I was really excited to read this, especially coming off of The Last Sun and seeing this as one of the recommended books if I enjoyed that one. Unfortunately, this just didn’t hit for me. I really didn’t like the main character, and couldn’t get into the chapters from his brother’s POV.

I also did feel like it was out of character for Adam, who had past issues with authority mistreating him, to start dating a cop with literally no discussion of his job. For a book that supposedly touches on classism, how are there absolutely zero conversations about how working as a police officer ties into upholding classism? I don’t typically care if characters/LIs are cops in fiction, but if a book purports itself to discuss social issues and then only goes halfway, it takes me out of it a bit. 

There were also these random moments throughout the book that I guess were attempts to address racism but just came across very out of place. The LIs brother literally only refers to Adam throughout the entire book as “wonder bread”. I really don’t get why the difference between Vic being Latino and Adam being white needs to be emphasized so much when there is zero conversation about how Adam benefits from his whiteness surrounding pointing this out. There’s also a strange part where Vic was justifying white people opening a Mexican restaurant because the food is good and people enjoy it. If a book is going to have such surface level takes about racism/appropriation, why even bother including it?

The magic system in here also wasn’t super clear to me throughout, but given that it’s just the first book of a trilogy I’ll excuse that as something that will become more clear. Initially, I wasn’t going to continue on with the series after finishing this one but after letting it sit for a month, I think I may.