ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Even though I continue to cringe at the main character names (Darling and Talon, really?), I had a great time with this. If you're looking for a book that has an actual enemies to lovers romance that goes beyond "we're going to be terrible to each other until lust forces us together", I would recommend this. I appreciated the way Darling and Talon slowly grew towards each other. The world has interesting politics, mysterious prophecies and magic, and the side characters are fleshed out. I can honesty say I was fascinated by Caspian. The story surrounding him is so compelling, and I loved how we slowly start to piece things together.

I didn't hate the romance by any means, but the relationship between Talon and Caspian drew me in more. Talon clearly has a lot of love for his brother, who rarely shows affection, so whenever Caspian did, I noticed. I wish there had been room to focus more on them, because I have a definite soft spot for siblings.

The writing in the first chapter is in third person, and the prose really engaged me. The book switches to first person after that, which was fine, but it never quite reaches the level of that first chapter.

The ending was a banger of a cliffhanger, with huge consequences for the characters and the world, and I'm excited to see where the story goes from here.