Scan barcode
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This was a reread for me, and, again, a five-star reading experience. Sherry Thomas excels in using dual timeline/time slips to slowly reveal character backstory and heighten the suspense, and this dual timeline is particularly devastating. This story of two unlikely people brought together by circumstance is explicitly a fated romance, and with its lightly fantastical wuxia elements and chi-based magic, the world feels soft around the edges in a way that fits such a sweeping story of star-crossed spies and unearthly villains. This hits so many of my favorite beats - second-chance romance, hidden identity, on-page declarations of fidelity, and the list goes on (and on). I highly recommend reading both installments in this duology, and honestly they can be read in any order (The Hidden Blade is a prequel to this story and shows our two characters as they grow up and their paths begin to merge). Please note content warnings on this one - I have included additional detail for one potentially triggering scene.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gun violence, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity
Child death: there is on-page infant death. It is alluded to from the very start of the book, so it is less a reveal and more a flashback of events. The baby's death is at the hands of our supernaturally powerful villain, and is not realistic or likely (as a parent, this made it far less triggering for me than death-while-sleeping, death due to an accident, death due to illness, etc.). It is tragic, but I personally feel that it is not gratuitously so. For some readers, though, this is understandably a topic they will avoid entirely, and I want to note it here for that reason!
More...