An incredible read. I personally did not feel Blake's 'Alone with you in the Ether' was for me, but this book is my favourite of hers so far. A beautiful and witchy retelling of Romeo and Juliet that broke my heart into a million pieces. I will forever be thinking of this book!

After being slowly enticed by the glowing reviews of Olivie Blake’s Atlas Six series, I finally decided to take the plunge with this one. I’m a huge fan of Alice Hoffman so magic, romance and witchery are right up my street. However, this was the same themes but with some added NYC grit and sass.

In New York City, two rival witch families fight for the upper hand.

The Antonova sisters are beautiful, cunning and ruthless, and their mother – known only as Baba Yaga – is the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants. Their adversaries, the influential Fedorov brothers, serve their crime boss father. Named Koschei the Deathless, his enterprise dominates the shadows of magical Manhattan.

For twelve years, the families have maintained a fraught stalemate. Then everything is thrown into disarray. Bad blood carries them to the brink of disaster, even as fate draws together a brother and sister from either side. Yet the siblings still struggle for power, and internal conflicts could destroy each family from within. That is, if the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy both sides first.

I found myself hurled straight into this world, which is ours but harbours a secret world within of rival witch families vying to supply humans with magical pharmaceuticals. I loved the idea that there might be other realm within own, hiding in plain sight. Baba Yaga has a shop - like Lush but with extra ingredients - whereas the Federovs sell on the streets and in the bars and clubs of the city. The rivalry and language of their industry was very ‘gangster’, with specific territories and penalties for stepping out of line. Head of the patriarchal Federovs is eldest brother ??? And the matriarchal Antonova sisters, although doing the bidding of Baba Yaga, are kept in line by eldest daughter Marya, known as Masha. The scene that grabbed me was Masha simply walking into the Federovs lair and demanding to see second brother Dima. There has been an issue with territory and Masha believes it is Dima’s fault, so she carries out a terrifying enchantment that leaves Dima totally incapacitated. I was fascinated that youngest brother Lev tries to stop her,, but is held back by his brother. Is there an honour code between the families? Even more intriguing is the obvious and immediate chemistry between Dima and Masha. The atmosphere was electric, charged with feelings and I was drying to know what had happened before and if these two had feelings for each other. If so, Masha is ruthless when it comes to business, but must have been full of hidden emotion. Would she be just as ruthless when protecting her family?

This scene showed me that Masha was confident in her power and very likely the successor to her mother. Masha is overseeing the expansion of their business. I found the idea of pharmaceutical drugs touched by magic fascinating too, I wanted to know more about their effects and whether they were largely benign. Did the customers truly know the power of what they were buying? I wondered about the family’s ethics with regards to black or white magic and was intrigued by how both families used their magic differently. Lev is sent to check out the clubs and see if he can work out the Antonov family’s next move, but he is distracted from his job by a young beautiful woman being hassled by a college student. As soon as he sees her he wants to help her, but already his attraction to her is obvious. She is very assertive and assures him she can look after herself and as Lev follows them out of the club she breaks the student’s nose. Intrigued by her confidence and the way she handled the situation, Lev offers to walk her home. Every block she tells him she can manage, but Lev has fallen in too deep already and the attraction is mutual. They have a passionate encounter down a side street. What Lev doesn’t know is that this young woman is Sasha, youngest of the Antonova sisters. As the pair fall in love, Lev confides the task he’s been given by his brothers. I wondered how she would react and whether she’s think his feelings were genuine or entrapment. Lev’s feelings are genuine and I was already wondering whether this was a repeat of Masha and Dima’s story. More importantly, if it comes to a showdown between the two families, which side would Lev choose?

Considering the amount of characters, they do have depth and feel very real. I think their back stories helped and the Russian folklore woven into their backgrounds seemed to ground them. Koshchei the Deathless is a male protagonist in Russian folklore, usually cast as an evil father figure who imprisons the male hero’s lover. He is called the immortal because he keeps his soul hidden within inanimate objects. Often he would hide his soul inside a tiny object then place it inside another object, perhaps an animal, like a rather grotesque set of Russian dolls. Baba Yaga was originally a supernatural being who hides within the disguise of a grotesque old woman. In a bizarre version of her story, which I love, she lived in a kettle with chicken’s legs - rather like the archetypal witch we all know from fairy tales. She would often take a maternal role and use that to hinder a character from the story. How these archetypes work within this story I’ll leave for you to find out. Then there’s the Romeo and Juliet parallel which certainly gives us the basic plot line of two rival families, where the youngest members of each family are falling in love with each other. That’s really where the comparisons end, because this is a loose retelling so don’t expect specific characters or even the same plot lines. This is a tragedy and it’s genuinely heartbreaking, but with gritty, real violence and it’s bloody consequences, just don’t expect the same victims. I loved that the rivalries are decades old and I think there’s definitely scope for more novels in this setting.

