I swear to god, ppl who rave about this book have to be lying or are increasingly desperate for romantasy novels. I liked oraya for the most part. I felt like she was a great reflection on feeling like you owe someone something for the bare minimum and never pushing, always creating peace with your parent in fear of the silent treatment. There were some good lines in this book. However i feel like oraya was extremely smart until the plot needed her to be stupid to advance. Why the hell would she “wish raihn won” the kejari? Maam. What was wrong with “i wish that i was a powerful vampire and that raihn was alive “???? But no, the plot required her to be stupid so that the second book could exist. This book as a standalone wouldve been better imo. 

Vincent taught Oraya how to use magic. She never once questioned why she was able to conjure magic but none of the other humans could? 

The worldbuilding in this was shoddy at best. What is the kejari?? Why did it start? Why are there theoretically human lands across the ocean? Where do the humans in the vampire lands come from? What is the history of the cities we learn? Who is the house of shadow? There appears to he a lot of hindu/indian root words/spelling but why? I love it dont get me wrong, but theres never any connections made. The author appears to just like these spellings but doesnt take the opportunity to connect it to anything. I kept waiting for more from the worldbuilding but it never came. 

Raihn was great and his plot twist was easy to see coming from the beginning of the novel, but thats fine. Not everything has to be life altering in terms of plot twists. However, i hated that his entire personality changed at the end of the book. He went from caring and compassionate towards oraya to “I win so you have to love me” kinda guy. I totally get getting married to keep oraya safe, but he never once sits down with her and tries to see her pov, he just sits there and defends himself and expects oraya to be fine with him. He stops sharing everything with her and starts being cold and distant and expects oraya to just be in looove. Ugh. 

I wont be reading book 2.