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The Dagger and the Flame was a rollicking, romance filled, humour tinged fantasy adventure.

Seraphine Marchant is the daughter of a smuggler, or rather, she is the recently orphaned daughter of a smuggler. Running from the Daggers, Fantome’s underground order of assassins, she seeks sanctuary in the only place she will truly be safe, the order of Cloaks. Now facing down a life as a thief, Sera must stay vigilant – there is still an assassin on her tail. Ransom, drawn into the Daggers as a child, is that assassin. But there’s something different about this mark, and try as he might, be just can’t bring himself to kill her… not right away at least. Set in a world where Shade, dark magic, is stronger even than the rule of law, Sera and Ransom must work together, wittingly or unwittingly, to untangle the twisted web of magic and lies that robbed her of her mother, and seeks to rob Ransom of the only family he has ever known.

The Dagger and Flame is a Adult enemies-to-lovers romantasy, with some solid YA elements. I would recommend this for YA readers who want to dip their tow into adult romantasy, or regular readers of adult romantasy, who don’t mind their spice very mild! The stand out of this book is the moral and emotional considerations on the part of both of our POV characters / leads. Doyle also works in some good twists, and well considered friendships. There are some elements that felt a little out of place, and some of the choices made by our FMC particularly didn’t make the most sense, but holistically, this was a good idea, executed well. I give this 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Catherine Doyle, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for a galley of this in exchange for an honest review.