A book slightly outside of my wheelhouse that I nonetheless enjoyed! I imagine this one as though Jane Austen wrote a queer high fantasy set during the Regency era in that world. Slow-paced, the writing is very 'tell' versus 'show', which sometimes took away from the intensity of the plot in my opinion. This is also a very slow burn. As in: enemies-to-friends is the extent of their relationship in this book. I found myself sometimes wishing the book would go a little faster (which could be a personal preference, because I usually read fast-paced), and other times wishing that we weren't so stuck in a past first-person POV in which Leo is very much telling the story in hindsight to us, which made the story less immersive to me. But overall, when we finally hit the climactic moment, I was thrilled that we actually got a good one that fit the build-up of the story. Huge kudos for that! I finished the book content.




Knowing what I know now about this book, would I still read it if I went back in time?
Sure!


 See below for the four criteria I use to decide whether and when to read a book



CHARACTERS: Leo and Grimm are in many ways your delightfully typical rivals: rich/poor, grumpyish/sunshineish, serious/lighthearted. In many ways they reminded me of The Unlikely Pair in terms of the rivalry and dichotomy between them. Rivals at magic school, (The Fount), reckless gentry-boy Leo doesn't want to be there but is forced by his father to go, whereas Sebastian comes from a farming family and essentially got a scholarship to the school because of his prowess. They butt heads throughout the first four years of school and by this fifth year, they're forced to work together in one class and end up entwined because of a curse. The scenes where they're interacting are highlights, for sure, and thankfully a large portion of the book is just that.




PLOT: As rival schoolmates forced to work together, communication between Leo and Grimm isn't a strong suit and they end up accidentally stuck together (figuratively) through a dangerous curse that could get them both expelled (or worse) if found out. Forced outside of school to find a counterspell for it, Leo and Grimm embark on a quest into the Unquiet Wood to find a mysterious sorceress who supposedly can help them. Although slow-paced, there were only a couple of times I felt the plot dragged a bit too much. But overall, the journey was well worth it as a reader. Although I will admit to being surprised by the end how little their relationship had developed. This is not a bad thing. As mentioned, it's incredibly slow-burn so this book only gets them from rivals-to-friends.



EMOTIONAL INTENSITY: There is no good/bad here. Sometimes I just want a low-investment entertainment read whereas other times a high-stakes 'I need a therapist to recover' is what I need.


2:5/low. I believe this book is meant to be a cozy read, on one hand, and on the other hand, we have Leo 'telling' the reader the story, which kept me from connecting as deeply and immersing myself because of how evident the fourth wall is. Entertaining with stakes that are high for the book but low for the reader.



CATHARTIC FULFILLMENT: Is the emotional journey worth it? Do I finish this book feeling that I've crested the wave of the climactic moment and everything has been settled, leaving me settled and fulfilled? 


90%. A huge kudos to the author for ensuring that we get the whole story by the end (re: there's a moment that Leo doesn't know, but he ensures the reader finds out what he learns). While I personally would have wished for a little bit more development in their relationship by the end, I still finished this one mostly content.