The First and Last Demon

by Hiyodori

Meet a once-renowned human warrior, trapped in an abandoned city with a demon who hates her. A demon who woke her from a fifty-year magical slumber specifically for the sake of tormenting her.

The demon’s Vesper. She and Char go a long, long way back. They used to be partners on the battlefield. National heroes. An unbeatable team bonded by magic. That bond was supposed to last for the rest of their lives.

Now Char’s memory is full of holes. The sealed city is full of hostile magical beasts. And Vesper, with her sharp teeth and unpredictable moods, is the most vicious of them all. As an ageless demon, she’s fully prepared to keep holding Char captive forever.

Char struggles to unravel the mystery of why they've ended up pitted against each other, locked in a private war that seems certain to end with one or both of them dead. Does Vesper’s senseless cruelty stem from simple demonic bloodlust? From years of suppressed loathing? What else could have driven her past the breaking point—compelled her to suddenly snap and betray her own bondmate?

To uncover the truth, Char will have to face her demon as she would any other deadly as an enemy of humanity, the most formidable and vindictive foe she's ever encountered.

The First and Last Demon is a dark f/f enemies to lovers story with a heavy emphasis on the enmity—but an indelible slow-burning love at its core. Although it's set in the same contemporary fantasy world as the Clem & Wist series, this novel can be fully enjoyed as a standalone tale.

Genres: Fantasy, Lesbian, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Horror, Demons

380 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2023

About the author

Hiyodori is not a bird. But she is dearly fond of her namesake, a plain-looking brown-gray bird that likes to perch near her Tokyo apartment and unleash the most incredible primal screams. Hiyodori (the human author) loves stories with fantastical settings and complicated, difficult-to-define relationships. All of her books—including Masks Worn by Magical Wives, her latest standalone novel—take place in the same shared fantasy universe.

Reviews

[Petra · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best fiction books I have ever read, and the first I've found that truly scratches the same kind of itch as Gideon the Ninth and the rest of the Locked Tomb series.

Exquisite from beginning to end, the characters are amazing, and the worldbuilding is incredible, thoroughly unique, and frequently very funny even while being grim and gothic.

[Daphinie Cramsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give myself as tribute to be a gate in which Hiyodori can pull any book through.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Hi,” said the copy. “You called me.”

I discovered this book by searching the word sapphic in kindle. It wasn’t entirely what I was looking for, but it was still a wild ride I enjoyed nonetheless! I have not read Hiyodori’s work previously or been introduced to her fantastical literary world. As a fresh reader, needless to say, I was completely confused for most of it. I’m not sure if the worldbuilding would have been understood easier if I read her other works first, or if everyone felt like they were putting together a puzzle piece by piece with every page that they read.

Because of this though, every page captured my attention and consumed my daily thoughts.

The reason I would not give it 5 stars is because I expected to experience more “romance” – especially with it being labelled as thus in the title. Most of the romance was not until the end of the book. We did get crumbs here and there and I realize teasing and bullying can be another form of endearment, but it was still not entirely what I was looking to read. That being said, I still am happy to have read this story and did enjoy this journey in Jace!

[Jewel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I'm incredibly picky when it comes to what I like in a sapphic romance, but this was wonderful. I'm definitely going to go through Hiyodori's backlist at some point this year. The only reason this story gets three stars instead of four is because it was very slow in some places, and the world building was so well developed I felt it could have been used to further the plot a lot more.

This is a very introspective, leisurely paced fantasy novel with some very dark undertones. Honestly, the entire time I was reading this book I kept thinking it would make such a good studio ghibli movie. Very character focused and very magic based. It definitely had Howl's Moving Castle/Spirited Away vibes but with the added darkness of Princess Mononoke.

