I really enjoyed this book and I felt it was really easy to give it 5 stars. I feel like the author created a really unique world and I loved the lore and the systems she created as well, all neatly wrapped up in descriptive, and immersive writing.

I normally struggle with modern fantasy but I feel like this was the best book I’ve read where there is that modern twist on fantasy, and I loved that the book was based in Rome.

There were plenty of interesting characters and I liked that actually it was a YA, and clearly aimed at YA as opposed to being heavy on sexual language and themes. I think the romance was done well and I also enjoyed the friendships the book had in it.

Sadly I didn’t love this book which shocks me as I can usually read a book and eventually get into it but I just couldn’t get into this book. There’s characters popping up left and right and I felt they weren’t properly explained who they were/what they stood for so when their name was mentioned it wasn’t very clear.

Fans of Shadowhunters, you’ll want to get this! Demon hunting exorcists!!

I think this book is so unique. The setting is a new one for me, being set in Rome, in Vatican City! The author did a great job of describing the setting that I was able to picture it so clearly.

My favorite part though, is 100% the characters. Selene and Jules are WONDERFUL, beautifully written characters and I love them so much. I think she has made 2 very lovable characters that make you root for them so easily. Their banter is simply a wonderful thing to read and I loved every moment of it!! And Sparrow! I loved him so much, he was an amazing side character!!

✨fake dating
✨forbidden love
✨demon hunters
✨banter!!!!
✨dual POV

Overall, this book was so good. I highly recommend it for romantasy fans. Definitely fans of Shadowhunters, Serpent & Dove, and Divine Rivals. It combines the action of Shadowhunters/Serpent & Dove an adds in the softness of Divine Rivals. Along with the most beautiful cover, this book will definitely be a favorite this year!

2.5 ⭐️

“A brutal war between demons & humanity has raged across Europe for a century. Selene Alleve, a powerful exorcist and Jules Lacroix, a foot soldier, unrivalled in battle”.

I’m sooo gutted I didn’t enjoy this ARC 😭 this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025!

The main reason I struggled was because the book starts off with a lot of action & introduction of many characters! It just made the storyline seem all over the place. The world building was just not working out for me. I liked the chemistry between Jules and Selene, but I wish we got to see more romance.

Thank you NetGalley & Penguin for giving me this ARC for my honest review.

What a good start for my first fantasy book of 2025! This felt like if you mashed together the demon-slayer anime, with steam punk elements, a twisted Christianity (exorcist nuns with guns!?), and chuck in world war 1. I loved it. The setting of The Vatican, Rome & France was such a treat.

We are quite literally thrown into the action on two different battle fronts in the first chapter, but it was easy to follow without losing track of the new characters and the developing plot. The author feeds us just enough plot with the drama that I couldn't stop reading, and I quickly came to love both POV characters. Selene is tough, and a dogmatic in her thinking at the start, but she has just enough softness that it kept her likable. I just adored Jules. His story unveiled at a believable pace, and I'm glad he wasn't too stupid or ignorant of the clues that were presented to him (a lot of characters seem unbelievably naive in YA, but I didn't feel like Jules was).

At around the 40% mark I was worried that we were just going to have solid action and little character development the whole way through, but then lo and behold the characters were literally forced to slow down and get to know each other, and it was perfect. The fake dating scenario made sense given the context, and Jules & Selene actually had sizzling chemistry.

The side characters were also great - Sparrow was delicious, Kian was my boy (;-;) and I want a whole book about what Catarina and Lucia got up to when they weren't in the Vatican.

The mysteries - those that the characters knew and were keeping from me, and the ones that the characters were uncovering meant I couldn't put it down and I finished it in less than 24 hours. The end was satisfying but left enough unanswered questions that there is definitely merit in a sequel, which I now cannot wait for!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

To sum this book up: Author has good ideas but lacks control over their craft.

It's very telling to see Sophie Clark was mentored by Emily Thiede, because this book has very similar strengths and weaknesses as This Vicious Grace. The characters, esp. the leading couple and the romance are the strengths, the plot and the worldbuilding are the weaknesses.

