February 27, 2026
This was a strong 4.5 stars up until the last 10% and then it was a 5 star. Absolutely gobsmacked need the next book
Displaying 1 - 30 of 16,052 reviews
April 23, 2026
WOOWWWWW THAT LAST 10% ?????? insane. jaw on the fucking floor.
“women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power.”
“men never truly understand the meaning of patience. you see, men like you can’t comprehend even the concept of suffering. the lesson to be learned in it. especially not in silence. but women? that is all we do. we endure. we wait. we survive.”
greyson. callum. lira. shade. jameson. <333333 my beloveds.
“women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power.”
“men never truly understand the meaning of patience. you see, men like you can’t comprehend even the concept of suffering. the lesson to be learned in it. especially not in silence. but women? that is all we do. we endure. we wait. we survive.”
greyson. callum. lira. shade. jameson. <333333 my beloveds.
April 18, 2026
4.5 stars ✨
"She was going to die here. But so was he. Their eyes locked, assassin and heir, caught in a moment of perfect, terrible understanding."
This was EVERYTHING. No doubt this was not perfect, but at the same time it's imperfections and it's flaws added to the sheer beauty of how powerfully raw this book was. It's definitely not for the faint hearted with how it's dark and graphic and yet I found myself completely in awe of it.
This was a whole experience from page one. It's quite an immersive read. I won't lie, there are certain points when it gets too descriptive and slow- which is the only reason it lost 0.5 from me. But other than that, the dystopian world is well crafted and easy to understand, dive into. The concept of masks was interesting and different but it worked. The control and rebellion aspects worked out.
My favorite thing about it all were the characters. Each and every one of them were complex, had an emotional depth and a connection I formed except for the evil snake of a leader- Maximus, he can rot in all seven hells 🤢
But coming back to our traumatized main characters and their very interesting romances-
❤🔥 Shadera, raised as a mercenary, she's a badass. I swear, the woman can fight and she's so fierce in everything she does. I do think she's quick to temper but it's understandable I suppose. Her dynamic with Greyson , the heir and executioner is quite interesting. He's stoic, broody and a man of many secrets that makes him both morally grey and honorable. I loved how that was carried out because it was eliminating of insta lust. There who assassin x heir who try to kill each other was brilliant. The spice and the tension between the two thoroughly edged me 🥵🫣
But in my eyes, the two don't hold a candle to ❤ Lira and Callum. Y'all the way I was floored by them. I'm not big on second chance trope especially when it's a big five year gap between them but OH MY GOD that was everything I could have wanted and more... And more (IYKYK). Lira is such a quiet strength sort of woman who deserves the world. She doesn't do loud. She doesn't do bold. But when she unleashes, she does it cunningly and impactful. My kinda woman tbh. As for Callum, now that is a man who can yearn, worship and stay devoted. He is the perfect man for her who has his own merits but never overshadows her. The spice and angst here is absolutely breathtaking 😩😩
Special mentions to our another yearner boy, Jameson. I see a lot of potential for him. But I don't want his personality reduced to just going after a woman who won't even pick him at the end of the day.
Anyhoo, coming to the ending that had my heart in my throat. Because although, some of it was predicable, especially a certain character reveal. Majority of it was still action packed like the rest of the book. The twists and turns had my jaw on the floor. And I cannot believe it ended on such a cliffhanger 😩😩
Also while we're at it, to the people who finished this book....about that one specific scene, that was a blank bullet right? RIGHT?! My heart is not going to break right?! RIGHT?! I can still have hope right?! RIGHT?! Someone reassure me 😭
~•~•~
OMGGG so excited for this!!! A dark dystopian romance? And majority of you guys loved it. I MUST read this now
"She was going to die here. But so was he. Their eyes locked, assassin and heir, caught in a moment of perfect, terrible understanding."
This was EVERYTHING. No doubt this was not perfect, but at the same time it's imperfections and it's flaws added to the sheer beauty of how powerfully raw this book was. It's definitely not for the faint hearted with how it's dark and graphic and yet I found myself completely in awe of it.
This was a whole experience from page one. It's quite an immersive read. I won't lie, there are certain points when it gets too descriptive and slow- which is the only reason it lost 0.5 from me. But other than that, the dystopian world is well crafted and easy to understand, dive into. The concept of masks was interesting and different but it worked. The control and rebellion aspects worked out.
My favorite thing about it all were the characters. Each and every one of them were complex, had an emotional depth and a connection I formed except for the evil snake of a leader- Maximus, he can rot in all seven hells 🤢
But coming back to our traumatized main characters and their very interesting romances-
❤🔥 Shadera, raised as a mercenary, she's a badass. I swear, the woman can fight and she's so fierce in everything she does. I do think she's quick to temper but it's understandable I suppose. Her dynamic with Greyson , the heir and executioner is quite interesting. He's stoic, broody and a man of many secrets that makes him both morally grey and honorable. I loved how that was carried out because it was eliminating of insta lust. There who assassin x heir who try to kill each other was brilliant. The spice and the tension between the two thoroughly edged me 🥵🫣
But in my eyes, the two don't hold a candle to ❤ Lira and Callum. Y'all the way I was floored by them. I'm not big on second chance trope especially when it's a big five year gap between them but OH MY GOD that was everything I could have wanted and more... And more (IYKYK). Lira is such a quiet strength sort of woman who deserves the world. She doesn't do loud. She doesn't do bold. But when she unleashes, she does it cunningly and impactful. My kinda woman tbh. As for Callum, now that is a man who can yearn, worship and stay devoted. He is the perfect man for her who has his own merits but never overshadows her. The spice and angst here is absolutely breathtaking 😩😩
Special mentions to our another yearner boy, Jameson. I see a lot of potential for him. But I don't want his personality reduced to just going after a woman who won't even pick him at the end of the day.
Anyhoo, coming to the ending that had my heart in my throat. Because although, some of it was predicable, especially a certain character reveal. Majority of it was still action packed like the rest of the book. The twists and turns had my jaw on the floor. And I cannot believe it ended on such a cliffhanger 😩😩
Also while we're at it, to the people who finished this book....about that one specific scene, that was a blank bullet right? RIGHT?! My heart is not going to break right?! RIGHT?! I can still have hope right?! RIGHT?! Someone reassure me 😭
~•~•~
OMGGG so excited for this!!! A dark dystopian romance? And majority of you guys loved it. I MUST read this now
February 23, 2026
I NEED BOOK 2!!
March 26, 2026
omg the adrenaline, rush, and pure joy i felt reading this book… i have to go out there y’all! i have to go out there and save the people! reading this book is every woman’s birthright!
tell me why i looked up the definition of true enemies to lovers and a picture of this book popped up where the definition should’ve been? lol lowkey hate myself for finding a 5 star read this year in the year bc i fear nothing will top the rush i felt reading this book. i haven’t felt this alive since 1864!!
so the book opens with fmc shadera on her way to kill the infamous executioner and said executioner breaks the law when he’s on the brink of death. so naturally, they are forced to get married blah blah blah. property, base name, back story stuff. 😫
thank god for mmc’s like greyson serel because there’s nothing quite poetic like a man riddled with control and duty that completely crumbles at the sight of his girl— that’s not even his girl yet— injured. and vice versa may i add. just 2 grumpy, tortured, sad characters coming together for a joint slay while toying the edged of “let’s fuck already” fuck i need a shot of bleach!
in every possible way a girl like me could have a fictional man, i want greyson fucking serel! that passionate scene whe they finally put their guard down for a passionate kiss?? a war started in my house. the slow burn was exactly the pace it needed to be. you would’ve thought i was a dog chained up about to bite my leg off for some scraps of passion. ohhh and anytime greyson stood up to his cunt of a dad (that was high key very spiritually israel if i may add) omg i stood up and applauded like that was my own blood!
and let me tell you for a girl that usually tunes out world building and all that other nonsense..no not in this case. i was locked tf in. i was shaking my ass. this is equal parts dystopian and romance. the multiple povs was written in a way that didn’t annoy me. it was a movie in my head that i didn’t wanna click pause on. lowkey could’ve done without the jameson povs because i find that mf annoying as hell but whatever i didn’t learn english for that.
and the last 50 pages… omg anyone around me would’ve thought i had the nervous system of someone going to war. that shit was my vietnam. i haven’t been this gagged in my entire existence. i was 🤏🏽 close to cussing out the author in their DMs. i did everything but die!
this quote also made me wanna shield my body over a grenade
“if you shoot me,” he said voice dropping, “it will only make me wanna fuck you”
Then, deliberately, she flicked off the safety.
"If you even think about it, I will kill you."
Greyson grinned, the expression feral and hungry. "Then I'm already a dead man."
Then Shadera pulled the trigger.
i was sent into a psychosis
tell me why i looked up the definition of true enemies to lovers and a picture of this book popped up where the definition should’ve been? lol lowkey hate myself for finding a 5 star read this year in the year bc i fear nothing will top the rush i felt reading this book. i haven’t felt this alive since 1864!!
so the book opens with fmc shadera on her way to kill the infamous executioner and said executioner breaks the law when he’s on the brink of death. so naturally, they are forced to get married blah blah blah. property, base name, back story stuff. 😫
thank god for mmc’s like greyson serel because there’s nothing quite poetic like a man riddled with control and duty that completely crumbles at the sight of his girl— that’s not even his girl yet— injured. and vice versa may i add. just 2 grumpy, tortured, sad characters coming together for a joint slay while toying the edged of “let’s fuck already” fuck i need a shot of bleach!
in every possible way a girl like me could have a fictional man, i want greyson fucking serel! that passionate scene whe they finally put their guard down for a passionate kiss?? a war started in my house. the slow burn was exactly the pace it needed to be. you would’ve thought i was a dog chained up about to bite my leg off for some scraps of passion. ohhh and anytime greyson stood up to his cunt of a dad (that was high key very spiritually israel if i may add) omg i stood up and applauded like that was my own blood!
and let me tell you for a girl that usually tunes out world building and all that other nonsense..no not in this case. i was locked tf in. i was shaking my ass. this is equal parts dystopian and romance. the multiple povs was written in a way that didn’t annoy me. it was a movie in my head that i didn’t wanna click pause on. lowkey could’ve done without the jameson povs because i find that mf annoying as hell but whatever i didn’t learn english for that.
and the last 50 pages… omg anyone around me would’ve thought i had the nervous system of someone going to war. that shit was my vietnam. i haven’t been this gagged in my entire existence. i was 🤏🏽 close to cussing out the author in their DMs. i did everything but die!
this quote also made me wanna shield my body over a grenade
“if you shoot me,” he said voice dropping, “it will only make me wanna fuck you”
Then, deliberately, she flicked off the safety.
"If you even think about it, I will kill you."
Greyson grinned, the expression feral and hungry. "Then I'm already a dead man."
Then Shadera pulled the trigger.
i was sent into a psychosis
February 17, 2026
When you read a dystopian romance but catch yourself thinking “is this fiction or just the daily news/non-fiction, because the line is looking really thin right now”, that was Daggermouth for me. H.M. Wolfe is very clearly writing from the current dystopia people are living in right now, as well as the systemic oppression and state sanctioned violence Black people and other marginalised folk have experienced for centuries.
But combining it with romance was where I was really impressed. Because I think dystopian romance can be pretty tricky to balance in genre. The way I see it is that dystopia is meant to be a warning about oppression, subjugation and or totalitarianism, so mixing that genre with romance can risk undermining or softening those themes with vibes and aesthetics. And that can be fine if that’s what a reader wants because reading is subjective, escapism is valid, etc. But it does change the function of the genre.
However, Daggermouth wants you angry and wants you to question kings, presidents, narratives and the systems we are complicit in. And that’s why I’m so in awe of it. I think if anything, the romance sharpens the critique, because the romances (plural) are shaped by trauma and survival. And within that framework, Daggermouth delivers one of the most tension-filled, angsty enemies-to-lovers arcs I’ve read in a long time without undercutting the political commentary.
And it’s TRUE enemies, not like where someone is mildly rude at a ball yet they think the other person is hot and wants to jump their bones. Before the marriage of inconvenience kicks off, Greyson stabs Shadera and Shadera puts a bullet in Greyson. And the reason is ideological hatred, not to mention the fact that Greyson’s father, President Maximus Serel, (who I loathed more than President Snow, which I didn’t think was possible), executed Shadera’s parents. If that’s not true enemies, I don’t know what is, lol.
On top of that, I could really feel the emotion coming through in the prose. I could feel the grief, fury and devastation about capitalism, classism, about “elites” (billionaires) hoarding resources while people starve and even more so, the feminine rage. The Veyra officers may remind you of other real life widely despised presidential lapdogs who wear masks and murder people in the US of A. It really hurts to read because fiction is not so far from fact. The comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale (“The Heart endures” = “Blessed be the Fruit/May the Lord open”, iykyk), The Hunger Games and V for Vendetta make perfect sense to me.
Anyway, something small but meaningful. The characters are in their 30s. It was refreshing.
Okay and that ending. My heart palpitated and then it broke. And then, my jaw dropped and I stayed that way for ages, like one of those clown machines. I genuinely do not think many if any will see it coming because it is a masterclass in pulling the rug out of the reader, in my opinion. And it left me staring at the page saying what the actual fuckity fuck just happened.
And finally, this is cinematic af. So if you are a film or TV person reading this, please option Daggermouth. Immediately, if possible. Because I predict the cultural relevance is going to make this story skyrocket and it will be the kind of project Hollywood industry people will kick themselves over for passing on when it inevitably hits its moment. My advice is for you to be the one who gets ahead of it.
Okay I’m done. To conclude, Daggermouth is dark, political and uncomfortable in the way dystopia should be. It’s a scathing and on point critique of patriarchy, fascism, capitalism and state violence. It is also angry, romantic, spicy (where the spice is earned) and emotionally devastating. Lots of triggers, please mind them [listed here, bottom of the blog post].
Thrilled to hear this has been picked up by a trad publisher.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
The comps say Handmaid’s Tale x V for Vendetta x Hunger Games with true enemies to lovers and a marriage of inconvenience. 🏃🏽♀️
But combining it with romance was where I was really impressed. Because I think dystopian romance can be pretty tricky to balance in genre. The way I see it is that dystopia is meant to be a warning about oppression, subjugation and or totalitarianism, so mixing that genre with romance can risk undermining or softening those themes with vibes and aesthetics. And that can be fine if that’s what a reader wants because reading is subjective, escapism is valid, etc. But it does change the function of the genre.
However, Daggermouth wants you angry and wants you to question kings, presidents, narratives and the systems we are complicit in. And that’s why I’m so in awe of it. I think if anything, the romance sharpens the critique, because the romances (plural) are shaped by trauma and survival. And within that framework, Daggermouth delivers one of the most tension-filled, angsty enemies-to-lovers arcs I’ve read in a long time without undercutting the political commentary.
And it’s TRUE enemies, not like where someone is mildly rude at a ball yet they think the other person is hot and wants to jump their bones. Before the marriage of inconvenience kicks off, Greyson stabs Shadera and Shadera puts a bullet in Greyson. And the reason is ideological hatred, not to mention the fact that Greyson’s father, President Maximus Serel, (who I loathed more than President Snow, which I didn’t think was possible), executed Shadera’s parents. If that’s not true enemies, I don’t know what is, lol.
On top of that, I could really feel the emotion coming through in the prose. I could feel the grief, fury and devastation about capitalism, classism, about “elites” (billionaires) hoarding resources while people starve and even more so, the feminine rage. The Veyra officers may remind you of other real life widely despised presidential lapdogs who wear masks and murder people in the US of A. It really hurts to read because fiction is not so far from fact. The comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale (“The Heart endures” = “Blessed be the Fruit/May the Lord open”, iykyk), The Hunger Games and V for Vendetta make perfect sense to me.
Anyway, something small but meaningful. The characters are in their 30s. It was refreshing.
Okay and that ending. My heart palpitated and then it broke. And then, my jaw dropped and I stayed that way for ages, like one of those clown machines. I genuinely do not think many if any will see it coming because it is a masterclass in pulling the rug out of the reader, in my opinion. And it left me staring at the page saying what the actual fuckity fuck just happened.
