The book wasn't bad, but I was kind of expecting something different. I know the author is really hyped on Booktok, which is why I was a bit confused. It was very slow in parts, with lots of details mentioned that seemed rather unimportant to me, and the book felt like it was moving so slowly because it was the first book in a series, but then, about 60% of the way through, the author decided to make it a “standalone” after all. A lot of it felt very sluggish and was already boring me. I’m also not entirely sure if I liked the narrator’s style. I think this kind of writing makes a lot of things seem very chaotic and jumbled. Another issue is that it felt like every other word was written in Spanish. Yes, the story is set in Spain, and I understand the emotional connection the author wanted to establish with her “roots,” but as someone who doesn’t understand Spanish or know how the words are pronounced, it was sometimes very tiring; by the end, I was just skipping over the Spanish words, phrases, and names. It’s similar to when authors use fantasy names that you don’t know how to pronounce. At a certain point, you stop reading them and just skip over them as it gets too much. I thought it was interesting when the FMC took part in the competition and you somehow got a better sense of her powers and those of the other contestants, but somehow that part was a bit of a letdown too. So the FMC is supposedly so powerful that she can more or less use real “witchcraft” with spells, yet we hardly get to see any of it. It feels like she just keeps repeating the same spells over and over, and that's it. The main focus of the book is on forbidden magic in the 16th century, when Christians had banned any form of alternative behavior and religions. And yet we get so little insight into the magic system, how it works and why Lucia happens to cast spells in multiple languages. That, for example, was never explained. It was never explained why Judaism is involved in all this witchcraft,maybe I missed something? Many questions remain unanswered; many points were not fully explained, addressed, or developed. The romance…yes, the MMC was cute but I would have preferred to learn more about the entire magic system rather than have the romance. There wasn’t any spice in the book anyway, which was absolutely fine, but I think they could have possibly done without the romance entirely and instead fleshed out the story a bit better. The whole book could have been creepier and more gothic, that’s at least what you get the impression of when you see the cover. I thought it would be darker, but somehow it wasn’t. ***Just to flag up, the story is set in 16th-century Spain, in Europe, and I know how Europeans viewed dark skin back then, but it really bothered me to read that the FMC was always described as "ugly" by all the other characters because she had dark skin and, as I understood it, dark and very curly hair. All other people beside the MMC in the book have called these features constantly “ugly" or “eyesore” and I get what what the author wanted to point out – it's about the 16th century after all. But I think it could have been done better in a way. Not as harsh and extreme. But that's just how I felt about it. So from me, only 3.2/5 ✨

super

2,7 at its best, sadly.

<b>2.75 ⭐ – Ahhhhh Leigh what are you doing to me.</b> I love Leigh. I really do, but this book... Ah, I don't know. There were times I wanted to give it 5 stars, then times I wanted to dnf it and her way with words was the only thing that kept me going because I am a sucker for this womans books. This entire book read like it should have been a series, and somewhere around the 70% mark somebody decided it's going to be a standalone. Therefor, this book reads like a patchwork of strands and confusion. Of interesting potlines that simply die or end confusing way behind their potential. Leigh builds up a cast of characters who are so intriguing, and you want certain things to happen to them, but she ends all their stories in an utterly loveless way. She throws away the 40% of the content she used to build them, as if she had to rush to the end. It leaves you feeling unsatisfied when you have finished the book that you were so desperate to love. So I sadly can't give this more than 2.75 Stars :<.

This book was soo different from what I usually expect when reading Leigh Bardugo's books.The familiar was much slower, tha's why I had a hard time getting into it. But once the scene was set (after around 1/3), things were starting to get reeally interesting! The writing style is a bit uncommon (omniscient 3rd person), but Bardugo manages it quite well and it fits the overall atmosphere. The characters were sympathetic and the story as always full of surprises. Usually I am quite good at forseeing plottwists, but Bardugo always manages to set red herrings or to be really subtle, but still logical.<br/>Kudos!