Heartless Hunter

HOW IS THIS RIDICULOUS CUTSEY BOOK MAKING ME HYPERVENTILATE AND CRY? HOW DID THIS AUTHOR MAKE A LOVE TRIANGLE THAT HAD ME GENUINELY TORN BETWEEN TO PEOPLE? AND UM HOW THE HELL IS THIS YA? So many questions….

I almost didn't finish this. 2 stars because I did.

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Because wherever Rune Winters went, her carefully crafted reputation came with her. She was an informer. A witch hater. A darling of the New Republic. Rune was the girl who betrayed her grandmother.

The Crimson Moth series is a planned duology (so brace yourself for that cliffhanger) about a fantasy world where witches once ruled but two years ago, there was a revolution by the Blood Guard and the ruling three witch queen sisters were killed. Now, The New Republic has outlawed witches and the Blood Guard have hunted them to the point that very few are ever seen, identifiable by their scars cut into their bodies to supply the blood they need for their spells. Rune was sixteen when the revolution happened and forced into an impossible situation that had her surviving but drowning from guilt. She also gets a shock when, as a later bloomer, she gets her menses and it's revealed she's a witch. Knowing her survival depends on staying hidden, she uses her aristocrat lineage to pretend to be an empty headed society miss, but wanting to fight back, Rune also becomes the Crimson Moth, a vigilante that rescues captured witches and ships them away to freedom.

Gideon Sharpe. Rune’s lip nearly curled at the name of Alex’s older brother. Devoutly loyal to the New Republic, Gideon was a ruthless, bloodthirsty witch hunter who’d sent more of Rune’s kind to the purge than any other member of the Guard. He’d also famously helped assassinate the Sister Queens, sparking the revolution into a blaze.

The older brother of Rune's bestfriend, Alex, is Gideon a captain in the Blood Guard and helped start the revolution but killing two of the witch queens. When they were kids and Rune met him for the first time, she had a crush on him, until he was rude and dismissive to her. Now that she's eighteen and he's twenty, Rune tries to avoid him as he could be the cause of her death if he ever found out what and who she is. With chapters that alternate giving us Rune and Gideon's point-of-view, we get a good luck at Gideon's character and learn important information about his past, thoughts, and feelings. His family was poor until the queens favored his parents for their dress designs and while that should have made things better for their family, it was their downfall. Gideon catches the eye of the youngest queen, Cressida, and from there he's forced into a relationship that he initially wanted but then can't escape as she becomes murderously jealous and Gideon can't escape people knowing about his relationship with the witch queen and knows he has to stay with her for his remaining family member, Alex's, safety. Gideon has reasons to hate the witch queens and when Nicolas, the commander of the Blood Guard, lays out a way to get his revenge, he takes it.

He was a witch hunter. He suspected her. He was closing in on her even now. And yet.

I flew through the beginning first half of this, the world-building that was starting to be laid out with Rune having to remain hidden for her survival but having two friends, Alex and Verity, a girl Rune becomes friends with after Verity tells her the story of how she's not a witch but her two sisters were and her mother turned them in, set-up magic, danger, and then intrigue when Gideon came into the picture. Verity pushes Rune to find someone to court and then marry who has access to information so they can safely rescue even more witches, but does think Gideon could be too dangerous. Alex also has tried very hard to never betray his brother and refuses to completely side with Rune against him. However, since this is romance along with fantasy, Rune has a little bit of that drawn to Gideon and tells herself and friends that she's only going to use Gideon for information. Since we get Gideon's povs too, readers also know that Gideon's friends Harrow and fellow guard Lelia, also encourage him to pretend court Rune for information, when it's found out that Rune's family business of ships helped the last witch escape. So a really great cat and mouse dynamic is set-up with Rune and Gideon trying to use each other but also ultimately developing real feelings.

The hunted had fallen for the hunter.

The second half slowed down for me some as the romance became more of the focus and it stagnated with rinse and repeat of Gideon feeling he couldn't give into his feelings for Rune because he knows his brother Alex has romantic feelings for her and Rune, rightly so, scared that Gideon would turn her in to be killed if he discovered she's a witch. There was an open-door bedroom scene but I thought the best scenes between the two was when the tension ramped up because both are trying to fight their chemistry and both have some fear, Rune getting discovered and Gideon thinking he could be getting played and wanting to protect his brother. The latter second half also brought in some love triangle that I really didn't like and lead to a component of the ending that didn't quite deliver on the desired emotional impact for me; I'm not sure that character was flushed out enough.

She was the Crimson Moth— a wanted criminal, not to mention a witch, hiding in plain sight.

The last twenty percent picked up the stagnated pace and we get a rush of movement with a reveal that some will probably guess early at, some battle, and Rune and Gideon more divided than ever. This is tagged as a YA and it has some of that feel in the beginning but by the end I'd say it was more New Adult, the open-door scene and the method of how they kill the witches might be a little gruesome for the lower end of YA (but for YA/NA I loved that Rune used her menses blood for a source of power, using that blood so she wouldn't have to cut herself and have scars signaling she was a witch). There were characters I would have liked flushed out more, The Good Commander had such an impact on Gideon's life that I really missed seeing more scenes of the two together, not to mention Gideon and Alex. As I mentioned in the beginning, this ends with a cliffhanger and while I wanted more depth in some places, I'll definitely be in line for when the second comes out as in one aspect Rune got what she wanted but it may have just put her in danger from another foe and Gideon is going to want revenge even more.

It's rare that a book promising cat-and-mouse delivers quite as well as this one. Usually you only get a bit of banter before the kissing starts, but there are some real twists and deceptions locked up in this one, and I loved it. (Don't worry, there's also kissing.) Anyone looking for conflicted leads with angst and internal hurts will find plenty here to go around. The chemistry between Rune and Gideon is volatile, with a dash of spice, and a really believable enemies-to-lovers(?)-to-enemies(?) roller coaster relationship. World building is effective, with rules about the use of magic explained with quick, but consistent strokes. Author's notes mention The Scarlet Pimpernel (a personal favorite) as a light inspiration, and I can totally see the spaces where it peeks through. I will say that I have never seen a character marked for death so obviously as [Name Redacted], and when they died I found myself somewhat relieved that it finally happened so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Recommended reading for fans of morally gray, complex relationships, hunter vs. hunted relationships, and a splash of dark fantasy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.