This is one of the most addictive fantasies I’ve read in a while. I love the concept and the characters are wonderful. It doesn’t quite hit 5 stars because of some over-wrought dialogue choices and the terrible decision to replace certain curse words with a silly sounding in-universe phrase. I’m sorry but when your characters are capable of saying the F word, and they say “oh, trees” instead, it totally takes me out of the narrative for a second.

That said, the romance had me kicking my feet in the air and the last four chapters inspired the fastest reading I’ve done in a long time. I’m hooked.