Before we get to the nitty gritty, I must admit I'm surprised this is published as YA. It felt more like new adult to me. First, because everyone smokes, drinks and swears with f-words etc. Second, because the sex is open door (spice lvl 3 by the romance.io scale). Third, because there's quite an amount of death, mutilation and gore. It's not as graphic as grimdark fantasy, but there's a lot of bloody stuff going around. And fourth and most important, because the leads behave like life-weary cynical veterans, which they are, but it also makes them feel more mature than the 18 and 19 years olds they are. They're also surprisingly sensible, which I consider a plus (overall as I mentioned the characters are the strong point), they aren't typical YA characters who get furious over minor things or can't communicate for no reason or display "too stupid to live" attitudes.

Now to the book itself, let's start with weaknesses:

1. Writing style.

It's 3rd person double pov however in many cases I had trouble discerning whose pov are we in at any given moment, it felt like it would sometimes switch even without a scene break. The dialogues had the same issue - sometimes I had to re-read a page and still wouldn't be sure who said what. It could get confusing at a time and wasn't obvious from context. Add to this a tendency to have action tags referring to the person who isn't speaking right now in line with a dialogue of another person (without a paragraph split).

There were also some really cringy turns of phrase like "puppy fat of youth". Or Jules and Kian calling each other "boyo". Felt really out of place.

2. Worldbuilding.

A lot of things were left unexplained. For example, we learn fairly early that Selene has some runes etched into her bones and that allows her to wield magic. How were this runes placed into her bones? We never learn. We learn she's "special" because she's the only Exorcist having that property, and we learn later a bit more where her power comes from, but how it was "crafted" onto her, we never find out.

We never get a clear idea what year are we in, even though it's our world alternate history. There are guns and steam trains and analog telephones but apparently that's because demons disrupt electricity? Huh? Also at some point we're told they disrupt telephones too but characters keep using telephones anyway, so how does that work?

At some point Selene reads her father's diary where are latin numbers I would assume correspond to a year and it's something like 2005 and 2012 so it happens in 21st century? But the tech is more steampunk-ish level. Also why is there Czechoslovakia? There's no Czechoslovakia in 21st century. And if we say the alternate history changed the course of development of countries, and the demon war is lasting some 200 years or so, then there would be still Austria-Hungary on the map.

Oh, and the ARC had no map, which hopefully in the final version will make the whole alternate map of Europe less confusing.

Also there's no Russia, there's "Caspian Federation" but somehow the border where the war happens is in Ostrava, so Poland is a part of this faux-Russia?

Oh, and the Caspian leader is Anastasia... THAT Anastasia? She's called Anastasia Alexandrova Romanov while the historical famous Anastasia is called Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. Is it the same person or just "wink wink" to the reader?

To be honest, at this point I feel worldbuilding is just vibes, and shortly after we leave Ostrava and France the rest of the story all happens in one place (Vatican) so it could have been a secondary world fantasy and there would be fewer hanging questions how all of this is supposed to make sense.

There's one point where this being our world wins, using phrases like French door or Glasgow smile. Because I ranted about "French door" in This Vicious Grace before, that is a secondary world fantasy, so it made no sense there.

Also this happens early in the story, but Jules runs from the front in Ostrava and somehow already in Paris and Nice everyone knows he's a deserter? How does news travel so fast without modern technology? When did they have time to print and plaster all those posters around? And is he the only deserter ever so there's big chase after him but not anyone else? Oh, but when he finally arrives to Rome / Vatican, no posters there! Nobody knows who he is except one guy who personally met him in Ostrava!

Overall, lots of things don't make sense and are stuffed there so the plot would happen.

3. Narration / pacing.

One big problem I've seen is that there are things hinted early especially hard but then we get a big "reveal" as a surprise even though we've already known that for ages.

There are especially 2 reveals of that kind: who is Jules - even though Anastasia tells him very early something that reveals half the secret. And who is the "immortal God", they find it around 40% in Selene's father diary, but hey, let's pretend it's not obvious for half a book later... Let's just say I was very unsurprised.

Also making it a "secret" undercuts the big enemies to lovers selling point, because Exorcist x foot soldier doesn't sound nearly as tension-filled as well... you can guess what's the best "foil" to an Exorcist here...

I feel the characters often barely reacted to what should be life-changing reveals to them? It reminded me of that meme "oh no! anyway..."

Second problem is trying to stuff all the "tik tok romantasy tropes": fake dating, fake identity, one bed, masquerade ball, knife to the throat, wet shirt bonus scene, bandaging wounds, sparring / duelling and kissing, drunken confessions / question game, reverse grumpy & sunshine banter, etc.

