Book Review: The Crimson Moth/ The Heartless Hunter -

The Heartless Hunter/ The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli

Genre: Romantasy

Length: 416 pages

Book 1 of a completed duology

Currently available on Kindle Unlimited

Buy it on amazon here.

What is it and Why are there two different titles?

The Heartless Hunter and The Crimson Moth are THE SAME BOOK. You do not need to buy both of them unless you like to collect books and simply want both versions of the story. Again. The covers and titles are differnt, but they are both book 1 of The Crimson Moth duology. Book 2 is titled The Rebel Witch.

Why do they have different titles? Marketing. For whatever reason the book is marketed and sold as The Heartless Hunter in North America and as The Crimson Moth in other places around the world.

Whether you call it The Heatless Hunter or The Crimson Moth, it is the first book in a completed duology. It is a romantasy book set in another world where witches have been overthrown and are now actively hunted.

Summary

Rune Winters found out when she turned 16 ( a year after witches were overthrown in The New Republic) that she was a witch. This is the absolute worst thing that could happen to her. Witches are actively hunted and purged on her island. Worse, any who is known to be (or who was previously known to be) a witch sympathizer also faces being arrested, executed, or shunned by society. During the raids that followed the end of the reign of witches, Rune was forced to make the impossible choice of turning in her grandmother and watching her be purged. She has spent all of her time since making that action count by saving as many witches as she can from being purged and becoming the infamous Crimson Moth (I love when titles are explained in stories!).

To get the intel she needs to continue saving witches, she has been courting men with valuable knowledge of The New Republic. Things become complicated when she begins courting Gideon Sharpe- the ruthless witch hunter and older brother to her best friend and coconspirator Alex. It becomes a vicious game of cat and mouse as Gideon courts and hunts Rune. However, maybe their courtship isn’t as fake as it seems? Could they ever possibly trust one another?

Official Blurb

“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 The Crimson Moth duology, a romantic fantasy series where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch…is falling in love.”

What I did/did not like?

This is one of those books that sat on my Kindle for an embarrassing amount of time before I read it. I loved it so much more than I thought I would. First, let’s just say, it’s exactly what I was looking for at the moment. It’s fast-paced, intriguing, and full of witches. It’s real enemies-to-lovers and a lot of fun because Gideon is actively hunting the Crimson Moth who he suspects might be Rune.

This book has so many of my least favorite tropes. I cannot stand miscommunication. It frustrates me to no end. I absolutely cannot stand when the entire problem between a couple could easily be resolved by a simple conversation. That being said, it really worked for this book. Gideon and Rune simply do not/ do not know if they can trust each other. She is a witch and does not trust him not to turn on her. He has an extremely complicated past with witches that has radicalized his beliefs. Because of this I think the miscommunication between the characters actually aided the plot. I also usually loather love triangles. I’m not really sure why, but they frustrate me. However, this one was between Rune and Alex and Gideon (who are brothers and each others only family). They both offer different things that she desperately wants. I was completely invested in this love triangle. The last prominent trope I can’t stand is when a character is purposefully dense about a situation as not to resolve the issues in the story too quickly. I don’t have a reason this one works in this book. I think I simply overlooked it.

This is marketed as a YA book. I think this is because there are no open-door spicy scenes in this book. However, there are some closed-door scenes that make the actions of the characters extremely obvious and tons of tension throughout this book. It is also fairly dark for YA. I loved this, but if you’re looking for a read for your teenager, you may want to read it first and decide for yourself.

The dynamic between Gideon and Rune in this story is my favorite thing about it. I loved watching them both think that they were pretending to court each other and convincing themselves their feelings weren’t real.

I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I’ll just say, the end of this book was an emotional rollercoaster. The last 100 pages absolutely broke my heart and left me desperate for book 2. While there was plenty of foreshadowing in the story so that the twists and turns didn’t come out of nowhere, it did not take away from the emotional impact in the least.

What to Expect

Witch and witch hunter

Love triangle

Blood magic

Political turmoil

Is it spicy?

Yes and no. There is a lot of tension in this book that could definitely be seen as mature content plus one closed(ish)-door intimate scene. I will list the scene here. Whether you want to skip over it, bookmark it, or check to see if it is “YA enough”, I’m not here to judge.

Chapter 48