I was fascinated by the first half, with the imperious Hope women and their intimate knowledge of alchemy, regardless of the source of any particular resource or formula - as well as the frenetic energy dedicated to a quest for the philosooher's stone and all that it promises. We have a brilliant, dedicated MC in Thea and an interesting array of antagonists in her mother, her father, Valentin, and [redacted]. One thing that this book does really well is show many sides to characters particularly when it comes to Valentin and Thea's father. Valentin is gruff and stiff but also fair and tender; his character felt real enough to step off the page. Same with Dominic.

**SPOILERS BELOW (skip to the "TL;DR" if you want my overall vibe without being spoiled)
The whole second half of the book hinges on a love story that we weren't sold on - ever. Indeed, I thought Thea saw right through him as soon as the Germans mentioned his story and as soon as he confirmed even part of it. Thea's lack of commitment one way or the other made me think she was pretending for his sake. So consider me shocked when she trusts him and then his betrayal surprises her. With the latter half of the book now hinging on her finding him and convincing him to give something up. It came out of nowhere and was totally unnecessary.
**END SPOILERS**

TL;DR It felt like Cohoe didn't know how to incorporate the "required" romance elements (this is YA fantasy, after all) and so just dove in to make up for a total lack of build-up. Strong debut and I would 100% read her next book, but the second half left much to be desired.

{Thank you Wednesday Books for the NetGalley widget and Macmillan Audio for the ALC; all thoughts are my own}