn't even know) was underneath all the times they were depicted as crying and trying to run away and telling Estella: hey we can hear you and um...not really my favorite memory at the moment. Also, you're a whore and we hate you. Those are their words not mine. They called her a Fae fucker so many times in this book.
Me personally? Hearing I have a mate? I would have been embarrassingly down for that but I'm a slut and also have very low morals.
I just didn't really know who the villian was in this story. I didn't know what our end goal was for most of this story. Another reason why things felt so confused might have been because we were on a very, very long journey into the Fae world - which we had been inching toward in the previous book. So we never saw anywhere new. We actually made a round about circle to all the places in the previous book which was unbearably boring to me.
The one part that I really enjoyed was actually when Estella had to hide who she was when this one of Mabs favorite soldiers came snooping around their little band heading to the Fae world. Seeing Estella have to restrain herself was really fun... but then she killed the guy. Just kind of out of nowhere she just murked him when he wouldn't stop touching her friend. Which...we don't like creeps in this household yeah but I feel like there was a smarter way to get rid of him? Now Mab is down a soldier and knows that somethings up. So...what was the point honestly?
On a separate note, every time Estella and Caelum had conversations about covering each other in cum so that everyone around them knew they were mated I wanted to bend the laws of time and CRAWL back to a moment where I wasn't even a cell in my mothers body. 😄 A. Not wiping off cum is the most unhinged thing I've EVA heard. That shit is actually painful when it dries on skin. B. Why do people need to know like that? Why, Estella?
Listen I'm into whatever makes you feel good, girlie but... not everyone wants to watch your mate fuck you around a fire? Idk maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the consent from the Fae Marked (who were being enslaved and forced into marching to the Fae world and forced into relationships with people they didn't even know) was underneath all the times they were depicted as crying and trying to run away and telling Estella: hey we can hear you and um...not really my favorite memory at the moment. Also, you're a whore and we hate you. Those are their words not mine. They called her a Fae fucker so many times in this book.
Me personally? Hearing I have a mate? I would have been embarrassingly down for that but I'm a slut and also have very low morals.
I just didn't really know who the villian was in this story. I didn't know what our end goal was for most of this story. Another reason why things felt so confused might have been because we were on a very, very long journey into the Fae world - which we had been inching toward in the previous book. So we never saw anywhere new. We actually made a round about circle to all the places in the previous book which was unbearably boring to me.
The one part that I really enjoyed was actually when Estella had to hide who she was when this one of Mabs favorite soldiers came snooping around their little band heading to the Fae world. Seeing Estella have to restrain herself was really fun... but then she killed the guy. Just kind of out of nowhere she just murked him when he wouldn't stop touching her friend. Which...we don't like creeps in this household yeah but I feel like there was a smarter way to get rid of him? Now Mab is down a soldier and knows that somethings up. So...what was the point honestly?
October 5, 2022
"Never pretend to be something you’re not. Never dull how bright you burn so that others may feel comfortable in your presence.”
I was so excited to pick this one up and continue to read about Caelum and Estrella. This book starts right after the cliffhanger of book 1, and hits the ground running. This book sees these two really solidifying their relationship and explore their bond more meaningfully. I also really enjoyed the addition of the Wild Hunt and learning more about the Fae! I will say since this book is majority traveling from one destination to the next, I felt like the book did drag a bit in the middle. That being said, the ending was explosive and I can't wait to pick up the next installment!
I was so excited to pick this one up and continue to read about Caelum and Estrella. This book starts right after the cliffhanger of book 1, and hits the ground running. This book sees these two really solidifying their relationship and explore their bond more meaningfully. I also really enjoyed the addition of the Wild Hunt and learning more about the Fae! I will say since this book is majority traveling from one destination to the next, I felt like the book did drag a bit in the middle. That being said, the ending was explosive and I can't wait to pick up the next installment!
September 2, 2025
“𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞. 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧.
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝."
Wellllll, welcome back to the second book of the Flesh and Bone series by Harper L Woods. UGHHH I CANNTTTTT, THE ENDING OH MY LORDDDD.
(good thing i have the third copy, thanks to my local-not-so-local- library😈)
this book contains spoilers at the VERY end. just so you can read the top half and not worry about stumbling on a spoiler. (💕)
I have a lot of thoughts and quotes so plsssss stick w/ me!
gosh this book/series quite literally has me in a chokehold. i read this book faster than any other book this month.
(PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS THAT THE AUTHOR PUT FOR THIS BOOK!!!)
So we queue in on Estrella, in the last book we find out some really, REALLY shocking stuff.. like, really shocking. (also something i LOVED, was that the author literally left nothing behind in the cuts between the books, like i wasn’t confused, BECAUSE she made it sync perfectly.) anyway, we find out a lot of stuff about Caelum and stuff like that, and so without going into TOOOO much detail, Estrella is basically heartbroken and is really angry, but in all honesty she’s gotta GO, like if they don’t do what they have to do she will die.