Some of them are implanted seamlessly, but some feel like excessive padding. I was truly bored reading how many times they were "stealing kisses" from each other. Sometimes less is more and quality over quantity.

I get that "tik tok tropes" sell but it leads to "20 tropes in a trenchcoat" syndrome and some of these repetitive / filler scenes could have been pruned.

Also I'm not sure why Jules kept flip flopping between being a scarred, traumatized, grief-stricken war veteran and playing sunshine to Selene's grumpy. It felt out of character for him, he wasn't presented as a carefree funny guy and then was shoehorned into that role.

Finally, the book opens with many "throwaway" characters being killed in the first 2 chapters and it was a bit confusing trying to remember them from the get go.

Now, the good stuff:

1. The characters.

Selene imo really carried the book. She's not a typical YA heroine who's unassuming but suddenly finds she's special and only wants to do the right thing... Nope. Selene is flawed. She's a zealot. She's a product of her upbringing that brainwashed her. She can be brutal. She knows she was forged to be a weapon against demons (even though it's not fully explained how) and she knows the expectations tied to it. When she meets Jules, we have the obligatory "he's so handsome" moment but overall he piques more of her interest once he proves he can survive against demon attacks no ordinary human could, therefore might be an asset in the war. Even though this is "enemies to lovers" she never hated him for no reason and was pragmatic about the whole endeavour.

Jules was okay. I liked the scene between him and Sparrow that revealed Jules as bisexual, because we don't often get that in MF romance. Jules wasn't some toxic a-hole and even though he suffered a lot, he didn't fall into tortured brooding archetype.

Lucia and Catalina reminded me of battle nuns from the Hellsing manga. Elliot seems like a cool guy and shame we didn't see more of him. Sparrow and Kian were interesting additions bringing some levity to the table. The antagonists were well suited for their roles - from mysterious and respect worthy to utterly loathsome.

2. The romance.

I thought it was pretty sweet and supportive despite all the reasons mcs couldn't trust each other from the get go. There was a lot of teasing and banter. And kissing. So much kissing. That's probably a plus for some. There was one open door sex scene which was, unfortunately, stereotypical.

But I enjoyed the developments and how it was non-toxic and none of that "I hate him so much but can't resist him", they were both fairly pragmatic about it but also started to care about one another, it wasn't just lust-driven.

I feel their bonding over past regrets, grief over dead people close to them, and their roles as the "best" of their respective units made a lot of sense. I often wonder what does even connect romantic leads in books, but here it was never a doubt they would understand each other.

3. The wrap-up.

I was worried diving into "first in a duology" that we'll have typical "1st in a series" issues like cliffhanger ending or unresolved romance plot. Wasn't the case. There is an open door for the sequel, but there is also a complete narrative arc in this book.

I just really really hope the author won't use one of the cheap tricks for book 2 in a series where book 1 ends with HFN, i.e. either forced split of romantic leads and separate sub-plots, or random love triangle with a new 3rd wheel.

While the story could go anywhere from here, it's a satisfactory read as is.

Overall, I would recommend this for readers of upper YA / NA fantasy with romance focus who want to see mature-behaving characters in non-toxic enemies to lovers situation, and people who enjoy strong female protagonists who are stoic, pragmatic, a little cynical and possibly even cold-blooded in attitude.

I hope the flaws in the writing style and undercutting its own reveals with early foreshadowing are just debut growing pains and the author will develop in the future.

Overall it felt like a diamond in the rough, good ideas and enjoyable experience, but could have used another round of polish. A solid 4 star.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK Children's for the ARC!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me an earc for review.

I dnf’d this at 20% as I really could not get into this book in the slightest.

The book starts with you quite literally being thrown into all the action which can be quite overwhelming when you’re having random characters thrown at you as well as extensive world building and politics which can be really hard to grasp.

What made it even harder is that you follow two POV’s but there’s not a great indicator in the chapters as to which character you’re now following which makes it a bit harder to understand.

All of these combined, I just couldn’t get into it which I find a real shame but maybe I will try this again later in the year.

What to expect?

😈Demons
❤️ Fake Dating
🥰A new book boyfriend
⚔️Baddass FMC
💜High Stakes
❌Forbidden Romance
🏛️Rome Setting

Set against the backdrop of a centuries-old war between demons and the Vatican, the story follows Selene, a high-ranking demon exorcist, and Jules Lacroix, a skilled foot soldier. When their paths cross, they form an uneasy alliance to uncover a dark conspiracy at the heart of the Vatican

My Thoughts

"Cruel is the Light" by Sophie Clark is an exceptional read, featuring a unique setting and a storyline with characters you’ll absolutely adore.

Clark's writing is intense and engaging, with action-packed sequences and rich, easy-to-follow world-building. The chemistry between Selene and Jules is palpable, making their forbidden romance a central and addictive element of the story.

Light of my eyes, she called him. He filed that one away.

The pacing is masterfully done, especially in the second half of the book where I found myself racing through the pages. The narrative is fast-paced, with themes of betrayal, loyalty, and forbidden love shining throughout. It’s filled with twists and turns, humorous side characters, a witty and flirtatious male main character (MMC), and a morally conflicted female main character (FMC).

I can’t wait for book 2!

Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was expecting an action-packed adventure between good and evil but I was pleasantly surprised to discover how morally grey this book is! It begins with Selene, an exorcist who hunts demons, being sent to a small town under attack. In the city of Rome, where the exorcists are based, demons are common and constantly being hunted. Lately though, the wards have been failing and more powerful demons have been making their way into the mortal world and wreaking havoc. For Selene, this is a minor inconvenience, since the cities outside of Rome receive the brunt of the attacks. For Jules, a French orphan and soldier, this means constant fighting and a life in the trenches. That is until the day his entire unit is killed and he deserts. Cue the enemies. During Jules’ escape, he runs into Selene (literally) and the drama begins. For things are changing in Rome and not all is as it seems. As the lines between good and evil become blurred, Selene and Jules will have to trust each other to have any chance at survival.
The worldbuilding in this book was incredible and I loved the way history was twisted to create this unique landscape. Demons roam the streets of Rome while God is held captive. The descriptions were luscious and it was incredibly easy to get lost in the words. May I also say that the outfits were gorgeous and I want Selene’s effects so badly. Sophie’s writing flowed perfectly and I flew through this book. You can expect plenty of swords, guns, opulent buildings, midnight masquerades, and mysteries. And according to Selene:

“she loathed mysteries. Particularly mysteries in the gorgeous packaging of a young French soldier.”

Oh, yes. And tests. As Jules puts it:

“What kind of tests? Tests to see who can look prettiest in black and gold? Who can wear the biggest, fanciest buttons?”

And that’s another swoon-worthy part. The pining. The banter. The enemies to lovers. Aaaahhhh. If this book had no plot or worldbuilding it would still be worth reading just for this. (Luckily we get all three!) The relationship between Selene and Jules is so full of tension but it is somehow also hilarious. For example:

“I don’t have time to waste answering asinine questions.”
“That’s rude. You’re assuming my questions will be asinine?”
“Obviously. You can go first.”
“Well, it’s a lot of pressure now.”

Oh my gosh. THEM. They were so perfect. And might I add that Jules is obsessed with Selene. It was so fun to read chapters from both their perspectives to see how oblivious Selene was to Jules’ obvious infatuation. Even just thinking about, I’m sitting here kicking my feet with the sudden urge to read it all again. I could not get these two out of my head. This quote sums it up:

“Why are you so irritating?”
He smirked. “Born that way.”

Finally, the action and adventure in this book was so engaging. I was intrigued by the plot and how everything Selene knew seemed to be a facade for something more dark and twisted than I had thought. I’m excited to see where this series goes and am so thankful I got to read an early copy! In parting,

“Regrettably, she wasn’t possessed. More like obsessed.”

3.25 stars. I wanted to love this book so bad, but honestly, I didn’t. It took me so long to get through, it kinda just dragged, I genuinely just feel indifferent to it - I’m not convinced that I’ll even read the sequel. It just felt … like a slog? It kept going for so long and it felt like hardly anything was happening. I was so excited to read this one.

As soon as I saw this cover and read the description, I knew I was going to love Cruel is the Light!! And it didn't disappoint, it had everything I froth at the mouth for in a fantasy book: enemies to lovers, fake engagement, magic, war politics and forced proximity?!

Every time I turned over a page, I felt like I was learning new secrets alongside Selene and Jules and it kept me absolutely hooked the entirety of the way through. I thought the pacing was a teeeeny bit slower towards the 3/4 mark but it soon picked it up and I gobbled the rest up in one sitting. Special shoutout to Sparrow as well, one of my favourite side characters!!