And finally, this is cinematic af. So if you are a film or TV person reading this, please option Daggermouth. Immediately, if possible. Because I predict the cultural relevance is going to make this story skyrocket and it will be the kind of project Hollywood industry people will kick themselves over for passing on when it inevitably hits its moment. My advice is for you to be the one who gets ahead of it.
Okay I’m done. To conclude, Daggermouth is dark, political and uncomfortable in the way dystopia should be. It’s a scathing and on point critique of patriarchy, fascism, capitalism and state violence. It is also angry, romantic, spicy (where the spice is earned) and emotionally devastating. Lots of triggers, please mind them [listed here, bottom of the blog post].
Thrilled to hear this has been picked up by a trad publisher.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
The comps say Handmaid’s Tale x V for Vendetta x Hunger Games with true enemies to lovers and a marriage of inconvenience. 🏃🏽♀️
January 10, 2026
I feel like I just wasted a lot of my time.
Normally when I don't enjoy a book, I find a one or two star review that matches my experience, I read it, I feel vindicated, I move on. There are currently no such reviews for this book, thus I feel obligated to write one.
To begin, I must say that this Author clearly can write well, has excellent command of language, and an interesting overall concept, so I allowed an extra star for this. I still read the entire book because I was determined to give it the benefit of the doubt, and that is honestly a win. I WANTED to like this book.
Additionally, I usually forgive spelling errors and/or typos, but this one had a lot. I started reporting them after I let a bunch slide. Gave me something fun to do while trying to drag my way through the story.
The plot does not make sense, I'm afraid. If Maximus had planned all along to wipe out the outer rings, he could have just done it. He didn't need to plant Brooker, he didn't need to lure in Shadera, he CERTAINLY did not need to force Greyson to marry her. He was an incomprehensible caricature of evil for the sake of evil with no real motivation or rhythm to his actions. The overt bludgeoning we received in lieu of characterisation would necessitate the following:
- Maximus would have killed Mikel and probably Elara as soon as he discovered their affair. In fact, he probably would have had Mikel killed as soon as he vowed with Elara purely for being her former lover.
- If he didn't do that, he for sure would have killed them all once he figured out that Greyson wasn't his.
- Once schmucky mcgee and her family witnessed Greyson with his mask off, Maximus, man we were led to believe he was, would have JUST KILLED THEM. 'Oh now he has to take the vow because of the loophole' no. Simply kill the witnesses. Is this your first day as an evil dictator?
- At the end he complains that he would have just kept Shadera imprisoned in order to manipulate Jameson and Jaeger, but because of Greyson removing his mask he had to change tactics. No, you didn't. Just be an evil dictator about it? This particular little mechanism felt to me like the author reeeally wanted to write a forced proximity, arranged marriage type situation and tried to strongarm the plot to comply.
- Maximus had people executed for relationships across the rings. Why would Greyson unmasking suddenly override this law?
Other issues I have:
- Omniscient Maximus became tedious. I'm all for villains being one step ahead but there's only so many gloating reveals I can tolerate.
- The political benefit to forcing Shadera and Greyson to vow is insultingly flimsy. Why would you need to send a message to the boundary when you're on the brink of fully exterminating the boundary anyway?!
- lots of telling instead of showing. For example, we could have easily ascertained that Maximus was a raging misogynist without needing to be so on the nose by calling women 'lesser' and 'lower' and 'subservient'. Men who actually believe these things just don't talk like that. I just felt like I was being hit over the head with things that should have been more subtle, and it made me as a reader feel like the Author had no faith whatsoever in my comprehension skills.
- Making gang r@pe part of the vow ceremony seemed like it was just for shock value. There is no way that Lira just happened to discover some paperwork at the last minute that said 'by the way, during the consummation ceremony, all the top government officials get to have a go', and this was not something that anyone had ever mentioned? Especially when it was apparently common knowledge that the couple would go into the chambers and be *watched* for the first bit. I understand the Author was attempting to show how women were treated, and that the fear and continued abuse kept them quiet about it, but it was stated that it was done IN FRONT OF THE HUSBANDS WHO WERE FORCED TO WATCH. Even in a society where married women are not allowed to speak, surely the men would discuss this particular experience amongst themselves.
- We are told that purity is sooo highly valued for Elite women and yet Maximus pimps out Lira to his buddies. Yes, it's to show he's a monster, and to give Lira motivation blah blah. It doesn't make sense. Another case of being told something that doesn't align with what we're shown.
- Lira runs after the family dinner and hides out with Callum. She also attends rebel meetings. Maximus says he knows where she is (pesky omniscient Maximus) but for some reason she's allowed to pick Shadera's wedding dress, leave notes and medicine in the apartment, AND she's on the platform, running the ceremony and the media feeds?! You're telling me Maximus wouldn't have had the Veyra drag her ass back, and either imprisoned her or executed her? No?
- Maximus is so determined for this vow to happen. He forces Greyson and Shadera to live together to 'get to know each other' but then acts like it's some horror that Greyson may have slept with her? My brother, you are making them get married.
- Maximus, who is all about control, image, propaganda, had Shadera and Greyson beaten right before the vow ceremony. They, particularly Shadera, are visibly injured. Why would he want that?! I kept expecting some kind of elite healing technology or at least a makeup team but no, apparently he needs to force a vow for appearances and simultaneously doesn't care about appearances. Baffling.
- There's just a significant lack of medical care going on. Yes, it's supposed to be a 'dark' story full of violence and whatnot but Shadera takes a fair few EXTREME beatings in an incredibly short window of time, either has no access to or refuses medical help, and beyond some wincing and/or blacking out when getting dressed or undressed, it's never again ADdressed. Yeah she's a badass, but the human body does in fact have limits.
- Why would the vow ceremony in the Heart be completely different to whatever goes on in the outer rings? Greyson explains it to Shadera like she's never heard of the concept before. She's a mercenary who sneaks into the Heart for contracts, and she's banging the top spy in the outer rings, yet she doesn't know anything about the very public Heart vow ceremonies?! Do people in the outer rings not get married?
- The Callum/Lira love scene dragged for what seemed like 83 pages. The whole book seemed far longer than necessary, to be fair, but that scene in particular dragged. Also, we had been told that they had been lovers five years prior, and yet Callum was talking like it was their first time. It sort of felt like the scene had originally been written as a 'first time' scene, and then the Author went back and wrote that they had been together before, but forgot to adjust the spicy bit.
- Lira's abuse was really just plonked in out of nowhere. I would have expected that to have had some kind of impact on her intimacy with Callum but there's no connection between the two. I feel it disrespected the gravity of what she went through, and definitely made it seem like the scene between her and Callum was just there for the sake of it.
- Speaking of sex for the sake of it, what the hell was the point of Greyson's scene with the prostitute? Friend with benefits?!?? Plot device to inspire jealousy in Shadera later???? I feel like being rough with a sex worker doesn't line up with who Greyson is supposed to be. It's giving 'I have no say in my life so I take it out on someone I see as lower than myself so I can have a little power trip and feel in control for once' and that is NOT a good look for our MMC.
- Shadera's intimate scene with Jameson makes a tiny bit more sense because we get to see how he's in love with her but she really isn't in love with him. SO THEN WHY does she act like he means so much more to her once she is threatened by bloody Omniscient Maximus?
- Schmucky Mcgee (Greyson's original fiancee, so irrelevant I can't remember her name) and her family are never mentioned again. For people that would have allegedly caused significant problems, they certainly disappeared perfectly fine from the narrative.
- The masks make no sense. There, I said it. 'Oh but it's a metaphor for loss of identity and conforming and being oppressed' so then why is it the elite only that are required to wear them?! Especially in such a Big Brother Is Watching You ass society (OMNISCIENT MAXIMUS) surely you'd want to strip people of any kind of privacy or ability to hide. Also shocked nobody was impersonating anyone else at any point, because THEY ALL HAVE BLOODY MASKS.
- The cardinal ring folk don't mask because they're not elite. Unless they're working in the Heart for members of the elite. Then they have to mask. Even though masking is supposed to be a status symbol. Say it with me once again, The Masks Make No Sense!
- Why did so many people have their guns on Maximus, only for each of them to take the time to deliver him a monologue or whatever?! After Shadera and Greyson's little bet I would have thought a bullet would have gone into his skull a LOT faster. Even Elara took her damn time just for the sake of what, a cool reveal? When the platform was overrun with Veyra?? Take the shot from behind the altar, you fool. Should have done it a LOT earlier.
I am beyond frustrated.
I think, if you enjoyed Powerless, but wanted something a bit darker, more violent, and spicy, you might enjoy this book.
I did not enjoy Powerless.
Normally when I don't enjoy a book, I find a one or two star review that matches my experience, I read it, I feel vindicated, I move on. There are currently no such reviews for this book, thus I feel obligated to write one.
To begin, I must say that this Author clearly can write well, has excellent command of language, and an interesting overall concept, so I allowed an extra star for this. I still read the entire book because I was determined to give it the benefit of the doubt, and that is honestly a win. I WANTED to like this book.
Additionally, I usually forgive spelling errors and/or typos, but this one had a lot. I started reporting them after I let a bunch slide. Gave me something fun to do while trying to drag my way through the story.
The plot does not make sense, I'm afraid. If Maximus had planned all along to wipe out the outer rings, he could have just done it. He didn't need to plant Brooker, he didn't need to lure in Shadera, he CERTAINLY did not need to force Greyson to marry her. He was an incomprehensible caricature of evil for the sake of evil with no real motivation or rhythm to his actions. The overt bludgeoning we received in lieu of characterisation would necessitate the following:
- Maximus would have killed Mikel and probably Elara as soon as he discovered their affair. In fact, he probably would have had Mikel killed as soon as he vowed with Elara purely for being her former lover.
- If he didn't do that, he for sure would have killed them all once he figured out that Greyson wasn't his.
- Once schmucky mcgee and her family witnessed Greyson with his mask off, Maximus, man we were led to believe he was, would have JUST KILLED THEM. 'Oh now he has to take the vow because of the loophole' no. Simply kill the witnesses. Is this your first day as an evil dictator?
- At the end he complains that he would have just kept Shadera imprisoned in order to manipulate Jameson and Jaeger, but because of Greyson removing his mask he had to change tactics. No, you didn't. Just be an evil dictator about it? This particular little mechanism felt to me like the author reeeally wanted to write a forced proximity, arranged marriage type situation and tried to strongarm the plot to comply.
- Maximus had people executed for relationships across the rings. Why would Greyson unmasking suddenly override this law?
Other issues I have:
- Omniscient Maximus became tedious. I'm all for villains being one step ahead but there's only so many gloating reveals I can tolerate.
- The political benefit to forcing Shadera and Greyson to vow is insultingly flimsy. Why would you need to send a message to the boundary when you're on the brink of fully exterminating the boundary anyway?!
- lots of telling instead of showing. For example, we could have easily ascertained that Maximus was a raging misogynist without needing to be so on the nose by calling women 'lesser' and 'lower' and 'subservient'. Men who actually believe these things just don't talk like that. I just felt like I was being hit over the head with things that should have been more subtle, and it made me as a reader feel like the Author had no faith whatsoever in my comprehension skills.
- Making gang r@pe part of the vow ceremony seemed like it was just for shock value. There is no way that Lira just happened to discover some paperwork at the last minute that said 'by the way, during the consummation ceremony, all the top government officials get to have a go', and this was not something that anyone had ever mentioned? Especially when it was apparently common knowledge that the couple would go into the chambers and be *watched* for the first bit. I understand the Author was attempting to show how women were treated, and that the fear and continued abuse kept them quiet about it, but it was stated that it was done IN FRONT OF THE HUSBANDS WHO WERE FORCED TO WATCH. Even in a society where married women are not allowed to speak, surely the men would discuss this particular experience amongst themselves.
- We are told that purity is sooo highly valued for Elite women and yet Maximus pimps out Lira to his buddies. Yes, it's to show he's a monster, and to give Lira motivation blah blah. It doesn't make sense. Another case of being told something that doesn't align with what we're shown.
- Lira runs after the family dinner and hides out with Callum. She also attends rebel meetings. Maximus says he knows where she is (pesky omniscient Maximus) but for some reason she's allowed to pick Shadera's wedding dress, leave notes and medicine in the apartment, AND she's on the platform, running the ceremony and the media feeds?! You're telling me Maximus wouldn't have had the Veyra drag her ass back, and either imprisoned her or executed her? No?
- Maximus is so determined for this vow to happen. He forces Greyson and Shadera to live together to 'get to know each other' but then acts like it's some horror that Greyson may have slept with her? My brother, you are making them get married.
- Maximus, who is all about control, image, propaganda, had Shadera and Greyson beaten right before the vow ceremony. They, particularly Shadera, are visibly injured. Why would he want that?! I kept expecting some kind of elite healing technology or at least a makeup team but no, apparently he needs to force a vow for appearances and simultaneously doesn't care about appearances. Baffling.
- There's just a significant lack of medical care going on. Yes, it's supposed to be a 'dark' story full of violence and whatnot but Shadera takes a fair few EXTREME beatings in an incredibly short window of time, either has no access to or refuses medical help, and beyond some wincing and/or blacking out when getting dressed or undressed, it's never again ADdressed. Yeah she's a badass, but the human body does in fact have limits.
- Why would the vow ceremony in the Heart be completely different to whatever goes on in the outer rings? Greyson explains it to Shadera like she's never heard of the concept before. She's a mercenary who sneaks into the Heart for contracts, and she's banging the top spy in the outer rings, yet she doesn't know anything about the very public Heart vow ceremonies?! Do people in the outer rings not get married?
- The Callum/Lira love scene dragged for what seemed like 83 pages. The whole book seemed far longer than necessary, to be fair, but that scene in particular dragged. Also, we had been told that they had been lovers five years prior, and yet Callum was talking like it was their first time. It sort of felt like the scene had originally been written as a 'first time' scene, and then the Author went back and wrote that they had been together before, but forgot to adjust the spicy bit.
- Lira's abuse was really just plonked in out of nowhere. I would have expected that to have had some kind of impact on her intimacy with Callum but there's no connection between the two. I feel it disrespected the gravity of what she went through, and definitely made it seem like the scene between her and Callum was just there for the sake of it.
- Speaking of sex for the sake of it, what the hell was the point of Greyson's scene with the prostitute? Friend with benefits?!?? Plot device to inspire jealousy in Shadera later???? I feel like being rough with a sex worker doesn't line up with who Greyson is supposed to be. It's giving 'I have no say in my life so I take it out on someone I see as lower than myself so I can have a little power trip and feel in control for once' and that is NOT a good look for our MMC.
- Shadera's intimate scene with Jameson makes a tiny bit more sense because we get to see how he's in love with her but she really isn't in love with him. SO THEN WHY does she act like he means so much more to her once she is threatened by bloody Omniscient Maximus?
- Schmucky Mcgee (Greyson's original fiancee, so irrelevant I can't remember her name) and her family are never mentioned again. For people that would have allegedly caused significant problems, they certainly disappeared perfectly fine from the narrative.
- The masks make no sense. There, I said it. 'Oh but it's a metaphor for loss of identity and conforming and being oppressed' so then why is it the elite only that are required to wear them?! Especially in such a Big Brother Is Watching You ass society (OMNISCIENT MAXIMUS) surely you'd want to strip people of any kind of privacy or ability to hide. Also shocked nobody was impersonating anyone else at any point, because THEY ALL HAVE BLOODY MASKS.
- The cardinal ring folk don't mask because they're not elite. Unless they're working in the Heart for members of the elite. Then they have to mask. Even though masking is supposed to be a status symbol. Say it with me once again, The Masks Make No Sense!
- Why did so many people have their guns on Maximus, only for each of them to take the time to deliver him a monologue or whatever?! After Shadera and Greyson's little bet I would have thought a bullet would have gone into his skull a LOT faster. Even Elara took her damn time just for the sake of what, a cool reveal? When the platform was overrun with Veyra?? Take the shot from behind the altar, you fool. Should have done it a LOT earlier.
I am beyond frustrated.
I think, if you enjoyed Powerless, but wanted something a bit darker, more violent, and spicy, you might enjoy this book.
