Special thanks to the author for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, I will admit that I’m impressed. Pushing aside the fact that it took me 5 years to finally get past the first chapter (all other attempts didn’t take and this time it took me 3 days to pass it), I ended up devouring the rest of the book in a day. Admittedly, I skimmed some of the longer overly descriptive scenes that didn’t seem to add anything other than splendour to the story. That said, this turned out to be more than I expected! Let’s get straight into what did and don’t work for me and what was in between:

• The Romance. Okay, this is a big one because this is essentially a Tristan & Isolde retelling. Star crossed lovers, forbidden romance, lots of dicey history to contend with—I liked all of that for the most part. The only thing I wasn’t sold on (and it’s kind of a big thing) is the instalove. Look, I get forming a connection with someone based on the secret that you both harbour, but is this the magic talking or is it your true feelings? Ana gave that piece of her heart to Rafe in TWO DAYS. Like, girl, please calm down. While declarations were never made out loud, the direction was clear and I wasn’t wowed by it. I understand why it needed to happen, but the fact that we don’t get many more scenes between them getting know each other, just made it feel less believable. She spent more time with Xander than Rafe!

• The World-building. I found it an interesting fantasy world and to her credit, Davis knows how to write beautiful scenes into the story. The Seven Houses were distinct, the unknowns below the clouds added a great mysterious element, and we have formidable foes that can set the world aflame. Not to mention the allusions that there’s something worse waiting around the corner. What little of the magic we learned about was elemental but that’s also metallurgy and other things that are again hinted at but not fully explored in this first book, although I have no doubt we’ll get that in the sequel.

• That said, the sudden barrages of info dumping contributed to choppy writing that interrupted the reading flow. The sudden influx of information about this world, placed at random points, made the read feel so clunky! I also found some scenes overly descriptive without adding much to the story—these scenes I skimmed and I didn’t feel like I missed anything. Did we need more than one chapter describing the ways the other houses presented their offerings during the mating ceremony? Sorry, but no.

• The characters were interesting and I liked them well enough. Rafe was my favourite though because we love a sad broody boy and he is the epitome of that! Ana, Xander and even Cassi were interesting and I don’t think I disliked any one of their perspectives but I did wish for a bit more development for Ana, as the FMC. I think what I most appreciated though was how well Davis wrote their personalities because, while maybe nothing out of the ordinary, I still found them to be distinct. I loved how much that came through on page. Ana’s childish exuberance and wilfullness was like a giant blast of energy every time she came on page. The same goes for Rafe’s surliness, Xander’s insecurity, and Cassi’s torn loyalty. It was all well done!

• Also, I gotta hand it to Davis for not holding back on the brutality and the savage backstabbing that occurs in these pages. Oof, those last few chapters as chaos explodes were like a total gut punch! 😅 I didn’t think we’d go that dark but here we are and it did set things up really nicely for the next book.

Overall, this was a much more enjoyable than I thought it’d be (sorry I’m just skeptical, lol) and whereas I initially thought to DNF the series, I think I’m now going to continue with the next book and see how I feel about it I get the impression I do know where this is heading—with the chosen one trope and all—but I’m curious to see how the author will get us there. I am a bit worried though at how there are three more books and they’re all chonksters. It’d be interesting to see how Davis’ writing evolves through the series!

Have you read The Raven and the Dove or is it on your TBR?

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