Heartless Hunter by Kirsten Ciccarelli is the first book in The Crimson Moth YA romantasy duology (3.75/5 stars)

Heartless Hunter by Kirsten Ciccarelli is the first book in The Crimson Moth YA romantasy duology.

Witches once ruled the city, but after a devastating revolution the Blood Guard now patrol the Republic, killing every witch they can find. Rune spends her days pretending to be a vapid socialite who turned in her adopted grandmother as a witch, but by night she is The Crimson Month–a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. In an attempt to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain some critical intel, she begins to court Gideon–the witch hunter who started the revolution by killing the three Sister Queens.

I initially picked this one up because I really enjoyed Edgewood by this author, especially her lyrical prose, and everyone was hyping this one up! It also was the group buddy read for Witch Week; it’s so fun to talk about the book you’re reading with your bookish friends! Heartless Hunter was one of my physical Book of the Month selections earlier this year, and I grabbed the audiobook on LibroFM. Grace Gray does a good job with the narration.

While I didn’t like this one as much as I liked the last (and first!) book I read by Ciccarelli, overall I had a good time with it. The beginning of the book dragged a little for me, but I really enjoyed the back third. The pace moves at a good clip in this one, and there is a lot of tension the whole time. That’s not really a vibe I like in my fantasy, so that could be partly why I wasn’t as keen on this book.

Unsurprisingly, it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger. I’m not chomping at the bit for the final book in the duology (Rebel Witch–which comes out in February), but I’ll definitely pick it up to finish out this story.

Tropes in this book include: enemies to lovers, secret identity

CW: blood magic, murder, light gore, torture, mentions of toxic and abusive former relationship

The Crimson Moth duology includes:

• Heartless Hunter
• Rebel Witch

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