This Wretched Alchemy – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice Rating: 🌶️.5

Title: This Wretched Alchemy (Ruinous Fate, #1)

Author: Tina Mars

Pages: 400

Format: audiobook

Listening Hours: 15 hours 45 min (approx.)

Narrator (s): Jennifer Ikeda; Soneela Nankani

Publisher: Macmillan Audiobooks

Publication Date: 11/10/26

Categories: Fantasy, Romance, Audiobook, Series

BETRAYAL.

In a fractured realm ruled by warring noble Houses and the tyrannical Prime, the most coveted power lies in god-shards – divine fragments that grant extraordinary abilities to those who possess them.

Revel’s brother was murdered in pursuit of one.

A DEADLY GAME.

For avenging him, Revel’s life is on the line. Forced into a treacherous bargain, she must compete in the Call – a bloody contest of heirs vying for the throne – on behalf of her enemies, and assassinate the realm’s most formidable alchemist, the Warbringer.

Victory means her family’s freedom. Failure means death.

A MONSTROUS POWER.

The Prime sets the heirs on a brutal race to find the god-shard that could shift the balance of the realms. Everyone wants the win, but Revel just wants the kill. Except, the Warbringer isn’t the monster she was promised. Bound by secrets of his own, he is as dangerous as he is disarming.

With betrayals mounting and desire warring with duty, Revel must decide who to trust in a game where even the gods have their favorites. This Wretched Alchemy by Tina Mars is a dark, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romantasy where love and loyalty become the very weapons that could destroy everything.

A LOVE THAT CAN CUT DEEPER THAN ANY BLADE.

Content Warning: death, violence

+ The narrator did a great job doing all the voices for this story! Her voice kept me engaged.

+ This is a world of alchemy where there are different houses with different powers. It sounds like the world takes inspiration from ancient Rome plus some Asian mythologies and culture which I thought was quite fascinating. Revel is traumatized by the death of her older brother and father – her sister and mother hate her because of events that took place involving the deaths. So Revel wants to prove to them she can fix things. She is forced to participate in a trial whose mission is to retrieve a shard with elemental magic and the journey to get the shard is full of danger and monsters. I felt like the story was a little slow moving with more action in the middle and the end, which I enjoyed. The plot twist at the end, which I sort of guessed, made things very interesting. I do wish I felt more connected to the characters.

+~ Revel is not the most lovable character. I thought she was funny at times though because she was full of rage and just didn’t care about people. But she did have a soft spot for Chloe, which I thought was sweet. Trusting is not something that comes easy to Revel because people have let her down, but trusting anyone during this trial is even more deadly. I felt bad for Revel because of what happened when she was younger and how her sister and mom perceives her. All she wanted was love but is also afraid of it because of what she lost in the past.

+ I enjoyed the cast of characters like Dex, Chloe and Mauve. Axus, the MMC felt like someone that was hard to crack. Yes, he was menacing and had a reputation and Revel is supposed to kill him as part of her mission, but there were times he couldn’t help himself around Revel and a romance brews between them. I also loved Orphy which is a like a sentient serpent tattoo on Revel.

+~ The romance is a slow burn, and yet insta-love by the end? There is not a lot of spice, so I’d call this one steamy instead. And yes it’s one of those books where spice comes at an inopportune time in the book. I feel like I needed more build up between Revel and Axus, but the ending clears up some things on his end. It doesn’t end happily for them in this book because of some secrets and betrayal so it will be interesting to see if they can make it work in book two.

Final Thoughts:

I thought this was pretty good though I wish I had the ebook to read along with the audiobook because there were details about the world building I felt like I missed or maybe I would have felt more connection to the characters if I read it? I’m not sure but I did love the narrator – she did an awesome job bringing this story to life. I enjoyed the alchemy, found family and the action. The romance is one to watch since it went from enemies to lovers to enemies. There are some secret and betrayals in this one though that was surprising so I’ll probably pick up book two when it comes out.

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