When a demon murders her friends, Bryce Quinlan is throw into a world she tried to avoid.
Bryce Quinlan had a perfect life, working hard during the day and partying hard at night with her roommate Danika and Danika's wolfpack. When she comes home from a night of partying to find her roomie and the pack murdered. After being chased by the demon that did it, Bryce finds herself questioned for the murders, before being released and spending the next years as a shell of who she was.
Two years later, she is approached by Hunt Athalar, a fallen angel who is working for the governor as a slave. The governor wants them to work together to figure out what caused these murders after they find another body murdered the same way. If he can help find the murderer, he would be offered freedom, something he hasn't had in many decades.
Bryce doesn't want to help, at least not at first, especially when she knows the angel will be following her around for her protection. Now she finds herself in the middle of the politics of Crescent City, where as a half-fae she is seen as less than everyone else. When her half brother Rahn Daanan is also enlisted to help, and search for the same thing by their father, they are thrown together after a fallout many years ago.
As they dig deeper into the secrets of the city, and the people running it, Bryce finds herself in more and more danger, with Hunt at her side to protect her. Trying to get revenge for what happened to her friend while also trying to stay safe is a lot more than she planned for.
This book is full of a lot of interesting characters, with different paranormal backgrounds and a lot of different versions of creatures I've seen in books before. I was excited to see a fallen angel/archangel story line, which is something I liked a lot as a teen.
Overall, this book is a thick one with some moments that felt a little bit slow to me during the beginning. There was definitely a lot of time spent getting into the politics and backgrounds, and I feel like some of it could have been shorter. When the action really started, around 40-50% of the way through, I felt way more invested and into the story overall.
I overall liked Bryce a bit more than Feyre from the ACOTAR series. She has a little more spark and I find her to be slightly more like Nesta. I also think this series being written better as ACOTAR at times, which makes sense for it being newer. (I have never read Throne of Glass, so I don't have a reference point for that.) Bryce is excellent at sarcasm, with a feistiness I really appreciated it with the 'alphaholes' she dealt with on a daily basis.
The twists, and more action-based plot points, at the end of the book were definitely my favorite part of the book overall, and will probably be the reason I continue with the series after catching up on some other reads.
It is definitely still a Sarah J Maas book, with lots of attractive characters who are sassy and pretty well aware of how hot they are. It was fun to see some self awareness with that though, especially with some of the characters making fun of how broody some of the males are.
Overall, this book was a 3.5 out of 5 star read of me.
I am excited to see what the rest of the series will bring.
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