A steamy game of cat and mouse between witch and witch-hunter, played out against a backdrop of opulence, secrets, and bloody history.
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 Heartless Hunter is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch...is falling in love.
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 Heartless Hunter is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch...is falling in love.
Title: Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth #1)
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Expected Publication Date: February 20, 2024
Review:
I want to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Rune spends her days pretending to be nothing more than a ditzy socialite who turned in her witch grandmother to be purged. But underneath her vapidness, she hides her truth: she, too, is a witch spending much of her time saving other witches. She's The Cirmson Moth. Gideon Sharpe spends his days as a witch hunter; particularly hunting The Crimson Moth, who makes his job much harder. What happens when their two worlds collide in a fast paced game of cat and mouse?
I love a good enemies to lovers story. And also a good forbidden romance. The slow burn and progression always make my heart truly happy. I was excited to read this one for that one trope alone. But blend in some witchiness and I was ready to be hooked. The summary gave me some Serpent and Dove vibes, and I enjoyed that series very much. But, this one fell short of that for me in a few ways.
Rune sells herself as a foolish and featherbrained socialite looking to find her Mr. Right from the social elite. But her true reason for a match is to find someone that will help her continue to pursue her cause of saving witches, without them having any knowledge of it. Rune is much smarter than she appears to be and I like this about her. When she's with her friends, she truly no nonsense and quite intelligent in her ability to think things through and use her own witchy powers to help her cause. While these were admirable qualities, I still found her characterization and development wishy washy. I just didn't like her. I wanted to have complete empathy for her situation but I just didn't have any endearment towards her at all.
I liked enjoyed the third person dual POV. It was nice to see the story from both Rune and Gideon's POVs. I feel like they were more heavy to Rune's side, though, and would have liked to see more background on Gideon. I wanted to see him change and grow and realize his opinion on witches was not always correct. But because he was never truly introduced to this from another perspective, he just comes off as arrogant.
As for the romance, I just didn't see the true blossoming of the relationship with Rune and Gideon. It felt forced and totally unnatural. It was never going to be strong enough to last through the book because of all the secrets Rune and Gideon were keeping from each other. And, while I understood this to be part of their character development, in the end it just didn't feel organic.
I did expect the twist with one of Rune's closest confidants, though. It was very truly obvious from me since the start of the book. However, I wish there was more foreshadowing of it. I got the sense the author was trying to do this at times but it never really left me truly wondering and interested to find out if I was right.
As for the action, that was fun. We did get to see quite a few tight spots for Rune which she predictably was able to thwart. But in the end, you knew she was somehow going to be found out.
The world building was enough to make me understand the magical aspect of the book. However, I did get confused at times with the timeline. It seemed like it might have been such a short period since the witches were purged, but then it seemed like it was more in the history. I never truly understood where I was in that timeline.
I've seen some call to list this one as an NA book, but I don't think it truly is. Yes, the characters are 18-20 years old. Yes we get some sexy, mostly closed door fade to black romance. But, honestly, the maturity of the characters strikes me as YA. So I think this is a good place for it to be.
Of course the ending leaves us on somewhat of a cliffhanger, so I am interested to see where the author might take this duology and how it may end. I'm always hoping for an HEA, which did not happen in this book, but I also understand artistically sometimes that is not the right call.
Before writing books for a living, Kristen dropped out of college and worked various jobs. These included: fruit picker, artisanal baker, L'Arche assistant, community bake oven coordinator, bookseller, and potter. She also spent a year living in a punk house.
Today, Kristen resides in the Niagara region of Ontario with her husband and their book-obsessed toddler. She is happiest when she’s reading a good book by a warm fire or chasing her giggly daughter down the shores of Lake Erie.
Learn more at www.kristenciccarelli.com or follow Kristen on Substack: kristenciccarelli.substack.com
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