TW: cannibalism, graphic murder and torture, violence

[nia ✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this author seems to really enjoy writing the most unique non-conventional romances i’ve found so far and i am absolutely obsessed. every new page or new scene in this books leaves u with so many questions u want answers for yet every answer you get to a question is gonna make u want to ask 3 more questions. never in an annoying way though especially with the final reveal being so very satisfying.

also 10/10 for the scifi/fantasy world building

[Aster · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First and Last Demon is (a lot) darker than Hiyodori's main Clem&Wist series but it still features the Hiyodori classics that are sadomasochist lesbians, butches, devastating plot twists and someone losing a body part.

While Hiyodori's style is perfect for Clematis, I did find Demon harder to get into due to Char's less compelling nature: here it's Vesper who does the charming heavy lifting. Char is a relative emotionless POV (turns out it is extremely story relevant and I'm glad I caught that) but that makes it harder for her to have a dynamic voice in the story and as a character. Isn't that the whole thesis? That Char is plagued with memory loss and (spoilers) which makes it impossible for her to be herself and know who she is? But I find that Hiyodori's prose doesn't fully work with this. However, Hiyodori is still a master at crafting compelling dialogues that never feel cringy while packing angst and layers of complex dynamics.

The First and Last Demon is darker than the other stories set in the Osmanthus&Jacian universe and by darker I mean that the protagonists will physically hurt each other, over and over again, including killing each other because they cannot die. While it's marketed as enemies to lovers, they're never truly enemies, they never even truly hate each other because Char seems incapable of hatred and Vesper never seems to actually hate Char just taking out whatever complex emotions she's feeling on her in the goal of something.

I'm not sure how I feel about the presence of a certain two characters, I'm especially wondering how readers with no prior knowledge of the lore did follow their role and power. Like we say here, they did appear a bit like a hair falling on the soup. It also spoils their future plotline? (BB is a good thing because it's a solution to her main inner conflict but I don't like the fact that I'm hearing about this here first instead of the main series)

[Tabytha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This honestly was pretty disappointing. It states it’s a sapphic romance. How? Where is there any actual romance? There’s abuse and torture and more abuse, but I never saw one scrap of romance until out of nowhere in the last 20 pages. The redeeming factor was the world is interesting. Otherwise, I very bored and felt misled.

[Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly this was kind of mid idk. I wish I would have liked it more, but it just moved way too slow. Also, almost every single chapter felt like the main character was repeating the same thing and concept over again. I wanted to enjoy it, but sadly did not:(

[Tom Mock]

This is not a full review. I read through the beginning of all 300 SPFBO9 contest entries. This was a book I wanted to read more of.

The great city’s ancient protector and her demon are once again woken from their magical sleep, but the city is lifeless and in ruins. So who woke them?

This is a wonderfully focused beginning, introducing its principle characters who become more interesting by the page - the stern, dutiful, knightly hero and the irreverent, dangerous, floating, succubine demon she is tied to.

The fractured memory of the MC slowly returns in her waking, letting the narration slowly fill in the gaps, but our MC has been asleep a long time and much has changed. She can’t fill in all the gaps herself, and some things she always forgets, to the frustration of her demon.

The scale of the fantasy elements feels large here. The existence of our MC - it’s hard to call it a life - is otherworldly. Sleeping for sometimes centuries before waking to defend the city and its people. A tool of war, put away again when she is done.

She is more a host for her demon than a person. But now, for the first time, things are different. The reader is treated to descriptions, precise and strange, of the ruined city, smashed and overgrown in places, with weird waters flowing through it.

The mystery of this opening is deeply inviting. The dialogue is strong. The story is immediate. This feels like a story only fantasy could deliver. It isn’t pulling any punches.

The promise of sapphic fantasy romance, coupled with our dangerous demon, unique setting, bizarre circumstances, and strong if somewhat blank MC has be eagerly looking forward to the next pages. I’m thrilled. I’m in!

