4.5/5 rounded down!

“Come on, darling, some darkly wicked, impulsive part of him thought, one last fight before I leave you.”

Talasyn was abandoned as a child in a country that has only ever known war with the Night Emperor. With no family to call her own she made the military her family and spent most of her time, hiding her light magic from almost everyone. Alaric is the heir to the Night Empire and has spent his entire life being forged into a weapon by his father. When he meets Talasyn on the battlefield, it is an epic battle between his shadow magic and her light, but when the two combine, something even more powerful occurs. This new power might be the only way to survive the greater threat that is approaching, and they might have to put aside their differences and work together to survive it. 

This is another one that I can see myself bumping up to a five-star read depending on how the rest of this series plays out. I know that sounds weird to say and I try really, really hard to rate books individually and not as a series, but this is one where if some of the things left open get resolved properly, I will love it and if they don't, I will not love it as much. The way I interpreted some things in this book make me feel like this will be a top tier series for me. With that said, this book on its own was still DANG good! I feel like this novel did a really good job and a legitimate enemies-to-lovers trope as well as making the slow burn feel beautifully angsty and not just slow. Very excited to see how this all plays out in the next one!