I’m a big fan of Carissa Broadbent, which I discovered with the first book in this world, The Serpent and the Wings of Night, during one of our book club discussions. I’ve read the first two books in her The War of Lost Hearts series, and I’ve highly enjoyed them.

So I’m excited for this book. I’m curious after the first quarter. It feels like we’ve progressed at a steady pace. Her language reminds me of how much I enjoy good world building and dark metaphors. I’m pretty keen on dark stories that mix violence and romance.

And I think we’re in a good place. Mische has a great personality and a lively inner dialogue. We’ve got a good starting place. Which is coming from a place that hasn’t read all of the previous material.

The inevitability of her journey with Asar through what is essentially the path to the underworld is set up by both her external circumstances of having been caught killing the heir prince of the House of Shadow, made a sacrificial lamb for a too powerful king, saved for a journey worse than death, and a failed escape attempt…and her internal circumstances of being devoted to a sun god even though she is a vampire. Granted, the fact that her god husband is asking also makes this an external circumstance, but her devotion is the pivotal piece.

We’re being promised a fight to free herself from this responsibility. I can feel it coming, and you know, she directly says it in the prologue. 

I also really enjoy the tug between Miche and Asar. Not only how he’s healed her a few times, but also the reaction she has to simply seeing his scars. It almost feels like their expectations of themselves and others’ expectations of them are similar, so they see each other with more clarity than anyone else does. That is a connection I’m hoping builds as we move on.

I have a feeling it will based on the couples she’s given us before. Completely different but the same.

The sacrifices Mische is clearly willing to make already has me routing for her, and the way she reacts to death and the supernatural is both beautiful and terrifying. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.

How about you? Initial thoughts? Expectations? Let me know in the comments below.