astravars's reviews
124 reviews

i can't continue this until i either get the full arc or it comes out and i buy a copy... so i won't have this in my currently reading forever haha

BUT i really really like it so far! very excited to read more :)

update: I GOT THE FULL ARC so i'll be continuing this soon

alright this might have been the best book i've read this year so far it was EVERYTHING

(yes i'll write a proper review at some point)

i've written a full review of the second book, it kind of encompasses this one too so check that out while i decide whether i'll write one here too

+ i'd like to appreciate the audiobook narrator real quick. He did such a great job and he's so very noam!!

++ check the trigger warnings before reading please!!

this book very much felt like that second book in a longer series.

We get to know the characters a lot better, getting more insight on their past and present experiences and feelings. There's even a new pov! 
  That said the plot doesn't move very fast and there isn't that much going on in general. I personally didn't mind this at all! i still thought the pacing was much better than the first book. And, despite the majority of the book being very character focused, there are a few twists especially towards the end and in the last couple chapters EVERYTHING. GOES. TO. SHIT. 
  I still haven't recovered tbh... The cliffhanger is horrible, I NEED that third book! And if you have a problem with cliffhangers I would honestly wait until the third book comes out because this one is agonising. 

the way this book handled plot and characters reminded me a lot of "a gathering of shadows" by v.e. schwab. They're very different in many ways but just like "a cruel and fated light", "a gathering of shadows" is very character focused and has a huge event at the very end, ending in a cliffhanger. So if you've read that one i think that might give you an idea of whether or not you'll enjoy this one. I certainly did.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot more than the first one for some reason. I personally really like character focused books so that might be why. But then again my favourite characters (vehan, aurelian, celadon) get a lot more on-page time too so that's something else I appreciated! 

+ We have an even more prominent genderfluid character (luck) in this book AND one of the main characters is questioning being nonbinary!

i-
what the hell
i do not know how to rate this honestly
like it wasn't that bad (because mephisto exists) but...
i didn't like it either

mephisto though, he's so sassy for no reason, really kept the story going tbh

ich hab das obviously auf deutsch gelesen weil originalsprache und ich bin deutsch und so aber reviews kann ich trotzdem besser auf englisch schreiben :)

Sometimes I forget how much I love these kinds of books. Fantasy Politics. Scheming. Mysteries. Twists. Betrayals.

Having read and loved the cruel prince trilogy for the same reasons two years ago, especially with one of my favourite characters being Oak, of course I picked this one up as fast as I could.

This book follows Suren ("Wren"), the former child queen of the Court of Teeth we first get to know in The Queen of Nothing who joins Prince Oak, a knight of Elfhame and their prisoner on a journey North where her mother, Lady Nore, is creating monsters and plotting her revenge on Elfhame.

I adore the way this is written and while I did predict some of the plot twist, including one of the ones happening at the end, that did not take anything away from the story. In fact, it might have been a little intentional. Every time I thought the outcome was obvious there was still another detail I'd missed.


I loved experiencing this story from Wren's point of view. I was a little sceptical at first but I grew fond of her rather quickly. Her character development throughout the book is so well done. And while Jude and Cardan don't appear on page it's very interesting to see them referred to by other characters. Wren's situation almost made Jude seem unlikable to me sometimes.

Seeing Oak all grown up was something as well. A good something. It's never quite clear what his intentions are and where his loyalties lie, especially in the beginning of the book, and I thought that really added to the story. He's the character I felt the most attached to, closely followed by our protagonist Wren.

There's a lot of (justified) mistrust and betrayal between them. They're both flawed characters and I love them dearly.

"Things will be easier without me around. They'll see that."
- Oak about his family in one of the flashbacks, planning to run away

+ He's incredibly reckless with his life


Additionally, we get some more detailed backstory on Wren and Oak as well as some information about what they were up to in the time between this book and the previous one. Some of it in the form of flashbacks, some of it in Wren's narrative, some of it in conversations between her and Oak. All of them giving us a better understanding about the characters. This might have been one of my favourite things about the book.

There are some very interesting side characters as well, including a prominent mlm romance between two of them.


I can't really say too much without giving away some major plot points but I enjoyed this book a lot, probably even more than the original trilogy and I highly recommend you check it out!

I listened to the audiobook and I do recommend it, I thought the narrator was really good :)


Disclaimer: The romance subplot between Wren and Oak is even more subtle than the one between Jude and Cardan in the first book so don't go into the book expecting it to be about romance. It's political fantasy.

i'm not saying i won't ever finish this, i probably will at some point but i'm not currently in the mood for it and the last time i did continue it was in october (:

the reason i'm not in the mood for it is the characters frustrating me a lot and it being too slow for me to get over that fast enough to continue (i'm sure they'll work it out in the end, i simply don't have the energy reading about my beloveds being upset and not talking to each other and then there suddenly being a random boy i just can't take it)

I'm normally not very fond of christmas. I am very fond of this book.

I'll start with my (only?) complaint and the reason this is 4,75 instead of 5 stars: the beginning
  I don't think it was written badly and looking back on it now it makes a lot of sense why the book starts out this way. However, I almost dnfed it because I could not stand the main character. He comes off entitled, rich and a proper dickhead.

But that's where we get to what I loved so much about the book. Matthew's character development is so well done and it is exactly about the fact how he's not just this entitled rich kid but someone who cares deeply about the people around him, struggles with an anxiety disorder and feels the need to put up this act to protect himself. I don't want to say too much because that might take away from your reading experience but let me just say the GAD representation in this made me feel so seen! It might be my favourite thing about it.

Of course, this book is a queer romance. There's our main character Matthew who gets sent off to spent the holidays in a small town with his grandparents and Hector who lives with those grandparents of his in exchange for helping them with chores so he can go to college despite not being able to afford a flat in town. The two really don't get along in the beginning because Hector has the same impression of Matthew that I had and Matthew is already annoyed he has to stay with his grandparents in the first place and even more so when he realises he'll have to share a room (and a bunk bed) with Hector.
  They get themselves in a decent amount of trouble for fighting the whole time and end up planning the town's charity gala together to make up for it, this year dedicated to helping small business and therefore possibly saving Matthew's grandma's bookshop.
  Due to this forced proximity they start opening up to each other and I thought their love story turned out incredibly cute. I was fully invested pretty quickly and that inevitable spike of drama that always happens when everyone is happy but there are still 100 pages left made me very emotional. I was screaming at my phone. (I listened to the audiobook) 
  I even found out I apparently don't mind gay sex scenes in books (only the straight ones apparently... probably because i'm gay, huh?) or at least not in this one because there wasn't anything too explicit and it was mostly very sweet.

Something else I adored was the conversation about family and friendship and the love and care you give to the people around you. Very fitting for a christmas book. I enjoyed the overall winter theme as well because as little as I might like christmas I love winter. 
  There's a small found family in here as well, featuring a sapphic couple so that was definitely something I appreciated!

Overall I think this book talks about some very important topics and does so very well. I had such a fun time reading this because of course there are a lot of funny moments included and I'd definitely recommend this if you enjoy queer romcoms!

i'm sorry i tried to read this because i really liked ouabh but i thought it was pretty boring :')
i didn't want to dnf this right away but i doubt i'll finish it at this point

(i don't remember when or where i stopped reading it, at some point after i read ouabh last year and in ebook format so page numbers?? who knows)

this was very fun