Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Release Date: February 20, 2024
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Historical / Fantasy
A dangerously romantic Scarlet Pimpernel-inspired fantasy with post-revolution witches from acclaimed author Kristen Ciccarelli.
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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 a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch...is falling in love.
Kristen Ciccarelli's Heartless Hunter is the first installment in the authors' The Crimson Moth duology. Heartless Hunter is loosely based on Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel. The book alternates between Rune Winter, the witch known as The Crimson Moth, and Gideon Sharpe, the most dangerous witch hunter around. Rune lives in a world where witches are hunted and purged. It has been 2 years since the streets ran red with the blood of witches.
It has been that long since Rune made the fateful decision to listen to her grandmother and betray her to save her own life. As the story opens, Rune is searching for the witch called Seraphine who her grandmother wanted her to find so she could learn about her magical abilities. Unfortunately, Rune discovers Seraphine's hiding place too late and learns that the Blood Guard has captured her. Rune spends her days pretending to be a vapid young socialite.
After all, she inherited all of her grandmother's wealth. By night, she spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a vigilante witch who rescues other witches when they are caught by the Blood Guard. When Seraphine's 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?
The fact that both Rune and Gideon are lying to the other, but are also suspicious of the other’s true intention means that there are a lot of lies, scheming, and pretending to be what they think the other wants them to be. To add even more intrigue, the author throws Gideon's brother Alex Sharpe into the mix. Alex has been helping Rune for the past several years. And, if he is found out, he will be purged just like the witches Gideon hunts. Except, there is yet another mystery that you better pay close attention to, otherwise you won't see the end coming.
This story is a cat vs mouse game of intrigue with some romance kicked in to make the story more entertaining. Sadly though, we don’t see much of her doing actual Crimson Moth work. It’s mostly about her planning, and trying to ensnare Gideon to gain intel on the witch she is trying to save. Giden is a character who has had a very traumatic past when it comes to witches. His experience spurred him to take part in the revolution which allegedly killed the Witch Queens, and created the Republic.
The book also ends on a heartbreaking cliffhanger ending. It's a good thing this is only a duology so that we don't have to wait several years to see how the game between Rune and Gideon plays out.
ONERUNE
MIRAGE: (n.) the lowest and most basic category of spell.
Mirage Spells are simple illusions held for short periods that require little blood. The fresher the blood, the stronger the magic, and the easier casting will be.
—From Rules of Magic by Queen Callidora the Valiant
LIGHTNING SNAKED ACROSS THE sky as Rune Winters made her way through the wet forest, barely sheltered from the rain by the pine canopy overhead. Her lantern’s glow lit the path before her, its surface broken by twisted roots and pools of rainwater.
It was a terrible night for casting. The rain seeped through her cloak, the dampness loosening the spellmarks she’d drawn on her wrist in blood. She needed to redraw the symbols before the rain washed them away entirely, taking her magic with them.
The illusion disguising Rune had to hold until she knew for certain Seraphine wouldn’t kill her.
As a former advisor to the Sister Queens, Seraphine Oakes was a powerful witch. And after two years of searching, Rune had finally tracked her down. Now that she had, what would she find at the top of this wooded headland—friend or foe?
Rune worried her lip with her teeth as she remembered her grandmother’s last words to her, two years ago.
Promise me you’ll find Seraphine Oakes, my darling. She’ll tell you everything I couldn’t.
After the Blood Guard arrested Nan and dragged her from the house, they smeared a bloody X across the front door, declaring to everyone that an enemy of the Republic had been found within and was on her way to be purged.
The memory of that day stabbed like a knife.
An anxious hum buzzed in Rune’s blood as she continued onward. Like an overture, growing louder and faster. If Seraphine saw through the illusion cloaking Rune before hearing her out, she might expel Rune from her house—or worse, strike her dead.
Because wherever Rune Winters went, her carefully crafted reputation came with her.
She was an informer. A witch hater. A darling of the New Republic.