Although I loved Blake’s descriptive prose and enjoyed her characters, I did feel that the central love story lacked a bit of depth. I could tell these characters were in lust because their scenes were hot, but I didn’t feel the love at first. Perhaps that’s because I’m an older reader though and why I was interested in the oldest sister’s story. Also there were so many twists towards the end I had to go back and re-read sections to keep up with what was going on. However, for such a big book, it really fly by and the heady mix of love, power, magic, revenge and tragedy is a winner for sure. The art both inside and on the cover is absolutely beautiful. I feel that I could easily come back to these rival families in the future and it has certainly made me want to check out the author’s previous novels. If you like your love stories dark and laced with magic, violent tragedy and witches this is the book for you. It was definitely the book for me.

I haven’t read anything like this in a long time. A witchy, mafia, Romeo and Juliet mash-up with fae. The only thing missing were the vampires (although you would never guess it from the amount of blood carelessly gushing around). And I didn’t miss them, because, let’s be honest, the whole vampire thing has been done to death (no pun intended), hasn’t it?
The prose is a little intense, in my opinion (less typically being more), but even that was refreshingly different.
I loved the characters, all of them, even the bit parts. They all had character; no mean feat given the size of the cast.
Anyway, it was jolly good and if the fancy language doesn’t annoy you then I thoroughly recommend it.
Five stars and a big fat thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the ARC.

Oh i loved every second of this book!!! the writing styled, the plot, the characters… just everting!!!! I could not put it down. Need to read everything Olivie Blake has published!!!!!!

This was a fantastic book!! I never knew what was coming next, olivie blakes writing captures you from the first page. This book has two rival witch familles fighting for power, romance ,betrayal and so much more!! I loved the characters how all of plots interacted. I loved every moment and everyone should read it!!!

'"You want me to burn for you?" She asked. "Then watch me burn."'

The way that I inhaled this book was frankly unfounded.

A retelling of Romeo and Juliet that's based in Russian Folklore with witches and fae? Absolutely count me in. Being a big fan of The Atlas Six series, I adore the magical way in which Blake writes, she makes magical realism one of the most poetic things to read and for this I cannot thank her enough.

Having a degree in predominantly Shakespeare studies, I thought I would be sick of Romeo and Juliet retellings but boy was I wrong. The tragedy in this ripped my heart out and stomped on it and I would let Olivie Blake do it to me all over again.

Gorgeous, gorgeous book.

Thank you to @Netgalley and @PanMacmillan for the absolute pleasure of reading this book!

As a lover of all of Olivie Blake’s previous published works, i had exceptionally high standards going into One for my enemy.

I went into this novel with high expectations and once again they were exceeded. The beautiful writing which i have come to associate with Olivie Blake lent itself perfectly to the story of grief, revenge and, at its core, love.

The characters that she is able to craft blow me away every single time and i always get the sense that i have become so invested and part of their world when i have finished one of her novels, this one being no different.

The story, the characters and the emotions that this book created were just phenomenal and i look forward to Olivia’s future releases.

I absolutely loved this, Olivie Blake is becoming my favourite author for sure, the way you have no choice but to fall in love with her characters and their stories

Two rival witch families vie for power in New York City, in an urban retelling of Romeo and Juliet, with feuding families, forbidden love, treachery and emotion.
I loved the fantasy element of this story, set as it is against a real world of college, rich kids and downtown drugs and gangs. I really enjoyed the characters and was rooting for Lev and Sasha as much as for Masha and Dimi.
Naturally to path of true love does not run smoothly and there are twists and turns as the characters strive to live their lives to the full.
Most of all however, I really loved the character of The Bridge. His selfish and ego-centric existence and pithy quips brought a little humour to an otherwise strongly emotional story.
This was the first book I've read by this author and I very much enjoyed it and will happily look out for more.
With thanks to Netgalley and Pan MacMillan for an early copy in return for an honest review.

