The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli, a book review

This months book club book was The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli. While not a bad book I didn’t enjoy it. It comes under the umbrella category of Romantacy and it’s not something I enjoy. In fact I nearly thought it was going to be a ‘Did Not Finish’ at one point.

The Blurb

A HUNTED WITCH

The revolution reigns. The witches who once ruled are hidden, hunted. Rune is one of them.

A socialite by day, she is the Crimson Moth by night. A vigilante bent on saving her own, her next rescue demands she court Gideon Sharpe – a notorious witch hunter and unforgiving revolutionary.

A WITCH HUNTER

Gideon will pursue the Crimson Moth to the ends of the earth, and her trail leads him to Rune. But beneath her façade might be his match.

Except what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

My Review of The Crimson Moth

I listened to The Crimson Moth (also published as The Heartless Hunter) on Audio book. It was my book club choice and judging by the Whatsapp group it was mostly loved by all but a few. I didn’t finish it in time for the book club meeting so I didn’t attend. At one point I thought I didn’t want to finish it, but in parts it was quite interesting.

On the outside it has elements that I enjoy, I like books about witches and the hunt. Especially historical ones. They can be dark, but not as dark as some horror stories I’ve read, it horrible to think that women were often accused of being witches in the past and what they had to suffer.

But, I think the only way I could say I disliked this book is that it had too many words, if that makes sense? The amount of waffle is immense, it could be half the size and still get the story across, in fact I think I might have enjoyed it then. And the romance, well, if you like that sort of thing there is plenty of it. But, it’s not for me and that’s my personal choice.

The story is about a young woman, not yet a witch but born in a witch family. She can cast a few spells but her full power is not yet developed. Interesting. She betrayed a woman called Nan who looked after her, I’m not sure of their actual relationship (I may have fallen asleep a few times in this book and still followed the basic premise of the story without the need to rewind.) Nan was purged as a witch and the young woman, Rune, was a socialite.

She had a group of friends and they planned together to release the witches that had been captured and were awaiting their fate, one in particular, who’s end was drawing near. She was known as The Crimson Moth for her sneaky way of rescuing witches. This would have been interesting had the story actually had her rescue a witch ?? Her only attempt was a trap and she was thwarted by the guard Gideon.

The romance comes between Runes attraction to Gideon and his to her, but even though they get rather intimate at one point, in great detail, we never really know if there is an actual romance going on or it’s all a ploy. He suspects her of being a witch and she hates him for what he does.

Then there was Gideon’s brother, Alex, and Gideon knows he is in love with Rune, but she fails to notice this.

I can see why people like this sort of book, honestly, but it’s not for me. It’s a shame because the actual storyline is quite interesting and I particularly liked the action scenes which there were a couple, although it was actually hard to know what was really going on. Not only that they also included the ‘beating hearts’ and ‘strong hands’ and ‘hot breathe’ I think you get the picture. I do like a gentle romance but this is not my kind of thing at all.

I did like the book cover though!