Title: The Starlit Shadow
Author: Cidney Mayes
Publication date: August 19, 2025
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Romantasy
- Insta-love
- Strong FMC
- Second son meets reluctant spy
First Thoughts
I finished it, slightly begrudgingly. The Starlit Shadow was entertaining at times, and the premise was promising. Unfortunately, the execution just ended up making it fall a bit flat for me personally. Corvus is our MMC, and I know the author wants us to think he’s some genius, acting like he doesn’t care in order to be more unsuspecting, but frankly it just made me think he was a bit foolish. He falls in insta-love with our FMC and promptly begins spilling all of his secrets.
Sorsha, our FMC, who, coincidentally, was ALL about learning his secrets (for her boss), was just very bland for the most part. I like a strong female character, but this one just kept inserting herself into situations in which she had no business, and for some reason nobody stops her?
Listen, I liked the plot, and I would’ve loved to rate it higher, but I just could never really believe it. The dialogue was written in a very cringey manner, and there was a distinct lack of worldbuilding, so I could never really lose myself in the story. Sadly, I kept constantly glancing down at how much of the book I had left.
Will I be reading the next one? Frankly, the ending of The Starlit Shadow was extremely anticlimactic, leaving things comically unresolved for no good reason (and saving the first sex scene for last 5 pages of the book, while people are suffering and dying elsewhere), so I really can’t care what happens next. I will leave this one at that. Thanks to NetGalley and Cranthorpe Millner Publishing for allowing me to read and review this ARC.
Goodreads review here
Instagram review here