I did not enjoy Powerless.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 5, 2026
Me when I start a fantasy and see buildings and technology:
At one point I felt like I was reading 'The inheritance games' because us having a character named Grayson, the other named Jameson, not to mention them also being involved in a love triangle 😭 but those were the only similarities.
I must say this book did start off a bit slow and confusing, but that is honestly how every fantasy book starts off, but with each page I got more hooked and more invested. I did have problems with this book (very few), but I'm rating it based on vibes, and the vibes were 🤌 the way the dystopian elements were integrated into this world was brilliant, the cruel depiction of a society with no morals, divided by class, and a society where women are treated in inhumane ways was spot on. I felt so disgusted by everything, and honestly that's sort of a parallel to the real world, if you follow the news, you'd know. As for the writing, it was bombastic, the layering of the entire world, the plot, the characters were top notch. It honestly felt like a breeze, which honestly made one of the things I despise die down (long ass chapters). Some of the chapters were 40 pages long on MY ebook, but I honestly finished it like that 🫰 and licked my fingers because book 2 wasn't out, and I had to savour it.
One more reason why I enjoyed it was because it's so hard to find a book that me and roxy can binge and finish and LOVEE while also updating each other constantlyy, but this one 👏👏 made us scream, rant, update, and most of all, it made us binge the entire thing!! It's also because we get annoyed so easily and start hating 😭 so this made us not hate anything and loveee the world = get attached to the characters, so that was good.
Shade, had me hooked from the very first page. Badass and set to take down a corrupt regime 🫦 say no more. If you want female rage, read this! It was told through multiple point of views, and each point of view made the bigger picture even more conflicting. I particularly enjoyed reading her point of view a lot. She gave zero fucks, the way she fought was amazing!! I loved how she reacted in most of the situations despite her being a hothead, it made things so much more exciting since you would not know what she would do next 😭 so we were kept on edge, and I loved that. Greyson, pheww 🫦 I love how my favorite characters kept on switching, and the book went to its peak when Greyson was my favorite character again. His point of view contradicted Shaderas, but it was so well written, I knew what was going to happen and how it was going to happen. So, I was super excited to see those turn of events unfold. The quotes that this man dropped? DIVINE!! His patience and resilience to work in a regime to which his morals differed was so well written. Him being the heir and also the executioner set my favorite trope in place 😋
Callum, MYSHAYLLAAAAA!! he was perfect, also my favorite character for the majority of the book, he was kind of sweet but A MAN!!! I loved how complex he was and how heavily integrated into the plot he was, and how he had several roles. His entire sequence with Lila has to be my favorite, it just elevated the book more, like it actually makes you crave for more because you are being fed so many things but they are so good that you just want more and more of it, which is what I want in my books. Lila, brooo she was so damn cunning, like the way she handled everything was so insanely brilliant, like I always knew she was working on something behind the scenes but bro the things that she pulled were so damn amazing, like she was the real MVP!! exposed so much, did so much damage and saved Shade from the most horrific fate, I loved her character because she was strong and smart but those were not the only two qualities that she relied on, there were so many and the complexities layered throughout her arc were 🤌
Jameson, look! before you guys come at me- I saw Jameson/Greyson, got war flashbacks of the inheritance games and my mind immediately went to how I was team Jameson, so yk I started to like him 🫣 but tbh he did nothing bad and he's actually a really good character, has so much potential that can be used in the following book, I just dont want it to be used in a love triangle. Maximus, absolutely vile and disgusting, he was repulsive. Like I gag when I even think about him. He was so damn cruel and the things that he did?? the whole consummation thing just kept on reminding me of the real world cases that were going on, truly horrific and perfectly captured.
Romance, delicious. I ate it up!! It was so well written, like there is spice scattered throughout the book and if the author didn't handle it well, I'm sure it would have all felt very insta lusty but it didn't here. The enemies to lovers was used to its full potential. The predator x prey trope worked well both ways lmao, I loved how everything transitioned between Shade and Greyson. It was so fun to read, the hate sex was 🫦 As for Lila and Callum, I lowkey liked their domestic (?) scenes more, their love wasn't fiery or intense as Shade or Greyson, but it stood on its own and had its own moments that worked so well together. The entire romantic arc between these four characters worked in the book's favour.
Plot, so well managed, so intricate, well thought and beautifully layered. It was filled with twists and turns and had me on the edge of my seat, like there were some moments that you would not anticipate, it wasn't rushed, it handled the dystopian element really well. The worldbuilding was contributed to as well (although it wasn't as prominent) but some scenes really did shock me. I did predict that one main twist which the main conflict is based on, but the last one had my jaw on the floor, like I did not expect that in a million years. I was shooketh!! It was very well executed!!
Overall, for a first in a series and a debut (?) it was brilliant.
__
SOOOOOO EXCITED to start this!! I have heard nothing but amazing things about it.
Buddy reading with Roxy
At one point I felt like I was reading 'The inheritance games' because us having a character named Grayson, the other named Jameson, not to mention them also being involved in a love triangle 😭 but those were the only similarities.
I must say this book did start off a bit slow and confusing, but that is honestly how every fantasy book starts off, but with each page I got more hooked and more invested. I did have problems with this book (very few), but I'm rating it based on vibes, and the vibes were 🤌 the way the dystopian elements were integrated into this world was brilliant, the cruel depiction of a society with no morals, divided by class, and a society where women are treated in inhumane ways was spot on. I felt so disgusted by everything, and honestly that's sort of a parallel to the real world, if you follow the news, you'd know. As for the writing, it was bombastic, the layering of the entire world, the plot, the characters were top notch. It honestly felt like a breeze, which honestly made one of the things I despise die down (long ass chapters). Some of the chapters were 40 pages long on MY ebook, but I honestly finished it like that 🫰 and licked my fingers because book 2 wasn't out, and I had to savour it.
One more reason why I enjoyed it was because it's so hard to find a book that me and roxy can binge and finish and LOVEE while also updating each other constantlyy, but this one 👏👏 made us scream, rant, update, and most of all, it made us binge the entire thing!! It's also because we get annoyed so easily and start hating 😭 so this made us not hate anything and loveee the world = get attached to the characters, so that was good.
Shade, had me hooked from the very first page. Badass and set to take down a corrupt regime 🫦 say no more. If you want female rage, read this! It was told through multiple point of views, and each point of view made the bigger picture even more conflicting. I particularly enjoyed reading her point of view a lot. She gave zero fucks, the way she fought was amazing!! I loved how she reacted in most of the situations despite her being a hothead, it made things so much more exciting since you would not know what she would do next 😭 so we were kept on edge, and I loved that. Greyson, pheww 🫦 I love how my favorite characters kept on switching, and the book went to its peak when Greyson was my favorite character again. His point of view contradicted Shaderas, but it was so well written, I knew what was going to happen and how it was going to happen. So, I was super excited to see those turn of events unfold. The quotes that this man dropped? DIVINE!! His patience and resilience to work in a regime to which his morals differed was so well written. Him being the heir and also the executioner set my favorite trope in place 😋
Callum, MYSHAYLLAAAAA!! he was perfect, also my favorite character for the majority of the book, he was kind of sweet but A MAN!!! I loved how complex he was and how heavily integrated into the plot he was, and how he had several roles. His entire sequence with Lila has to be my favorite, it just elevated the book more, like it actually makes you crave for more because you are being fed so many things but they are so good that you just want more and more of it, which is what I want in my books. Lila, brooo she was so damn cunning, like the way she handled everything was so insanely brilliant, like I always knew she was working on something behind the scenes but bro the things that she pulled were so damn amazing, like she was the real MVP!! exposed so much, did so much damage and saved Shade from the most horrific fate, I loved her character because she was strong and smart but those were not the only two qualities that she relied on, there were so many and the complexities layered throughout her arc were 🤌
Jameson, look! before you guys come at me- I saw Jameson/Greyson, got war flashbacks of the inheritance games and my mind immediately went to how I was team Jameson, so yk I started to like him 🫣 but tbh he did nothing bad and he's actually a really good character, has so much potential that can be used in the following book, I just dont want it to be used in a love triangle. Maximus, absolutely vile and disgusting, he was repulsive. Like I gag when I even think about him. He was so damn cruel and the things that he did?? the whole consummation thing just kept on reminding me of the real world cases that were going on, truly horrific and perfectly captured.
Romance, delicious. I ate it up!! It was so well written, like there is spice scattered throughout the book and if the author didn't handle it well, I'm sure it would have all felt very insta lusty but it didn't here. The enemies to lovers was used to its full potential. The predator x prey trope worked well both ways lmao, I loved how everything transitioned between Shade and Greyson. It was so fun to read, the hate sex was 🫦 As for Lila and Callum, I lowkey liked their domestic (?) scenes more, their love wasn't fiery or intense as Shade or Greyson, but it stood on its own and had its own moments that worked so well together. The entire romantic arc between these four characters worked in the book's favour.
Plot, so well managed, so intricate, well thought and beautifully layered. It was filled with twists and turns and had me on the edge of my seat, like there were some moments that you would not anticipate, it wasn't rushed, it handled the dystopian element really well. The worldbuilding was contributed to as well (although it wasn't as prominent) but some scenes really did shock me. I did predict that one main twist which the main conflict is based on, but the last one had my jaw on the floor, like I did not expect that in a million years. I was shooketh!! It was very well executed!!
Overall, for a first in a series and a debut (?) it was brilliant.
__
SOOOOOO EXCITED to start this!! I have heard nothing but amazing things about it.
Buddy reading with Roxy
February 14, 2026
This book lived up to hype. Not a normal read for me buttttttt
6⭐️
Also there is a sequel to this?? After that ending?? Excited to see where it goes
6/5
PS I’m not normally into tropes but this is how you do enemies to lovers
6⭐️
Also there is a sequel to this?? After that ending?? Excited to see where it goes
6/5
PS I’m not normally into tropes but this is how you do enemies to lovers
January 31, 2026
THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE A DYSTOPIAN ROMANCE!! This story had so many layers, the characters had so much depth, the world, the system, everything H.M. Wolfe has done in this book has been executed in such a dark, beautiful, devastating way. I loved that the third person POV allowed for so many twists and revelations that you won’t see coming. 5🌟
April 19, 2026
Believe me when I say this is true CONCRETE enemies to lovers. I rarely ever award this title to books but I’m being so serious when I say these two wanna k!ll each other so bad 😭🙏
The way they legit get this sick satisfaction when they put a bullet in each other OHMAGOD I’m literally feeling that rush just thinking about the fact I’ve found my otp couple for the E2L trope 💋🎀
This is the first book in a long fucking while that’s made me want annotate the fuck out of it. Like my copy has so many tabs it litch feels like I’ve come back from the dead I’m obsessed.
The characters, the setting, the story, the plot, the secrecy, the ACTUAL twists that are WORTH their weight, the chemistry, the angst, the tension, the action, the heavy and hard hitting themes. Everything this book represents, everything this book IS made me fall back in love with reading.
The last 20% had me gasping so hard I almost vacuumed the air outta my room. No bc I don’t remember the last time my throat was so dry from gasping every five minutes 😭🤚
The characters:
Shadera/Shade — what a woman. What a power house. Love her. I love this stubborn, incredible, sharp, resilient, beautiful, strong, compassionate woman. She is that complex character I look for in my books. The one that has to grapple with facts about herself she hands discovered be it physical or emotional. I revelled in every second of her pov. Especially her murderous thoughts of mr executioner 😝😝
Greyson — listen… just let me wife him up real good 👹👹 I only need a lifetime okay I promise!!!!! 😇😇😇💋💋💋
No but seriously he gives daddy but is actually baby girl. He’s my pookie wookie my cutie patootie my princess and if anyone hurts him I will personally stab their eyes with hot forks and feed them to the pigs for breakfast. He must be protected at all costs 😭😩 The shit he’s been thru makes my heart hurttttt ugh I litch just wanna put him in my pocket and hide him from his cruel world.
He’s literally the most adorable hot freaky creature ever. Like how could you not pick him over everyone else? And the way he literally hates himself for liking shade’s personality ugh so delicious.
''If you shoot me," he said, his voice dropping, "it will only make me want to fuck you.''
Jameson fucking Vine — he’s soooooo baby girl ugh I just wanna pinch his cheeks. Like wdym my heart aches for him 💔💔💔 the way he litch makes me wanna reach into the book and give him the most cuddliest most warmth most comfort inducing hug ever for 10000 yearsssss. Ugh. I love this cutie 🧸🎀💗
Lira — adore her. Genuinely so much respect for this amazing brilliant brave woman. Such an incredible personality. Her development as a character was so gratifying, I loved seeing her from different angles. Piecing together the role she played in this book and her potential was amazingly written and honestly hats off to the author.
Callum — tattooed perfection in a crisp suit. A delicacy if you will. my favourite, my beloved, my mans. You will forever be loved, baby. What an impact he had on me and this story. His arc, his development, the role he played has me shaking just thinking about it actually. His love his intelligence his personality everything about him is so yum 😋 like I’m praying (iykyk) on my knees begging like I’ve never begged before for more of this delectable man. I need more of his words more of his everything actually!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mrs author if you’re listening please just do me this favour !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s fascinating reading about how characters react and respond to situations especially ones that are out of their control. So I cannot waittttt to read the next book like genuinely I’m on pins and needles for Python 🙏🙏 I just know it’s gonna destroy me so like just give it to me so I can end this painnnnn.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Incredible. Spectacular. Mind blowing. One of a kind. Unique. Give me 100 more of whatever this was laced with please and thankyewwww 🙏
***
Guys why did it cost me an arm and a leg to acquire the paperback 😭🤚 the lengths I went to for it should be criminal so this better be as good as the hype 🙏
***
Everything about this book sounds incredible and after seeing the reviews I need it in my hands IMMEDIATELY
The way they legit get this sick satisfaction when they put a bullet in each other OHMAGOD I’m literally feeling that rush just thinking about the fact I’ve found my otp couple for the E2L trope 💋🎀
This is the first book in a long fucking while that’s made me want annotate the fuck out of it. Like my copy has so many tabs it litch feels like I’ve come back from the dead I’m obsessed.
The characters, the setting, the story, the plot, the secrecy, the ACTUAL twists that are WORTH their weight, the chemistry, the angst, the tension, the action, the heavy and hard hitting themes. Everything this book represents, everything this book IS made me fall back in love with reading.
The last 20% had me gasping so hard I almost vacuumed the air outta my room. No bc I don’t remember the last time my throat was so dry from gasping every five minutes 😭🤚
The characters:
Shadera/Shade — what a woman. What a power house. Love her. I love this stubborn, incredible, sharp, resilient, beautiful, strong, compassionate woman. She is that complex character I look for in my books. The one that has to grapple with facts about herself she hands discovered be it physical or emotional. I revelled in every second of her pov. Especially her murderous thoughts of mr executioner 😝😝
Greyson — listen… just let me wife him up real good 👹👹 I only need a lifetime okay I promise!!!!! 😇😇😇💋💋💋
No but seriously he gives daddy but is actually baby girl. He’s my pookie wookie my cutie patootie my princess and if anyone hurts him I will personally stab their eyes with hot forks and feed them to the pigs for breakfast. He must be protected at all costs 😭😩 The shit he’s been thru makes my heart hurttttt ugh I litch just wanna put him in my pocket and hide him from his cruel world.
He’s literally the most adorable hot freaky creature ever. Like how could you not pick him over everyone else? And the way he literally hates himself for liking shade’s personality ugh so delicious.
''If you shoot me," he said, his voice dropping, "it will only make me want to fuck you.''
Jameson fucking Vine — he’s soooooo baby girl ugh I just wanna pinch his cheeks. Like wdym my heart aches for him 💔💔💔 the way he litch makes me wanna reach into the book and give him the most cuddliest most warmth most comfort inducing hug ever for 10000 yearsssss. Ugh. I love this cutie 🧸🎀💗
Lira — adore her. Genuinely so much respect for this amazing brilliant brave woman. Such an incredible personality. Her development as a character was so gratifying, I loved seeing her from different angles. Piecing together the role she played in this book and her potential was amazingly written and honestly hats off to the author.
