Final blurb for this book—
It‘s been a couple of weeks since I finished the book and it still lingers. I‘ve read different things since then and find myself comparing characters and how I felt with the characters and feelings the book evoked. A book well done is when it lingers. I wish the books weren‘t so expensive or I would buy the next one faster.

Made it to 476, chapter 40. It‘s nearing the end of the book and, as a true beginning to a series, I have way more questions than answers. This book hasn‘t been what I expected and, while definitely being sexy, it wasn‘t the complete wildly sexual liberation I expected. Poppy has been liberated in many ways on her journey (see my previously posted quotes) but we are discovering that truth does not equal freedom. Not even love is free.

It was strange to know myself and be so certain when I‘d spent so long not knowing myself.

There is no way I could be in that bed with you and not be all over you in ten seconds flat. We wouldn‘t even make it to the bed before that happened. I know my limitations. I know that I‘m not a good enough man to remember my duty and yours or that I‘m so incredibly unworthy of you it should be a sin. Even knowing that, there is no way I wouldn‘t strip that robe from you and do exactly what I told you I‘d do when we were in the forest.

Maiden or not, good or bad, Chosen or forsaken, I deserve to /live/ and to exist without being cloistered by rules I never agreed to.

I just finished page 325 and this is my realization. This book is about grief. It‘s about grieving for yourself and your loved ones. It‘s about grieving for what you lost and what you never had. It‘s about going over and over things that get taken away from you and what you can take back in your own hands to cope. It‘s about loneliness and how feeling pain is human. Feeling is human. Wanting is a necessity for all things living; feeling is human.

“It‘s okay, you know?”
“What is?”
“Everything that you‘re feeling,” he said. “And everything you‘re not.”

225 pages in, just finished chapter 18. There‘s something nice about knowing that the hot love interest absolutely is attracted to your main character and so enamored that he can only compare her to a goddess in mortal form. It‘s a huge boost in confidence and let‘s you focus on other parts of their relationship/dynamic since you don‘t have to worry about if he likes you or not. Hawke is in the story and we are safer and more tantalized than ever.

A hundred pages in and I am here to tell you that this—so far— is not the fantasy book of sexual discovery that I was expecting. There is depth, plot, darkness, and the introduction to some friendly characters and intriguing societal questions to keep the story moving. Our steamy hero Hawke has not shown back up but in his place we have blood thirsty monsters, assassins, a growing body count, and a party! Everything I could want in a story!

Just finished chapter one— I definitely feel like the struggles and discoveries of ones sexuality is going to be a main focus here. I am expecting steamy moments aplenty with a lot of self reflection. It seems like a sex positive book with an adventurous fantasy setting that is encapsulating the smaller, more personal setting of within our heroine as she goes on the adventures from her mind, to her heart, to her libido, and back again.