[Piham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was depressing
I expected more romance but I guess sapphic writers only know how to write pain and suffering lmaoo

It felt like watching 16 episode of a post-apocalyptic sad and grungy anime, execpt it actually ends on a positive note
Story is really good tho, but no feet kicking, only heart breaking until the end lol
Asa is a lot of fun, but Wist could have been a walking magic wall and the story would be the same.

3.5/5⭐️, good book but the positive ending doesn't erase the depression I felt while reading the body of the book
_____
This is funny, I don't think I had such a good time reading it (not a bad time either, it was just rly... sad?), but the more I think about it, the more I like it. How does this work?! Maybe that's just proof of a well written story. Very painful and yet beautiful. Glad both characters got a happy ending, they deserve it.

[Susan Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute delight. I picked it up based on the author without reading the description and was happy to see it revisited the same universe of the previous books... And even more excited to see Wist and Clem again! This one starts a bit violent but is intriguing and mysterious and clever and a little romantic too, eventually. Loved it!

[Alex Firman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a bit to get into it because I felt kind of unmoored from the world. But the connection just hadn’t been made yet. Tbh this book drove me insane. However, I’m also in love with Vesper.

This book and I are Char and Vesper. Makes me want to beat the absolute shit out of it. Have I sold it to you?

[RentedMule · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less a review, and more some disjointed thoughts:

-The story more or less ends up becoming another Clem and Wist story (the author's main series), with the "main characters" really just being the subjects of Clem and Wist's newest "case", seen from the subject's POV, rather than Clem and Wist's.
I didn't know about this other series until after I read this book, but even during this book, when Clem and Wist showed up, I was immediate struck by "These characters really seem like Original Characters that the author has been writing about for a long time; the story is kind of bending over backwards to show us how cool and interesting these supposed side-characters are.".

-The story is vaguely written like a Detective/mystery story, with steady reveals of info, and characters pointing out that previous clues hinted at these reveals. But, if you were to actually engage with this like a Mystery, then you might be disappointed a bit: the setting and situation the characters are in lends itself to a sort of "anything goes" mood. Rules are laid out as concrete and unbreakable, and then later broken. Things that are "established fact" get revealed to be lies. So much ends up falling into question, that keeping track of what you know feels less like "keeping up with the mystery" and more like "wasting your time tracking info that will be obsolete in a few pages". There are even multiple points where the story goes out of it's way to make clear that the Magic of Demons doesn't follow any kind of clear rules, so "anything goes".

-The romance element is present, but is more implied than seen. A tell-tale moment, for me, is that Char ends up hurt, and Vesper has a bunch of body language about it. If you read into the body language, you can see that they care about each other, and don't like seeing each other hurt. But that's some of the most explicit it gets: most of the time, the explicit text-on-page leaves it very unclear if they actually have any chemistry with each other at all.

-I ended up quite liking the magic system and setting, all things considered. It's not super original or anything, but it's intriguing enough, and lends itself to interesting stories. The "Decrepit-punk" aesthetic of this particular setting was interesting too, with multiple points where it is explicitly acknowledged that, yes, all these things should have been rotted more/less than they are presented now, but it looks cool, and we have magic as an excuse, so shut up and enjoy the view.

[yazaleea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars, I really liked this, and loved the premise, but a part of me wishes it had delivered better on what the blurb promised.

Char wakes up from a 50-year stasis sleep, ready to achieve the same mission she's been tasked with for centuries: protect her country. But after millennia of existence, and actually living 25-ish years of that time dedicated to defending her nation, her memories start to erode. She is the Host to a demon, Vesper, who has always been her ally. She woke up in a city she sealed off and by doing so she'd doomed its inhabitants to death. Then why is Vesper hell-bent on killing her now? As long as Vesper lives, her death is only temporary, but the demon had never been gratuitously violent towards Char. What has she forgotten to make her one companion turn against her, to become the demon's captive in the deserted city?

I really liked the concept of an eternal Hero that is put to sleep until the "country needs her", and her demon bondmate. The friends to enemies to lovers was interesting, and they were actually at each others' throat. The big reveal was also satisfying.

