*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review.*

This was a fun adventure! With somewhat high stakes, since the premise is that the main character’s brother will die if they don’t succeed at this quest. So it did get serious at times, but never dark.

Something that I’ve thought about in other books sometimes is how the characters will kill magical creatures or animals just because they’re dangerous or in the way, but those creatures were just trying to live their lives and were only even a problem because people were invading their homes or using them. And it was interesting how much this book focused on that. More so than I’ve ever seen before. The main character actively went out of her way to help the scary magical creatures because they were becoming endangered. It was such an interesting twist on the usual fantasy quest trope.

The cast of characters was ragtag and fun. Ellinore was easy to root for, putting on a tough, cool persona for the public, but actually hating the attention and feeling like a fraud (even though I thought the lying thing was overblown and agreed with Dave that she still completed the quests, just in a different way), just wanting to help her family, and failing miserably at pretty much everything else she tried. Aven was so polished and respectful and also easy to like but with their own insecurities and so obviously pining. Zig was one of those people I think I’d really want to strangle but also couldn’t help but love, getting them all into trouble as often as he got them out of it. The other two were less developed but were imperfect and likeable.

As for the romance, it’s not as antagonistic as the cover/description makes it seem. If you go into this expecting enemies-to-lovers or a ton of banter, I think you’ll be disappointed. It’s more competitors with a mutual respect for each other, feelings that are obvious to everyone but each other, and a touch of angst from one of them believing they could never actually be together. I also wouldn’t say it wasn’t the main focus of the book (which is fine, it wasn’t marketed as such). But it was still cute.

Another nice thing was the casual queer rep (including a nonbinary love interest) and a world that was accepting of it.

Overall, this was a fairly light and straightforward sort of book, despite the somewhat high stakes for the characters, with adventure, action, magical creatures, a bit of romance, and sweet found family!

*Rating: 3.5 or 4 Stars // Read Date: 2026 // Format: ARC*