Fantasy

Review: A Snare So Beautifully Twisted by Gemma Pettinato

October 8, 2025

Synopsis

After losing the elf I loved to the gallows, I vowed vengeance—not with blades, but with herbs.
Hidden beneath the noses of the guards, I sabotage their executions and save the condemned. Everything is going smoothly… until I rescue him.
The Bloodied Thorn.
An infamous elven assassin, cold and brutal, with a hatred for humans as sharp as his aim. Saving him was supposed to be a quiet act of defiance. Instead, he turns my life upside down.
Now the guards are hunting us both, and I’m forced to flee into the wilds—with him. Bound to me by a life debt he loathes and a lust he refuses to name, he’s my reluctant protector. But the fire in his golden-green eyes says this isn’t hate.
It’s obsession.
And I’m not sure if I’ll survive it—or if I even want to.

Review

Both of our main characters have a traumatic past and lost loved ones. They dealt with it in very different ways.

Ravaen wanted to see the good in people and was shown how brutal those surround you can be and that a lot of people enjoy hurting others. A traumatic event had him react with brutality to the enemy and shutting down emotionally to not get hurt again.

Mirae was trained and born to be a killer, not caring about the people around her. At the end she lost the people that cared for her the most and made a vow with herself to never kill again.

Unfortunate events bring both together. They are stuck together and must learn, that trusting does not come easy and once you let someone in, the simple thought of loosing them can be frightening. What can be even worse is to shut them out completely. Both must accept that they have feelings for each other and ignoring them won’t make it any better (and lashing out is not healthy). To get us there they have a lot of physical and emotional moments, that sometimes result in (intense) physical altercations.

The enemies to lover’s plot is not new and used a lot. I wouldn’t call them your typical enemies here. Events they did not have a say in, made them who they are and these personalities and the situation they are in does not make it easy to find common ground. I was rooting for them from the beginning and enjoyed their story a lot. Certain aspects of the book reminded me a lot of todays political situation and how disregarding someone for being who they are and how they grew up.

Could I have made it through the book with a bit less smut (especially with it being sometimes too brutal for my liking)? Yes. Some interactions also felt a bit too physical for my liking (physical violence is not the solution). Overall, I enjoyed reading the book a lot and the writing was done well.

🌙 Recension: A Snare So Beautifully Twisted by Gemma Pettinato
📚 Genre: Fantasy & Romance
📅 Release Date: September 26, 2025
📗 available as Kindle
📱 Read as: Kindle
💸 I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 372
⭐️ 4/5