I have two things I didn't like:
1. Even if the author says this can be read as a standalone, I started reading the book 33% before I felt like I was missing a big part of the context, especially the lore and worldbuilding. Reading the author's other books took care of that, but I didn't like how reliant on the other books' lore this one was. Yeah, you can understand without all the information and background, but it's so much more complicated to get into and follow what's happening.
2. Directly tied to the first point, and I am probably the only person in the review section who feels that way, but I didn't like how big of a role Clem & Wist played? Again, this is supposed to work as a standalone but 2 out of the 4 characters are the main characters of the author's main series. I would have preferred if this book focused more on Vesper and Char and their confrontation. I do like Clem and Wist, but I am not sure I wanted to see them as much as they appeared here.

Anyway, I still really liked it and I am in love with the concept of the story. It just didn't deliver exactly what I wanted, but it's fine.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strange and thrilling fantasy world

Where Clem and Wist play an important role in this story of a city magically sealed by a an out-of-control military device to stave off the cataclysm of an immense vorpal hole pouring interdimensional beings into the human world. But the MCs this time are from a rival island-nation traditionally in conflict with Osmanthus, and the opposite of a mageocracy. In the Jacian archipelago, mages are treated as a natural resource, their power brutally harvested with no regard for its human bearers. The great magically powered war-machine that protects the Jacians over a thousand-year span is piloted by Char, a human immortally bonded to Vesper, a demon summoned from the vorpal plane. Their story is told by Char, who is kept in unaging "hibernation" during the very long periods of time when her piloting skills are not needed. In this latest awakening Char and Vesper are not summoned into action by a national emergency. Instead, they are primed to learn shocking truths about one another once Clem and Wist reveal themselves as on a magical diplomatic mission to the sealed-off city, in support of the Jacian nation. I loved the story, even though it lacks the psychological density of the three Clem and Wist novels. Hiyodori has an uncanny descriptive gift, and her conflicted MCs are always compelling. It's also a pleasure to see Clem and Wist working as a team.

[J. Aceyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well...this book did its best to ruin my life (In a good way)

I'm not kidding though, I'm not sure if these novels are just tailored to all of my deepest, truest, literary longings, or if it gets to everyone the way it does me.

Personally, I think when Hiyodori writes, it's straight up catnip. Because over the weekend, I'm telling you, I could do nothing productive until I finished reading this, and I stretched it out as long as I could. Of course.

Anywho...

First and foremost this is a standalone but it's as deeply provocative and captivating as the others Hiyodori has written. The slow burn romance that goes beyond the boundaries of physicality into the very depths of who you are as an individual? Just as potent as Clem and Wist.

I did not see the twist coming. Not even a tad little bit.

But you know who did? ASA CLEMATIS. That's right. For a Hiyodori junkie like myself, there was enough Clem and Wist (MCs from the Lowest Healer books) to satisfy me and then some.
The time period takes place after The Reverse Healer Case files, BTW.

Can not wait to read what Hiyodori puts out next. And if you like sapphic fantasy, especially if you like Anime, you should be reading this and waiting impatiently with me.

Side note to the author-I still desperately want to be a beta writer, if you happen to read this.

[Kabia Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I feel I disrespected the author because I read this when I was in the wrong mood. I was in the mood for excitement and adventure and spice and a clear story line. I was not in a mood to fully appreciate this and unfortunately I became impatient. If I read this in a solemn mood I'd have been astounded and mesmerised by how good it is. ART. I don't even like angst, and this is very much angsty. But it's the kind of angst you feel should be hate and it's also hate but the characters are so inhuman that hate seems a waste of time and that is relieving and yet so frustrating. The plot twist was almost unbelievable and I'm entirely in awe of the character that made the leaps and bounds. Throughout I was unsure of the characters love for each other and I was so torn when the harmed each other because I still wanted them to go back to each other. I was almost begging for a cliche romance book end. I was hoping for silver and I got gold. This was an utterly painful story but God did I love it. One of the best books ever.

[Caerolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my entry into Hiyodori's books, and I loved it so much I immediately read the other three!

Although there is some violence, I didn't find it that bad, and I am pretty squeamish! Perhaps tender is not the right word for it, but I loved the connection I felt between the two main characters and I also loved Wist and Clem when they showed up!

All Hiyodori's books have fraught relationships and complicated pasts, and to me the action is always enmeshed with growth and understanding by the characters. The two MCs in this one learn about themselves and each other, with a couple big plot twists along the way.

This series is going to be one that I read through over and over. Loved it massively!

[Jess (scijessreads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having never read the Clem & Wist books, I went into this world very much fresh-eyed. And it was interesting and mysterious and worth a wander. There is a bit of a similarity to the Jaeger pilot teams of Pacific Rim in how our leads are paired up, but the backstory and the current battles (mostly inter-personal) are much more like a cat toying with its prey. While the pace was a bit slow, and the characters a bit distant (to me), I was still fascinated by the story. Of bonds and breaking and what it truly means to be tired to someone ;or something) else and dependent on them for part of your survival. And how quickly you can turn on each other too (once you reach a breaking point).

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like them as much as Clem & Wist, but it's still a pretty good story.

That said, I don't know if I'd agree with this story being standalone--seems like a lot of Clem & Wist's circumstances and abilities would feel terribly contrived if you weren't familiar with their story.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't expect anything but Demon before I opened the book, and I loved it so much when I closed the book. It blew my mind and made me cry. If you love a good angst story, this is the one for you.

[UndertheBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book as the world-building was very intriguing and sophisticated, but the book just did not deliver. I stopped reading at about 88%, so yes, I really did want to like this book. There are a variety of issues that ultimately killed it for me.

This book is tagged as a romance but it is not in the slightest romantic. In this entire story, the two protagonists kill each other endlessly (well mostly just Vesper killing Charity) for absolutely no reason. When we finally find out the REAL reason why Vesper is mad at Charity, the book is a little over half way done, and honestly the reason just isn't strong enough for me to care. The pacing is so damn slow that I didn't even care when it was revealed that Charity was actually a demon. Like at this point I've already lost interest in the book because it is paced like an old person trying to tell you something sentimental they did in their teenage years.

I waited out for so long to see if there would ever be any "special blossom" between the two, and there just wasn't. It was so disappointing. Like, these two beat each other up and can't even hug and kiss to make up and prove that they ACTUALLY love each other? I understand demons may have a little bit of a grim nature in this story, but at least the dynamics in their romance could be more potent towards the end. The author seems to think sadism is a way to show affection, and it just isn't enough to make the pair memorable to me, or make me feel bad for either one of them. The romance arc was poorly executed. This book tries very hard to give off enemy to lovers, which is the trope I was expecting, but it just wasn't good. There is nothing romantic about the interactions between Vesper and Charity. It is just outright abusive, asinine, and maybe even gratuitous. Most of their random fights did absolutely nothing to advance the plot.

Overall, the author did not do a great job at making me care about the characters, or even making memorable characters at that. I did like Asa and Wist, but the dynamic between Vesper and Charity just did not work. I don't know if I would read other Hiyodori works to see if their is any redeeming qualities.

On the plus side, I really did enjoy the action scenes.

[Jennifer Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars⭐️, if my theory is correct.

I did not expect the twist, relegating it initially to a protagonist I'd found both weak and unidimensional. The reveal did redeem much, but even so, I found that the writing lacked strength in places, particularly when the same notions kept being reiterated in our face over and over.

