The spice is not explicit and it’s definitely a slow burn! So keep that in mind! I did love the use of “touch her and die” and the protectiveness of the MMC. Anyway, I have to say that I went into this with some trepidation; the first couple of chapters were giving me The Cruel Prince vibes (which I hated, by the way), but I changed my mind soon after.

I absolutely loved the worldbuilding and magic in this. The descriptions of how the magic worked and wound itself around the characters and how they used it were incredibly unique for a take on elemental magic and beautifully written. Perfect for fans of Beauty & the Beast, Romeo & Juliet, A Curse So Dark & Lonely, A Court of Mist and Fury, and The Cruel Prince. I must admit I found the romance a little boring. In some ways, the dynamic and the immeasurably melodramatic love they felt for each other, reminded me a lot of Twilight's Edward and Bella with their histrionic speeches. I guess we could say it's a very emotional relationship rather, than a physical one, and while I appreciated the way it was presented, I would have liked it to be a little less intense in its telling and a little more audacious in its showing.

The Divine and the Cursed File Type (PDF)

From multi-award-winning author J.E. Reed comes a breathtaking new series full of love and survival. Even when nothing major was happening, the way the descriptions were written kept me interested, and I can say with all honesty, that I never felt bored while reading the book. As I said earlier, the book has a really fast pace, so that probably helped as well. To put it plainly, this was terrible. The only reason it doesn't have one star is that I don't think I actively hated it, but it was just so painful to read. From everything being terribly plot convenient, to there being no stakes at all in any point of the book because everything happened in the most predictable way... I truly should've dnf'd it halfway through. I´m just going to start of by saying OMG this book was SO GOOD! I literally could´t put it down and finished it within a day! I really should be focusing on my exams, but this book was too good!

Furthermore, I couldn’t connect with the characters, mainly because I didn’t know much about them. We know Arianna is a secret queen on the run, and Rion is the commander of an army, but that’s all we know about them personally. I think forming connections to them and their pasts as individuals would pull me in closer, deepening the readers love for them as people. As for cons. Where´s the world building?? And the changing POV´s sometimes had me a little confused. But I might just be really slow lol. Regarding the "spice" level, I don't require all of my books, especially fantasy reads, to be "spicy," but there are certain assumptions one comes with when there's an age-gap, enemies-to-lovers, fantasy captive romance. That said, even though I abhor a closed-door romance, an intentionally light "spice" level doesn't inherently take away from the story unless there's also a "light" amount of sexual tension and chemistry in the characters... which was unfortunately my experience with this story, especially because they fell soooo fast.I was convinced to read this because a TikTok edit talking about a "touch her and you die" enemies-to-lovers dynamic with a "PUT. HER. DOWN" scene by her enemy so he could rescue her. It makes sense in context... but I'm sad to say that the edit was more exciting than the scene itself... or any following scene after it. I will say that I thought the story was much better than the cover 😬 My heart broke for them so many times. I ugly cried a lot, so I craved the sweet moments as much as I crave chocolate ice cream...every damn minute. This book has everything you want in a Romantasy. And even tho this book is not spicy there is a bit of steam because of the description towards the attraction they have for each other. The beginning of this book starts off as a love triangle but that’s because relationships are allowed if you have not yet found your mate. Clearly she found her mate and she turned feral to protect him from anyone who would hurt him. She protects him and he protects her. Fans of SJM should read this book. It’s more of a heartfelt and lovey book but still had some good fight scenes and action. I thought the writing was amazing and it really had a good storyline, but something about this book just didn't pull me in and I can't put my finger on it. I absolutely love Romeo and Juliet and when I saw this was a retelling, I just had to have it.

I also want to give a major, major shout-out to Laura Horowitz, who did the audiobook for this. She did an amazing read of all of this, and I definitely increased my enjoyment of the story. I loved the way that she managed to give a personality and a distinct voice to every single one of the characters that were portrayed. I stumbled upon this book when scrolling through tiktok; I immediately knew I had to read this and couldn't wait to know the release date, so imagine my happiness when the author asked me if I was interested in reading an ARC of her book! Pretty good world building but could have used more of it. I don’t fully understand the magic system. Nor do I understand the extent of the magic. It seems like some are more powerful than others but it’s never explained why or how. Are they born more powerful? Can you train to be more powerful? Can someone have multiple powers? What are all the powers in this world? Why do some people have a animal shifting powers and other don’t? I loved the development from Adrianna she learned to be a fighter and protected what was hers. I can’t wait to see how this story continues now that there is a new war on the rise.Thought I’d dive into the Kindle Unlimited world for my next review! I was mostly inspired by a single reel posted by J.E. Reed: I simply don't think I'll ever get the "I can't help but love him even though he killed someone I loved so much" bullshit. Now let's get into the world-building details. Some important pieces of information would have had more weight at the beginning of the book rather than at the end. For example, Fiadh’s actions would have meant more if we learned more about them sooner. I had too many questions at the end that made me feel like the author didn’t know what was going to happen at the end until they wrote it. Not a bad thing, but noticeable to me. There were some grammar errors. Although minor, they were frequent enough that this could be a turn off for other readers.

However, the reason I’m rating it low is that this book is desperately in need of an editor. There were so many errors that it consistently brought me out of moments in the book. There is a scene between a villain fae and his commander that was super unnecessary and felt like not trusting the readers to connect the dots. There were some errors in the sentences and the pacing didn’t make sense. This was the first book I read from J.E Reed, but her writing captivated me so much, I promised myself I’ll read many more in the future! The writing style was dual pov first person which is my favourite format to read, so I loved that! And the writing, wow. I am an aspiring author myself and hope to one day write as good as name.However, I have zero complaints about how the enemies-to-lovers part was handled and I find super refreshing how Rion and Arianna were virgins. It was very cute, especially considering that Rion's this big and strong and deadly soldier who you'd think has sex every other minute. This is one of the most DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. General Rion is ruthless and commanding. He relishes in his reputation as The Demon-a vile creature incapable of love or compassion. With a secret no one can know, Arianna strives to placate him while plotting her escape, but sometimes fate has other plans and rumors can't always be trusted. Welcome to the tour for the bestselling novel The Divine and the Cursed by J.E. Reed! Read on for more! Trigger Warnings: War, Violence, Slavery, Torture, Death, Blood, Starvation, Kidnapping, Injury, SA (no explicit descriptions only mentioned), Loss of a Parent