About the Book
-
Author:
- Tricia Levenseller
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Fantasy
- YA Romance
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: On Theme
BFF Charm: 100% That B
Talky Talk: Totally Tricia
Bonus Factors: Sisters, Magic, Feminism
Relationship Status: LYLAS
Cover Story: On Theme
I appreciate how this thematically relates to the first book while also representing Chrysantha’s Marie Antoinette-esque aesthetic.
The Deal:
Chrysantha survived her father’s house by acting like an airhead to fly under the radar, and she did such a good job everyone, even her little sister, Alessandra, believed it. It was the smarter, more calculated move. So imagine her surprise when Alessandra’s plan to be a king-toppling villain works out too! Alessandra is now in love with the Shadow King and about to be literal queen, and Chrysantha has been stuck in her manor, tending to her extremely-old-and-about-to-croak lech of a husband.
Since nature isn’t taking its course fast enough, Chrysantha takes matters—and a pillow—into her own hands, and in just a few minutes she’s suddenly a widow and recipient of an extremely large fortune. Armed with her newfound freedom and loose purse-strings, Chrysantha can see her beautiful, quiet future laid out in front of her until HE shows up.
Eryx Demos claims he’s the secret grandson of late duke and that the inheritance actually belongs to him. But Chrysantha smells something fishy about this secretive and infuriatingly uncouth man, and she won’t let her future go without a fight…even if it means she has to kill again.
BFF Charm: 100% That B
Chrysantha is that kind of prickly bitch with a secret soft heart that I love in books. She had to play dumb for so long that now that she can reveal how smart she is, she is not shy about cutting unworthy men down a peg or ten. She also finds it hard to open up to anyone without at first wondering what their agenda could be. At the same time, she knows the value of treating your staff well, so when she finally has access to all her estate’s funds, she raises wages and improves the lives of those who help her run the place. She wants things to be beautiful and calming, preferring to retire away to her estate to hang out in the garden and read her books versus being around society, and, honestly, girl, same. So I was totally vibing with Chrysantha, even as she considered some, ah, more drastic solutions to her problem than I’d prefer.
Swoonworthy Scale: 6
As always and like Chrysantha, I also eventually fell for Tricia’s male main character. Eryx is mysterious and enjoys frustrating Chrysantha to keep her at arm’s length, just like she uses put-downs and wit on him, but under it all they’re two lonely people who never had the safety net of unconditional love when they were young. They both closely protect their secrets, and thus, have legitimate reasons to argue and banter until they finally trust each other enough to work together.
My only gripe, and it’s the same one I had for the first book, is Eryx’s background and subsequent character growth would’ve felt more “real” to me if he was aged up a few years. They all should’ve been in their early/mid-twenties at the very least.
Talky Talk: Totally Tricia
Why did I wait so long to read this?! I have a problem, y’all. When I reviewed the first book in the duology I did NOT expect it to blow-up the way it did on BookTok with the romantasy girlies years later. (It then faced the inevitable backlash of becoming too popular with people complaining, “it wasn’t really that good anyway.”) Because of that, I don’t think this book caught on in the same way, but after I finally cracked it open, I was fully on-board…and I think I enjoyed it even more than the first??
Tricia has a way of writing that sucks me in, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to find that I stayed up to finish this in one sitting and was thoroughly immersed in Chrysantha’s antics the entire time. Parts are a little whimsical almost to the point of silliness, but it felt intentional for the tone of the book, and Tricia still infused enough depth into the froth to make me care for the characters and their inheritance feud outcome.
Bonus Factor: Sisters
I like that Tricia spent time on Alessandra and Chrysantha finally seeing each other as they are and not what they thought they were when they were warring against each other under their father’s roof. You didn’t need to read the first book to get the plot points, but it does give their potential reconciliation more richness and sweetness.
Bonus Factor: Magic
Magic isn’t really a big Thing in this world, but there are pacts with demons and shadowy things people don’t understand, and just like in book one, it becomes a plot point.
Bonus Factor: Feminism
All Chrysantha has ever wanted was autonomy over herself and her life, to be able to do what she wants, when she wants. And this really pisses off the multitude of shitty men she has to deal with.
Relationship Status: LYLAS
You made me smile, giggle, and roll my eyes, Book, but I’ll be your sister in spirit if not by blood.
Literary Matchmaking
You might like another of Tricia’s stories about a girl fighting for her freedom in the lesser-known but still excellent, Warrior of the Wild.
Fable by Adrienne Young also features two characters who can’t quite trust each other but need to work together in order to get what they want.
Jude from Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince also schemes to get her way, but of course things always go wrong.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from Feiwel & Friends. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. The Darkness Within Us is available now.
