edgybutfemme's reviews
131 reviews

IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!!! I love this issue so very much. Navier and Heinrey are so good. Nothing makes me happier than seeing Sovieshu losing his mind over Navier. I know each volume from here will only get better and better.

We are really getting into it now! I am So Excited that the wheels for the divorce and Navier's remarriage to Heinrey were set in motion in this volume. I was struggling slightly with the earlier parts of my reread of so much familiar content (even though it's excellent), but we are really getting to the parts I was most looking forward to! At some point here, I'll also hit the part of the story I haven't read get, but it will probably be several more volumes.

Not much to say about this volume! I am enjoying getting further into the plot and some major players like Navier's brother showing up. I can't wait till Heinrey and Navier are back on screen together, and we are approaching ever closer to the inevitable divorce! I can't wait for Navier to not have to deal with Rashta and Sovieshu's nonsense every day.

Navier continues to be perfect! I love how good she is at doing the Court Politics Thing. This volume happens to have one of my favorite scenes in it. Specificially, the gift and blessing Navier gives Rashta

at the banquet for Rashta's child.

looking forward to continuing to chew through these volumes.

This is a good series! I am continuing to enjoy it! I don't have much to say because it's volume 2/8. I forgot how much I am Suffering anytime Rashta and/or Sovieshu are on screen. Also, like, cannot WAIT to get to the divorce but kinda forgot how far in it is.

I absolutely love this comic! I followed it on webtoon for a really long time, and I was so excited to pick up all of the available print volumes at NYCC. I've been meaning to reread this (and finish it!) now that it's entirely complete digitally, and I really love to read comic in print form. They did a wonderful job reformatting this for print.

If you've never read this and are considering picking it up, I highly recommend it for anyway who enjoys a comic with a lot of political scheming and court politics featuring a badass empress as the main character Navier is so brilliant and competent, and I love the way she can savagely destroy someone with just a few words. Still, she's incredible caring and deeply loyal to her people, both those she cares about and the subjects of her nation. Her romance with Heinrey is absolutely incredible, but as a heads up it's extremely slow burn. The wait is worth it though, and Heinrey absolutely worships the ground she walks on. 

If you like a hatable antagonist, Sovieshu and Rashta (Navier's husband and his mistress) will give you plenty of things to dislike and root against. I really wanted to be sympathetic to Rashta given everything she's been though, but time and time again she shows her colors and goes above and beyond to be as awful as possible. Sovieshu's greatest sin is that he's an absolute idiot, and never cherishes Navier the way she deserves. Even on just a business level though, he makes every wrong decision. He could have easily had it all, both a mistress to dote on and Navier to be a competent and badass empress, had he shown even the tiniest bit of respect and/or had a brain. Thankfully for Heinrey, he doesn't, and I'm looking forward to watching the story play out again on this reread.

🌶️🌶️🌶️3.5 / 5
The smut in this novel uses explicit language and a decent amount of detail. There is a good balance of plot and romance. There are several spicy scenes throughout the book, at least four but I wasn't keeping track. This was almost a 4 spice book but it's a very long book with quite a lot of emphasis on the plot so I split the difference.
The Smut / Kinks include: Praise kink, body worship, begging, danger is a turn on, ghost boyfriend's powers are very helpful in bed for teleporting between positions and removing clothing, that one scene where

a haunting causes blood rain mid sex and they continue to fuck drenched in blood

, probably more because this is off the top of my head and not from an official list.

TLDR
I'm on a really hot kick of 5 stars reads and I'm really dreading the inevitable crash, but for now it continues! This book absolutely slaps. Are you looking for a truly phenomenal gothic horror romance? If so, look no further. This book has everything. It's two competent people unraveling a mystery while surviving a murder house and trying not to fall in love while having really good sex. What's not to love?

The Romance
Ophelia gave me serious Crimson Peak vibes. She spends a lot of this book running around a cursed mansion covered in blood and her love interest is absolutely into it. She is a necromancer with a very cool power set, and she is my favorite type of protagonist: competent, smart (and also so incredibly driven to save her sister. I have a weakness for overprotective eldest siblings as one myself). Blackwell, her ghostly love interest, is such a charming asshole. I was pitched this book on the basis of Blackwell being similar to Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3 and that is totally spot on. He makes a pact with her where, in exchange for his help surviving, she needs to try to find the tether keeping him bound to Phantasma and free him. I enjoyed their dynamic very much. He absolutely worships her, loves to tease her, and calls her angel. They have a super spicy and satisfying dark romance that really leans into the gothic horror and aesthetic.

The Plot
Ophelia enters Phantasma, a competition in a cursed manor that just appears in different towns to torture a whole new group of people. She enters to find her sister, but can't reunite with her without surviving at least the first seven out of nine challenges. All nine challenges are themed around the levels of hell, and the devils and ghosts in the manor are free to haunt torture the guests in between those deadly challenges as well. The challenges are incredibly well constructed and compelling, and I was here as much for the plot and the horror as the romance this time. In addition, Ophelia spends the book overcoming her OCD and the impulses from her "Shadow Voice", which is based on the author's experience with OCD. It is really well written, and perfectly paired with the gothic horror and Ophelia's arc of learning she is worthy of love regardless of her struggles and impulses. Also, I love a good sibling dynamic, so Ophelia and her sister Genevieve made me feel so many feelings.

I don't want to spoil anything because the ending is so good, but please feel free to dm me on any of our socials to yell about this book or if you have questions because it's so fucking good. I cannot wait for the continuation of this series with Enchantra, which is going to be Genevieve's romance. I need it yesterday and can't believe I have months to wait yet.

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️4 / 5
This features many explicit scenes with lots of detailed language. This book is heavier on the spice, but the plot is still there and doing something interesting. Also, it's probably at least a little kinky.
The Smut / Kinks include: DADDY KINK (all caps because my god does it come up multiple times a page), headmaster / student (which is just to the left of teacher/student), dom / sub power dynamics, spanking / pain play, sugar daddy / caretaking, praise kink, degradation, orgasm denial / chastity play, sex in public & So Much Dirty Talk. So much of this book was smut I may have missed something, but honestly the main kinks made it into pretty much every scene.

"Meghan," you might say, "I see that list of kinks and so many are hits for you! Why isn't this book rated higher?" I hear you. The thing is, this is a pretty good book! I will probably read other things by this author to see if they are more my vibe. The thing is: I don't mind Daddy kink. I don't go out of my way to avoid it and it tends to be packaged with a lot of other things I'm super into so I tend to read it a lot. However, this book Daddy kink is the Main Kink (tm). Instead of Sir or Master, Gideon's title is exclusively Daddy so it is used like 3-7ish times every page during sex scenes. This is fine! If it's your kink, you will love this book! However, I picked this up expecting it to go harder on the teacher/student vibes and honestly that isn't the main focus at all. They have sex at the school a few times, but it was rarely during the pre-built in daily detention that is established to be happening but is almost never on screen. They have sex way more at home and it falls much heavier on the caretaking / daddy kink. Totally fine, but not what I was here for.

Okay, some things I did like though:
- The plot was weirdly compelling, and I'm really not sure how they fit so much plot in considering like every other scene was smut?? I think this book feels so fast paced because we are bouncing back and forth between Intense Smut scene and Intense Plot scene with very little down beat.
- I have never come across a more absolutely devastatingly filthy amount of dirty talk from the dom. Gideon talks a lot during the sex scenes and honestly I wasn't mad about it.
- It's kind of funny, but this really does go very hard on making a taboo romance aggressively not taboo. Gideon is only his headmaster for 6 weeks, Cal is 19 years old, and they had sex before Gideon realized he was going to be Cal's temporary headmaster.
- The backstories for each of the characters were complex and the trauma they were both carrying made sense and caused understandable obstacles for them, which I'm not always expecting in a smut novel. It's surprisingly emotional!
- The way the plot resolved was very satisfying, both for the romance and for the overarching plot of preventing Cal from being expelled for bullshit reasons and uncovering a cheating/rich people paying for spots in top schools scandal. I didn't expect the places it went and weirdly integrated itself well between.

TLDR
Anyway, if you are looking for "taboo" romance that is actually perfectly unproblematic with a lot of Daddy Kink smut and some headmaster/student flavoring, this is the book for you. If you really wanted the student/teacher stuff only and/or you don't want too much plot in your erotica, you'd probably be better off skipping this one.

🌶️🌶️🌶️3 / 5
The smut in this novel uses explicit language and a decent amount of detail. There is a good balance of plot and romance. There are several spicy scenes throughout the book, at least two or three, but potentially even more. This has some light dom/sub vibes and a whole lot of tension during sword practice. 