Rune was the girl who betrayed her grandmother.
It’s why she’d disguised herself as an old peddler tonight, leading a mule laden with goods. The smell of wet donkey hung in the air, and her load of pots and pans clattered with the beast’s every step—each detail summoned into being by the magic in Rune’s blood and held together by the symbols drawn on her wrist, binding the spell to her.
It was a Mirage—the most basic of spell classifications—and yet it had taken all of Rune’s mental energy to cast. The resulting headache still roared in her temples.
The branches shook with rain. Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the tiny cottage perched at the cliff’s edge where the forest ended. The windows glowed warmly with lamplight, and Rune could smell the woodsmoke pluming from the chimney.
With her spellmarks fading fast, the illusion flickered around her. She needed the spell to hold for a little longer.
Setting down her lantern, Rune withdrew the glass vial hidden in her pocket and uncorked the lid. Dabbing the blood inside the vial onto her fingertip, she held her wrist to the lamplight and retraced the symbols, reinforcing them. One altered her appearance—graying her hair, wrinkling her skin, hunching her shoulders—while the other summoned the manifestation of the mule beside her.
MIRAGE: (n.) the lowest and most basic category of spell.
Mirage Spells are simple illusions held for short periods that require little blood. The fresher the blood, the stronger the magic, and the easier casting will be.
—From Rules of Magic by Queen Callidora the Valiant
LIGHTNING SNAKED ACROSS THE sky as Rune Winters made her way through the wet forest, barely sheltered from the rain by the pine canopy overhead. Her lantern’s glow lit the path before her, its surface broken by twisted roots and pools of rainwater.
It was a terrible night for casting. The rain seeped through her cloak, the dampness loosening the spellmarks she’d drawn on her wrist in blood. She needed to redraw the symbols before the rain washed them away entirely, taking her magic with them.
The illusion disguising Rune had to hold until she knew for certain Seraphine wouldn’t kill her.
As a former advisor to the Sister Queens, Seraphine Oakes was a powerful witch. And after two years of searching, Rune had finally tracked her down. Now that she had, what would she find at the top of this wooded headland—friend or foe?
Rune worried her lip with her teeth as she remembered her grandmother’s last words to her, two years ago.
Promise me you’ll find Seraphine Oakes, my darling. She’ll tell you everything I couldn’t.
After the Blood Guard arrested Nan and dragged her from the house, they smeared a bloody X across the front door, declaring to everyone that an enemy of the Republic had been found within and was on her way to be purged.
The memory of that day stabbed like a knife.
An anxious hum buzzed in Rune’s blood as she continued onward. Like an overture, growing louder and faster. If Seraphine saw through the illusion cloaking Rune before hearing her out, she might expel Rune from her house—or worse, strike her dead.
Because wherever Rune Winters went, her carefully crafted reputation came with her.
She was an informer. A witch hater. A darling of the New Republic.
Rune was the girl who betrayed her grandmother.
It’s why she’d disguised herself as an old peddler tonight, leading a mule laden with goods. The smell of wet donkey hung in the air, and her load of pots and pans clattered with the beast’s every step—each detail summoned into being by the magic in Rune’s blood and held together by the symbols drawn on her wrist, binding the spell to her.
It was a Mirage—the most basic of spell classifications—and yet it had taken all of Rune’s mental energy to cast. The resulting headache still roared in her temples.
The branches shook with rain. Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the tiny cottage perched at the cliff’s edge where the forest ended. The windows glowed warmly with lamplight, and Rune could smell the woodsmoke pluming from the chimney.
With her spellmarks fading fast, the illusion flickered around her. She needed the spell to hold for a little longer.
Setting down her lantern, Rune withdrew the glass vial hidden in her pocket and uncorked the lid. Dabbing the blood inside the vial onto her fingertip, she held her wrist to the lamplight and retraced the symbols, reinforcing them. One altered her appearance—graying her hair, wrinkling her skin, hunching her shoulders—while the other summoned the manifestation of the mule beside her.
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