Q U I C K S T A T S
Characters- ⭐⭐⭐
Setting- ⭐⭐⭐. 5
Writing style- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall rating- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
// Content Warning: Death //
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Age group: Young Adult
Genre(s): Fantasy
Pub date: January 28th 2014
P R E M I S E
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.
M Y R E V I E W
Essentially a beauty and the beast retelling and just like ACOTAR, this book features bat people, or kings.
Alright whoever gave the bats a crown and a kingdom to start with, please step forward and hang yourself (I'm kidding; please don't get blood on the floor, it's hard to clean).
This book follows Nyx, our protagonist, who has been trained since birth to kill the king who literally has no idea why everyone wants to kill him but the longer she stays in the palace, the weirder it gets. She hears noises, cries of children, and witnesses even stranger things. What didn't help was that the king, who goes by Ignifex, is literally the king of darkness or bargaining or something but he was afraid of the dark. Oh, and to make this even better, she can't decide if she loves Ignifex or his shadow, or was it his servant? (girl, *inhales* WHAT THE F-). To make things even worse, his name is not Ignifex, and every night Nyx is given the opportunity to guess his *real* name but she's only given one chance; wrong guess and she's dead.
I know, it's very confusing but once you get used to his bat wings, the story actually gets better. I loved Nyx's character and her determination to restore the four hearts and save her people, and her relationship with her sister was amazing too (she only needs to work more on hiding her knives better)! Ignifex was the definition of cocky and although it irritated me a lot, I couldn't help but like him.
Moving onto the world building which I found slightly (no, very) confusing. I had no idea if the palace was in the fucking sky or invisible to the mortal world because (*takes deep breath*) THE AUTHOR DOESN'T FUCKING EXPLAIN THAT TO US (apologies for the swearing but talking about it starts me off and I start using words my mum wouldn't approve of). But to give credit where credit is due, I did love the gothic vibe I got from it and I absolutely adored the grandfather's clock sitting in the corner. I just love grandfather clocks.
T R O P E S
Arranged Marriage
Enemies-to-lovers
Retelling
S I M I L A R B O O K S
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer (I only recommend the first book because in my opinion, the series went downhill afterwards).
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