From the prologue, this book had me in its grip! I thought it was a sweet romance that tackles PTSD, Trauma responses and the feelings of abandonment. It teaches about trust even when the world is out to get you. Despite its premise, it ended up being a pretty cozy read about a woman trying to make up for the sins of her father against a man who wants to forget she exists while trying to build a city in a land that is trying to tear them down. 

Despite the book grabbing me from the start, my biggest complaint is how long the chapters are. As someone who tends to not stop reading until she finishes a chapter, each one took 30 minutes to get through at my pace of reading. If you are a slower reader, expect 45 minutes to an hour per chapter. This was extremely frustrating as a reader, especially because there were so many moments the story naturally broke and yet it kept on trucking. I think that the writing was good but the structure of chapters in the Dual POV was a bit of a mess. The chapters flipped back and forth between Ophele and Remin and most of the time there was a break letting you know it switched, but occasionally it happened right in the middle of a paragraph. The timeline/timejumps were also inconsistent and there would be sections where they would tell you what happened over a span of a week and then randomly you would be in a conversation happening in the present, revealing the last bit of story was simply a flashback. 

I was expecting more of a darker tone based off the description and there was a tension hovering over me as I read, waiting on the problems to really set in. I do think that the story ended up being exactly what it needed to, but I wish that we had more of a threat outside of the "devils" that laid siege to the city every night. The emperor was laid out to be this massive obstacle and outside of talking about him and referencing what happened in the past, he played no part to the story. 

I think that Ophele is one of the better FMCs that I have read in a long time. She is shy and anxious which resonates with me on a soul level but watching her slowly grow out of that shell with people was amazing character development. Remin was your "Misunderstood Brooding MMC" and while he pulled it off well, I wasn't a big fan of him. He judged Ophele based off assumptions and refused to see what was happening at face value even though multiple men in his inner circle were telling him to give her a chance. This aspect of his character made it hard for me to resonate with him as a love interest. Granted, this was the plot point that kept them apart and is what they had to overcome to be together, and it was handled well storytelling wise.

I feel that this book wraps up the story quite nicely, but there is going to be more to come. I am unsure if I will continue with the series as I do feel that the strings are all tied up with no major loose ends. However, I wouldn't be against coming back to this world if the author can truly offer us something to keep the story going that doesn't require backtracking on the romance. It feels like we need to have a series of interconnected stand alones focusing on different couples, instead of everything focusing around Remin and Ophele as their story is complete in my eyes. 

I did have a good time with this book and if you want something that is easy to follow with tension, this is the one for you!