One for My Enemy is a smash-up of Romeo and Juliet, of Russian mythology and a dash of Game of Thrones. Written in Blake's trademark breathtakingly beautiful prose, it takes you through so many break-neck twists and turns at such rapid speed that it's almost dizzying. Definitely a book to be read in long, feverish spurts, not to be dosed out over long stretches of time. That said, the melodrama was sometimes a bit too much for me.

If modern witches, star-crossed lovers, death that may or may not be reversible and political intrigues sound like your thing, I would absolutely recommend picking this one up.

I want to thank NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here expressed are my own.

"𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙨, 𝙎𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙠𝙖," 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙮𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧.
"𝙎𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙨. 𝙎𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤. 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙜𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚, 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙣."
𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙩 𝙇𝙚𝙫 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧. "𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛, 𝙎𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙖. 𝙄𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙮-𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙪𝙣𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩."

If I read this part alone before starting the book I'd have dived right in. Admittedly I did anyways but this part really got my attention.

Read this book and tell me Olivie Blake isn't a genius!! She's one helluva writer who knows how to captivate our attention while messing with our darn emotions.
This book felt like a modern day mashup of Romeo and Juliet. It had love, power, heartbreak, full blown tragedy, and deception of the worst kind.

There was so.much going on but it all makes sense and the writing is so darn beautiful I know this is one I will want to read again and if you know me.. that doesn't happen often!!

Loved it.. all the stars given!!!

4/5⭐️

A captivating retelling of Romeo and Juliet, which will leave you in despair (in the best way possible).

Olivie Blake’s writing working miracles again, having me constantly hooked and in love with every single character.

“Write me a tragedy, Lev Fedorov,” she whispered to him. “Write me a litany of sins. Write me a plague of devastation. Write me lonely, write me wanting, write me shattered and fearful and lost.” - SCREAMING

Olivie Blake's writing always draws me right in and doesn't let me go, weaving a thrilling tale that I gladly follow through to the very end. Romeo and Juliet, Russian folklore, and present-day New York aren't things I'd ever think to combine in a single book, and yet she did so beautifully.

The writing was absolutely fantastic, the book flew by as I read it. Reading One For My Enemy was a genuine pleasure the whole way through. But I had so many questions, and not all of them were answered by the final page. Some of the book just didn't make sense to me, and I couldn't quite convince myself that the way certain events played out was believable. I'm not sure I understood how various things that happened actually happened, and maybe I wasn't supposed to, but the sense of the story not quite feeling complete to me makes this book 4 stars rather than 5.

I'm unfortunately going to have to wait for a physical copy to review this. I found the formatting terrible with random letter missing and numbers/phrases randomly placed throughout the book making it incredibly hard to stay in the novel.

I have been a fan of Blake's Atlas series and was pleased to be offered One for my Enemy as an ARC via NetGalley. As with her other series, the illustrations are beautiful. I love reading stories based on various mythologies so was excited when on the first page of the prologue there was a mention of Baba Yaga. I liked the idea of starting the novel with Yelp reviews and was intrigued as to how Blake was going to put a modern spin on the old folktales. The story soon switched to being highly influenced by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which was less to my taste and I almost lost interest about halfway through. Interestingly Blake does mention in the acknowledgments that the first half of the story was originally published in Witch Way Magazine under the title 'Fume of Sighs' and I wonder if this was around the same place I felt like giving up on it (of course, it may have originally ended at a totally different point). If you like your romance stories with a liberal dash of magic then this book may well be for you. Personally I found there to be too much romance and I think I had expected there to be a stronger link to the Baba Yaga myth so was a little disappointed.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for this early arc of One for my Enemy I adore Olivie Blake’s writing she’s easily one of my favourite authors I would read anything of hers.
Two rival families. Two young lovers tragically caught up in this rivalry. It is a Romeo and Juliet retelling yes, but it is so much more and so beautifully constructed and executed, complete with tragically unfolding narrative. I admired the novel and the Olivie’s approach, while at the same time I was caught up in the heartrending narrative.

I absolutely love retellings and when I saw that this is a retelling of Shakespeare's famous Romeo & Juliet, I knew it that I'm going to love this. One of my favoruite DiCaprio's movies is Romeo + Juliet and I understand now why I loved this book so much.

This is my first book by Olivie Blake and I am blown away She is an immensely talented author that knows how to grab the reader's attention from the first couple of chapters. I will for sure be picking up more of her books. She has beautifully conjured up complex character that show great growth throughout the story.

