It was okay. I don't understand why the romance was included though. It felt like the love interest had a life and friends and family until Nedra came along and then they just ceased to exist. It's like he just existed to love Nedra, which by the way, I still have no clue why he loved Nedra because she wasn't exactly charming. I also don't understand why we get Grey's POV because aside from the beginning, his chapters added nothing to the story. You really could take out his chapters and not be missing anything at all. I also really wish the story had 100% focused on the plague and on Nedra because it felt like the romance was just thrown in there and I didn't much care for reading those scenes. My favorite part of the whole book was when she was quarantined in her house with her parent's corpses because it finally felt like the story was more than just about the cure or Grey. I didn't like the villain reveal at all. It pissed me off that it happened in the last twenty pages and it pissed me off that the villain was who it was. Also their reasoning behind starting the plague was so backwards and twisted that I still don't understand?? But I won't get into that. I picked this up for the alchemy aspect and was satisfied for the most part. However I do not recommend this to someone looking for a romance or for someone that doesn't like disease/virus books because finding a cure is literally ALL the main character focuses on for 90% of the book.

3.5* Until about halfway through I thought it would be a 4 or even 5 star read for me but after the big thing that happened at her home it just kind of fell flat for me... Nedra became slightly annoying I just felt like everything was being rushed because we were coming to the end. However, I did really enjoy the writing and the setting of this book. I'll definitely pick up the second book in this duology cause i do wanna know how it ends.

3.5* Until about halfway through I thought it would be a 4 or even 5 star read for me but after the big thing that happened at her home it just kind of fell flat for me... Nedra became slightly annoying I just felt like everything was being rushed because we were coming to the end. However, I did really enjoy the writing and the setting of this book. I'll definitely pick up the second book in this duology cause i do wanna know how it ends.