This was a nice queer MM book, it was.

But I had…slight issues with how it was delivered.

This book has two protagonist, two deuteroganists, and two tritagonists—meaning, we see the book mainly from the POVs of two characters, but two *other* characters get significant POVs, and two *other other* characters get slight POVs and also are core to the story.


The environment is a fantasy setting where gods and monsters are real. What can’t be understood is weaponized and given propaganda against, mainly when it comes to necromancy. Regardless that the Goddess—the one pushing for this generation to see the error of their ways—somehow never once gave any sort of disapproval to the beating, killing, and ownership of her beloved necromancer, warlock, and alchemist children.

Funny how she works like that.

The story was fine, until it wasn’t.

Essentially, we have three parts: The Necromancer, The Alchemist, and the Warlock. Originally, I thought these parts meant there would be three significant powers and three characters honing them. But no. There are FIVE significant powers. But only three get their own part, and only four get time to grasp their laws and nuances.

The reason for the story happens when Sorin—High Paladin—finds his best friend and cousin brutally killed, and he reports this to Angelos, the High Priest. It’s there we are infodumped how the world they live in has powers tied to a deity, how those powers are used, and how the murder is an excuse for the Goddess to nudge her children in the right direction to repairing what was lost.


Considering we have three parts loosely dedicated to three of the five powers, and considering the emotional weight we’re supposed to invest in with Sorin and Angelos, this book couldn’t benefited from being a five part book, including The Paladin and the Priest. I would have had much more of an emotional connection to Sorin and Angelos had there been two parts dedicated to their origins, as well as the new High Priest’s backstory being interwoven then and there.

It feels, in the beginning, like I missed Book One, with how much I’m supposed to be understanding Angelos and Sorin. We’re exposed to too much information unnaturally rather than when the time needs information to be explained.

The prologue also sets the stage for the romance between a paladin and a demon in Brekk and Emel, but I had little love for either of them. We’re *told* how their relationship transpired. But I think, had we been shown more of Emel finding Brekk in a “The Paladin” part, I’d have a better emotional connection to them.

I did enjoy Koray and Sorin’s dynamic. I like white cat/black dog couples, and they reminded me of 2HA in a way, but without that one weird crush plot. But I found myself less inclined to believe their romance when the random kiss happened. It happened so suddenly that I was awfully bewildered about it. It might’ve made more sense for them to have had almost-kisses rather than the random ones initiated by Sorin.

With so much expository, I found myself less invested in the plot or the action. I was much more interested in Koray’s relationships with other people than anything else.

There definitely could’ve been better editing. I wasn’t found of the grammatical choices done. So I’m deciding this author isn’t my cup of tea.