Definitely give this one a go if you can!

This book has me a bit torn between a 3.75 and 4-star. The premise is super interesting, and I really liked the characters, especially Jules and Selene. Their relationship felt natural, and I could easily picture them together. But there were a few things that threw me off. For one, it took about 20% of the book before they even met, and when they did, their connection felt rushed but that might just be me tbf as i read quite quickly so it might have felt longer for others.

The writing also felt a little all over the place at times. Some parts were way too detailed, which ironically made things confusing, and I had trouble grasping the magic system and world-building. I still enjoyed the story though!!! If you’re into fantasy with a slow-burn romance and strong characters, it’s definitely worth a read.

The premise…
Set in a darkly beautiful version of Rome, the Vatican’s exorcists are Europe’s main line of defence against demons.
Selene, one of the Vatican Academy’s best and most powerful exorcists, is sent to investigate a series of demon attacks in France where she crosses paths with Jules. A footsoldier in the Vatican's army, Jules has survived the the war’s increasing violence, but now he must ally with Selene to get answers not only about his own mysterious past, but also about the Vatican’s terrible secret.

My thoughts…
As a Rome obsessive (both ancient and modern) I loved the hook of this world and the twists and plays on the Rome we know. It was a refreshing setting and the worldbuilding, although heavy, fully immersed me.
The story was really well paced and kept me hooked with action, character development and both small and big questions throughout with a satisfying amount of answers by the end.
My absolute favourite part of this book was the relationship between Jules and Selene! I adored their banter and Jules’s charming brand of cockiness was so appealing to me I just loved him!

Perfect for…
Anyone who loves the banter in Lauren Roberts' Powerless.

I was kindly given an eARC of Cruel is the light by Sophie Clark! Which I highly recommend to all your romantasy lovers out there.

Oh dio immortal help me .. because how on earth am I supposed to move on from this book! I need more…this is going to be such a hit this year on release day. How anyone could give this book anything less than 5 stars I don’t know.

From start to finish I loved every character and their progression throughout.
Selene an exorcist with powers beyond her wildest dreams, too dangerous to tap into, she gives a whole new meaning to badass FMC with her sarcastic and closed off personality.

Then comes Along Jules, foot soldier in the war trying to find more about who he is and where he has come from!

Exorcists, demons, gods and magical powers what more could you ask for in a fantasy book? “An incredible complex and intriguing plot with lots of little twists to keep you hooked, you say?” Well then look no further. I devoured this book and need a new book, like right now!!

With some of my favourite tropes …

•Enemies to lovers
•One bed
•Slow burn
•Fake relationship

I’m super grateful to have been approved to read this early, this was a great read.

Selene was a fascinating and complex character who seemed groomed by her environment and the emotional blackmail of wanting to make her uncle proud by any means he deemed necessary. Jules was even more interesting with layers of secrets and questions surrounding his identity and where he fits into this world.

I really enjoyed the combination of fantasy and religion in this dark and tragic story following the two main characters who are battling demons and unravelling secrets within their society, questioning everything they thought they knew.

I really hope there will be a book 2, I’m rating this 4.0 - 4.25.

I really badly wanted to love this book. The premise was so promising, and i generally love this genre. BUT i just couldn’t get into it at all. I feel like I was just violently pushed into a storyline that I didn’t have any previous knowledge about and I felt like so many pieces of information was missing. Might give this back book another go at some other point, but for now I just didn’t like it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm sad to say this was slightly more of a miss for me than the hit I was anticipating but I'll be honest, I didn't have much expectations as the author is new and the setting was a bit of a gamble for me.

However the lure of enemies to lovers reeled me in only for me to be left a little disappointed as I feel that is most certainly a stretch. There wasn't much in the way of conflict between the two for the most part, which is fine but I like a little more tension in order to build up the chemistry which felt lacking for me.

We are introduced to the pov of two characters; Jude, a foot soldier who had deserted his post, and Selene, a powerful exorcist who was trained at the Vatican Academy. The two cross paths after being caught up in an altercation with a demon and despite their initial distrust for one another end up finding their paths lead them both in similar directions to uncover certain mysteries at the heart of the Vatican city.

We're thrown pretty much straight into the action which made things exciting at first but the pacing in general slowed down a lot from that point. 