Callum — tattooed perfection in a crisp suit. A delicacy if you will. my favourite, my beloved, my mans. You will forever be loved, baby. What an impact he had on me and this story. His arc, his development, the role he played has me shaking just thinking about it actually. His love his intelligence his personality everything about him is so yum 😋 like I’m praying (iykyk) on my knees begging like I’ve never begged before for more of this delectable man. I need more of his words more of his everything actually!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mrs author if you’re listening please just do me this favour !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s fascinating reading about how characters react and respond to situations especially ones that are out of their control. So I cannot waittttt to read the next book like genuinely I’m on pins and needles for Python 🙏🙏 I just know it’s gonna destroy me so like just give it to me so I can end this painnnnn.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Incredible. Spectacular. Mind blowing. One of a kind. Unique. Give me 100 more of whatever this was laced with please and thankyewwww 🙏
***
Guys why did it cost me an arm and a leg to acquire the paperback 😭🤚 the lengths I went to for it should be criminal so this better be as good as the hype 🙏
***
Everything about this book sounds incredible and after seeing the reviews I need it in my hands IMMEDIATELY
May 19, 2026
I cannot in good conscience rate this any higher than 2 stars. This felt like someone plugged a bad dystopian plot into chat gpt. I am genuinely concerned and beyond confused why this has such a high rating.
You know how when you read enough books, you start to become able to pick up on the books written solely for the sake of shock value? That’s whatever this is. It’s designed to “surprise!” you so much that you fail to see how absolutely outlandish, lazy, poorly written, and nonsensical it is. And honestly the “surprises” left me looking like this 😑 probably because absolutely nothing in this book makes logical sense.
I understand the premise, the plot, the purpose of this (I think?). But this is genuinely just really, really bad. It doesn’t make sense. The plot holes outnumber the page length, which is way too long and could have been cut in half. My willingness to suspend my disbelief died about 20% in. The characters are completely unbearable, not fleshed out, and make decisions based on the dumbest reasons that were very obviously written to shock and distract and nothing more. There is no romance, only poorly written insta lust. This is NOT enemies to lovers, it is ENEMIES TO INSTA-LUST. That is it!!! The romance is so disappointing and ridiculous and utterly unbelievable. Honestly, the entire book is atrocious.
I hate Shadera. She is unbearable, has maybe two personality traits, and is otherwise very, very flat. Greyson is the literary equivalent of a wet towel. I hate literally every character in this book. Maximus is an Austin Powers type villain, i.e. so ridiculous that he is not even a believable fictional character outside the realm of maybe children’s books.
The masks make zero sense. Their only purpose is to give this author/computer (there are parts of this that really do read like bad chat gpt) something to use as an excuse to push the “plot” forward. The plot twists are forced. The writing is BEYOND terrible to the point where maybe AI didn’t have a hand in this bc AI would have actually done a better job. Again, I am sorry to review such a popular book like this but I can’t find one thing redeemable about this other than *maybe* creativity?? But even that is a serious stretch. I like the name daggermouth, so maybe that’s where the extra star comes from.
This is my worst read of 2026 so far. Zero desire to read the next book. If I could return this to books a million I would, however it was a gift. This should have been a DNF. I never want to hear the name shadera again 🥴
You know how when you read enough books, you start to become able to pick up on the books written solely for the sake of shock value? That’s whatever this is. It’s designed to “surprise!” you so much that you fail to see how absolutely outlandish, lazy, poorly written, and nonsensical it is. And honestly the “surprises” left me looking like this 😑 probably because absolutely nothing in this book makes logical sense.
I understand the premise, the plot, the purpose of this (I think?). But this is genuinely just really, really bad. It doesn’t make sense. The plot holes outnumber the page length, which is way too long and could have been cut in half. My willingness to suspend my disbelief died about 20% in. The characters are completely unbearable, not fleshed out, and make decisions based on the dumbest reasons that were very obviously written to shock and distract and nothing more. There is no romance, only poorly written insta lust. This is NOT enemies to lovers, it is ENEMIES TO INSTA-LUST. That is it!!! The romance is so disappointing and ridiculous and utterly unbelievable. Honestly, the entire book is atrocious.
I hate Shadera. She is unbearable, has maybe two personality traits, and is otherwise very, very flat. Greyson is the literary equivalent of a wet towel. I hate literally every character in this book. Maximus is an Austin Powers type villain, i.e. so ridiculous that he is not even a believable fictional character outside the realm of maybe children’s books.
The masks make zero sense. Their only purpose is to give this author/computer (there are parts of this that really do read like bad chat gpt) something to use as an excuse to push the “plot” forward. The plot twists are forced. The writing is BEYOND terrible to the point where maybe AI didn’t have a hand in this bc AI would have actually done a better job. Again, I am sorry to review such a popular book like this but I can’t find one thing redeemable about this other than *maybe* creativity?? But even that is a serious stretch. I like the name daggermouth, so maybe that’s where the extra star comes from.
This is my worst read of 2026 so far. Zero desire to read the next book. If I could return this to books a million I would, however it was a gift. This should have been a DNF. I never want to hear the name shadera again 🥴
March 9, 2026
3.85 ⭐️
Omg… what was THAT?? 😨👀 Hello?? And it ended like that??? Definitely worth the hype 🙂↕️🫂
I’m honestly flabbergasted 😭 WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? The last 10% flew by and NO, I’M NOT OKAY 😭 CUZ WDYM!?!? YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS, RIGHT??? 😭🫂 I need those OBX miracles to happen here too 🤧🫠
I’m such a mess right now that I don’t even know what to write 😭 This review is definitely my emotions speaking.
But wow, this book was GOOD 👀 It grabbed my attention right from the start. I wasn’t expecting to get hooked immediately, but woah, it really did 🙂↕️
And let me tell you: don’t trust anyone 😭 The person you think is one thing might actually be something completely different 👀 (in both good and bad ways). This book seriously played with my mind and emotions 😭 Like hello?? Huh?? When did that happen?? Was I sleeping that time?? Apparently not, but Miss Author really played me 😭
Greyson Serel 👀 Hey!! 🤭 Stawp, that man is so good 👀 like YES GAWD YES!!! 🙂↕️ Sir passed me by and took my soul in a second and I didn’t even notice 😔 but am I regretting it!??! Sorry, “no” isn’t an option, I fear 🤭 Umm… do that again please 👀 (wow, please ignore my freaky side 💀).
Then comes my diva Shadera 👀 Lowk wanna salute this girl 🙂↕️ and she deserves more than that. That girl also passed me by and took my heart in a second and I didn’t even realize 🤭 Like ma’am, it’s all yours already 🙂↕️
Talking of divas, how dare I not mention Lira Serel?? 👀 Sorry, I apologize 😔 Make me yours please 🙂↕️ Stoppp, I’m in love with her 🤭 Her character is written so well, and when the past was revealed and the rage I felt??? THE RAGE WAS ALL IN CAPS. I really wanted to jump into that book and the torture I’d have inflicted upon them?? They’d regret ever doing that to her.
Now, let’s talk (or more like cry) about Callum. He’s my favorite 🙂↕️ Maybe… more than Greyson?? Idk why the hell I’m putting question marks — he’s definitely my favorite, more than Greyson 🙂↕️ But y’all 😭 OMG!!! I can’t- let’s just go to another character 🫂🫠😭
Jameson 👀 I was lowk sad cuz Jameson and Shadera looked so perfectly together 🥹 But at the same time, Greyson and Shadera also looked perfectly together 😭 But when the ending came, things started making some sense 👀 and I think I might like that alternative too 🙂↕️ (if I’m right).
Overall, I had such a good time with this one 🥹🥹 I’d have given it 4 stars, but I’m not because of one character. You’ll know once you read the book 😭🫂 Such a good read.
Dystopian romance is usually my least favorite genre, but this one is definitely an exception 🙂↕️
Yea, that’s it guys. Love y’all 🫶🖤♥️💙
———————————
❤︎ pre-read ❤︎
Let’s see what all the hype is about 👀 It better not disappoint!!! 😭🫂
Omg… what was THAT?? 😨👀 Hello?? And it ended like that??? Definitely worth the hype 🙂↕️🫂
I’m honestly flabbergasted 😭 WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? The last 10% flew by and NO, I’M NOT OKAY 😭 CUZ WDYM!?!? YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS, RIGHT??? 😭🫂 I need those OBX miracles to happen here too 🤧🫠
I’m such a mess right now that I don’t even know what to write 😭 This review is definitely my emotions speaking.
But wow, this book was GOOD 👀 It grabbed my attention right from the start. I wasn’t expecting to get hooked immediately, but woah, it really did 🙂↕️
And let me tell you: don’t trust anyone 😭 The person you think is one thing might actually be something completely different 👀 (in both good and bad ways). This book seriously played with my mind and emotions 😭 Like hello?? Huh?? When did that happen?? Was I sleeping that time?? Apparently not, but Miss Author really played me 😭
Greyson Serel 👀 Hey!! 🤭 Stawp, that man is so good 👀 like YES GAWD YES!!! 🙂↕️ Sir passed me by and took my soul in a second and I didn’t even notice 😔 but am I regretting it!??! Sorry, “no” isn’t an option, I fear 🤭 Umm… do that again please 👀 (wow, please ignore my freaky side 💀).
Then comes my diva Shadera 👀 Lowk wanna salute this girl 🙂↕️ and she deserves more than that. That girl also passed me by and took my heart in a second and I didn’t even realize 🤭 Like ma’am, it’s all yours already 🙂↕️
Talking of divas, how dare I not mention Lira Serel?? 👀 Sorry, I apologize 😔 Make me yours please 🙂↕️ Stoppp, I’m in love with her 🤭 Her character is written so well, and when the past was revealed and the rage I felt??? THE RAGE WAS ALL IN CAPS. I really wanted to jump into that book and the torture I’d have inflicted upon them?? They’d regret ever doing that to her.
Now, let’s talk (or more like cry) about Callum. He’s my favorite 🙂↕️ Maybe… more than Greyson?? Idk why the hell I’m putting question marks — he’s definitely my favorite, more than Greyson 🙂↕️ But y’all 😭 OMG!!! I can’t- let’s just go to another character 🫂🫠😭
Jameson 👀 I was lowk sad cuz Jameson and Shadera looked so perfectly together 🥹 But at the same time, Greyson and Shadera also looked perfectly together 😭 But when the ending came, things started making some sense 👀 and I think I might like that alternative too 🙂↕️ (if I’m right).
Overall, I had such a good time with this one 🥹🥹 I’d have given it 4 stars, but I’m not because of one character. You’ll know once you read the book 😭🫂 Such a good read.
Dystopian romance is usually my least favorite genre, but this one is definitely an exception 🙂↕️
Yea, that’s it guys. Love y’all 🫶🖤♥️💙
———————————
❤︎ pre-read ❤︎
Let’s see what all the hype is about 👀 It better not disappoint!!! 😭🫂
March 19, 2026
Someone has to say it: the masks do not make sense. 🙃
December 19, 2025
’To the system that thought it could grind us down. That thought it could silence and erase us. We are the power. Our eyes are open.’
Okay yeah the hype is real because that was so good! AFTER THAT ENDING?! 4.5 ⭐️
This is dark dystopian romance with true enemies to lovers!! I had full body chills towards the end of this book, alongside every single plot twist throwing me into a spiral of ‘what the fucks’!
If you want to feel pure rage towards a system that has been setup to oppress and control anyone who doesn't fit into a 'ring of wealth' - to force women into submission, and in general want to feel nothing but loathing towards their ideals and the leaders at the head of it - you gotta pick this up!
Shadera & Greyson aren't a watered down version of enemies to lovers. They literally try to unalive each other on multiple occasions and have personal reasons to hate each other. Their dynamic was done so well with a forced marriage of inconvenience, slow burn, and a reluctance to form some sort of mutual ground. They are both morally grey and I LOVE that. Both layered with different forms of trauma and although they have different experiences from the world they live in, they still find themselves victims of the same harsh and cruel dictator.
Sahera is a strong FMC who isn't afraid to fight for a better world, for fairness and equality - a badass woman working her way through taking these trash ass men down, one by one. I support.
Greyson, oh my sweet, broody, grumpy and tortured man. A true morally grey mmc that you will fall for in an instant. I have emotional damage thinking about him.
The side characters are fleshed out so well and I LOVED the multi-pov. Each character is so well developed.
There is more than one romance plot to fall into and trust me when I say you’ll be weak. Friends to lovers, second chance my goddd, send help.
Callum Thane 😮💨 I am in love with this man.
Then Lira may be my favourite character. This woman has endured horrific things and still stands strong. I cried for her and I was in awe of her strength and resilience.
“I’m a woman in a system designed to grind us down into nothing, to strip us of our worth and dignity and rights. I’ve survived that system and it didn’t make me weak or submissive, it made me angry. So fucking angry that sometimes I can barely breathe through it.”
Overall this book not only screams feminine rage but as a reader you feel it too. I was beyond angry at the similarities this book showcases vs the real world we live in. The author did an incredible job on this front. I am literally ready to ride at dawn.
Welcome To The Revolution.
I will say there were times where I wasn't as invested - but never in a bad way. And as much as I loved Shadera and Greyson's relationship, I do wish we had a few more moments for them to develop together romantically, so we could have had a bit more depth. However I’m so confident we will get more from book 2!
These are my only reasons for not having that 5 star feeling but honestly, no complaints at all - just observations from my personal perspective. Honestly this was a solid 4 star read for me but the ending really ramped everything up! I had to bump my rating up.
So yeah, that ending HAS ME SPRIALING. THAT IS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING AT ALL. This is a book where you turn to last page in shock and then see ‘acknowledgments’ - NO. I will stand firm on my choice to remain delulu until book 2. I must protect my peace from that emotional devastation I just endured.
“Beautiful things are often built on ugly foundations.”
______________
pre-read: the way everyone is screaming about this book… let me get in on that action 🕺🏼dark dystopian fantasy with feminine rage? Hell yah.
Okay yeah the hype is real because that was so good! AFTER THAT ENDING?! 4.5 ⭐️
This is dark dystopian romance with true enemies to lovers!! I had full body chills towards the end of this book, alongside every single plot twist throwing me into a spiral of ‘what the fucks’!
If you want to feel pure rage towards a system that has been setup to oppress and control anyone who doesn't fit into a 'ring of wealth' - to force women into submission, and in general want to feel nothing but loathing towards their ideals and the leaders at the head of it - you gotta pick this up!
Shadera & Greyson aren't a watered down version of enemies to lovers. They literally try to unalive each other on multiple occasions and have personal reasons to hate each other. Their dynamic was done so well with a forced marriage of inconvenience, slow burn, and a reluctance to form some sort of mutual ground. They are both morally grey and I LOVE that. Both layered with different forms of trauma and although they have different experiences from the world they live in, they still find themselves victims of the same harsh and cruel dictator.
Sahera is a strong FMC who isn't afraid to fight for a better world, for fairness and equality - a badass woman working her way through taking these trash ass men down, one by one. I support.
Greyson, oh my sweet, broody, grumpy and tortured man. A true morally grey mmc that you will fall for in an instant. I have emotional damage thinking about him.
The side characters are fleshed out so well and I LOVED the multi-pov. Each character is so well developed.
There is more than one romance plot to fall into and trust me when I say you’ll be weak. Friends to lovers, second chance my goddd, send help.
Callum Thane 😮💨 I am in love with this man.
Then Lira may be my favourite character. This woman has endured horrific things and still stands strong. I cried for her and I was in awe of her strength and resilience.
“I’m a woman in a system designed to grind us down into nothing, to strip us of our worth and dignity and rights. I’ve survived that system and it didn’t make me weak or submissive, it made me angry. So fucking angry that sometimes I can barely breathe through it.”
Overall this book not only screams feminine rage but as a reader you feel it too. I was beyond angry at the similarities this book showcases vs the real world we live in. The author did an incredible job on this front. I am literally ready to ride at dawn.
Welcome To The Revolution.
I will say there were times where I wasn't as invested - but never in a bad way. And as much as I loved Shadera and Greyson's relationship, I do wish we had a few more moments for them to develop together romantically, so we could have had a bit more depth. However I’m so confident we will get more from book 2!
