*I received an audio copy of this book via the Libro.fm ALC program. This has not influenced my review.*

You know how sometimes you start a book and immediately think to yourself, “Oh, this author can write”? This was one of those books for me. It wasn’t flowery, I didn’t feel the urge to save a million quotes, but it was fantastic in that way that sucks you in and embodies the characters and flows flawlessly and is really pleasant to read (or listen to).

Speaking of which, this was also a case of, “Oh, this audiobook narrator can talk,” or whatever the equivalent is, because he (Joe Jameson) was fantastic too. (Fun Fact, I knew he sounded familiar, and it turns out he voices some NPCs in BG3.) I really enjoyed his voice and his performance. It sounded natural, and characters had some different accents and different enough voices.

The characters were great too. Both main characters, Elician and Cat, were interesting and easy to like. I didn’t like Fen’s POV at first, but it was a great example of how a biased person can learn and grow and change. (I’m still not entirely sure why we needed so much of her POV though, unless it was to learn more about the giver and reaper powers, but we probably could’ve gotten that from Cat.) I loved Marina and Adelai, they were both so shrewd and competent and fierce but also doing their best to be kind, I think. There was another character who, at one point, the way he was being described, I was like, “No, the author is not going to make me feel sorry for him after what he did,” and then ten minutes later I was tearing up over him. And Lio! I loved Lio so much. And I felt for him more than anyone. Tbf, the reapers in the cells, including Cat, suffered just as much in their lives, if not more. But Lio was just so good and wholesome and a sweetheart. (Sorry if I butchered these names, I tried to look at other reviews to find how they’re spelled.)

This book revolves a lot around life and death, with magic to heal/resurrect and magic to kill, Life and Death as gods, etc. And I appreciated its somewhat unique perspective on life and death. I think about these things a lot, having health problems will put them on your mind, and I liked that this book didn’t portray them as black and white. Reapers and death weren’t portrayed as all bad. Givers and life weren’t portrayed as all good. I don’t agree with every belief of every character in the book, but it was interesting to get these different perspectives.

The main thing keeping this from being rated higher for me is that it got a bit slow at times and was somewhat oddly paced with a period in which not much really happened and there were some time skips. It still kept my attention well enough though.

Another thing, the description made me think this would be more of a romance, but the two characters didn’t spend much page-time together, and the romance is really more hinted at than actually happening in this book. Which is fine because I realize now it is a duology, so maybe we can see them together more in the next book. I can understand why they’re drawn to each other, just need a little more to feel the feelings more.

One last small complaint, too many names that started with A and E and sounded similar.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! The writing was wonderful, the characters felt real, and the magic and world were interesting, and I’m looking forward to the next book.

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2025 // Format: Audiobook*