Two Halves, One Brian

Book Stats

• ARC from NetGalley 🖤
• Book 1 of the Cruel Fates Duet
• Publication Date: 06/23/26
• Publisher: Bloom Books
• Format: ebook
• Pages: 251
• Chapters: 28, plus 1 epilogue
• Narrator POV: 1st person POV, alternating between Alira and Kalel, with an epilogue from Pluto’s POV
• Also on Kindle Unlimited 🖤

Book Rating

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Spice: 🌶️🌶️/ 5

Summary & Review

I have been so excited to dive into this book because I keep seeing K.M. Moronova’s name pop up all over the dark romance community. And a book with demons and demigods? Yes, please!

This story is told through 1st person POV, switching between Alira and Kalel, with an epilogue from Pluto. The story starts off quick, with Alira being killed for the 20th time. She’s in some sort of time loop and though she doesn’t know exactly why, she knows that every time she dies, she wakes up the week before and has to suffer through the demons storming her kingdom and killing all her friends. Each time she dies, it’s by the hands of the Blood Knight, a well-known and ruthless demon.

Knowing she cannot face the deaths of her friends again, she opts to run away. But in the forest, she finds a kind demon apothecary, who tells her that maybe she hasn’t tried everything she could to change her fate. She chooses to go back to the kingdom, where she offers herself as a bride to end the war between the demon and demigod kingdoms.

Unfortunately, this did not go quite as expected. She’s to wed the Blood Knight, the same demon who brutally murdered her 20 times already. And worse, he’s a devourer who must drink the blood of demigods to survive. So basically, he’s going to use her as a blood bag while also ensuring she suffers for all the innocent lives she had taken. Kalel is often cruel and he clearly loathes her.

This is an enemies-to-lovers book with curses and plenty of loss and trauma. It’s a quick read, less than 300 pages, and doesn’t give you a break to breathe until the very end. An ending, might I add, which had a beautiful twist that I cannot wait to explore further in book 2! I’ve started a countdown to its release day.

I also truly love the way K.M. Moronova writes and I cannot wait to explore her other work. 🖤