These are my only reasons for not having that 5 star feeling but honestly, no complaints at all - just observations from my personal perspective. Honestly this was a solid 4 star read for me but the ending really ramped everything up! I had to bump my rating up.
So yeah, that ending HAS ME SPRIALING. THAT IS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING AT ALL. This is a book where you turn to last page in shock and then see ‘acknowledgments’ - NO. I will stand firm on my choice to remain delulu until book 2. I must protect my peace from that emotional devastation I just endured.
“Beautiful things are often built on ugly foundations.”
______________
pre-read: the way everyone is screaming about this book… let me get in on that action 🕺🏼dark dystopian fantasy with feminine rage? Hell yah.
April 11, 2026
3.5 stars — after thinking for a while, i think i will reread this book as an audiobook; i think i’ll enjoy it more like i have with similar books with someone narrating to me🙂↕️
it took me a few weeks to read this book despite me enjoying the overall plot - but a few major things stood out to me:
1) the ridiculous grammatical errors, especially the errors between the plural and possessive. multiple times throughout the story when a character would refer to a person's expression/belonging/etc. or a group of people (specifically the Daggermouths), the possessive ('s) would be inverted with the plural (s). this frustrated me because it occurred throughout the entirety of the book, but at least the error was consistent? this will certainly be resolved in trad pub editorial, but it occurred enough it took me out of the read.
2) the characters - i felt that the entirety of our cast of characters was a tad too two-dimensional for my liking. a few of our main characters' rebellious actions are not necessarily explained or given much context, and there were aspects of our characters' pasts that were revealed in a very jarring and shock-value way. my biggest complaint is maximus - what was his whole reason and purpose for becoming such a fascist dictating president? there is no lore or background behind his actions, and as another reviewer said, he just appeared comically villainous.
3) this also goes back to maximus, but the laws surrounding the masks the heart elites are forced to wear. what is the lore behind this? maybe i missed it somewhere along the way, but i felt as if it was never fully explained. there are a lot of interesting aspects of this dystopian system that i wish were expanded upon.
with that being said, i did really enjoy the fact that this was not insta-love between shadera and greyson, as that's the worst part of these new dystopian "romances" - their relationship was extremely rocky, but i appreciated that they slowly began to trust one another. i also appreciated that our characters were much older - greyson was 33!! i am sick of dystopian romances focusing on children 21 and under. this was a very refreshing aspect and i applaud our author for making her characters older.
there were a few twists at the very end of the book that i suspected would happen, but the very LAST twist on the LAST page was not something i saw coming for multiple reasons, but i won't go in depth to avoid spoiling for others.
there was also a twist that was very reminiscent of a twist that happened in fourth wing, until there was an additional twist…
overall, this was a decent first book, and i think with a little trad pub editorial help, this will be a big book! i am eager for book two.
——
update 2/22-slowly making my way through, i'm about 100~pages in and while i'm enjoying it, the grammatical errors are kinda pulling me out of the read😭
——
ok everybody and their mother is currently reading this and across the board i have heard nothing but amazing things so PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BE A TRUE DYSTOPIAN (with real romance) amen🙏🏼🤞🏼🩵
it took me a few weeks to read this book despite me enjoying the overall plot - but a few major things stood out to me:
1) the ridiculous grammatical errors, especially the errors between the plural and possessive. multiple times throughout the story when a character would refer to a person's expression/belonging/etc. or a group of people (specifically the Daggermouths), the possessive ('s) would be inverted with the plural (s). this frustrated me because it occurred throughout the entirety of the book, but at least the error was consistent? this will certainly be resolved in trad pub editorial, but it occurred enough it took me out of the read.
2) the characters - i felt that the entirety of our cast of characters was a tad too two-dimensional for my liking. a few of our main characters' rebellious actions are not necessarily explained or given much context, and there were aspects of our characters' pasts that were revealed in a very jarring and shock-value way. my biggest complaint is maximus - what was his whole reason and purpose for becoming such a fascist dictating president? there is no lore or background behind his actions, and as another reviewer said, he just appeared comically villainous.
3) this also goes back to maximus, but the laws surrounding the masks the heart elites are forced to wear. what is the lore behind this? maybe i missed it somewhere along the way, but i felt as if it was never fully explained. there are a lot of interesting aspects of this dystopian system that i wish were expanded upon.
with that being said, i did really enjoy the fact that this was not insta-love between shadera and greyson, as that's the worst part of these new dystopian "romances" - their relationship was extremely rocky, but i appreciated that they slowly began to trust one another. i also appreciated that our characters were much older - greyson was 33!! i am sick of dystopian romances focusing on children 21 and under. this was a very refreshing aspect and i applaud our author for making her characters older.
there were a few twists at the very end of the book that i suspected would happen, but the very LAST twist on the LAST page was not something i saw coming for multiple reasons, but i won't go in depth to avoid spoiling for others.
there was also a twist that was very reminiscent of a twist that happened in fourth wing, until there was an additional twist…
overall, this was a decent first book, and i think with a little trad pub editorial help, this will be a big book! i am eager for book two.
——
update 2/22-slowly making my way through, i'm about 100~pages in and while i'm enjoying it, the grammatical errors are kinda pulling me out of the read😭
——
ok everybody and their mother is currently reading this and across the board i have heard nothing but amazing things so PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BE A TRUE DYSTOPIAN (with real romance) amen🙏🏼🤞🏼🩵
March 20, 2026
5⭐️
╰► 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!
⤿ ⋮ ⌗ ┆ 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥: 𝘧𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 20𝘵𝘩 | 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥: 𝘧𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 25𝘵𝘩
.ıllı.ılılıılıı.lllııılı.
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0:26 ———♡——— 2:58
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⋆˚꩜｡ 𝙢𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 💭
╰┈➤ HOLY FUCKING SHIT! this book was so so amazing guys and i think it’s definitely worth the hype that it’s been getting lately! i genuinely did not expect to love it this much but oh my lord—IT DELIVERED 😝
the plot was absolutely fantastical and the author did such a great job with spreading the different character povs among the chapters, making this book even more enjoyable and bingeable! AND THIS IS REAL ENEMIES TO LOVERS!
˙⋆✮ 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙠𝙖𝙚𝙡 🔪
✶࿐”𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚’𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑽𝒆𝒚𝒓𝒂. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆. 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ what a badass fucking bitch. shadera is such a strong fmc and i loved the role she played in this book. her strength and determination for whatever situation she was in actually had me hyped up! i just enjoyed watching her navigate and adapt to the new life she was forced into inside of the heart—and seeing how she planned and built foundations for escape, revenge, and rebellion was so fascinating.
also, as i got to know more about shadera—i respected her strength of trying her best to not show weakness as to not give satisfaction to the people who wronged her. i cannot wait to see how the author expands her character in the next book 🤭
˙⋆✮ 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙮𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡 ⛓️
✶࿐“𝑰𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅’𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒊𝒄, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕. 𝑰𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆. 𝑰𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒆’𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ i feel like most fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian books don’t usually start off with the mmc, so i think the way we were immediately pushed into greyson’s point of view right off the bat gave us a lot of insight on his character and his relevance to the book. i really loved greyson and i think that—just like shadera—seeing how his role in the book affected the plot in certain circumstances is what had me sitting on the edge of my seat.
he’s obviously an important person as the executioner of the heart—but he was so much more than his role and i think that’s something that really started to connect together earlier on in the book. so, i appreciated that the author gave room for the readers to develop their own opinion of him as well as for all of the other characters.
˙⋆✮ 𝙡𝙞𝙧𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡 🕊️
✶࿐“𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒃 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ rebellion and freedom for women and what a woman stands for in the world and system they live in is greatly portrayed through lira. i’m not gonna lie, the last few chapters of the book, she had me nervous af. my heart was beating and my hands started shaking 😭
lira is a character that i admired greatly for her resilience. it didn’t become apparent to me how much she endured throughout her life until halfway into the book, and with everything she went through, she persevered and never let it break her. i loved lira so much.
˙⋆✮ 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙚🩸
✶࿐“𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕’𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ if i don’t get a “hi baby” from callum in the next book, i will not be continuing (iykyk)😭 he was so amazing in this book and i think the fear he inflicted upon the people (making him untouchable and not want to be messed with) gave him so much freedom, unlike other characters in the book.
i genuinely did not find him threatening at all throughout the book even in that one scene inside of greyson’s apartment—he was just a little more endearing to me 🤭 and his relationship with lira… oh how i loved it!
˙⋆✮ 𝙢𝙖𝙭𝙞𝙢𝙪𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡 👑
✶࿐“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏”✶࿐
╰┈➤ this motherfucking piece of shit can die in a fucking ditch where no one is around and rot and hopefully decompose so far he makes it to hell so his body will never be useful to new growth in the world. too much? good.
⋆˚꩜｡ 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣🔒
╰┈➤ like the majority of dystopian books, there’s a flawed system and rebels that disrupt it for revolution. this book has actually made me want to start reading more dystopian books! (i’ve only read the shatter me series) i’m so excited for the next book to come out
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀.ೃ࿔°
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ 𝙦𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙞 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 ᯓ★ˎˊ˗
“𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒆,” 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈, “𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔. 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔—𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑽𝒆𝒚𝒓𝒂 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒖𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒍𝒖𝒎 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒚, 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒅𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕?” 𝑳𝒊𝒓𝒂 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓. “𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑬𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆—𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒐𝒔.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒄𝒚.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
↠━━━━ღ◆ღ━━━━
❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･pre-read ʚɞ
the fomo is actually bad guys 😭 everyday i check to see how many people have read it, and it increases more and more… i need to read it now because it’s just popping up everywhere, so it better be good
╰► 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!
⤿ ⋮ ⌗ ┆ 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥: 𝘧𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 20𝘵𝘩 | 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥: 𝘧𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 25𝘵𝘩
.ıllı.ılılıılıı.lllııılı.
𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨:
» [𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡 𝙗𝙮 𝙧𝙪𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙚] «
0:26 ———♡——— 2:58
◁◁▐▐ ▷▷
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓. 𝑶𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍, 𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕.”
⋆˚꩜｡ 𝙢𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 💭
╰┈➤ HOLY FUCKING SHIT! this book was so so amazing guys and i think it’s definitely worth the hype that it’s been getting lately! i genuinely did not expect to love it this much but oh my lord—IT DELIVERED 😝
the plot was absolutely fantastical and the author did such a great job with spreading the different character povs among the chapters, making this book even more enjoyable and bingeable! AND THIS IS REAL ENEMIES TO LOVERS!
˙⋆✮ 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙠𝙖𝙚𝙡 🔪
✶࿐”𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚’𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑽𝒆𝒚𝒓𝒂. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆. 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ what a badass fucking bitch. shadera is such a strong fmc and i loved the role she played in this book. her strength and determination for whatever situation she was in actually had me hyped up! i just enjoyed watching her navigate and adapt to the new life she was forced into inside of the heart—and seeing how she planned and built foundations for escape, revenge, and rebellion was so fascinating.
also, as i got to know more about shadera—i respected her strength of trying her best to not show weakness as to not give satisfaction to the people who wronged her. i cannot wait to see how the author expands her character in the next book 🤭
˙⋆✮ 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙮𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡 ⛓️
✶࿐“𝑰𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅’𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒊𝒄, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕. 𝑰𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆. 𝑰𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒆’𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ i feel like most fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian books don’t usually start off with the mmc, so i think the way we were immediately pushed into greyson’s point of view right off the bat gave us a lot of insight on his character and his relevance to the book. i really loved greyson and i think that—just like shadera—seeing how his role in the book affected the plot in certain circumstances is what had me sitting on the edge of my seat.
he’s obviously an important person as the executioner of the heart—but he was so much more than his role and i think that’s something that really started to connect together earlier on in the book. so, i appreciated that the author gave room for the readers to develop their own opinion of him as well as for all of the other characters.
˙⋆✮ 𝙡𝙞𝙧𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡 🕊️
✶࿐“𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒃 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ rebellion and freedom for women and what a woman stands for in the world and system they live in is greatly portrayed through lira. i’m not gonna lie, the last few chapters of the book, she had me nervous af. my heart was beating and my hands started shaking 😭
lira is a character that i admired greatly for her resilience. it didn’t become apparent to me how much she endured throughout her life until halfway into the book, and with everything she went through, she persevered and never let it break her. i loved lira so much.
˙⋆✮ 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙚🩸
✶࿐“𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕’𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔.”✶࿐
╰┈➤ if i don’t get a “hi baby” from callum in the next book, i will not be continuing (iykyk)😭 he was so amazing in this book and i think the fear he inflicted upon the people (making him untouchable and not want to be messed with) gave him so much freedom, unlike other characters in the book.
i genuinely did not find him threatening at all throughout the book even in that one scene inside of greyson’s apartment—he was just a little more endearing to me 🤭 and his relationship with lira… oh how i loved it!
˙⋆✮ 𝙢𝙖𝙭𝙞𝙢𝙪𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙡 👑
✶࿐“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏”✶࿐
╰┈➤ this motherfucking piece of shit can die in a fucking ditch where no one is around and rot and hopefully decompose so far he makes it to hell so his body will never be useful to new growth in the world. too much? good.
⋆˚꩜｡ 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣🔒
╰┈➤ like the majority of dystopian books, there’s a flawed system and rebels that disrupt it for revolution. this book has actually made me want to start reading more dystopian books! (i’ve only read the shatter me series) i’m so excited for the next book to come out
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀.ೃ࿔°
ᯓ★ˎˊ˗ 𝙦𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙞 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 ᯓ★ˎˊ˗
“𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒆,” 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈, “𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔. 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔—𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑽𝒆𝒚𝒓𝒂 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒖𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒍𝒖𝒎 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒚, 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒅𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕?” 𝑳𝒊𝒓𝒂 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓. “𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑬𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆—𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒐𝒔.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒄𝒚.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚
↠━━━━ღ◆ღ━━━━
❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･pre-read ʚɞ
the fomo is actually bad guys 😭 everyday i check to see how many people have read it, and it increases more and more… i need to read it now because it’s just popping up everywhere, so it better be good
𑣲𝓳𝓪𝓼𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮
April 14, 2026
Have you ever read a book that didn’t feel like an escape…
but like a quiet unraveling into something you already carry inside of you?
That’s what Daggermouth was for me.
I went into this expecting a dark, immersive world. I didn’t expect it to feel so familiar.
Wolfe doesn’t just build a setting—she constructs a system. One that is layered, suffocating, and painfully precise in the way it controls, limits, and erases. And the most unsettling part is how recognizable it all feels.
Because some harm doesn’t scream.
It whispers.
It turns itself into rules, into borders, into expectations about who gets to exist freely and who has to survive in pieces.
Reading this felt like watching those invisible forces move—the kind that don’t leave obvious scars but still reshape everything.
And yet… there is so much humanity here.
The characters aren’t perfect—they’re trying.
Trying to hold on. Trying to hope. Trying to choose each other in a world that makes that choice feel impossible.
I loved them for that.
The Boundary wasn’t just a place to me—it felt like a family. Messy, fragile, fiercely loyal. Built out of defiance and quiet tenderness and the kind of love that refuses to disappear, even when everything around it demands that it should.
And the love in this story… it isn’t loud.
It isn’t grand or sweeping.
It’s soft. It lingers. It shows up in the smallest ways—glances, gestures, the steady act of holding someone up when everything else is trying to pull them under.
It reminded me that even the quietest forms of care can be acts of resistance.
There were moments in this book that brushed up against something personal for me. Not because the story mirrors reality exactly, but because power—and the harm it creates—speaks in patterns that echo across worlds.
Borders. Walls. Surveillance. The illusion of “order.” The cost of being seen as other.
As a Palestinian reader, that resonance didn’t feel distant. It felt close. Familiar in a way I didn’t expect, and honestly… couldn’t ignore.
Daggermouth is heavy. There’s no way around that.
But it’s also alive—with connection, with warmth, with the quiet insistence that even in places built to break people, they will still find ways to love each other anyway.
And that matters.
That always matters.
If you made it this far (hi, I love you 🖤), please pick this up when it releases. Sit with it. Let it challenge you. Let it linger a little longer than you’re comfortable with.
Because this isn’t just a story you read.
It’s one you carry.
And I know I will be thinking about it for a long, long time.
but like a quiet unraveling into something you already carry inside of you?
That’s what Daggermouth was for me.
