🫑-🌶️(closed door)

"When the world is at its darkest, follow the stars."

Fast paced and easy to read YA dark academia, fantasy, romantasy with elements of Greek mythology, mages and assassins. The Greek mythology is sprinkled throughout using different lore which is really intriguing. This novel is inspired by the love story of Nyx and Erebus (and now I want to learn more about Nyx and Erebus.)

Kiara's world goes from being an assassin for the king to being a mage - a mission for vengeance turning into a battle for survival and uncovering truths.

The book pulled me in the beginning, I enjoyed the magic coming from grimoires, the different aspects of the mages magic (elemental, beast forms and affinities) There are also secret societies and an academy with hidden history and more secrets. The secondary characters are also really interesting and I want to know more about them. (I really want Octavia and Tobias to be fated and I need to know more about Tobias and his brother!)

I do wish the pacing slowed down or more that there were more details provided. I would have liked further exploration with the different societies, learning more about the other characters, classes Kiara was in, and her learning or practicing her newfound magic. I'm also not a huge fan of when things are repeated to close to each other or many times (or more so when I notice it) and found that a few instances where the main characters thoughts were a little repetitious.

Overall, I thought this was a really interesting and promising start to the series and I will be on the look out to dive back in the series and see what's in store for the Kingdom of Ithaka, Kiara and Lucien. 

Received and ARC for my honest opinion. Thank you so much!