"[1.5 stars]

I found out this book is Book 4 of The Remnant Chronicles, starting with The Kiss of Deception, after I was already 200 pages (!!!) into the book. That explains why nothing made sense and why most of the strange words were not explained. Now let's get into the actual book.

I don't know who called this book enemies to lovers, but it is definitely not that. They saw each other once, decided to hate each other and then work together all in the span of one day. Jase and Kazi had no chemistry throughout the whole book, like, at all. It felt more like 'I am a person and you are a person and we are alone so we should be together', what? He went against most of her values as a patrei, against most of the things she stands for. Everything that happened was so random and a lot of the scenes did nothing to add to the story, they were just there. And most of the time, nothing really happened.
The plot relied heavily on the first trilogy of the Remnant Chronicles, so many characters were mentioned once or twice with names and then it was expected to know the names 300 pages later so you can follow the story.
Also, 9 children? Really? Nothing against having that many siblings in general (speaking from my parents' perspective) but half of the siblings were just there to stand by when something was happening. And most of the characters were bland, so why not make it less siblings with more character?
I don't know if I was supposed to read the first trilogy and know the world by that, because there was little to no worldbuilding and if there was, it was confusing. They are in a house, there is a hidden tunnel next to the stairs, and there is light behind it and then there is a sudden terrace and a whole house and other things that I didn't know existed in English (but that's on me).
And then there is that one thing that keeps bugging me, even now. Who describes the eyes of their mother's abductor as "shiny beads of onyx"? It just doesn't sit right with me. Oh, a second thing bugging me. Kazi has visible trouble telling her story to anyone ever, and then she manages to tell Jase, and the SAME NIGHT the guy goes and tells his brother? From what we gather throughout the book, even her closest two friends Wren and Synové don't know the details. Wow.

I am open to discussions about the books, or attempts to explain it to me because I am still utterly confused, everything went by in a flash and I have gathered little to take from this.

Excerpts:
"Let me show you the stars." - p. 111

"Because if I could believe in tomorrow or the next day, maybe that would give the magic time to come true. Or better, maybe by then I wouldn't need the magic at all." - p. 207

"Choose your words carefully, even the words you think, because they become seeds, and seeds become history." - p. 244

"Sometimes you can't begin to know everything you've lost until someone shows you what you might have had." - p. 336

"Truth that came too late was as useful as a meal to a dead man." - p. 465"