I went into this expecting a dark, immersive world. I didn’t expect it to feel so familiar.
Wolfe doesn’t just build a setting—she constructs a system. One that is layered, suffocating, and painfully precise in the way it controls, limits, and erases. And the most unsettling part is how recognizable it all feels.
Because some harm doesn’t scream.
It whispers.
It turns itself into rules, into borders, into expectations about who gets to exist freely and who has to survive in pieces.
Reading this felt like watching those invisible forces move—the kind that don’t leave obvious scars but still reshape everything.
And yet… there is so much humanity here.
The characters aren’t perfect—they’re trying.
Trying to hold on. Trying to hope. Trying to choose each other in a world that makes that choice feel impossible.
I loved them for that.
The Boundary wasn’t just a place to me—it felt like a family. Messy, fragile, fiercely loyal. Built out of defiance and quiet tenderness and the kind of love that refuses to disappear, even when everything around it demands that it should.
And the love in this story… it isn’t loud.
It isn’t grand or sweeping.
It’s soft. It lingers. It shows up in the smallest ways—glances, gestures, the steady act of holding someone up when everything else is trying to pull them under.
It reminded me that even the quietest forms of care can be acts of resistance.
There were moments in this book that brushed up against something personal for me. Not because the story mirrors reality exactly, but because power—and the harm it creates—speaks in patterns that echo across worlds.
Borders. Walls. Surveillance. The illusion of “order.” The cost of being seen as other.
As a Palestinian reader, that resonance didn’t feel distant. It felt close. Familiar in a way I didn’t expect, and honestly… couldn’t ignore.
Daggermouth is heavy. There’s no way around that.
But it’s also alive—with connection, with warmth, with the quiet insistence that even in places built to break people, they will still find ways to love each other anyway.
And that matters.
That always matters.
If you made it this far (hi, I love you 🖤), please pick this up when it releases. Sit with it. Let it challenge you. Let it linger a little longer than you’re comfortable with.
Because this isn’t just a story you read.
It’s one you carry.
And I know I will be thinking about it for a long, long time.
March 26, 2026
➳ interesting ☆
whew, ok. i finally finished this book and i have a lot of thoughts. firstly, thank you to my favorites, vee & gry for another amazing buddy read. i love you both, so much!
for starters, this is one of the most confusing books i’ve ever read. on one hand, this did take me quite a while to finish, but on the other hand, when things started to pick up, i absolutely could not put this book down. i am going to rate these a solid four stars, which is a good rating in my opinion, but i do have my own personal contents that i will be explaining below. as always, this review is completely my own. whether you loved this book or hated this book, that is your prerogative which you are allowed to have. this review will also have spoilers so please proceed with caution.
one of the strongest elements of this story is the world that our main characters are living in. almost everything that we see in this book is so akin to our real life. h.m does an amazing job blending in real life and adding elements of fiction to create a really compelling story. i am not the biggest fan of dystopian books because they usually tend to lean in the same direction, but something about the characters in this one made this book stand out. there are multiple points of view that are all told in third person, and that is one of the stronger elements of storytelling. we are able to be in the characters head while simultaneously seeing the regime affect the characters' lives.
every single character that had a point of view in this story had a very distinct function which made this book read very seamlessly. i do have my personal bias as to whom my favorite characters are—shadera, lira, and callum—however, i truly did appreciate the function of every single character—including the villains. every character is pretty much fighting for the same end goal, and i appreciate how the author was able to weave that all together. similarly, another strong suit that stood out to me in this story is all of the side relationships aside from the main romantic one. this honestly made the stakes feel a little bit more personal because our main characters were not just focused on banging each other, but they also had familial relationships, and friendships that were important to them—which brought a different light to their story.
i felt some of the cracks in the story in the actual world building because there were a lot of explanations that were either lost in translation or not explained at all. one of the main elements that kept nagging me throughout reading this book is why? why was any of this happening? what was the true end goal? what was the purpose of any of this? are they doing this because of religion? are they doing this because they want a utopia? are they doing this for fun? are they all just deeply deranged? these were some questions that i had throughout the book and i’m hoping that this gets answered in the next one. another major question that i had was why they were split between the elite and the boundary? will we ever get an explanation for all those rules? will we ever get an explanation as to why the masks are so important—why they need to hide their face, but can show it to certain people? just...why?
another slight issue i had was the unnecessary POV shifting that we kept doing. at certain points in the story. i didn’t even feel like greyson was the main character because we kept switching from him to jameson, to callum, to mikel, to elara, to lira, to maximus, back to shadera, back to jaegar…the whole thing was a little chaotic. because of this, it was really difficult for me to believe the romantic progression between shade and greyson since we didn’t really spend much time with them together. even though callum and lira had less time together on page, they were a much more believable couple with better chemistry. shade and greyson—while they did not get together in this book—were very clearly falling in love with each other, which was a little difficult to follow along with since we as readers lacked those buildup scenes. they are true enemies since they literally have tried to kill each other several times, but it’s gonna take a lot more for me to believe that they are in love with each other due to all the other drama surrounding our side cast.
PROPER SPOILERS!!!
speaking of the side cast...i did feel like their plots were extremely predictable and felt a little rushed. surprise to no one, brooker; greyson's brother that was supposedly killed by a daggermouth AKA shadera, was actually not killed at all, and was living with jaegar leading a rebellion, but actually wait, he doubled crossed them and was actually working for his piece of shit father and is the reason for all this mess...NOW, just walk with me. this is the part that ultimately pissed me off because 95% of this plot line makes absolutely no fucking sense. the entire reason, grey and shade are suffering is because his brother was killed and that’s why greyson had to step up and take his place. lowkey, this makes no sense because their father could’ve just killed everyone and led his own rebellion or greyson, being over 6’4 and HUGE, easily could’ve killed his father since he’s old and decaying??? this is one of those few plot points that just started to lag for me because as it turns out a lot of maximus’ inside men also hate him so it really does not make sense for me as to why people just kept following what they said blindly instead of just killing them…turns out greyson isn't even his son and like...they were GRASPING at straws at that point.
then we have the part that arguably pissed me off the most, and that is the segment where callum supposedly is dead. He was by far one of the best characters in this book and it really irritates me that his death was not memorable and it’s probably going to be permanent. I have a bad feeling that they set this up so that lira and jameson can get together in the next book, but if that ends up happening, I am honestly going to scream. i did not give a fuck about jameson and every single time i had to read about him, i cried. but, i am also one of the few people that don’t like fake out deaths and don’t like when characters get brought back to life, so i do think that this is going to be a permanent choice. ultimately, this sucks because if the author did plan on killing him—i just wish she did it in a more notable way.
the ending of this book is very interesting and i’m really excited to see how the story progresses from here. elara went from being a victim and honestly no offense—a completely useless piece of shit, to finally actually doing something good. with elara now killing maximus, i pray to god that we don’t have brooker being this new upcoming villain in the second book and having to fight him off as the big bad. i don’t think that there needs to be a brand-new story or a brand-new plot, but i would like to see less of the regime and the heart, and a little bit more of the character driven story so we can spend more time with shade and greyson.
now that we have seemingly finished this chapter, though, WHAT is the next book gonna be about? you only villain is supposedly dead so what next? i don't understand all the plot holes in this book because nothing is ever actually explained. it's also going to be difficult to go back in book two to try to explain the story since this book ended in such a strange way. there was no reason for 90% of the plot to actually have this much of an effect on the characters.
overall, i really loved that book and it was a really great experience and brought me out out of my slump!!! I highly recommend everyone to check this book out. i do wish this was a trilogy, though.
whew, ok. i finally finished this book and i have a lot of thoughts. firstly, thank you to my favorites, vee & gry for another amazing buddy read. i love you both, so much!
for starters, this is one of the most confusing books i’ve ever read. on one hand, this did take me quite a while to finish, but on the other hand, when things started to pick up, i absolutely could not put this book down. i am going to rate these a solid four stars, which is a good rating in my opinion, but i do have my own personal contents that i will be explaining below. as always, this review is completely my own. whether you loved this book or hated this book, that is your prerogative which you are allowed to have. this review will also have spoilers so please proceed with caution.
one of the strongest elements of this story is the world that our main characters are living in. almost everything that we see in this book is so akin to our real life. h.m does an amazing job blending in real life and adding elements of fiction to create a really compelling story. i am not the biggest fan of dystopian books because they usually tend to lean in the same direction, but something about the characters in this one made this book stand out. there are multiple points of view that are all told in third person, and that is one of the stronger elements of storytelling. we are able to be in the characters head while simultaneously seeing the regime affect the characters' lives.
every single character that had a point of view in this story had a very distinct function which made this book read very seamlessly. i do have my personal bias as to whom my favorite characters are—shadera, lira, and callum—however, i truly did appreciate the function of every single character—including the villains. every character is pretty much fighting for the same end goal, and i appreciate how the author was able to weave that all together. similarly, another strong suit that stood out to me in this story is all of the side relationships aside from the main romantic one. this honestly made the stakes feel a little bit more personal because our main characters were not just focused on banging each other, but they also had familial relationships, and friendships that were important to them—which brought a different light to their story.
i felt some of the cracks in the story in the actual world building because there were a lot of explanations that were either lost in translation or not explained at all. one of the main elements that kept nagging me throughout reading this book is why? why was any of this happening? what was the true end goal? what was the purpose of any of this? are they doing this because of religion? are they doing this because they want a utopia? are they doing this for fun? are they all just deeply deranged? these were some questions that i had throughout the book and i’m hoping that this gets answered in the next one. another major question that i had was why they were split between the elite and the boundary? will we ever get an explanation for all those rules? will we ever get an explanation as to why the masks are so important—why they need to hide their face, but can show it to certain people? just...why?
another slight issue i had was the unnecessary POV shifting that we kept doing. at certain points in the story. i didn’t even feel like greyson was the main character because we kept switching from him to jameson, to callum, to mikel, to elara, to lira, to maximus, back to shadera, back to jaegar…the whole thing was a little chaotic. because of this, it was really difficult for me to believe the romantic progression between shade and greyson since we didn’t really spend much time with them together. even though callum and lira had less time together on page, they were a much more believable couple with better chemistry. shade and greyson—while they did not get together in this book—were very clearly falling in love with each other, which was a little difficult to follow along with since we as readers lacked those buildup scenes. they are true enemies since they literally have tried to kill each other several times, but it’s gonna take a lot more for me to believe that they are in love with each other due to all the other drama surrounding our side cast.
PROPER SPOILERS!!!
speaking of the side cast...i did feel like their plots were extremely predictable and felt a little rushed. surprise to no one, brooker; greyson's brother that was supposedly killed by a daggermouth AKA shadera, was actually not killed at all, and was living with jaegar leading a rebellion, but actually wait, he doubled crossed them and was actually working for his piece of shit father and is the reason for all this mess...NOW, just walk with me. this is the part that ultimately pissed me off because 95% of this plot line makes absolutely no fucking sense. the entire reason, grey and shade are suffering is because his brother was killed and that’s why greyson had to step up and take his place. lowkey, this makes no sense because their father could’ve just killed everyone and led his own rebellion or greyson, being over 6’4 and HUGE, easily could’ve killed his father since he’s old and decaying??? this is one of those few plot points that just started to lag for me because as it turns out a lot of maximus’ inside men also hate him so it really does not make sense for me as to why people just kept following what they said blindly instead of just killing them…turns out greyson isn't even his son and like...they were GRASPING at straws at that point.
then we have the part that arguably pissed me off the most, and that is the segment where callum supposedly is dead. He was by far one of the best characters in this book and it really irritates me that his death was not memorable and it’s probably going to be permanent. I have a bad feeling that they set this up so that lira and jameson can get together in the next book, but if that ends up happening, I am honestly going to scream. i did not give a fuck about jameson and every single time i had to read about him, i cried. but, i am also one of the few people that don’t like fake out deaths and don’t like when characters get brought back to life, so i do think that this is going to be a permanent choice. ultimately, this sucks because if the author did plan on killing him—i just wish she did it in a more notable way.
the ending of this book is very interesting and i’m really excited to see how the story progresses from here. elara went from being a victim and honestly no offense—a completely useless piece of shit, to finally actually doing something good. with elara now killing maximus, i pray to god that we don’t have brooker being this new upcoming villain in the second book and having to fight him off as the big bad. i don’t think that there needs to be a brand-new story or a brand-new plot, but i would like to see less of the regime and the heart, and a little bit more of the character driven story so we can spend more time with shade and greyson.
now that we have seemingly finished this chapter, though, WHAT is the next book gonna be about? you only villain is supposedly dead so what next? i don't understand all the plot holes in this book because nothing is ever actually explained. it's also going to be difficult to go back in book two to try to explain the story since this book ended in such a strange way. there was no reason for 90% of the plot to actually have this much of an effect on the characters.
overall, i really loved that book and it was a really great experience and brought me out out of my slump!!! I highly recommend everyone to check this book out. i do wish this was a trilogy, though.
April 29, 2026
5 ⭐️
A heartbreaking story of defiance in the hands of persecution.
There isn’t anything I can write or add in my review that hasn’t already been said about this book, so all I will say is that it is one of those books that comes around every decade or so that needs to be read. In fact, I implore you to read it. To understand what unchecked power can lead to, especially in today’s society.
Society shouldn’t be us and them. We need self awareness, consciousness and empathy in order for us as a collective to thrive. This book perfectly demonstrates the result of the failure of these things, to a heartbreaking degree. It’s extremely unsettling, as it should be.
I will leave my favourite quote of all time here:
”Nobody wins, unless everybody wins” - Bruce Springsteen
————————————
pre-read ✨
It. Is. Time.
Desperately tired of feeling FOMO having not read this yet so here we go 🤭
A heartbreaking story of defiance in the hands of persecution.
There isn’t anything I can write or add in my review that hasn’t already been said about this book, so all I will say is that it is one of those books that comes around every decade or so that needs to be read. In fact, I implore you to read it. To understand what unchecked power can lead to, especially in today’s society.
Society shouldn’t be us and them. We need self awareness, consciousness and empathy in order for us as a collective to thrive. This book perfectly demonstrates the result of the failure of these things, to a heartbreaking degree. It’s extremely unsettling, as it should be.
I will leave my favourite quote of all time here:
”Nobody wins, unless everybody wins” - Bruce Springsteen
————————————
pre-read ✨
It. Is. Time.
Desperately tired of feeling FOMO having not read this yet so here we go 🤭
January 31, 2026
♾️stars…UM. HELLO?!?! I just finished this book and I am spiraling. Like, genuinely concerned I won’t sleep tonight because my brain refuses to leave this world. Hands-down one of the best books I have ever read in my life and I don’t say that lightly. That ending? Possibly the best ending I’ve ever experienced. This is one of those books where if you didn’t like it… I’m sorry, I simply do not trust your taste or your recommendations.😭😂
There is so much hype around this book, and it’s all deserved.
This is a true enemies-to-lovers. Not a petty rivalry. Not dislike, this is HATE. I mean these two characters beat the ever-loving shit out of each other. They try to kill each other. Even after the initial conflict, they’re still going at it. It was giving Mr. & Mrs. Smith smashing vases over each other’s heads, and I was locked in for every single second. The fact that they’re literally trying to murder each other and I’m sitting here smiling like an idiot… am I okay? Unclear.
This was my first real dystopian read, and it rattled something in my bones. The premise, the way the Heart is set up, the rings, the class system, it’s dark, unsettling, and disturbingly well thought out. There’s a sickness to the world that feels intentional, and It felt uncomfortably relevant to the state of things right now. This story doesn’t just entertain, it says something and I felt it. I was so overwhelmed with emotions for most of this book.😭
The writing style deserves its own moment. It’s detailed without being overwhelming, smooth without being simple, it was SO immersive I literally felt like I was there. I never felt pulled out of the story. My attention was fully captured 100% of the time. Some authors you just click with their writing style and this is definitely one of them.
One of my favorite things about this story is how unapologetically it highlights the power of women. Women who are smart, cunning, and relentless. Women who carry the weight of the world on their backs in systems designed to crush them and still refuse to bow. Still refuse to break. I loved the message threaded through this book: in a world built to keep us small, we don’t survive quietly. We fight back. We rise. And we shatter the chains meant to hold us down.
