A very fun read with quite a lot of novel ideas! This book is set in a city controlled by two rival orders—the Daggers and the Cloaks. Both use Shade magic, but for different purposes: the Daggers are assassins, while the Cloaks are thieves. The main characters, Sera and Ransom, work for opposing orders, and even though one wants to kill the other, they are constantly drawn to each other.
While the worldbuilding isn’t very elaborate, I really liked the magic system in this book. The use of Shade, either to kill or to steal, was very interesting and not too complicated to grasp.
When it comes to characters, I’m not going to lie—I’m not the biggest fan of the enemies to lovers, mostly because it’s difficult to write well and many authors fall short in that regard. However, I did enjoy the characters' relationship in this book, probably because they have never truly been enemies on an emotional level. Obviously, Ransom works for the organization that wants Sera dead, but it’s not like he hates her, nor does she hate him. Their circumstances are quite dire at the beginning, but as they get to know each other, their fondness grows. I think handling their dynamic this way was the best possible approach to making this trope feel plausible.
I should also mention that while this is a YA book, it reads more like an adult novel, which was fine for me (especially since I often struggle with reading YA). However, readers should be aware that there is a spicy scene in it.
My only quibble with this book lies in its somewhat uneven pacing, as it was a bit slower in the middle. Still, I really enjoyed it, and I’m definitely going to read the sequel.

THE DAGGER AND THE FLAME is the start of a new duology full of magic, danger, and forbidden romance.

There is a nice chemistry between the two. Their notes were a particularly good way of showing their flirtation, how much they wanted each other even as they hated each other. Their first major fight gave the book a great way of ensuring they both had a deeply personal reason to be at each other's throats (literally) and Ransom a reason to want to hunt down that conflicted with his kill orders. It helped drive the plot and their meetings without feeling contrived.

It's a very pacy read, one that goes down nice and easy. I finished this one very quickly as I just kept turning the pages to find out what happened next in one afternoon.

I really liked the way the monsters came into the book. It brings a bunch of different parts of the magic and characters' pasts together to create a pretty horrifying scenario that targets everyone but has only one solution (other than "try to kill them, I guess?") I do hope the themes behind them continue to be explored in the next book.

The finale places Sera and Ransom on opposite sides of the guild lines even more firmly. Ransom can't continue to help her - or act on his feelings - without jeopardising everything and he's also got a personal reason to dislike her. It should be a fun dynamic for the next book to play with.

Very grateful to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book to read and review!

I heard great things about this and was super excited for another romantasy pick!

I think I could have really enjoyed this book a lot more but unfortunately even from the get-go I was super let down by the writing style.

The writing was very juvenile and honestly made me feel like the characters who, despite being told they are 17, I felt that they were way younger. Add in the fact that it was dual POV but in third person? I truly felt like I was reading a middle grade book.

WHICH IS FINE - BUT SADLY NOT MY THING

I just felt like because of this the romance and chemistry fell super flat for me. I wasn’t rooting for them. I didn’t feel the tension from the enemies to lovers.

I also couldn’t SEE the setting of this book. The descriptions were vague or just not compelling enough.

Leading in from the setting, I just didn’t feel like the world building was done in a way that truly compelled me. I was very often wondering how these guilds actually worked and how the city functioned.

Perhaps, as an adult, I am rating this young adult book too critically, but I feel that many aspects of this books I have read in other books in ways I have loved e.g the enemies to lovers in Crimson Moth, or the opposing gangs in These Violent Delights.

Anyhow, I think this will work well for younger YA readers but perhaps not so much for those on the upper end of the genre.

Rating would actually be 3.5 stars.

This was a great start to the series and I'm looking forward to following the next instalments. I loved that this was an ACTUAL enemies-to-lovers, and there was relationship development throughout. The magic system was intriguing - I loved the idea of shadows being wielded. However, I do feel that there is much more that could be fleshed out with the magic system and I'm really hoping this is a focus for the next novel.

I also loved the French themes and setting throughout - it gave it a Phantom of the Opera feel, which I really enjoyed, and the classic feud between Cloaks and Daggers.

However, parts felt like they lagged. I also felt uncomfortable that there was a spice scene in a novel that is being marketed for teens and young adults as it felt really out of place compared to the rest of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.