In hindsight, HOWEVER, there is now doubt in my mind as to whether this might possibly have been intentional... in a way. The fact that this book was in first person makes it very hard for me to pinpoint from memory which instances those annoying repetitions had occurred (and I don't want to go through the book so soon, combing for those passages!)–statements or remarks enunciated in the protagonist's inner voice that I'd deemed needless exposition at the time, tiresome babysitting of the reader at best–so now, I'm wondering if perhaps the author had intended to show that the main character was instead trying to persuade herself on a regular basis... Perhaps someday I'll reread and be better armed to judge. Either way, if it was the case, then it's an awesomely genius idea (!!), but the implementation of it could certainly have used some foreshadowing to strengthen the payoff we get from the reveal. If I were to improve on the execution of this idea, I'd have liked to show more cracks in the character throughout the narrative, having her questioning herself or doing incongruous things at times, not to an extent that readers would dwell on such moments, but enough so that there would exist some suspicion!

Because otherwise, repetitive bits of writing are not so novel in the world of literature that a reader would instinctively grant a book the benefit of the doubt in their mind when chancing upon them. Were it not for my pre-existing fondness for Clem and Wis due to having read some of their other books, I personally might not have trudged through so merrily, instead dismissing those parts as weak writing that ought to land the work into the DNF pile! 😅

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but felt no great compulsion for most of its length to pursue its narrative. I did finish it really fast, though, because I'm trying to race myself and squeeze value out of my KU subscription! Teehee! 🤣

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gotta say, this book really put me in Char’s head. As in, she woke up disoriented and wondering what the hell was going on, and I started reading and I was disoriented and wondering what the hell was going on! So, we explored together. Have to admit, that thing that happened at the top of the tower fairly early on… I did not see that coming, lol. The story just continued to surprise!

It turns out, I really do like the kind of story where the entire thing is the search for truth, and there are a lot of mistakes and distractions and reversals along the way. In what was going on in the world, in what Vesper was after, in Char’s relationship to Vesper, in what Asa’s intentions were, in the future Char was seeking… there were mysteries and misdirections aplenty.

I just really enjoyed all that coming together, and it was never ever not surprising. I mean, the things people get up to in Post Offices!

There is one “but,” though. And it’s a “but” that I almost took a star off for. (Eventually, I decided to rate it on what it was not what it wasn’t.) Here’s the thing: the Kindle book title ends with “A Sapphic Fantasy Romance”. Now, that may all be technically true… but this isn’t a romance like 99% of other sapphic romances are romances. I just found that tagline a little misleading. So go into it expecting “A sapphic fantasy” where maybe uncovering feelings between the characters is quite relevant to the story, but not really expecting the story to feature a traditional “romance.”

Anyway, to wrap up, this book does make me want to read Clem and Wist’s story, for sure. I really enjoyed the time I spent with it.

[Jenny T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m sure folks are tired of me gushing about Hiyodori by now, but she was my discovery of the summer. She excels at writing real, evolving Sapphic relationships between women who are a little broken, a little messy. In The First and Last Demon, she really ramps that up to 11 as we see the toxic relationship between Char, a woman in her mid-20s, who has been around for hundreds of years, spent mostly in hibernation and brought out with her demon, Vesper, in their giant mech suit, whenever the world needs saving. This time Char wakes up in a city that’s been abandoned, trapped in a protective dome, with a demon ex-girlfriend who’s trying to kill her, and monsters falling through a magical hole in the sky.

It’s a slow road to solving the mystery of how things Got This Way, and the path is filled with anger and violence and a lot of blood. I hesitate to call this romantic fantasy, because so much of it is definitely NOT romantic. It’s powerful and painful, with a really satisfying ending, and characters that you don’t always like and yet you really want them to get their, erm, stuff together and fix things.

I would recommend reading at least a few of the author’s Clem and Wist series, as some of the characters from those books appear here, and there may be spoilers. Plus I think their appearance would have more impact if you already knew them.

Highly, highly recommended.

