Leia Stone

I was transported to a magical world filled with earthbound angels, which immediately captivated me. The conflict between the darkly empowered Shades and the divinely gifted Lumens provided a fascinating backdrop for Tatum's journey. As she navigated this war-torn society, her alliance with the mysterious Gage Alston, a Shade whose demeanor suggests he could be an ally, added intrigue and emotional depth. The authors skillfully combined elements of suspense, romance, and humor to create a show more thrilling and heartwarming story. This novel entertained me and left me contemplating the complex nature of good and evil, making it stand out in the urban fantasy genre. show less

💫📖 **Book Review: *Cold Hearted* (Cursed Fae #1) by Leia Stone & Julie Hall** 🧚‍♀️✨

“**To save her kingdom, someone must die…**” and from that first haunting line, *Cold Hearted* pulls you into a shimmering, dangerous fae world where love, loyalty, and destiny collide.

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🌸 **Plot & World**
Every century, a deadly curse threatens Faerie—and this time it’s up to **Dawn**, the fierce Summer Court princess trained to be the perfect assassin. Her mission: venture into show more the mirror realm and steal an Ethereum Lord’s heart. But when she’s captured by the infuriatingly handsome **Zander**, a royal guard with secrets of his own, everything she’s ever known begins to unravel. 🔮💔

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⚔️ **What I Loved**
This book gives total **fairy-tale-meets-fantasy-thriller** energy. Dawn isn’t your average damsel—she’s strong, sarcastic, and ready to slay (literally). The **banter between Dawn and Zander** sparkles with that irresistible **enemies-to-lovers** tension 😏🔥. Plus, the **dual POV** adds emotional depth and makes their chemistry pop off the page.

The pacing is smooth and engaging—no filler, no lag, just an immersive world of danger, secrets, and witty flirtation. 🌿💫

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💋 **What Could’ve Been Better**
While the story had me enchanted, I did wish Dawn’s resolve wasn’t so easily melted by one magical kiss 💋. The emotional conflict could’ve used a bit more tug-of-war—especially given what’s at stake. Still, it’s hard to fault a girl for falling for a charming fae warrior with mystery in his eyes. 😅🖤

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✨ **Overall**
*Cold Hearted* is a ** medium to fast paced, romantic fae adventure** brimming with lore, snark, and some magic.

If you enjoy **kick-butt heroines**, **forbidden love**, and **fantasy realms dripping with intrigue**, you will enjoy this. 🗡️💞🌙

I overall give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐.5 show less

well. i've been having some shit luck with some of my reading choices lately.

lemme be honest: the writing wasn't great, it was pretty juvenile and bland at best. everything felt like it was happening too easily and too fast, and at points i felt like this would've been better off marketed as a middle-grade. all of the characters are extremely emotionally immature, especially fallon. the story wasn't the most original either, it's basically like a reverse shatter me with fae, and the names show more for all the people and places were a bit convenient or ordinary. also, i couldn't tell if this was high fantasy or urban/dystopian fantasy? it seemed like high fantasy but the characters used a lot of modern colloquialisms and phrases that had me doubtful ('dude' 'pizza' 'bro' 'bestie' etc). however. i did have fun reading this. overall this was a pretty mediocre but entertaining book. still gonna read the next one for funsies probably.

tl;dr this gets to go into the category of books that were objectively horrid but i still had fun and somewhat enjoyed them, along with the selection, american royals, and house of marionne.

Edit: ok. so. after taking some time to Think, i’ve concluded that this book was not as enjoyable as i originally thought tbh. there are books where the writing is bad but you’re staying interested because of the plot, characters, pacing etc, and there are books where the writing is so bad that you’re finding any way to force yourself into finishing it. i had gotten to a point where i was deluding myself into thinking this had some kind of redeeming quality when it absolutely did not. sorry to anyone who enjoyed this, but the writing was extremely poorly done. show less

I am torn like I am so frequently.
On one hand, this couldn't be a more cliched supernatural academy story.
On the other, it does what it does well and neither the author nor the MC takes themselves too seriously for it to become truly cringeworthy despite it being quite corny in places.

At first glance, the world and the plot are really quite fun but as soon as you look closer you realize how abysmally bad the world-building really is. It took me a bit but I eventually realized how little show more sense any of it makes. There are at least as many contradictions as there are building blocks in the world-building.
The only way you can enjoy this book is by not looking too close and just taking a lot of stuff at face value.

This doesn't extend to the personalities of the characters which is something I expected to find after reading the most upvoted review.
The characters feel very much their age in a good sense.
The MC has some mary sue vibes going on but that is kind of part of the whole cliché the entire book is built on.

I am almost ashamed of having enjoyed the book as much as I did (strong 3-star personal enjoyment) but I can't give this anything above 2 stars from an even slightly more objective viewpoint.

For teenagers that are somewhat new to reading and new to the beaten supernatural academy trope in particular, I can totally see this being a very enjoyable book. show less