The story is about star-crossed lovers and their undying love which is threatened by their feuding families. One is led by a strong and charismatic matriarch while the other is a typical patriarchal family. It is a story of eternal love, family politics, misunderstandings, sacrifices and selfishness; all with a hint of magic. The story made me swoon and made my heart ache. It gave me hope but also devastatingly tugged at my heartstrings. In short, it's a well crafted book with phrases and characters that'll stay with you for a long time,

If this turns into a movie/show, I'll be the first one watching it!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

One For My Enemy was such a riveting read, what with it's plot being full of dark dealings, feuding families and forbidden love. Think Romeo and Juliet but the Montagues and Capulets are opposing families of influential witches. Sounds great right!?

Olivie Blake's fantasy-inspired retelling of one of Shakespeare's most well known plays had it all: love, power, magic and revenge! Not to mention, a most tragic ending. Sound familiar..? With a mixture of captivating characters, a turbulent timeline and paragraphs upon paragraphs of beautiful prose, Blake has managed to successfully honour the original story but also add a very modern and magical stamp to the ever popular tradegy - you never quite knew what she'd throw at you next!

Fast paced and all-consuming, it was a real struggle to put it down. It's fair to say, I really, really enjoyed it! 🥀🗡️

New York, home to rival witch families the Antonova's and the Fedorov's. Both are fighting for wealth, status, and of course, power, amongst the criminal underworld. After twelve years of tolerating the other's existence, it's only a matter of time before one family reaches further for their desires, uncaring of consequences and collateral damage. 

As a loosely based Romeo and Juliet retelling, you already know this isn't going to end well for many involved. There's so many betrayals and underhand tactics, sly deals, and forbidden love. No one is truly transparent, and there's a lot going on that there's a need for the many different POV's throughout the book. 

There's a lot of characters to keep track of, but the book is set out like a play, with a cast of characters and chapters separated by acts and scenes which I really liked. It gave it the feel of Shakespeare without it actually being Shakespeare, with Blake taking his play and making it her own.

Not only this, but I really liked how the Russian folklore story of Koschei and Marya was interweaved amongst the Romeo and Juliet retelling, bringing both stories into the modern era and mixing them with a fantasy outlook, without it feeling like it was too much crammed into the plot. 

As my first book by Olivie Blake, I have to admit I was hesitant to believe in the hype surrounding her and her numerous books, and I went into this a bit unsure of what to expect of her writing. By around 60 pages all these doubts disappeared and I was in love. Not just with her writing, but the characters, too. They're created with such depth, that it didn't take me long to have favourites, but I do wish we'd seen more of the other Antonova sisters, especially the twins. 



Did I like the book? Yes.

Did I love it? I did! Very early on, too.

Would I recommend it? Yes. If Romeo and Juliet retellings, witches, betrayals, and family feuds are your thing, and especially if you enjoyed Chloe Gong's These Violent Delights duology, you'll definitely enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC.

Having read Alone with You in the Ether, I already knew that Blake was a writer I wanted to read more of. This, though very different from the former, only strengthened that idea. I'm not sure I can really put into words how much I adored this book, but I'll try my best!

Aside from the beautiful prose and the formatting/structure that Blake is known for (and the ART in this is gorgeous, too), the concept felt like it was created absolutely for me. A Romeo and Juliet retelling may not be anything new, but Blake does it impossibly well - taking what we know of the original and crafting it into something else entirely. With Russian folklore and concepts set in New York, with magic and witches and politics, this is everything one could want in a fantasy romance, There's betrayal, complicated familial relationships, a world within our own, and magic that has its own basis and rules crafted entirely by the author.

There's a diverse cast of characters at play in this one, and sometimes it can be a lot to get your head around - with all the Antonova sisters, and the Federov brothers, and the players intertwined in their web of rivalry that traverses back decades - but it's worth the effort, because the story that is crafted is beautiful, enthralling, and unlike anything else.

There's real trauma and tragedy here, that will absolutely gut punch you at the wrong moment. I was devastated and happy and laughing all at the same time!! There's humor ! There's guts, glory and gore!! It's honestly just beautiful and I'd like to be buried with this book.

A strong favourite of mine for the year, and perhaps forever. I can't wait to get my hands on a hard copy of this when it's published in April 2023, but for now I can rest happily knowing I was lucky enough to read it before release.