e-Audio, 16:06:11
Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
Release Date: April 30, 2024
Published by: Recorded Books (Sourcebooks)
Read from: May 1-5, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: ARC from Sourcebooks (This was given from the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review.) The audiobook was done via the Library’s Libby.
Content Warning: Complicated parent/child relationships, police brutality, fantasy violence, fantastical racism, magical coercion, gun violence, politics, parental death, child death, and death/dying, PTSD, anxiety, depression, self-harm, blood and gore, sexual situations, real and fantasy drugs, underage drinking, and profanity, Death of a Parent
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, YA, Witches, Fantasy, MagicIn a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.
Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.
Then an enemy’s iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother’s killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.’s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it’s hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This book was nothing that I thought it would be. I’m not exactly a fantasy aficionado, but I think that’s why I liked it. I was entertained from the beginning to the end. It took me by surprise even tho there was so much about it that I thought was also a little predictable. Ugh Idk, this is good and I hope y’all read it.
Ok so first off the plot of this was crazy. It was literally all over the place. I think that was the only thing I didn’t care for? I think it was trying to do too much? Like the mom thing was a small part of this whole thing, but I thought it should have been the big thing. And then there was the politics thing, it was at the beginning and the end and I was so confused by the time it came up the second time. And all of that put together was just too much.
Again, I’m not a huge fantasy person, but I feel like this was a good one to start with? There was the real world, but still the fantastical elements. And the poisons were very cool. And I loved the way she got her clients too lol I’m sorry I thought that was hilarious. I legit laughed out loud when I first read it. But that one person that got her out of no where was kinda crazy. I didn’t like how they got her, but at the same time I knew that was coming. And the way she was like making them in her kitchen like it was dinner or something lol
The main character was also pretty cool tho. I loved her pink hair and her spunk. But I was really weirded out about her… She was like really gullible. And I was scared of that because in a fantasy novel, nothing is safe lol And when I started reading this and got more into it, it showed that my fears were warranted. Because she got into a lot of shit. And I was glad her sister didn’t let her get away with all the lying she did either. She deserved it after the lying she did. It just seemed like a lot.
I’m trying very hard not to give any spoilers about this, but it’s been so hard. I really hope this is going to be a series. Everything was all wrapped up in the end, but it also left things open to a crazy situation. There’s definitely room for this story to grow, and I can’t wait!
Overall, I give this
