oh how i missed reading a ya fmc who wasn't a goody-two-shoes morally righteous crybaby with zero agency and a proclivity for making bad decisions at every turn. for that reason alone this book deserves an award for being unique. i loved el and orion's dynamic haha. she was so reluctant to admit she actually liked him yet took care of him so closely lmfao. pawan was right in the fact that orion was low-key a nothingburger of a character but his shounen protagonist personality intrigues me coz there's more there and i want to find out more about him. the solo fight against the maw-mouth was definitely a highlight coz the tension was so nicely written. the development with everyone's relationship was so good. i wonder why exactly el was prophecised to be a dark sorceress coz the last thing she wants is to be voldemort 2.0, and nothing in her character so far indicates her going dark. but it is a little interesting that her mother warned her against being with orion lol. oh mother only if u knew. THEY KISSED!!! it was highkey out of the blue and jumpscared me but it was cute hehe. i was shipping them the entire book but was barely getting anything and was halfway convinced el was gonna end up with aadhya instead but i'm glad my ship kinda sailed. i desperately need more ship sailing in the future. most of the points lost by this book are coz of the massive exposition dump in the beginning that initially made it hard to get through the first half, but yeee we got through it. tempted to start booking 2 rn.
