A non-believer meets someone from the Other World, and starts to believe.
Ellery Evans doesn't is a non-believer in a region where people pray for a 5 year winter to end. The people believe the gods haven't abandoned them, even though Ellery had to move to this city to help their family.
Knox is a familiar from the Other World, who is assigned to help a human after they made a deal at the crossroads. It has been years since he has heard from his queen, or anyone else in the Other World. He starts to get nervous about what might be waiting for him once he goes back.
When Arabelle, his human companion, finally completes her spell, she is immediately killed by Shades, supernatural beings who want the spell she was working on, and to send Knox back to the Other World. Knox isn't sure he wants to go back, so he steals the vial and runs from the Shades.
This leads him to running into Ellery, literally, as they are taking out the trash behind their job. Ellery helps defend Knox against the Shades, even when they don't fully know what is happening. Ellery and Knox leave each other, only to find each other again the next day when Knox is unsure of where to go and what to do. Now he is on the run and has betrayed his queen. The Shades continue to hunt him for the vial but Ellery offers some protection, even if they don't fully believe anything Knox is saying.
As Ellery and their cousin take Knox in, trying to help him find a way to communicate with his queen and get away from the Shades, they are all pulled into a adventure with a lot of twists and secrets.
When Ellery starts to develop feelings for Knox, they have to decide if its worth falling for somehow who will leave them. Meanwhile, Knox is starting to wonder if it would be better to be human.
One thing about this book I really enjoyed was how Ellery had to learn to trust, themselves, others, the world. Ellery doesn't have a lot of trust which leads to them not believing in a lot of the things around them. They learn how to trust with Knox. Whereas Knox has to learn about being human, having all of his ideals about humans coming from movies, he makes a list of 'human' goals to have before going back to the Other World, and its fun to see him start to understand the complexities of what is going on in the world around him. Especially since he loses a lot of his memories any time he goes back to the Other World.
Both of the characters are complex, with their own secrets and desires. I think it was a fun journey to see them both grow and change with each other throughout the story. We also get to run into a lot of other supernatural creatures, who have different connections to the gods, and it is interesting to see how the perpetual winter has impacted them as well.
I really enjoyed this book and the twists and turns it took. I'll be honest, the beginning was a little slow for me at times, but once it got to the meat of the story I was all in. I got a lot of 'Hadestown' vibes from this book as well, with someone having to save someone with the 'Other' World and a Goddess that has seemed to have abandoned the humans in a perpetual winter.
I love the writing style the F.T. uses, as well at the dual POVs, which really gave us a better look at both Ellery and Knox as a whole. We got to meet a lot of interesting Gods and Goddesses and you sort of find yourself falling in love with their love story like the others did.
This book was a 4/5 stars for me!
It is set to be published Apr 2, 2024!
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