Oh wow! This is a read outside my normal and it's fantastic!

The world building, the characters, the story are all just so good!

Loved the growing connection between Michael, Gabriel and Alexei and I cant wait to read the next book in the series to see what happens next!

This is a def 5 star read and needs to be added to the top of your TBR ( )

DNF at 26%.

At first I was impressed, the author gave me enough information to worry about the MC and generate a billion questions, without boring me, but now I'm too aware that it's a 'magic made me gay' story, and some reviews indicate there's a lack of consent and agency--I should have read low-star reviews before buying. Tsk.

The world set up here feels pretty unique to a lot of other urban fantasy I've read, combining witches, fae, vampires, shifters, and different types of magic into the same world. I thought it was really action packed and paced well, but some of the leaps the author takes are even a bit much for this fantasy setting.
I wouldn't label it as an enemies to lovers because the main character, Michael, doesn't know who is an enemy and is thrown into a world he seemingly knows nothing about. It has a lot of tropes seen in omegaverse fiction (which I hate) like pheromones (in this case it's more to do with types of magic) and instant-attraction. And the characters are a bit underdeveloped, like I really wanted to know more about Alexei and how a vampire and fae could have possible spawned. And while "Gabriel" could have been a very interesting character (300 year old Finnish Viking that's also a werewolf blessed by a goddess???) he was dull as dishwater. If you're going to make a character from a specific real-world nation, you should probably do some name research. "Gabriel" is not a Finnish name, much less one from 300 years ago.
This is definitely a book I had to suspend some bias to really enjoy but I thought it was a fun read and will probably continue with the series.
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