I don't know what it was about this book that had me absolutely loving the beginning to end journey of the characters, but damn, it was so good! Nothing like two disaster queers (one definitely more chaotic than the other) coming together in THE SLOWEST BURN KNOWN TO MAN. 

But seriously, I am surprised at how much I loved how the story unfolded between Leo and Grimm, especially because of how meandering the plot actually went. I'm not usually a fan of fetch quests, and scenes where fantasy characters wander aimlessly in the woods are a hit or miss for me (often on the "miss" level), but I felt every intent the author made to make each scene count somehow. And because of that, I never truly lost interest in Leo's struggle to regain his personal freedom. (The fact that he made the stupid mistake in letting Grimm cast a spell that enslaved his ass made the stakes higher, but still.)

I liked how flawed Leo was as the POV character, and while I sometimes did wish Grimm had a POV in the book so we got some insight into his thoughts as well (I still hope he eventually does in the sequels), Leo himself is such a character to want to unpack. He's an absolute mess, and I love him for it.

But hands down my favorite thing about this book was the magic and the spellsongs. I think ALL of my favorite scenes involved the spellsong scenes; the way they were described truly felt like magic and happiness in one, and I can't wait to read more about this in the next book. 

But also. Pls Maiga pls. These spells burn way faster than the romance pls I need more I beg. Also jk I think the slow burn hurts because it's SO GOOD.