Shadera was the perfect FMC to deliver this message. She is exactly who she thinks she is. A full baddie. The way she prowls around? The confidence? The relationship she has with her weapon? *bites knuckles* I think I’m in love. But truly, she is such a powerful, complex character. Peeling back her layers made me feel everything. She’s so much more than a mercenary with a gun. Her resilience, her strength, and the way kindness comes naturally to her, even when she doesn’t see it in herself is something special. Despite everything she’s been through, she still shows empathy. Even to people who hurt her. Even to people who feel like enemies. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is hope. People admire her. They look to her. She is the rebellion’s heart whether she wants that responsibility or not.
Her relationship with Greyson is layered and fascinating. The more they learn about each other, the more they realize how similar they actually are. How they both are fighting similar battles and there is so much more to them.
I loved the way their dynamic was built every interaction felt intentional. Nothing was wasted. Even with what we’ve seen so far, I can already tell these two are going to be an absolute force together. The tension and the chemistry was out of this world. I just know they are gonna be one of those couples that completely rides out for each other.
I highlighted an insane number of lines in this book. Quotes that gave me chills, made my eyes burn, had tears streaming down my face. This story moved me to my core, and the way it was told only amplified how powerful it was.
And Maximus. Oh my god. One of the worst villains I have ever read. Every time he was on the page, my blood was boiling. The author did an incredible job making me hate him on a visceral level my gut twisted every single scene because I knew something diabolical was coming.
I also loved the multiple POVs. Seeing the story unfold from so many perspectives made it so engaging. I loved watching everyone’s position on the chessboard. And of course, I fell in love with every single side character. What a fucking crew.
Now. The ending.
My jaw was on the FLOOR. I was genuinely saying out loud, “You’re lying. Oh my god. Stop. Shut the fuck up.” My emotions were everywhere. There was a moment where I was choking on my tears, had to put my Kindle down, get up, take a lap, drink water, and reset because I felt a full spiral coming on. If you know, you know😭😭😭😭😭. I am currently living in denial but then we followed that devastation with something so iconic, so legendary, with twists I did NOT see coming, that I was fully knocked on my ass.
I cannot say enough good things about this book. Drop everything you’re reading and pick this up immediately. A masterpiece in every sense of the word. Fucking perfection. Zero notes. This is one of those books you don’t just read you feel it in your soul. And now I will be crying myself to sleep while I wait for the next book.
I am going to miss these characters so much. I’m going to need an audiobook so I can reread whenever I want to feel something.
There is so much hype around this book, and it’s all deserved.
This is a true enemies-to-lovers. Not a petty rivalry. Not dislike, this is HATE. I mean these two characters beat the ever-loving shit out of each other. They try to kill each other. Even after the initial conflict, they’re still going at it. It was giving Mr. & Mrs. Smith smashing vases over each other’s heads, and I was locked in for every single second. The fact that they’re literally trying to murder each other and I’m sitting here smiling like an idiot… am I okay? Unclear.
This was my first real dystopian read, and it rattled something in my bones. The premise, the way the Heart is set up, the rings, the class system, it’s dark, unsettling, and disturbingly well thought out. There’s a sickness to the world that feels intentional, and It felt uncomfortably relevant to the state of things right now. This story doesn’t just entertain, it says something and I felt it. I was so overwhelmed with emotions for most of this book.😭
The writing style deserves its own moment. It’s detailed without being overwhelming, smooth without being simple, it was SO immersive I literally felt like I was there. I never felt pulled out of the story. My attention was fully captured 100% of the time. Some authors you just click with their writing style and this is definitely one of them.
One of my favorite things about this story is how unapologetically it highlights the power of women. Women who are smart, cunning, and relentless. Women who carry the weight of the world on their backs in systems designed to crush them and still refuse to bow. Still refuse to break. I loved the message threaded through this book: in a world built to keep us small, we don’t survive quietly. We fight back. We rise. And we shatter the chains meant to hold us down.
Shadera was the perfect FMC to deliver this message. She is exactly who she thinks she is. A full baddie. The way she prowls around? The confidence? The relationship she has with her weapon? *bites knuckles* I think I’m in love. But truly, she is such a powerful, complex character. Peeling back her layers made me feel everything. She’s so much more than a mercenary with a gun. Her resilience, her strength, and the way kindness comes naturally to her, even when she doesn’t see it in herself is something special. Despite everything she’s been through, she still shows empathy. Even to people who hurt her. Even to people who feel like enemies. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is hope. People admire her. They look to her. She is the rebellion’s heart whether she wants that responsibility or not.
Her relationship with Greyson is layered and fascinating. The more they learn about each other, the more they realize how similar they actually are. How they both are fighting similar battles and there is so much more to them.
I loved the way their dynamic was built every interaction felt intentional. Nothing was wasted. Even with what we’ve seen so far, I can already tell these two are going to be an absolute force together. The tension and the chemistry was out of this world. I just know they are gonna be one of those couples that completely rides out for each other.
I highlighted an insane number of lines in this book. Quotes that gave me chills, made my eyes burn, had tears streaming down my face. This story moved me to my core, and the way it was told only amplified how powerful it was.
And Maximus. Oh my god. One of the worst villains I have ever read. Every time he was on the page, my blood was boiling. The author did an incredible job making me hate him on a visceral level my gut twisted every single scene because I knew something diabolical was coming.
I also loved the multiple POVs. Seeing the story unfold from so many perspectives made it so engaging. I loved watching everyone’s position on the chessboard. And of course, I fell in love with every single side character. What a fucking crew.
Now. The ending.
My jaw was on the FLOOR. I was genuinely saying out loud, “You’re lying. Oh my god. Stop. Shut the fuck up.” My emotions were everywhere. There was a moment where I was choking on my tears, had to put my Kindle down, get up, take a lap, drink water, and reset because I felt a full spiral coming on. If you know, you know😭😭😭😭😭. I am currently living in denial but then we followed that devastation with something so iconic, so legendary, with twists I did NOT see coming, that I was fully knocked on my ass.
I cannot say enough good things about this book. Drop everything you’re reading and pick this up immediately. A masterpiece in every sense of the word. Fucking perfection. Zero notes. This is one of those books you don’t just read you feel it in your soul. And now I will be crying myself to sleep while I wait for the next book.
I am going to miss these characters so much. I’m going to need an audiobook so I can reread whenever I want to feel something.
May 25, 2026
Thank you Netgalley and Scarlett Press for an ARC of Daggermouth by H. M. Wolfe
Can someone hold the rest of my flabbers before anymore get gasted?!
Dare I say............................................ Better than some of our most goated fantasy authors?!?................. ABSOFOOKINLUTELY I DO!!.. and with my full chest from the top of a mountain with that!!..
I knew less than 5 minutes into this one I was absolutely foked. All and any plans for the day were automatically cancelled. Publisher Clearing House could have been pounding on my door and I would have just closed my blinds and kept reading. Definitely a must read for my Sarah J. Mass fans. However I must be clear!..This isn't for Mass fans because the storyline is similar. No no no..It's the exquisitely gifted talent in storytelling. I spent 92% of this looking like Genie from Aladdin, when his jaw hits the floor. I genuinely don't have one negative thing to say about this one and that's a first for me. I think, no, I KNOW, it's a must read for any fantasy fan! This will without a doubt be in my top 10 list for 2026. Honestly, it'll probably be on yours too.
I do recommend checking out the trigger warnings before diving in.
Until next time,
Hades
🩵
Can someone hold the rest of my flabbers before anymore get gasted?!
Dare I say............................................ Better than some of our most goated fantasy authors?!?................. ABSOFOOKINLUTELY I DO!!.. and with my full chest from the top of a mountain with that!!..
I knew less than 5 minutes into this one I was absolutely foked. All and any plans for the day were automatically cancelled. Publisher Clearing House could have been pounding on my door and I would have just closed my blinds and kept reading. Definitely a must read for my Sarah J. Mass fans. However I must be clear!..This isn't for Mass fans because the storyline is similar. No no no..It's the exquisitely gifted talent in storytelling. I spent 92% of this looking like Genie from Aladdin, when his jaw hits the floor. I genuinely don't have one negative thing to say about this one and that's a first for me. I think, no, I KNOW, it's a must read for any fantasy fan! This will without a doubt be in my top 10 list for 2026. Honestly, it'll probably be on yours too.
I do recommend checking out the trigger warnings before diving in.
Until next time,
Hades
🩵
March 4, 2026
6 STARS!!! WOWOWOW this was so good!!
I had such high expectations after hearing so many good things about this and I’m so happy it delivered! THE FEMALE RAGE!!! THE ENDING!!! Ugh I loved it so much! I cannot wait for the next book now!
some fave quotes <3
“Why don’t I do something about it?” Lira finished for her. “Because I lack the power, the authority, the position. Because I am a woman in a system designed by men to keep power in their hands. Because every time I’ve tried to mitigate suffering, I’ve been reminded of my place.”
“Women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power. So no, Callum, I am not fragile. The cracks in my soul aren’t broken places. They are veins cemented together with rage. And it will take more than the hands of men to kill my spirit, to break my will.”
“Then I’ll find whatever’s left of her and bring her home,” Jameson replied without having to think. “And love whoever she’s become.”
“You’re the only thing I’ve ever wanted,” he finally said, his voice hoarse, the words unpolished. “The only honest part of me is what I feel for you.”
“But women? That is all we do. We endure. We wait. We survive.”
I had such high expectations after hearing so many good things about this and I’m so happy it delivered! THE FEMALE RAGE!!! THE ENDING!!! Ugh I loved it so much! I cannot wait for the next book now!
some fave quotes <3
“Why don’t I do something about it?” Lira finished for her. “Because I lack the power, the authority, the position. Because I am a woman in a system designed by men to keep power in their hands. Because every time I’ve tried to mitigate suffering, I’ve been reminded of my place.”
“Women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power. So no, Callum, I am not fragile. The cracks in my soul aren’t broken places. They are veins cemented together with rage. And it will take more than the hands of men to kill my spirit, to break my will.”
“Then I’ll find whatever’s left of her and bring her home,” Jameson replied without having to think. “And love whoever she’s become.”
“You’re the only thing I’ve ever wanted,” he finally said, his voice hoarse, the words unpolished. “The only honest part of me is what I feel for you.”
“But women? That is all we do. We endure. We wait. We survive.”
April 4, 2026
Wow I’m speechless!! I loved this book so much! This was such an exciting and excellent dystopian about power, survival, corruption, love, family and rebellion. Daggermouth follows Shadera a solider for hire who failed to kill the son of the president who is the leader of in a corrupted world where the elite hold the power. Shadera is then forced to marry the president's son, Greyson and must survive in a heartless world full of secrets, enemies, and lies.
Thoughts
I became completely transported into this corrupted dystopian world from the very beginning. The plot was action-packed and very exciting, I was engaged the entire book. There were so many plot twists that left me speechless and reeling. The pacing was perfect, it wasn't too slow or too fast. I loved that this book had a unique take on dystopian blending the present with a possible future. The world building was great, but the history of the past that created this society was missing. I enjoyed seeing how the point of view of the character changed how the events were perceived and how each character fit into the society. The writing was descriptive and immersive, I felt that I was experiencing every moment and emotion along with the characters in their world. I felt many emotions while reading this book including happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust. I appreciated that the author was able to discuss important topics in a meaningful and reflective way such as power, sexual assault, family issues, politics, and prejudice. The ending was amazing, it was so shocking and devastating. I’m heartbroken. I can't wait to read the next book!! This book and the characters will stay in my heart for a long time.
Characters
The characters were very complex, flawed and interesting. I loved Shadera, she was brave, resilient, fierce, independent, strong and determined. Shadera's character development was excellent, she showed a softer side and opened up about her past. I was in awe of Shadera's bravery and resiliency, she didn't give up on what she believed. She went through many difficult situations and came back stronger. I'm in love with Greyson, he was brave, strong, protective, rebellious, and resilient. Greyson had a hard exterior but showed a softer side to the people he cared about such as his mother, sister and Shadera. I also loved Callum, he was funny, charming, brave, tenacious and clever. Lira was a great character as well, she was smart, fierce, courageous, independent, and protective of the people she loved. I loved that interactions between Lira and Greyson, they are protective of each other and have great banter. Their sibling relationship reminds me of how close I am with my sister and brother. Jameson was an interesting character, hopefully his growth is showed more.
Romance
The romance between Shadera and Greyson was amazing! 😍 I loved that the romance was actually enemies to lovers, they tried to kill each other countless times and hated each other. ❤️ The slow burn and the tension was also top tier! I'm so glad that it took most of the book for their feelings to develop. I felt the connection between Shadera and Greyson. I’m glad that they had so much in common and were able to discover the truth about each other. I also loved that romance between Callum and Lira, the yearning was brilliant! 😊 The chemistry between Callum and Lira was excellent, I felt the deep connection. There were many romantic scenes between both couples that made me smile and blush. I'm excited to see how the romance develops in the next book.
Thoughts
I became completely transported into this corrupted dystopian world from the very beginning. The plot was action-packed and very exciting, I was engaged the entire book. There were so many plot twists that left me speechless and reeling. The pacing was perfect, it wasn't too slow or too fast. I loved that this book had a unique take on dystopian blending the present with a possible future. The world building was great, but the history of the past that created this society was missing. I enjoyed seeing how the point of view of the character changed how the events were perceived and how each character fit into the society. The writing was descriptive and immersive, I felt that I was experiencing every moment and emotion along with the characters in their world. I felt many emotions while reading this book including happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust. I appreciated that the author was able to discuss important topics in a meaningful and reflective way such as power, sexual assault, family issues, politics, and prejudice. The ending was amazing, it was so shocking and devastating. I’m heartbroken. I can't wait to read the next book!! This book and the characters will stay in my heart for a long time.
Characters
The characters were very complex, flawed and interesting. I loved Shadera, she was brave, resilient, fierce, independent, strong and determined. Shadera's character development was excellent, she showed a softer side and opened up about her past. I was in awe of Shadera's bravery and resiliency, she didn't give up on what she believed. She went through many difficult situations and came back stronger. I'm in love with Greyson, he was brave, strong, protective, rebellious, and resilient. Greyson had a hard exterior but showed a softer side to the people he cared about such as his mother, sister and Shadera. I also loved Callum, he was funny, charming, brave, tenacious and clever. Lira was a great character as well, she was smart, fierce, courageous, independent, and protective of the people she loved. I loved that interactions between Lira and Greyson, they are protective of each other and have great banter. Their sibling relationship reminds me of how close I am with my sister and brother. Jameson was an interesting character, hopefully his growth is showed more.
Romance
The romance between Shadera and Greyson was amazing! 😍 I loved that the romance was actually enemies to lovers, they tried to kill each other countless times and hated each other. ❤️ The slow burn and the tension was also top tier! I'm so glad that it took most of the book for their feelings to develop. I felt the connection between Shadera and Greyson. I’m glad that they had so much in common and were able to discover the truth about each other. I also loved that romance between Callum and Lira, the yearning was brilliant! 😊 The chemistry between Callum and Lira was excellent, I felt the deep connection. There were many romantic scenes between both couples that made me smile and blush. I'm excited to see how the romance develops in the next book.
March 28, 2026
Reading DAGGERMOUTH made me feel like it was 2010 again and I was clutching my little statement necklace while reading THE HUNGER GAMES for the first time. This book is a master class in character building and complex Machiavellian type politics in dystopian structures that serve as chilling allegories for modern-day oppressions.
I loved Shadera and Greyson. She's a cold-blooded mercenary and he's the scion of a brutal tyrant. The central conflict of this book is that they are forced to marry to save the dictatorship's face and cement its optics of power, but oops, they actually both want to kill each other even though they're both hot and have the same kinks so they also want to bang each other, as well. The relationship is slow-burn and done so, so well. I never really found myself questioning any of their decisions or reactions because they both felt so real.
And unlike some romances, where the focus is totally on the main couple (which is okay!), Wolfe spent just as much time developing her side characters in interesting ways, including a secondary romance between the hero's sister, Lira, and a gambling den owner named Callum. And yes, I was just as invested in this relationship as I was in the main relationship, and yes, it did put me in my feelings.
