what a fun story! its a unique blend of italian influences, god-given magic and demon enemies, slow-burn romance, and strong main characters. due to the way this is structured, i found myself more invested in the romance aspect of the story. its a pretty main focus so, while i was enjoying the chemistry between dante and alessa, the other parts of the story tended to all away. but im not complaining!

and even though i did enjoy reading this, i couldnt help but notice little things throughout that make it obvious this is a debut novel. the world-building relies very much on surface level info-dumps, the pacing is inconsistent at times, and the side characters are pretty generic. also, the fact that everyone literally calls the MC ‘window’ is so cringey. i get that the author may have thought ‘finestra’ might sound a lovely title to readers who dont know the translation, but i just couldnt get over it.

but all in all, this story is a pretty good time. it honestly wouldnt surprise me if some book subscriptions put this in their boxes this summer!

thank you st. martins press/wednesday books for the ARC!

? 3.5 stars245 s Emily ThiedeAuthor 3 books745

(Disclaimer--I'm quite biased, as I wrote this book!)

Three weddings. Three Funerals.

Alessa was chosen by the Gods to ward off the coming apocalypse, but to do so, she needs a magical partner, and unfortunately for her (even worse for them) she can't quite figure out how to stop killing everyone she touches.

As rebellion simmers outside the Citadel's gates, her own guards turn against her, and a desperate Alessa badgers a reluctant street-fighter into becoming her bodyguard, but Dante has dangerous secrets of his own.

He might be the one person who can help her master her gift... or the perfect assassin to take her out.


If you atmospheric fantasy, apocalyptic stakes, gallows humor, RomCom-style banter, and characters who can't resist cracking inappropriate jokes while the world crumbles around them, I hope you'll give it a read!2022-debuts debut-fantasy-and-scifi fantasy-romance ...more174 s Nilufer Ozmekik2,540 51.9k

Whoop! Whoop! Such a great start for brand new fantasy series!

Alessa such a determined, tough heroine to secure her village from apocalypse, looking for perfect partner. It seems easy task, right! You couldn’t be so wrong because everything or anyone she touches is death man walking. Correction: not walking, just drop dead! Oops!

After a few attempts and death candidates later, Alessa teams up with Dante, a fighter with dark and mysterious past, reluctantly being hired to be bodyguard.

Both of the characters are easy to and invest which helps us to drawn into the story!

Their growing chemistry, well played, smartly developed banters put smile on your faces. You easily toot for them!

The world building based on Italy and old language they used is modern Italian were great choices( my third language is Italian so it was easy for me to concentrate on those passages)

The final cliffhanger made me screamed! I truly wanted to know what will happen next! I’m dying to read the next installment and crossing my fingers to get much faster sequel than I expected!

I highly recommend this to smart, moving, action packed, riveting book to big lovers of well written fantasy series!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.129 s Gillian191 287

"Three weddings. Three funerals. A better person would have been devastated..."

4.7 stars!

This was an enchanting and intriguing romantic fantasy about love, friendship, power, and grief. Alessa has a gift she received from the god's, but instead of magnifying her partner's power, she has killed every partner she's touched. Alessa doesn't have much time to find a partner before an invasion of demons will devour her home. Alessa's soldiers try to kill her when a priest tells everyone that the island will be saved if Alessa is killed. Then Alessa hires Dante, a killer and an outcast to become her bodyguard. Will Dante be able to help Alessa control her power or will he kill her?

This book was so good!! I was completely immersed in the fascinating world that the author created from the very beginning. The plot was so interesting and the pacing was perfect! This book has everything you could want in a fantasy romance including magic, slow-burn romance, one-bed, demons and more. I loved Alessa, she is strong, persistent, determined and stubborn, and will do anything for Dante. I'm in love with Dante, he is charming, sweet, brave, strong and very handsome. I also really d the side characters especially Kamira, Josef, Kaleb and Saida. I loved that Alessa and Dante saw the good in each other and were able to understand each other. I loved the banter between Dante and Alessa and the chemistry between them was amazing! The tension between Dante and Alessa was *chef's kiss.* There were several twists and turns that I didn't see coming. The ending was so good and shocking! I can't wait for the next book!fantasy romance125 s astarion's bhaal babe (wingspan matters)864 4,000 Read

This was randomly chosen by my butt when I sat on my e-reader.

Let me tell you: I'll never trust my butt with book-picking ever again.

DNFing this around 25% and it's got nothing to do with the fact that this is a YA novel.
Some of the Italian words and phrases sounded weird - I cringed more times than I can remember reading certain stuff.
The writing wasn't bad but it felt somehow dry yet elaborate at the same time.
The world-building confused me and I didn't care for the characters.

On to the next.
Butt, you're fired.dnf-purgatory young-adult117 s2 comments benedicta362 497

2.75?? the author started to write fantasy and 100 pages in said never mind i'll continue with bodyguard romance
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