So in this adventure, Estrella learns a lot about herself and learns to accept that she’s not a little wimp anymore, she’s feeling these tendencies that make her want to.. what was it? rip people’s windpipes out?? Yeah! that’s right! (😀)
Anyway this story was written so very nicely oh my goodness, i literally could NOT put it down.
This book is about women’s wrath (imo) which we love to see.
It’s so amazing to see Estrella literally grow into an amazing, strong willed woman and crack out of the shell she was forced into in the first book.
this is shaping out to be an amazing series. ☹️⭐️
i feel like this review doesn’t really capture how highly i view this book, i mean guys.. this book has been all i could think of for the last month.
The world building is incredible. The characters (OHMG THE CHARACTERS 🥹🥹😍, HOLT???).
i need this book on my shelf.
↓….⏳𝖖𝖚𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖘⌛️…. ↓
"𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧?" 𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙮. "𝙄 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙢𝙮 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙮 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙄 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚."
"ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʜᴀʀᴍᴇᴅ ᴀɴ ɪɴɴᴏᴄᴇɴᴛ. ʏᴏᴜ'ᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴠɪᴏʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴀ ɢɪʀʟ ᴡʜᴏ ꜱʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ. ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʙᴇ ʟᴏʀᴅ ʙʏʀᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ᴍɪꜱᴛꜰᴇʟʟ, ᴇꜱᴛʀᴇʟʟᴀ. ʙᴜᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ ʙᴇ ɪꜱ ᴀɴ ᴀᴠᴇɴɢɪɴɢ ꜰᴜʀʏ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇꜰɪᴇʟᴅ." ʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀɴᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍʏ ꜱᴘ���ᴄᴇ, ꜰɪɴɪꜱʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ɢʀᴏᴡʟ. "ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ᴡᴀɪᴛ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴜʀɴ ɪᴛ ᴀʟʟ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ."
"You're the bane of my existence." I needed him to be the monster, the vilian who would take and take from me, but there was no denying his willingness to sacrifice himself for my protection.
"And you're all I've ever wanted."
"𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘔𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯," 𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. "𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵."
🚨🚨🚨 🚨🚨🚨 🚨🚨🚨 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
CAELUMMMM NOOOO POOR BABY 😭☹️☹️
i hate having to put this in the spoiler part of the review but because i say Caldris’s name, i count that as a spoiler. This book is also really good just because of how intense their bond is. And Caldris sees Estrella as nothing less than his equal and his true love. There isn’t anything like an unhealthy power dynamic, they are both fully aware of their equality and i LOVE THAT.
HE WORSHIPS HER AND SHE WORSHIPS HIM.
In a world where a woman is considered nothing short of scum, inferior in every sense of the word, Caldris treats Estrella as his equal and as his soon to be wife. (?)
Yes he's the god of the dead but he's still a person, and his tragic backstory hurt my heart. and once you read this book and get to page (326) you'll
understand. (i don’t want to outwardly say it, because it’s a really bad trigger for a lot of ppl-)
but let’s just say he was forced to do certain things (m-rder) and HE was on the receiving side of numerous horrendous acts. (seeing his dead father hanging from a tree.)
i mean???? i don’t even know anymore. Yes, he’s literally the god of the dead, but that doesn’t all of a sudden stop him from having feelings.
I hate to see morally grey men being romanticized but in this case i think you just need to read this book to understand what i mean.
(keep in mind this is all my own opinion and we can disagree!)
(5/5)⭐️❄️
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝."
Wellllll, welcome back to the second book of the Flesh and Bone series by Harper L Woods. UGHHH I CANNTTTTT, THE ENDING OH MY LORDDDD.
(good thing i have the third copy, thanks to my local-not-so-local- library😈)
this book contains spoilers at the VERY end. just so you can read the top half and not worry about stumbling on a spoiler. (💕)
I have a lot of thoughts and quotes so plsssss stick w/ me!
gosh this book/series quite literally has me in a chokehold. i read this book faster than any other book this month.
(PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS THAT THE AUTHOR PUT FOR THIS BOOK!!!)
So we queue in on Estrella, in the last book we find out some really, REALLY shocking stuff.. like, really shocking. (also something i LOVED, was that the author literally left nothing behind in the cuts between the books, like i wasn’t confused, BECAUSE she made it sync perfectly.) anyway, we find out a lot of stuff about Caelum and stuff like that, and so without going into TOOOO much detail, Estrella is basically heartbroken and is really angry, but in all honesty she’s gotta GO, like if they don’t do what they have to do she will die.
So in this adventure, Estrella learns a lot about herself and learns to accept that she’s not a little wimp anymore, she’s feeling these tendencies that make her want to.. what was it? rip people’s windpipes out?? Yeah! that’s right! (😀)
Anyway this story was written so very nicely oh my goodness, i literally could NOT put it down.
This book is about women’s wrath (imo) which we love to see.
