Heartless Hunter

Ha estado disfrutón, con ganitas de seguir leyendo (los capítulos cortos siempre serán mi salvación) !!!

Pero llevaba tanto tiempo viviendo en una mentira que no sabía si aún quedaba en ella algo auténtico.

Just so disappointed... started off pretty strong but then the plot, the relationships and character motivations started falling apart and not making sense. Felt like they just gave up on the plot part way through.

First off, I'm not a fan of enemies to lovers because there are few that are done well, this was one of those examples of why the trope doesn't work. The relationship between the MC's was purely lust driven. They never came to any understanding or developed any real connection. Felt like a really forced enemies to lovers trope. The romance was not believable, Alex and Rune's relationship made way more sense...

Gideon was SOOOO unlikeable. Throughout the whole book he was basically a brainwashed nazi.

(DNF) Wasn't for me, but will appeal to others.

There are YA books that easily bridge the gap to adult books and then there are YA books that feel young. This book feels young, despite containing adult themes.

The writing is very simple. There's not a lot of variety to the sentence structure and the descriptions of characters are very black and white . I felt like I was being spoon fed everyone's feelings and motivations instead of letting their actions speak for themselves.

It was giving me How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days vibes in that the two characters seemed to be working against each other while outwardly pretending otherwise. It didn't feel as serious as I would have expected despite hints at more serious topics appearing later in the book. I'm not qualified to speak for the plot overall as I didn't finish it.

Pros: It would probably be easy to read and there is some promising world building, so if you don't see a problem with my issues above it might be worth a try. But I would definitely recommend downloading a sample first to see if you vibe with the writing. I personally couldn't get past it, but maybe the plot would have pulled me in eventually.

ALEX. MY SWEET SWEET ALEX.

There is a line at the beginning of the book: “He looked like a lion tonight.” I highlighted it and noted Well. Damn. That's certainly one way to introduce a character.

Like, I'm all for enemies to lovers. But when you have a character describe another character by saying he looks like a fucking lion, how can you not expect me to SHIP?

I'm subtracting one star because I felt like the love happened too fast. Perhaps I was shipping someone else and was just absolutely bored by all the scenes with our genocidal MMC.

But the story was easy to read. The writing didn't get in the way. There was a very limited cast of not very complex characters (-0.25 for that), but it was a fun read. I enjoyed myself.

I'm not mad I read this, and think I would eventually read the other half of the duology, but am not in a rush to do so. I liked the world and the parts of the plot related to politics and persecution. Still, could have used more spicy scenes (a chronic lament for me), and I'm not sure what it is, but was just missing the compelling plot elements that propel me into going to the sequel right away in oher series.

Ugh. Maybe it's because fantasy isn't for me. Maybe ya fantasy is just so much worse. Maybe this book just sucked??? It's a tragedy I read this truly

A fun, shallow read that exquisitely rode that line between entertaining and “is everyone in this book stupid?!”

Can't wait for the second book.

4,75 ⭐️

Cerita ini berlatar di dunia pasca-revolusi di mana para penyihir, yang dulunya berkuasa, kini diburu tanpa ampun. Tokoh utama, Rune Winters, adalah seorang penyihir yang menyembunyikan identitasnya dengan berpura-pura menjadi sosialita dangkal di siang hari, sementara pada malam hari ia berperan sebagai "Crimson Moth", seorang vigilante yang menyelamatkan sesama penyihir dari eksekusi. Konflik utama muncul ketika Rune mendekati Gideon Sharpe, seorang pemburu penyihir terkenal, untuk mendapatkan informasi penting, tanpa menyadari bahwa Gideon juga memiliki agenda tersembunyi terhadapnya.

Buku kedua Kristen yang aku coba setelah The Last Namsara. Untuk sebuah romantasy, aku cukup menikmati buku ini. Aku merekomendasikan buku ini untuk para penggemar fantasi maupun romantasi.

