thank you NetGalley & PeachTree Teen for providing me with a copy of this ARC! 

this fatal kiss follows gisela, an undead water nymph (a rusałka) who dreams of returning to the mortal world, which can be done if she receives a kiss from a mortal. but its kind of hard to get someone to kiss you when you’re freezing at the touch. in comes kazik, the town’s exorcist, who cant stand the spirits that run the town he lives in. after flubbing gisela’s exorcism, he agrees to get a mortal to kiss her. insert hijinks!

so, right off the bat, i loved this book’s LGBT+ rep. the fact both the MCs are bisexual is so beautiful i loved to see it. the fact gisela and kazik are unapologetically bi is so refreshing to see. the lgbt+ rep ate in this book. no notes there.

the chemistry between kazik & gisela was great. gisela is such a funny, charismatic and easy character to empathise with. kazik’s growth was great to witness, and his interactions with gisela are so good. their chemistry was off the charts. 

as a fellow slavic (dont ask from where specifically nobody knows) i LOVED the seamless integration of slavic culture within the story. yapping about kefir & goulash made my little balkan heart sing, and the way the general vibe of the story managed to balance its setting to be contemporaneous yet also holding true to its slavic nature was so nice to read. its rare to read a book featuring eastern european culture and god i couldnt get enough.

the book also has some GREAT humour. this book does not take itself seriously, and it was such a good book to read. it had a nice lighthearted vibe which made the atmosphere feel so cozy whilst managing to still crack me up with funny one-liners or even just how the characters were acting. like im sorry gisela is a comedy queen. kazik and other characters did have some humorous moments, but gisela solo’d.

now.. you may be wondering why this is only a 3-star. 

for starters, i think the biggest thing holding this book back for me was the lack of tension. i wasnt truly worried for the main characters, even when they were in “concerning” or “dangerous” situations. there werent too many situations where they were in danger, but even then, the tension was resolved super quickly.

for example, with rosa, yeah i was worried she was gonna jump my girl gisela. but then the other water nymphs came and i just knew she would be save. same with kazik jumping into the crystal palace & them with the house spirit.

the situations they were placed in werent too serious, so i knew the characters would make it out ok, therefore i had no motivation to actually… read this. and ive read lighthearted low stakes stories with no tension (like legends & lattes), but the plot was still interesting! it felt like the story really floundered in the middle, was gripping for the first 50 & last 100 pages.
the world building at times suffered from exposition dumps, especially surrounding the other spirits in the area and certain lore. i am by no means a fiction writer so i imagine i would do a horrific job at explaining fantasy elements if i were to hypothetically write a story but. a lot of times the exposition or lore dumps were literally just “insert creature. they do xyz, and beef with abc”. it did get a bit annoying by the end where something was only explained once it had been introduced. sometimes it went nowhere, and sometimes the worldbuilding was addressed there & then (like the spirit just introduced was staring gisela or kazik straight in the face). idk i got tired of the repetitive way lore was conveyed.

the ending was a bit of a letdown im not going to lie. i expected a lot more to happen, especially in the epilogue. the plot has mostly been resolved, but yet everything is kind of left super open? gisela’s family is just touched on after that being her motivation for the entire plot.. kazik’s story still being open… aleksy doing literally who knows what. idk i would’ve liked a chapter with a bit more of a flash forward & with a more conclusive ending for the characters.

overall, i will say i had a good time. although i wasn’t reaching for this book quite often due to there being a lack of tension to pull me in & have me worried for the characters, once i was reading i was having a ball. the atmosphere and world created by jasinska was fabulous, and really gave a cutesy cottagecore meets mythology vibe. i will always give extra points for hitting me in the Culture Feels™️, but the ending was a bit disappointing :(

i can’t wait for this book to come out so i can oggle at gisela fan art