30% of the way through it occurred to me I still couldn't place my finger on just what it was that I was not enjoying about this book.

The setting was interesting to say the least but the world building and magic system felt slightly undeveloped, like the idea was there but not fully fleshed out as much as I would have liked.

I liked one of the side characters (Sparrow, you the goat!) more than the main characters which was an odd experience.

I wanted to enjoy this as the concept of a raging war between demons and humanity sounded appealing but there was just something missing for me that wasn't helping in the struggle to win me over. Maybe only the last third of the book picked up again enough to keep me invested, since somewhere in the middle of the book lost my attention slightly .

I really did try to see if it was just my mood by giving it enough time to really unfold, as well as reading it at different times but l struggling to care enough about it to the point I was just reading to get it over with 🤷‍♀️

If I could break it down, I wasn't particularly sold on the characters, and found whatever chemistry they were supposed to have quite lacking. In fact I preferred Jules' interactions with another character entirely as I felt like there was more tension between them lol.

All in all it's an enjoyable read for most people - if anything the problem I had most with it was the pacing; some parts were absolutely draggy and others were action-packed.

Regardless I think most romantasy lovers will be largely satisfied, I'm definitely in the minority here. And I would still give it 3 stars as it definitely kept me reading to some degree and I particularly liked the last third of the book.

Cruel is the Light follows Selene, a powerful exorcist trained at the prestigious Vatican Academy, and foot soldier, Jules, unrivalled in battle. While a brutal war between demons and humanity rages across Europe, Selene and Jules’s paths cross, and despite initial distrust, they discover a terrible secret at the heart of Vatican City. Soon, Jules is forced to question everything he’s ever known – including himself. And Selene, unable to ignore her growing feelings for Jules, must make an impossible choice between love and duty.

This book starts with an action scene, and we are thrown straight into the world and magic system with little explanation. Although the author does give us a little more world-building and explanation of the magic system further into the book, it still felt very wishy washy and not fully fleshed out. I finished the book and still didn’t really understand the world and how the magic worked. This is a shame, as the characters use blood magic and runes to activate their magic, and it could have been very interesting if it had been better developed.

Despite an action-packed and fast-paced start, the pacing really slowed down and the middle of the book really dragged for me. I felt like the plot didn’t have any direction, and I couldn’t work out what the characters end goals and motivations were. Jules and Selene really didn’t do much or seem that concerned about the war. This lack of urgency combined with the slow pace made the book feel very low-stakes, and it failed to grab my attention.

The writing felt quite clunky at times, and didn’t flow smoothly. The POV would also switch between characters without any indication whose perspective we were in, which meant I had to go back and reread some paragraphs once I realised whose POV it was. I would have preferred these switches to be as separate, clearly labelled chapters.

This book is marketed as enemies-to-lovers, but I wouldn’t say that is correct at all. It’s more of a forced/reluctant allies to friends to lovers. Although there was some good banter between Selene and Jules at the start of the book, I didn’t feel any tension or chemistry between them, so I didn’t feel invested in their relationship. I was also very surprised how adult the sex scene was, as this is a YA book. This didn’t bother me as I read a lot of adult fantasy and romance, but it’s worth knowing if you were planning to buy it for a younger reader.

While I quite liked Jules with his sarcasm and arrogance, his personality seemed to disappear once the romance started. Selene is known as a fearless and powerful exorcist, often referred to as “The Butcher of Rome”, but we never get to see why she has this reputation. I would have like to have seen more of her in action.

The pacing picked up in the last 20% of the book, but at that point I was finishing the book just to finish it and be done with it. I guessed a lot of the plot twists, and the ending didn’t shock me or make me want to read the second book. Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me, and I won’t be picking up the next book in the duology.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This sounded right up my street when I read the synopsis - Vatican, exorcists, demons - everything I love! I did enjoy it, but I found the writing especially in the first half to be incredibly slow. I had to push through, and found the character dump to be slightly confusing. It did pick up in the second half, and I enjoyed it enough to read the next one, but I was definitely left slightly underwhelmed.

I absolutely ADORED Cruel Is The Light. It is such an original story. The characters are so well though out and the chemistry between them is off the charts.
The writing is so well done and I was absolutely gripped from page one and I just didn't want it to end.
I can't wait to read more from this world and anything else from Sophie Clark