I can see why this book has so much hype circling around it. The hype was what sold me on the book but the execution was what kept me reading (literally and figuratively). There's too many people to thank for recommending this to me, but I DO think you should all have to do a crowd-sourced Venmo to pay me for the therapy bills I'm going to rack up after that ending.
4.5 stars
I loved Shadera and Greyson. She's a cold-blooded mercenary and he's the scion of a brutal tyrant. The central conflict of this book is that they are forced to marry to save the dictatorship's face and cement its optics of power, but oops, they actually both want to kill each other even though they're both hot and have the same kinks so they also want to bang each other, as well. The relationship is slow-burn and done so, so well. I never really found myself questioning any of their decisions or reactions because they both felt so real.
And unlike some romances, where the focus is totally on the main couple (which is okay!), Wolfe spent just as much time developing her side characters in interesting ways, including a secondary romance between the hero's sister, Lira, and a gambling den owner named Callum. And yes, I was just as invested in this relationship as I was in the main relationship, and yes, it did put me in my feelings.
I can see why this book has so much hype circling around it. The hype was what sold me on the book but the execution was what kept me reading (literally and figuratively). There's too many people to thank for recommending this to me, but I DO think you should all have to do a crowd-sourced Venmo to pay me for the therapy bills I'm going to rack up after that ending.
4.5 stars
February 19, 2026
This is a 6 star read. And I will not be elaborating. That is all.
April 17, 2026
6 🌟
⁀➴ “𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓸𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓫𝓾𝓲𝓵𝓽 𝓸𝓷 𝓾𝓰𝓵𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼.” 𓂃 ོ𓂃
Obsessed doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about this book. I LOVED this. Literally from the first page and every single page after that, I was fully immersed in this world. The dystopian is done so well here I have not been so drawn into a story like this in a long time. I had to fight the urge to completely devour this because I truly wanted to just soak in every single moment.
Shadera QUEEN an absolute weapon of a woman. So badass. She is exactly who she thinks she is because HOT DAMN what a strong and powerful fmc. She gives zero fucks, and yet all the fucks at the same time. She is perfect in my eyes idcidcidc 👏🏼
⛧°.⋆༺ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴀ ꜱᴏɴɢ, ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴀ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴄʀʏ. ༻⋆.°⛧
Greyson. I mean, what can I even say about this man to do him justice. The slow unraveling of his character was perfection. He is everything, I have no notes. The tension between him and Shadera was so electric, such an iconic duo
“𝙄 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙮, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣.”
-no I’m screaming
Callum and Lira 🖤 fuck dude
This book will be living rent free in my head, and especially with that ending. That ending? The last page.. 🤯 I am so shook!
٠࣪⭑ “𝐼’𝒹 𝒹𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝒷𝓁𝑒𝑒𝒹.” 𖦏
⁀➴ “𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓸𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓫𝓾𝓲𝓵𝓽 𝓸𝓷 𝓾𝓰𝓵𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼.” 𓂃 ོ𓂃
Obsessed doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about this book. I LOVED this. Literally from the first page and every single page after that, I was fully immersed in this world. The dystopian is done so well here I have not been so drawn into a story like this in a long time. I had to fight the urge to completely devour this because I truly wanted to just soak in every single moment.
Shadera QUEEN an absolute weapon of a woman. So badass. She is exactly who she thinks she is because HOT DAMN what a strong and powerful fmc. She gives zero fucks, and yet all the fucks at the same time. She is perfect in my eyes idcidcidc 👏🏼
⛧°.⋆༺ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴀ ꜱᴏɴɢ, ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴀ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴄʀʏ. ༻⋆.°⛧
Greyson. I mean, what can I even say about this man to do him justice. The slow unraveling of his character was perfection. He is everything, I have no notes. The tension between him and Shadera was so electric, such an iconic duo
“𝙄 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙮, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣.”
-no I’m screaming
Callum and Lira 🖤 fuck dude
This book will be living rent free in my head, and especially with that ending. That ending? The last page.. 🤯 I am so shook!
٠࣪⭑ “𝐼’𝒹 𝒹𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝒷𝓁𝑒𝑒𝒹.” 𖦏
February 19, 2026
“Women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power. So no, Callum, I am not fragile. The cracks in my soul aren’t broken places. They are veins cemented together with rage. And it will take more than the hands of men to kill my spirit, to break my will.”
March 12, 2026
okay i might be in the minority with this one but trust me it took me days to even write a review because i'm very very conflicted about the fact that i thought this book was going to be a 6 star read but unfortunately i'm stuck on 3.5 stars rating here. the story has many strengths, especially its characters and the way it mirrors today’s world. but it also contains a few weaknesses that kept me from loving it completely.
daggermouth is set in a world that feels a lot like our own today. powerful men control everything, and their actions lead to ruin and fear. the author paints a picture of a dystopian society that reminds readers of current events, making the story feel very relevant. the setting is dark and oppressive, and the feeling of living under a harsh regime is strong throughout the pages.
anyways apart from the rant, i can say this book has so many good qualities, the characters are the strongest part of the story. every major figure—shadera, greyson, callum, lira, jameson, jeager, and the others—has a distinct personality and a clear purpose. their morals are blurred between black and grey here. each of them have flaws but their goal is towards one thing: to stop the oppression against boundary. the women, especially shadera and lira, carry the book with confidence and bravery. i was pumping my fist in the air and cheering for them in almost every scene. the author also uses multiple points of view, which lets us see the events from different angles. it helped me to understand the motivations of each character. because of the multiple perspectives, the world feels larger and more lived in.
even with those strengths, the world building sometimes feels thin to me. i felt like there were a lot of things missing here. for example, the society is divided into two groups: the boundary, a lower class treated as backward, and the elite, who are treated as first class. the reason for the rules is hinted at but never fully explained here. we see the elite forced to cover their faces, but we never learn why that tradition started. similarly, the hatred that maximus and the veyra have for the boundary is presented as a fact without any historical background. i kept asking myself as to what events led to this division and why the masks are so important. the lack of clear history left so many questions unanswered and made it harder for me to fully immerse myself in the setting. i would have liked more scenes or dialogue that explored the origins of the oppression, the rise of the elite, and the myths that keep the two groups apart.
apart from the missed details, the main aspect i want to talk about is romance, (well it's a dystopian romance obviously) i felt that shadera and greyson when from enemies to friends to lovers real quick? it just took them two to three interactions to start believing "oh, they're not bad after all" like duh. in a story that deals with deep mistrust and oppression, a quicker emotional shift can feel kinda unrealistic. a slower pace that shows more moments of doubt and gradual trust, would have made their romance more realistic in my opinion or maybe it's just a me problem after all. on the other hand, the relationship between callum and lira was far more satisfying. their chemistry was strong, and i really enjoyed the moments they shared. still, even their story suffers from a 'telling, not showing' problem. the book explains why they were separated, but it rarely shows the emotional pain of that separation. we are told that they once had feelings for each other, but we don’t see many scenes that let us feel that love grow again. a few flashbacks would have made it suffice.
TL;DR the book does offers a convincing dystopian backdrop, strong female leads, and a morally black/grey cast of characters. the multiple povs added so much flavor and the ending delivers a decent sense of closure. however, the world building lacks a bit of the historical details that would make the setting feel complete, and the romance between shadera and greyson moves too fast for my taste. callum and lira’s relationship is the highlight, but it also suffers from a “telling, not showing” issue.
lastly, i want to thank my besties, gary and manas for reading this with me! i love you guys 🥹💗
daggermouth is set in a world that feels a lot like our own today. powerful men control everything, and their actions lead to ruin and fear. the author paints a picture of a dystopian society that reminds readers of current events, making the story feel very relevant. the setting is dark and oppressive, and the feeling of living under a harsh regime is strong throughout the pages.
anyways apart from the rant, i can say this book has so many good qualities, the characters are the strongest part of the story. every major figure—shadera, greyson, callum, lira, jameson, jeager, and the others—has a distinct personality and a clear purpose. their morals are blurred between black and grey here. each of them have flaws but their goal is towards one thing: to stop the oppression against boundary. the women, especially shadera and lira, carry the book with confidence and bravery. i was pumping my fist in the air and cheering for them in almost every scene. the author also uses multiple points of view, which lets us see the events from different angles. it helped me to understand the motivations of each character. because of the multiple perspectives, the world feels larger and more lived in.
even with those strengths, the world building sometimes feels thin to me. i felt like there were a lot of things missing here. for example, the society is divided into two groups: the boundary, a lower class treated as backward, and the elite, who are treated as first class. the reason for the rules is hinted at but never fully explained here. we see the elite forced to cover their faces, but we never learn why that tradition started. similarly, the hatred that maximus and the veyra have for the boundary is presented as a fact without any historical background. i kept asking myself as to what events led to this division and why the masks are so important. the lack of clear history left so many questions unanswered and made it harder for me to fully immerse myself in the setting. i would have liked more scenes or dialogue that explored the origins of the oppression, the rise of the elite, and the myths that keep the two groups apart.
apart from the missed details, the main aspect i want to talk about is romance, (well it's a dystopian romance obviously) i felt that shadera and greyson when from enemies to friends to lovers real quick? it just took them two to three interactions to start believing "oh, they're not bad after all" like duh. in a story that deals with deep mistrust and oppression, a quicker emotional shift can feel kinda unrealistic. a slower pace that shows more moments of doubt and gradual trust, would have made their romance more realistic in my opinion or maybe it's just a me problem after all. on the other hand, the relationship between callum and lira was far more satisfying. their chemistry was strong, and i really enjoyed the moments they shared. still, even their story suffers from a 'telling, not showing' problem. the book explains why they were separated, but it rarely shows the emotional pain of that separation. we are told that they once had feelings for each other, but we don’t see many scenes that let us feel that love grow again. a few flashbacks would have made it suffice.
TL;DR the book does offers a convincing dystopian backdrop, strong female leads, and a morally black/grey cast of characters. the multiple povs added so much flavor and the ending delivers a decent sense of closure. however, the world building lacks a bit of the historical details that would make the setting feel complete, and the romance between shadera and greyson moves too fast for my taste. callum and lira’s relationship is the highlight, but it also suffers from a “telling, not showing” issue.
lastly, i want to thank my besties, gary and manas for reading this with me! i love you guys 🥹💗
March 2, 2026
4⭐️
I am speechless. Utterly speechless.
THIS BOOK WAS SO WORTH THE HYPE AND SO MUCH MORE!!
Normally when books are so raved about, I typically have the opposite reaction to most other people. BUT THIS?? THIS WAS AMAZING!
The characters in this book were phenomenal. I really enjoyed Shadera and Greyson and really all the characters in this book. I fell in love with our FMC so fast because of how strong and badass she was and just her entire personality. She was fierce and dedicated and the love she got from those on her side was just so fun. Greyson was extremely lovable as well and I enjoyed the TRUE enemies-to-lovers this book was. I really loved Lira and Callum as well! The side characters and how diverse and unique everyone was was extremely enjoyable.
NOW THE PLOT??? A MASTERPIECE. ART. CHEFS KISS!!
My favorite thing about this book was how high stakes and tense this book was from the very beginning. The plot twists, the pacing, the writing; it was all so good. It was so easy to get lost and binge this book once you got into it. It reads so fast and the next thing you know you've read 100 pages and it's only been an hour. It was exhilarating the entire time and the ending had me uncontrollably sobbing. I DID NOT PREDICT A DAMN THING THE END OF THIS BOOK WENT AND I'M NOT MAD ABOUT IT. Okay I'm a little mad because I knew things were getting too good to be true.
I genuinely can't wait for the second book and I will be anxiously waiting to get back into this universe with these characters. Believe me when I say that the hype and admiration for this book is completely justified. The scream that I scrumpt when I finished this was criminal. So glad I decided to give this a try!
ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ Qᴜᴏᴛᴇꜱ:
Fear is a solvent, Greyson--it dissolves doubt, resistance, the very concept of alternative. But only if administered pure. If you dilute it, even a little, the city will learn to adapt.
"If they want information from her badly enough, they'll get it. And what's left afterwards won't be Kael anymore"
"Then I'll find whatever's left of her and bring her home, and love whoever she's become."
Some promises were made to be broken. And some people were worth dying for.
But beneath that identity, he was also a boy caught in a web. A man created by an evil system whose soul, at the very least, suffered for the pain he'd caused. Evil could sometimes come in the form of beauty.
The woman sent to kill him, was the only woman who had ever made him feel safe.
But revenge wasn't enough anymore. Revenge was reactive, defensive. What she wanted--what she needed--was change.
"If you shoot me, it will only make me want to fuck you."
"Women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power. So no, Callum, I am not fragile. The cracks in my soul aren't broken places. They are veins cemented together with rage. And it will take more than the hands of men to kill my spirit, to break my will."
"We are the Heart. We are its power. And we are taking it back."
"Men never truly understand the meaning of patience. You see, men like you can't comprehend the concept of suffering, the lesson to be learned in it. Especially not in silence. But women? That is all we do, We endure. We wait. We survive."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
𝓟𝓻𝓮-𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭: 🗡️🖤🫀
Everyone and their mom has been talking about this book and alas...
Here I am falling into the hype because I HAVE to know what the deal is with this book 🫣
I am speechless. Utterly speechless.
THIS BOOK WAS SO WORTH THE HYPE AND SO MUCH MORE!!
Normally when books are so raved about, I typically have the opposite reaction to most other people. BUT THIS?? THIS WAS AMAZING!
The characters in this book were phenomenal. I really enjoyed Shadera and Greyson and really all the characters in this book. I fell in love with our FMC so fast because of how strong and badass she was and just her entire personality. She was fierce and dedicated and the love she got from those on her side was just so fun. Greyson was extremely lovable as well and I enjoyed the TRUE enemies-to-lovers this book was. I really loved Lira and Callum as well! The side characters and how diverse and unique everyone was was extremely enjoyable.
NOW THE PLOT??? A MASTERPIECE. ART. CHEFS KISS!!
My favorite thing about this book was how high stakes and tense this book was from the very beginning. The plot twists, the pacing, the writing; it was all so good. It was so easy to get lost and binge this book once you got into it. It reads so fast and the next thing you know you've read 100 pages and it's only been an hour. It was exhilarating the entire time and the ending had me uncontrollably sobbing. I DID NOT PREDICT A DAMN THING THE END OF THIS BOOK WENT AND I'M NOT MAD ABOUT IT. Okay I'm a little mad because I knew things were getting too good to be true.
I genuinely can't wait for the second book and I will be anxiously waiting to get back into this universe with these characters. Believe me when I say that the hype and admiration for this book is completely justified. The scream that I scrumpt when I finished this was criminal. So glad I decided to give this a try!
ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ Qᴜᴏᴛᴇꜱ:
Fear is a solvent, Greyson--it dissolves doubt, resistance, the very concept of alternative. But only if administered pure. If you dilute it, even a little, the city will learn to adapt.
"If they want information from her badly enough, they'll get it. And what's left afterwards won't be Kael anymore"
"Then I'll find whatever's left of her and bring her home, and love whoever she's become."
Some promises were made to be broken. And some people were worth dying for.
But beneath that identity, he was also a boy caught in a web. A man created by an evil system whose soul, at the very least, suffered for the pain he'd caused. Evil could sometimes come in the form of beauty.
The woman sent to kill him, was the only woman who had ever made him feel safe.
But revenge wasn't enough anymore. Revenge was reactive, defensive. What she wanted--what she needed--was change.
"If you shoot me, it will only make me want to fuck you."
"Women are the backbone, the foundation, the immovable force that still does not falter when men stand on our spines to grab power. So no, Callum, I am not fragile. The cracks in my soul aren't broken places. They are veins cemented together with rage. And it will take more than the hands of men to kill my spirit, to break my will."
"We are the Heart. We are its power. And we are taking it back."
"Men never truly understand the meaning of patience. You see, men like you can't comprehend the concept of suffering, the lesson to be learned in it. Especially not in silence. But women? That is all we do, We endure. We wait. We survive."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
𝓟𝓻𝓮-𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭: 🗡️🖤🫀
Everyone and their mom has been talking about this book and alas...
Here I am falling into the hype because I HAVE to know what the deal is with this book 🫣
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