I could not put this book down. From start to finish, I was completely hooked. I really wasn't expecting to like this book so much. 

The connection Ciccarelli creates between the reader and the characters feels as deep as a soul bond. Every emotion they felt, I felt. The guilt, the heartbreak, the betrayals. Rune will be in my head for a long time coming, and it will be hard to forget her. This story is THE enemies to lovers and then lovers to enemies again 😭 I also didn't see the twist within the twist coming, I knew that girl was acting strange, but I wasn't expecting that reveal! 

This was an absolute blast to read! I flew through this so fast, it's incredibly readable. I'd sat down and I was half way through before realizing it.

I had an inkling that something was up with a certain character and I'm glad my suspicions were right! I didn't know exactly what would happen but I knew that character was suspicious. I cannot wait to see what will happen in the next book between all the characters. I'm dying to see how much stronger Rune gets now that she can actually learn.

I thought this was YA going it but I'd say it's more new adult. I really recommend this one. It takes no time at all to get through.

Final rating: 3.75 stars ✨

This was an amazing book filled with all the tension and other worldliness that I think of when I think of a Witchy Read. Ciccarelii has written an Enemies to Lovers romance that truly sets the bar for what can be done with this trope, especially when blended in with the Brothers Best Friend subtrope. With World building this vivid and detailed I cannot wait to see how the author will build on this for the nxt book.

Thank you St Martin's Press and Net Galley for sharing this arc with me!

Надзичайне виконання, цікавий сюжет і досить хімії між головними героями. Авторка добре порозставляла підказки і вже десь на 70% було зрозуміло, хто головний винуватець. Хоча задоволення від читання це аж ніяк не віднімало.

Окрім цього велика кількість деталей збивала з пантелику і було важко визначити, яка з них відіграє надалі ключову роль. Тому серце часто завмирало з побоюванням. А що якщо вода в склянці отруєна? А що якщо Гідеон впізнає коня в конюшні? А якщо помітить знак на піджаку? А перстень? Чому Харроу так наполегливо зводила Гідеона і Рун, а потім вдавала, що вона там ні до чого? Були також деякі не до кінця продумані місця:1) Гідеон жодного разу не подумав, що окрім Молі в місті діють інші чаклунки. Не кажучи вже про те, щоб нагамагатися зробити якийсь портрет поведінки Молі. Будь-які події приписували тільки їй.2) І погроза на стіні теж одразу приписалася Молі. Хоча там не було підпису, який вона всюди залишала.3) Ніхто не додумався під час революції залишити книги з закляттями, щоб розуміти, що вони означають? Серйозно? Також залишилося кілька непояснених місць:1) Чому існують тільки чарівниці і немає відьмаків?2) Що саме Серафін мала пояснити Рун?3) Чому поведінка матері Гідеона перед смертю так нагадувала збожеволілу чарівницю?4) Чи справді Сестри Королеви були такими жорстокими? Гідеон був досить слабким як на головного чоловічого персонажа:1) Чомусь він вважав своє нещасне минуле цілком задовільним приводом до того, щоб почати масово вбивати чарівниць. Навіть 13-літніх дівчаток, які до того ж мали батьків не чарівників.2) Він пішов на уступки з совістю, коли погодився утискати права своїх співгромадян, навіть без жодних обґрутувань. 3) Він два роки недобачав, що Добрий Командир не виконав своїх передреволюційних обіцянок і навколо надалі панує бідність і розруха.4) Просто програв свій військовий жетон у карти?!

Найращий момент у книзі був на її половині: прекрасні тарапати і чудовий спосіб з ними впоратися.
Також досить потужний кінець, однак мене не пробрало так, як сподівалася. І досі залишається багато запитань без відповідей. Схоже, доведеться читати другу частину.

Blood bending is fun

Really easy read and interesting plot twists. Docked half a star only because I thought some parts were a little cheesy lol but overall great book!

