This book desperately needed to be cut in half, especially the first half. Nothing happened in the first 60 pages. I understand the author was trying to show an emotional connection between two characters. That emotional connection explained the actions of the FMC for the rest of the book. 

Problem is, the author failed miserably at creating this connection. Sure, the one of the main people names Macy (who is non-binary, which is awesome diversity except the author uses the wrong pronoun many many times, especially in the beginning and end of the book) and the narrator of the story Sam (who is female) spend a lot of time together but there’s a big scene where Sam is a witch to the others about nail Polish of all things. I understand the author was trying to show the anger that was in Sam but it added nothing interesting to the plot and the scene was dragged out too long and referred back to several times in the rest of the book. There were just other scenes showing Sam was an angry person in the first 60 pages of the book that showed Sam’s character, making her to be very unlikable, but failed miserably at establishing that connection with Macy. 

The second half of the book

revolves around finding Macy after the two are separated. Over and over the author TELLS us about the connection between them but doesn’t SHOW us, making the plot of the second half of the book just unrealistic. And when they are finally reconnected again their reunion was flat and emotional.

The second half of the book was definitely the better half of the book. There are some interesting scenes but a few that were once again pointless and didn’t tie into the rest of the plot at all, ,meaning these scenes could be eliminated or better yet, add more to these scenes to add to the overall plot creating more action. 

This book also ends on a cliffhanger - one I saw coming, one I did not. The one I didn’t see coming makes me want to read the next book, but the slow plot in book one and the main character Sam being just an angry person and I repeat myself, so unlikable, makes me just not care enough to read book two. Certainly the author could write a better book two as they gain experience writing, but I’m not willing to waste my time reading another one. 

Let me be clear however - the book has a fabulous plot overall and it’s a different idea for a story. This series (duology?) has a great premise.

 I’m not sure what the book is marketed as but it definitely falls into the New Adult category for me (to be fair again, I love YA and adult books but I’m rather bored with NA books). I think I would have given this book a higher star rating if the book did some of my thoughts written above or at least some of the beginning cut out, and if Macy had the correct pronoun's throughout. That’s something that a casual beta reader would have caught, if not an actual editor. The wrong pronouns occurred at least ten times, I stopped counting at that point.  


TL:dr book had a lot of premise but fell short in the actual writing and had some major grammatical errors.