This book combines good writing and world building with great characters before finally bringing the romance spice to cap off the tale.

Aurora is a historian above all, so when she's catapulted into an epic monster-slaying tale that needs her unrealized magic power, she's very overwhelmed and unprepared; fate aligns to send her to the past, the WAY WAY past of her world where the overwhelming big bad in her time was about to manifest for the first time.

Her path twines with Theron, an ancient king whose death at the time of the first big monster manifestation is one of the most historically memorable tales from that time. They are both imprisoned in the Viridian palace complex, and sparks fly between them - romance maybe, but also a desire for each to stay safe and succeed in their goals.

The magic in the world is interesting - they have a fate of thread system that rare people can see, so the reader can see ties between present and past characters in the book. I'm sure there's much more to the magic and religious system to explore in the rest of the series - I can't wait to see where the story goes!

Thank you Two Laurels Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were likeable but not perfect. They felt real to me. They have positives and negatives. One thing I noticed was that if someone accused a character of being selfish or rude, they would ponder about it later instead of just ignoring it and pretending as if they did nothing wrong.

Another thing I really appreciated was the fights between Aurora and Theron - it felt real and natural, with stumbling words or characters lashing out, instead of perfectly written responses.

One warning, this ends on a cliffhanger. I dont mind them....if the next book is available. But as this is an arc, I was like noooooo! Cue the waiting!

Something I didn't care for was a bit of inconsistent characterization of some of the characters. There's seems to be a bit of back and forth with confidence, naivety, conviction, etc. I do get that characters are complex, but this seemed a bit contradictory. It wasn't enough to ruin the book, but it did seem a bit odd to me.

Overall this was a really entertaining and enjoyable read for me and I can't wait for the next book!