It’s so amazing to see Estrella literally grow into an amazing, strong willed woman and crack out of the shell she was forced into in the first book.
this is shaping out to be an amazing series. ☹️⭐️
i feel like this review doesn’t really capture how highly i view this book, i mean guys.. this book has been all i could think of for the last month.
The world building is incredible. The characters (OHMG THE CHARACTERS 🥹🥹😍, HOLT???).
i need this book on my shelf.
↓….⏳𝖖𝖚𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖘⌛️…. ↓
"𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧?" 𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙮. "𝙄 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙢𝙮 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙮 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙄 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚."
"ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʜᴀʀᴍᴇᴅ ᴀɴ ɪɴɴᴏᴄᴇɴᴛ. ʏᴏᴜ'ᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴠɪᴏʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴀ ɢɪʀʟ ᴡʜᴏ ꜱʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ. ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʙᴇ ʟᴏʀᴅ ʙʏʀᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ᴍɪꜱᴛꜰᴇʟʟ, ᴇꜱᴛʀᴇʟʟᴀ. ʙᴜᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ ʙᴇ ɪꜱ ᴀɴ ᴀᴠᴇɴɢɪɴɢ ꜰᴜʀʏ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇꜰɪᴇʟᴅ." ʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀɴᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍʏ ꜱᴘ���ᴄᴇ, ꜰɪɴɪꜱʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ɢʀᴏᴡʟ. "ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ᴡᴀɪᴛ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴜʀɴ ɪᴛ ᴀʟʟ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ."
"You're the bane of my existence." I needed him to be the monster, the vilian who would take and take from me, but there was no denying his willingness to sacrifice himself for my protection.
"And you're all I've ever wanted."
"𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘔𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯," 𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. "𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵."
🚨🚨🚨 🚨🚨🚨 🚨🚨🚨 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
CAELUMMMM NOOOO POOR BABY 😭☹️☹️
i hate having to put this in the spoiler part of the review but because i say Caldris’s name, i count that as a spoiler. This book is also really good just because of how intense their bond is. And Caldris sees Estrella as nothing less than his equal and his true love. There isn’t anything like an unhealthy power dynamic, they are both fully aware of their equality and i LOVE THAT.
HE WORSHIPS HER AND SHE WORSHIPS HIM.
In a world where a woman is considered nothing short of scum, inferior in every sense of the word, Caldris treats Estrella as his equal and as his soon to be wife. (?)
Yes he's the god of the dead but he's still a person, and his tragic backstory hurt my heart. and once you read this book and get to page (326) you'll
understand. (i don’t want to outwardly say it, because it’s a really bad trigger for a lot of ppl-)
but let’s just say he was forced to do certain things (m-rder) and HE was on the receiving side of numerous horrendous acts. (seeing his dead father hanging from a tree.)
i mean???? i don’t even know anymore. Yes, he’s literally the god of the dead, but that doesn’t all of a sudden stop him from having feelings.
I hate to see morally grey men being romanticized but in this case i think you just need to read this book to understand what i mean.
(keep in mind this is all my own opinion and we can disagree!)
(5/5)⭐️❄️
September 4, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I read my ARC while I was on vacation, and I gotta tell you, the amount of times I wanted to throw my kindle in the sea… 😅
I equally loved and hated this book. The hate comes from how many times I was angry at Estrella, but she had a point, and the same time I really appreciated how she didn’t just fall into Caldris’ arms once she found out who he really was. But I still wanted to slap her.
As book one ended with Caelum revealing his true identity, book two follows their journey back to where they left, the border to Alfheimr.
This is only book 2 in what will be a 6 book series, and while I couldn’t put the first book down, the pacing in this one made it harder to stay invested. But what made take half a star, was the ending. I simply hate the idea of the sacrificial lamb.
Am I excited to see how the story will continue in a different world? Hell yeah! Especially after that ending.
I read my ARC while I was on vacation, and I gotta tell you, the amount of times I wanted to throw my kindle in the sea… 😅
I equally loved and hated this book. The hate comes from how many times I was angry at Estrella, but she had a point, and the same time I really appreciated how she didn’t just fall into Caldris’ arms once she found out who he really was. But I still wanted to slap her.
As book one ended with Caelum revealing his true identity, book two follows their journey back to where they left, the border to Alfheimr.
This is only book 2 in what will be a 6 book series, and while I couldn’t put the first book down, the pacing in this one made it harder to stay invested. But what made take half a star, was the ending. I simply hate the idea of the sacrificial lamb.
Am I excited to see how the story will continue in a different world? Hell yeah! Especially after that ending.
May 16, 2022
I feel so very lucky to have gotten the chance at an early read-through of this book! So first off I want to thank this amazing author for inviting me to help with first round edits, I LOVED THIS SO MUCH.
This was a mind-blowing 5 star read FOR SURE, but I'm going to wait until I do a second read-through when the book releases to compose a full review!
This was a mind-blowing 5 star read FOR SURE, but I'm going to wait until I do a second read-through when the book releases to compose a full review!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,503 reviews