Book Review: Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Enemies To Lovers, Witches, Fantasy Romance, Magic
Pages: 406
Format: Physical
Rating:

Initial Thoughts

Heartless Hunter has been floating around BookTok for a while now, and I was immediately intrigued by the idea of witches, magic, and a high-stakes cat-and-mouse dynamic between a witch and a witch hunter. Throw in an enemies-to-lovers trope, and I’m definitely interested.

I also liked that this was a completed duology, not a massive fantasy series I needed to commit to. Because of all the BookTok hype, I went into it with relatively high expectations.

The Plot (Spoiler-Free!)

Rune Winters is an aristocrat socialite by day, but the Crimson Moth at night. She lives in a society where once witches ruled, but as of two years ago witchcraft has been outlawed, and witches are hunted by the Blood Guard and publicly purged.

But not every witch is evil, and just because a few were corrupt, that doesn’t mean all should be punished. Rune is secretly a witch herself, but she hides this fact during the day, blending in with society and keeping up with her facade of being a shallow woman without any depth or substance to her. Her role as the Crimson Moth is simple: free the witches the Blood Guard has capture before they are taking to their purging aka death. She has her two best friends Alex and Verity helping her find where the witches being held captive are.

But as more witches are getting freed, suspicions grow from the Blood Guard, especially its captain – Gideon Sharpe. Gideon hates witches. They destroyed himself, his family, and everything he loved. He’s determined to find who the Crimson Moth is and sentence her to punishment. Could it be Rune Winter’s? Gideon thinks she seems too shallow, self-centered, to even be considered as the Crimson Moth. But what if she is? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s by attempting to court her. But not a real courtship, it’s only to find out if she has any secrets.

Rune is on to Gideon’s plan and participates in this fake courtship, hoping to convince him she’s not the Crimson Moth and throw him off her trail. But what if it is a real courtship? What if feelings start to develop? How can they tell the difference between real and fake? Could Rune love a witch hunter? And can Gideon love a witch?

What I Liked

I loved this story so much. The plot was new and different, which I feel like is hard to do sometimes with fantasy romance and romantasy books. This world where witches were once powerful but now seen as evil and a danger to society was a fun twist. This was a true dual-POV book which I really loved because having Gideon’s POV and perspective added so much to the story. We got to understand his reasoning for why he hates witches so much, how that’s affected him, and we also got to follow along on his journey of falling in love with Rune. And I personally just always love seeing that man’s side of falling in love with a woman especially when it’s done right and this was absolutely done right.

The story was relatively fast-paced. The short chapters and dual-POV really helped moved everything along. There was kind of a mystery element too that helped keep me hooked and wondering how it was going to end. Things kept happening that I didn’t guess, and I always love being surprised. Even when I thought I figured out part of the plot, it turns out I didn’t have it fully figured out. I didn’t feel as if there was any filler, and I was hooked until the very last page.

What Didn’t Work for Me

I can’t say what didn’t work for me. It was all perfect. I remember in the very beginning, like the first 30ish pages, I wasn’t sure if it was for me. But that had to do with a lot of outside distractions, and I wasn’t able to fully connect with or immerse myself in the book. Nothing to do with the book, all to do with me. I guess one thing I didn’t like was the way Rune acted sometimes, but that’s just part of the story and her character.

Final Thoughts

Booktok really did its thing with this one. This book definitely deserves all the hype it gets. I loved it so much, it’s a true fantasy romance, with a unique plot, good world building and an intriguing magic system. The stakes were high and the story was just told perfectly. You need to read this if you’re a fan of fantasy romance. I picked up the sequel Rebel Witch immediately.

Also, if you’re into the trope of the FMC pretending not to be smart but she’s actually very cunning and strategic, then you would like The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller.