In my mind, a good morally grey character should give you mixed feelings but then absolutely win you over before the book ends. There were times that I had problems with her and flat out didn’t like her, but by the end of the book she was my favorite character. I thought Tamsin especially was really well written. And then we have Tamsin, our witch, who is definitely a morally grey character. Wren, who is kind and caring and wants to be adventurous and brave. I was really happy with both main characters.

It seemed like it was forgotten some as the book went on. I wanted to see more magic beings and/or have more fairytale interaction. My one problem is that this started so well, but kind of faded as the book went on. This part was really well done and I was hooked on this magical world.

Wren, a poor village girl, would often talk about people she heard of that could spin straw into gold or that put a curse on an apple. I loved how the setting was in a world filled of magical creatures’ right out of fairytales. There was nothing wrong with these differences so I quickly grew to enjoy the overall feel of the book. And while I expected the book to be a bit more action based, it felt like a character study more than I expected. While the romance started out as enemies to lovers, it didn’t really last that way. This book had a slightly different feel than I was expecting.

I didn’t love this like I was hoping to, but I did really like it so I can’t complain too much. However, I do think my high expectations might have affected my enjoyment a little bit. Sapphic-YA-fantasy will get me just about every time. This book was actually on my list of most anticipated reads of 2021. Of course, love bargains are a tricky thing, and these two have a long, perilous journey ahead of them-that is, if they don't kill each other first. To save him, Wren proposes a bargain: if Tamsin will help her catch the dark witch responsible for creating the plague, then Wren will give Tamsin her love for her father. When a magical plague ravages the queendom, Wren’s father falls victim. Sources are required to train with the Coven as soon as they discover their abilities, but Wren-the only caretaker to her ailing father-has spent her life hiding her secret. Wren is a source-a rare kind of person who is made of magic, despite being unable to use it herself. The only way she can get those feelings back-even for just a little while-is to steal love from others. But after committing the worst magical sin, she’s exiled by the ruling Coven and cursed with the inability to love. Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. In this debut fantasy, a witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.

Bitter magic