Title: Heartless Hunter (Crimson Moth #1)
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Publisher: Wednesday Books 2024
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 406
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Spooky Season; Retreat Recommendation
Where I Got It: Library
On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe - a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution - who she can't help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Multiple people at the retreat in June told me that I needed to read this book and the sequel that came out this year. I finally picked this up and flew through it quickly. It’s a very fast paced story with lots of action scenes and suspense. I enjoyed the plot even if the few “twists” were telegraphed very early on. I mean this is a young adult novel. I was expecting a fast moving plot. I was very interested in the magic system and wished that we could have learned a bit more about it. But my biggest issue with this book I the love triangle and romance. It just doesn’t land like a swoony romance. Alex is too much of a wet blanket. Gideon is too full o hate. And then Rune is just a girl who doesn’t quite inspire the great romantic feelings from two brothers. But I did enjoy story and world enough to want to read the sequel.
Crimson Moth
#1 Heartless Hunter
#2 Rebel Witch
Next up on the TBR pile:
