Slow to start but it gripped me after the initial faltering and I couldn't put it down. It's been sitting on my TBR pile longer than it should have, since several of my favorite authors blurbed for it. The worldbuilding is great and the main character witty, relatable, and fun. More romance with fantasy and the related tropes than fantasy but still an entertaining read. Another book I borrowed from the library and then immediately purchased for rereading. On to the second book in the series. ( )

It wasn't particularly well written, and the main character was annoyingly immature, but I still enjoyed reading this. ( )

What a fun read from start to finish! I liked it a lot and it kept me turning the pages, wanting to know what happened next, but I was hard-pressed to love it. I was looking for a great fantasy romance akin to Grace Draven's RADIANCE, and this looked super promising.

Fantastic worldbuilding, and interesting choice, adding Greek mythology to the mix. I thought it was cool (because I love Greek mythology), if not a little out of place in a fantasy world. Politics were easy to understand. And our narrator, Cat, is sarcastic and guarded, and at times, reminded me a lot of myself. But, given her background and upbringing, it's easy to understand why. The secondary characters, especially Griffin's brothers, are fun and have their own distinct personalities. Also, well done fight scenes, even if I wished there was a little more action. Very well-written though, and the prose was done well.

I liked Griffin and Cat, separately, but their relationship felt forced. I did enjoy the slow-burn aspect of it, though. Nothing annoys me more than a "romance" that's purely based on lust. I did wish for more of an emotional connection between the two, though. It felt like it went from "I don't like you" to proclaiming their undying love, with not much in between. Griffin was also a little too "alpha-male" for me to fall in love with him, too possessive and controlling at times. And Cat came off as whiny and immature, at times, as well. And while I really liked her personality, generally, I thought she was just TOO powerful, what with all the powers she has, and how they save her and everyone else at the most convenient times. I guess I like my characters a little more flawed.

The story is told in first person present tense, from Cat's POV.

Despite all of that, I like the majority of the characters and the plot well enough, and definitely will be reading the second installment in this series. ( )

OMG! I'm amazed... this book is so damn awesome! It deserves a place amongst my favorites!

The world the author created is stunning. A continent divided into 3 parts, all ruled by Magoi families (or well.. mages) while the magicless (Hoi Polloi) live in fear for their lives, in poverty and starving. In this installment, we visit a lot of places, but everything was detailed and clear. Love how the mythology is woven into it!

Character development was excellent. Cat has got to keep her secrets close to her heart, no matter what happens or what she feels and Griffin, our infuriating stubborn warlord who doesn't really know how to handle her. Yeah, they are quite the pair :D
but you can really feel their growth and change of heart as the story progresses. They felt real, with real fears and desires and a stubborn streak that I can relate to haha.
Then we have Flynn and Kato who feel like brothers I never had. All the characters were well thought out and very well written.

Pacing and flow were equally super. Cat or one of the guys was getting into more trouble than anything else, so we had a lot of action, but the story still maintained a great balance between action/excitement and conversation.

The book in itself was well written with no (noticeable) errors and yes, there is sex described in this installment (if that is important to you).

All in all, this was a great surprise! Putting the next book on top of my TBR pile for sure!
If you haven't read this one, I would really really really recommend that you do, you won't be disappointed!
( )

I have trouble understanding how this book became so much more popular than the dozens of others that do the same thing.
It combines popular tropes from High Fantasy and Paranormal Romance into a soup of clicheés seasoned with random greek mythology bits.
We start out with the dark brooding dominating alpha male that kidnaps her and basically forces himself onto her but traitorous bodyâ„¢ happens so it's ok.
This trope is repeated so many times that you could probably fill 2-3 PNR novels with just the occurrences in the first half of this book.
Oh and its the will and the meddling of gods and prophecy and fate and everything else you can think of to excuse it.

Apart from that, we have tragic cruel childhood, merciless rulers and secret legacies from the darker side of fantasy. But not the nuanced, interesting, layered kind, no, the utterly two-dimensional black and white kind.
And they have to overcome evil with friendship and love and all that crap.
Everything in this book is so sickeningly two-dimensional it feels like an insult to the complexities of human beings to me.

The novel tries to appeal to the emotional side of the reader with a lot of overdone fabricated melodrama like almost all YA novels do which is probably the main ingredient for its apparent success and one of the main reasons for my dislike.

I've rarely seen so much blatant plot convenience. This includes massive volatility in IQ which I find particularly frustrating because it makes it impossible to take allegedly intelligent characters seriously. Other plot convenience can be absorbed much easier by the willing suspension of disbelief.
Now that I mentioned it, that is another thing this book is guilty of in general, we are told things about characters but their behaviour directly contradicts those assertions.

Another problem is the gods. They are not really held in check by anything. Not even disinterest in the mortal world. At times I got a strong feeling of pointlessness as they can directly and overpoweringly interfere with events at any time at a whim.
This is shamelessly used as plot-armour repeatedly which makes outcomes of tense situations arbitrary and completely controlled by the author.
This kills a lot of tension because it makes expectations meaningless among other things.

To end on something positive, the worldbuilding seemed surprisingly well developed. I got the impression of a full world that consists of much more than just a staging area for the plot which usually is a weakness in this kind of novel. It's only static worldbuilding, no development or progression but nothing much happened in this world before I dropped it so I can't really say.

Apart from constantly repeating phrases around the insta-lustâ„¢ the writing was decent as well.

All in all, I am disappointed. I found the premise and the opening intriguing but it just couldn't live up to its promises. ( )