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?

Heartless Hunter was my final read of 2024, and it was a great way to round off the year! I feel like I’m finally re-entering my fantasy era after a long slog of only being able to read quick and easy thrillers. Heartless Hunter has made me remember why I loved reading YA fantasy!

I’d read a couple of books by Ciccarelli before, so I knew that I got on well with her writing style. I love a good fast paced fantasy read too, so Heartless Hunter ended up being right up my street. It ended up being a really easy read in terms of the simple but intriguing world building, the character relationships that were already established, and the clear and straight forward plot. That’s not to say that this book wasn’t exciting due to the simplicity, of course. I had a lot of fun reading about the two main characters as they chased after each other and tried to gain important information.

I felt like Rune had a lot of potential to be a real badass, but we didn’t see enough of it in my opinion. Rune is supposed to be wanted criminal who has evaded capture for years, who terrifies the soldiers and witch hunters alike. However, what we saw was a messy woman who couldn’t spot obvious bait. I like mess – love it, in fact – but the two things didn’t add up for me. Hopefully we see an improvement on this in the sequel.

There was very little romantic chemistry between Rune and Gideon, to be honest, but I had a lot of fun reading about their escapades. I loved the way they opened up to each other and were vulnerable together, while also keeping the important things a secret. It was a really fine line for both of them and it added lots of tension. I think there’s a lot of potential for the chemistry to really sky rocket in the sequel but we’ll see what Ciccarelli does with this. I still wanted them to get together despite the lack of chemistry, or rather I wanted to want them to.

Heartless Hunter is a fun and fast paced fantasy romance book that doesn’t hold back on the punches and leaves you wanting more!