[Glitchlight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotta hand it to Hiyodori. She knows what she likes, and it's weird fantasy novels about Mrs. Small 'n Mean dragging around her wife, Mrs. Tall 'n Stoic. For me personally, this hits the sweet spot of not falling into the Clem and Wist series' faults - there's a reason every book outside that series is set from the perspective of the stoic one and not the mean one - without getting too bound up in some of the stranger and less compelling fantasy-trauma sequences, as in 'The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage", which I thought was just a repetition of this novel but worse, or "Carrion Saints", which is still pretty new and I haven't read much of yet but has felt less interesting so far.

A simple little weird mystery, where the driving plot is more a matter of understanding what is even going on rather than any true crisis or disaster, and perhaps Hiyodori's most interesting ending, avoiding the sort of resigned inevitability that runs through a lot of her work. Interested on looking back at her bibliography as a whole with a few more years of distance.

[Benji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark fantasy with a romance subplot about a woman trapped in a dead city with the demon she’s bonded to. Man, the worldbuilding and magic system in this book were intensely interesting and I loved learning about the MC’s backstory. It really highlights the cost of war, the violent lengths a country will go to for advances in technology and weaponry, and the way individual lives can be treated as nothing more than meat destined for the grinder. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s an enemies to lovers story (it’s more complicated than that) but there’s definitely enmity and violence between the MCs so it scratches the same itch. The story has layers of mystery that have both the MC and the reader guessing what’s real, in that sense it reminded me a bit of Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series. This was going to be a 5 star read but the ending was a bit of a letdown for me, I wasn’t moved by the romance since it feels heavily skewed on one-side given that the MC is an amnesiac. I’m definitely going to be checking out more books by this author!

[Juno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does anything get more complicated than a main couple in a Hiyodori book? I don't think so. Char and Ves are just, so complicated. Their relationship is built on layers and layers that you don't really understand until its over, and you re-read the book. It's just a lot.

My only complaint is that there's barely any physical affection told or shown. This has happened in all of the books I've read so far from Hiyodori. That doesn't make the relationship feel weaker or anything, it's just different i guess. The climax is different which leaves me a bit confused.

But still. These stories and the world it's set in are incredibly rich, so wonderful and intricate that it's not at all a surprise that her books are set in the same world. I think Hiyodori is one of the best sapphic fantasy writers out, I'd recommend any of her books in a heartbeat.

also hi asa, lovely to see you again, take it easy on wist ok?

[Astrophel R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Characters: 5/5
World building: 3.5/5 (very interesting but a lot of questions left unanswered)
Writing: 6/5 Characters: 5/5
World building: 3.5/5 (very interesting but a lot of questions left unanswered)
Writing: 6/5 💛
Overall: 5/5

A little context: I've been in a pretty bad reading slump lately and have been either DNFing or disliking most of the books I've been reading.

HOWEVER, I absolutely adored this book. I read it in like 4 days (which I know is slow for a lot of people, but I'm a slow reader, so that's fast for me). I will say, I don't understand some of the world, but since the protagonist seemed to have a shaky understanding of the world too, it kinda made the story more immersive.

I did see in the author's note that Hiyodori has a series that (presumably) takes place in the same world, which I will definitely be looking into.

Also, we 💛 toxic codependent yuri in this house

[Kia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it, the plot twist was so unexpected.

The are a few reasons I gave it a 4 star. First I just wish Vesper had more depth. Char felt like the only fully fleshed out character but I guess you could put that up to her shit memory. Then the constant repetition of certain things, like how Char has bad magic perception was so annoying. Like we get it her magic perception is bad you said so at least once a chapter. Also excessive use of and made me want to rip out my hair. Lastly, Char never once resenting Vesper for acting the way she did the whole book was odd but I guess that something to do with her taking responsibility or whatever.

Overall pretty good book, leans way farther into the fantasy aspect than the romance but that didn’t bother me at all. I’ve never read such unique fantasy(?), when I say that I mean the whole Vesper pulling swords out of her head and Wist’s braid being alive(?). Anyways, it was a good read.