Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli 

I first saw this book before I even started my bookstagram or blog, and I knew I wanted to read it just from the cover alone! It’s just stunning! Am I the only one obsessed with a beautiful cover?
I got my own copy, and then watched it sit all beautiful on my shelf for a while. I’m in between books in the current series I’m reading, so I finally decided it was time – in honor of The Season of the Witch!

** Spoilers Ahead ** If you want the spoiler-free synopsis, check out the Goodreads summary at the bottom of this post!

What I really enjoyed about this book was that it was an actual enemies to lovers trope! Rune and Gideon are sworn enemies, since she’s a witch (and the Crimson Moth) and he’s a witch hunter. How in the world are they going to get together, right? Their previous loathing/pining for the other, before the New Republic purged all the witched is what attracts them to each other now, along with their own missions. Gideon wants to catch the Crimson Moth, who he suspects could be Rune, and Rune wants to marry someone who could provide future intel to her missions. Gideon is the perfect but also dangerous match as Capatain of the Blood Guard. 

Ciccarelli really traps you in Gideon and Rune’s tornado of a scheme, as both of their true emotions for the other unveil as they each try to deceive and oust the other. Take away Witches and Witch Hunters, and you have a true slow burn romance of an aristo and a tailors son, where opposites attract but seem to belong together. 

“Rune was a deer, and he was a hunter.”

Of course, we all knew their truce of passion wouldn’t last. What an ending! I did have hope that Gideon might turn and protect Rune in the end, but once he revealed he was the one who found the blood and coin, I knew that was it for them in this book. Okay, and I was never really Team Alex, but I also couldn’t believe that Ciccarelli actually killed him off! So the love triangle is out for book two….and now Rune and Gideon are true enemies! 

I’m really, really hoping Rune and Seraphine team up against Cressida somehow in this next book, and they pull Gideon to their cause. I think it’s obvious to us readers that he doesn’t hate all witches, just the evil ones like Cressida. He didn’t approve of the excessive torture and he saw how Rune was merciful to the witch sympathizers and loved her for it. They need to just get over it and team up against Cressida! 

Overall, I thought this was a steamy slow burn, with some action and a great plot and plot twist thrown in! It sometimes felt like Rune and Gideon’s courtship moved a little quickly, but on the other hand, I think it was also a quick timeline, so that couldn’t be helped. 

Tropes

Enemies to Lovers

Best Friend’s Brother

Fake Dating

Characters 

Verity:  I will say that I was suspicious of Verity for several reasons after further information/hints were revealed. She had two sisters, like someone else we knew. Rune mentioned her perfume being overwhelming and Gideon even alluded to the smell while she was around. I definitely had my suspicions of her. 

Alex: Alex, I was unsure of, and I wholly blame SJM for making me suspicious of the “Good blonde” mmc. I was suspicious of him at first, and even towards the end honestly when Verity was revealing herself. I thought maybe he was in on it with her, especially after revealing he didn’t kill Cressida, or that she had him under some kind of spell. My weeping heart melted at the end when he gave Rune his blood for her to use. I never really thought Rune would end up with Alex, but I really thought he would have a major part in the story in the second book. 

Rune: I kind of found it hard to believe that Rune was oblivious to Alex’s affections this whole time, but it was obvious she swooned for Gideon from the start. It will be exciting to see what she can do with her powers if she starts learning from Seraphine.  

Gideon: Gideon is so layered it’s not even funny, from his trauma from Cressida and loosing his family, to obviously being a protector and loyal friend. 

Harrow: I’m still not convinced that Harrow isn’t a suspicious character. There’s obviously a backstory to her missing ear and the witch that held her captor. Which side is she really on!? I hope she doesn’t end up betraying Gideon. 

Quotes

“You are not the things that happened to you, Gideon.”

“In forgiving him, a strange thing happened: Rune found forgiveness for herself, too. For what she’d done to Nan. The thing she’d needed all this time was right there inside her.”

“Rune was a deer, and he was a hunter. Taking her measure, noting every detail and flaw, trying to decide if she would be worth the hunt.”

“Every time Gideon looked at the young heiress, she reminded him of the sea: steal-your-breath beautiful on the surface, with the promise of untold depths beneath.”

“But she knew the fear of not having him now, and she suddenly wanted all of him. Body and soul.”

Good Reads Synopsis

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 The Crimson Moth is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch… is falling in love.