This started as a 5 star read for me but love interests took the centre stage for the second half at the expense of herself and other relationships and that's just not something I want to read about. This was supposed to be a fantastical escape novel. The author quickly shoe horned in a happy ending in a way I really liked but if she was going to do that she needed a full third act to bring me round to loving the story again.
Overall, I'm glad I read it and the author's note at the end sent me down a research rabbit hole which was highly entertaining as well!

This was a lovely meditation on the value work holds in the modern world, and how books can light the way to living a life less centered on the stress of surviving in our capitalist society.
It did however a little bit ruin my dream of running a cafe/bookshop, as it actually looks quite difficult!

This was a great read, the ending was very satisfying if a little twee. I liked that there wasn't an epilogue and that the plot was smoothly tied up in the romance, in the ecopolitical community issues, and in the demon realm. So satisfying! Smut was great if a bit sparse and none of the characters were that annoying - pretty good!

In the authors note at the end Moggach says she has stopped thinking of her life in terms of men, rather she thinks of it in terms if herself and the ones she loves. That is not evident to me from this book, I can see the struggle she has lived of trying to decentre men without continuing to live under patriarchy in her attitude towards herself and other women. It was a fascinating read and so much of her character I recognise in British women I know of the era. My mum, aunts, grandmothers, colleagues. Only willing to fix their loneliness with a man or by tearing other women down. It made me sad but rung true. The murders just added that extra bit of spice.

I am so frustrated and disappointed by this read. It began as slow paced exploration of identity when living disconnected from culture, but the belated introduction of the fantastical, when contrasted with the serious reality of other aspects of the story, completely undercut the novel's themeing. Its hard to feel connected to characters so adrift from their own lives, so the cultural settings in Syria and Wales seemed irrelevant. The complete lack of character growth for Nefyn is the biggest disappointment of all. While the reader's understanding of her grows throughout the novel, Nefyn's character is the same at the start of the novel to the end, remaining unmoved by her connection with Hamza. Her final act, abandoning her human connections and walking into the sea feels incongruous with the rest of the novel and dissatisfying.