Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️ | Plot: 📕📕📕📕| Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Length: 📖 404 pages | Genre: YA Fantasy | POV: Dual Third
Dates Read: 06.03.24 – 06.12.24




✴✴✴ TW: Mention of CA, CSA; Depiction and mention of m*rder, violence, self harm (for magical purpose) and sl*t shaming ✴✴✴



🕊️ ➞ Tropes:

⚔️💀 Touch Her, You Die 💀⚔️
☠️ Morally Grey MMC ☠️
❤️🚫 Forbidden Romance 🚫❤️
😍He Falls First 😍
😒👫Forced Proximity👫😒
⚔️❤️‍🔥Enemies to Lovers❤️‍🔥⚔️
🗡️💃🏻Deadly FMC💃🏻🗡️
🙄🙎🏼‍♀️Strong / Sassy FMC 🙎🏼‍♀️🙄
🧙🧝🏼‍♂High Fantasy 🧝🏼‍♂️🧙🏻‍♀️
🚫👩🏼‍❤️‍👨🏻Fake Relationship 👩🏼‍❤️‍👨🏻🚫
🔮✨️Mythos/Magic✨️🔮
🧹🔮🧙‍♀️Witches / Coven 🧙‍♀️🔮🧹



🕊️ ➞ Synopsis:

On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.

Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

Kristen Ciccarelli’s The Crimson Moth is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch…is falling in love.



🕊️ ➞ Progress Notes & Initial Thoughts:

pg. 12 // Barely even in and my heart is breaking for Rune. I was raised by my grandma so this is hitting home. JFC. 🥺🥺😭😭😭

pg. 30 // Hold up… by blood and monthly cycle does she mean… ?? So… she uses that for magic purposes ?? Ma’am, I am afraid…

pg. 250 // They explained the blood thingy but it’s still gross. 🤢 I am enjoying the How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days vibes and the cat-and-mouse game. Loving the slow burn romance, too.



🕊️ ➞ My Thoughts:

I wasn’t expecting this book to grab me by the collar and coax me in. The climax broke me and the ending shattered me. Even though the outcome of Alex’s character was predictable for the main couple to work, it didn’t make it hurt any less. The plot was filled with courtly intrigue, goose chases, illusions, magic, and forbidden romance. I ate it up and now, I fear, I may have a book hangover. UGH! Those are the worst and the sequel to this book doesn’t come out till next year!



I need more! February 2025 is way too far away! Alas, I have no choice but to wait (Do you think rioting will work? No? Awesome). If you love the Hunter vs Hunted trope, you need to RUN to Barnes and Noble. The How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days type romance was * Chef Kiss *

What I loved most about this storyline was its interesting take on the Salem Witch Trials. There was this societal effect that mimicked that of the Salem Trials, where family turned on family and neighbor turned on neighbor. In Heartless Hunter, if you were caught harboring a witch you were “purged” like one. While in this fantastical world, they didn’t burn the witches, they just decided to string them upside down like a pig and sl!t their throats to bleed them as such. For some reason, this seemed more barbaric. Not that the real thing wasn’t just as disgusting and inhumane, this method was just more gruesome and hands-on…

ANYWHO 👀

If you’ve read Heartless Hunter, drop a comment with your thoughts! What did you think of Gideon when he found out the truth? What about Verity? Did you see that reveal coming?! I’m dying to know your thoughts!

xo,

L.B.

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