This book is everything I was hoping it would be! Freya Marske does not miss. Every single beat of this novel hits with perfect pacing, beautiful descriptions, an interesting and immersive world build, and a delightful romance. Although I predicted how the plot would shake out, it was in that satisfying way where you pick up on all the bread crumbs the author has laid and it all comes together exactly as you hope it will. This book feels like a warm hug. All of Marske's books are exactly the sort of book I wish I'd had when I was a younger queer person looking to find myself in the fantasy books that I love, and it is easy to admit that she has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Truly the only thing I wish is that I found her further in her career where I could have a deeper backlog of books to work my way through, but there is a different joy in anticipating and preorder every release.

The Romance
Matti and Luca are so wonderfully charming and well matched. I love a con artist as a main character and Luca absolutely delivers. He is never more comfortable than when he is pretending to be anyone other than himself and I delighted in every time he found himself telling Matti the truth. Matti, though incredibly straitlaced and duty bound, is an entirely different sort of liar. He never is honest about his needs or wants, and takes the whole world on his shoulders. Their sword lessons were incredibly fun and thick with tension. I loved watching them grow together and unravel the plot surrounding Matti's failing family business. Also, I love any romance set up with an arranged marriage, especially one where the love interest isn't part of the arrangement and, in this case, is the best man hired to ensure the wedding succeeds. Additionally, as a fellow anxiety haver, I also loved watching Luca help Matti through his panic attacks.

The Plot
As usual, Freya Marske's book fall on the higher end of the spectrum of plot to romance ratio that I enjoy. There is a really interesting plot here investigating why Matti's family business is actually failing, using both Luca's con artist skills and Matti's sheer competence at business and deal making. If you liked A Taste of Gold & Iron by Alexandra Rowland, you will probably really like this book. Instead of getting into the minutia of metal and currency systems, this book has a very delightfully detailed look into the wool making industry and the various things that may be sabotaged to slowly slide a fabric merchant family into debt.

The World
Freya Marske has this gift of making a setting feel so realistic, immersive, and lived in. You discover so much about the culture and history of this fantasy setting so organically. I loved mining for info about the gods each of the guilds worships and all the rituals and superstitions they follow. I think my favorite little worldbuilding detail was the concept of an "outdoor wedding". Since almost everyone's goal is to marry into a "House" that runs a guild, it is very rare for someone to choose to marry out of a House without joining another one. As such, it's referred to as an outdoor wedding and I thought that was very clever.

Final Thoughts
This is one of those books where I really can't think of anything I would change about it. I don't know that I would have marketed this as particularly high heat or enemies to lovers, but my bar for both of those metrics might be skewed as a heavy smut and dark romance reader. If you like romantasy (without magic) with a immersive world build, interesting political/business maneuvering, and a charming romance, you'll probably like this book. Also, if you enjoyed The Last Binding trilogy, it goes without saying that this is another excellent book to add to your collection. Alas, I am going to be stuck pining for another Freya Marske book while I wait for her to grace us with another story to add to my book hoard. 

🌶️🌶️🌶️3 / 5 -The smut in this novel uses explicit language and a decent amount of detail. We have a good balance of plot and romance. There are several spicy scenes throughout the book, at least two or three, but potentially even more.
The Troupes / Kinks include:

Masked MMC, Therapist x Inmate relationship, Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, Primal Play, Knife Play, Serial Killer

TLDR
This book had me captivated from start to finish. It is dark, it is compelling, and it is a wild ride from start to finish. I honestly wasn't sure if this book would be too dark for me based on the pitch, but I've been trying to push my dark romance reading further and further to test the boundaries of what I like and I am so glad I read this book! It may genuinely end up being one of my favorite books of the year. There are so many parts of this that verge on psychological thriller and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed every step of the journey. Lora Darc has an incredible handle on pacing and relationship development.

The Romance
Eve and Emery's dynamic is incredibly compelling. The build of tension and anticipation as Eve slowly untangles the mystery of why Emery killed her family had me absolutely unable to put the book down.  Emery has so much trauma and does so many awful things, but I found myself liking him and enjoying his banter with Eve before we even get the full context into why he is the way that he is. Also, though the smut doesn't kick off until fairly far into the plot, it is excellent and quite spicy. I have so much to say about these two, but I want to avoid spoiling anything so!!! Just go read it!

Final Thoughts
As always with dark romance, definitely mind the trigger warnings! Also, this book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger. I sometimes struggle with those, but this one didn't bother me and it so clearly perfectly sets up the second book in this duology. Thankfully, the second book comes out in just a few months and I am absolutely dying to get my hands on it. I can't wait to discover where the rest of Eve and Emery's journey leads, because I absolutely want them to have to have a happy ending no matter how unlikely it may seem.

I was given an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review!