4.5/5 but rounding up because I LOVED this. Easy read with incredibly easy to understand world building. Enemies to lovers. If this wasn't YA it would probably be a 5 star for me. Thrilled it's a duology, can't wait for the next one.

Why did it have to end this way? It never had to be like this

I'm gonna just go cry myself to sleep

4.5 painful stars

I really enjoyed this book. The witchy + historical romance + enemies to lovers is so good! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes watching 2 enemies attempt to out-smart the other, while falling for each other along the way.

The Rune and Gideon are great characters, and I loved the pining best friend trope as well with Alex. It is gut wrenching watching him just be in the friend zone and struggle to move out of it.

The story was well written, and I loved Rune as our main character. I loved watching her though process on how to outwit Gideon while also continuing to save her fellow witches and avoid suspicion and being caught along the way. Then, watching her fall for Gideon while trying to resist? So good! The same for Gideon, we love a grumpy man who falls for the socialite against his better judgement.

The twist at the end I was not expecting but I loved it. I can't wait for book 2, because it truly will be an enemies to lovers story and I am pumped for it!

Sorry to my friends who live and breathe for this book but it was just... not good. SPOILERS AHEAD.

First of all, the book is wayyy too surface level and I should not finish a book with the list of questions I continued to add to while reading. I refuse to blame this on the book being YA or a Romantasy. The plot was lazy, that's it.

My questions for anyone to answer, for the love of god:

1. Why does Rune have any inclination that Gideon suspects she's a witch? Solely because he's a witch hunter? She doesn't know that he saw her name on the ship?

2. Why don't we get to see Rune in action? Why are there no flashbacks to how she freed all of these witches? Seems pretty novice, so how did she do it? We also don't even really get to see Gideon hunting witches!

3. she already suspected Gideon of catching on to her, how could she fall for that mine trap? Is she that dumb? Really? You're the “Crimson Moth” who somehow (we don't know how besides her deadbolt spell which she's not even great at?) frees witches from prisons and smuggles them out of the country- but you fell for that trick. Not realistic at all.

4, Why is there no background into the witch community?? Why are they evil? Did all witches support the evil sister queens? Did they contribute any good to society?

5. No further investigation into the ships? Questioning the sailors? Retracing its routes? Just going to ignore this giant piece of evidence?

The rest of the book was repetitive plot lines and narrations. Oh my god the narration.
And the stupidity of Rune. Again, I don't care that this is YA and she's “young”. She is the Crimson Moth and she's a dang idiot leaving all her witch shit out for the world to see. When Gideon asks, “Why did seraphine try to kill you” “I don't know!” Really? Maybe because you were about to kill her? And turned in your grandma? COME ON. She really had no idea Alex was in love with her? Give me a break.

I think I'll stop here. I honestly couldn't wait for this to end. The twist was predictable and the one character who I could stand dies. I won't be reading the second book.

Dnf at 33%.... The magic system was super interesting but Gideon and Rune felt flat, and I just couldn't get into the story

JUSTICE FOR SWEET BABY ALEX

a little bit predictable, but wow! love this storyline and gideon....damn. can't wait for the next one!

I wouldn't say this is a perfect book, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Every time I put it down, I found myself picking it right back up again, needing to know what was going to happen. This book has great tension, and I could never predict what would happen next, or how Rune was going to get herself out of the various corners she finds herself in.

I do wish it had ended differently, but I'll definitely be picking up the next book when it comes out.

¿POR QUÉ NADIE ESTÁ HABLANDO DE ESTA JOYA?

Iba con 0 expectativas y un poco a la aventura sin saber qué me iba a encontrar. Me ha encantado, el mundo, la premisa, los personajes, un verdadero enemies to lovers... ¿Qué se supone que tengo que hacer hasta que salga el segundo?

Si os gusta la fantasía de brujas, el romance, el enemies to lovers, este es vuestro libro.

This was pretty predictable, but well-told overall and entertaining. I'm excited to continue the series.