“If I was needed at death’s altar, then I would kneel before it with my head high and my sword higher.”
Eleutheria was a case of ‘love at first sight’ for me when the cover randomly popped up on my bookstagram feed, and I immediately knew that this was going to be a book for me. I mean, an adult epic romantasy with a Pride & Prejudice-coded romance between a flying, magicless witch who falls off her broom behind enemy lines and the broody prince who drags her off to his home realm that she loathes but is somehow fated to save; I don’t know about you, but that premise sounds like pure magic to me.
Now, that feeling of ‘love at first sight’ I had with the cover didn’t just stop there, because as soon as I met my fierce babe Alys Sathos, I knew this was a woman after my own heart. She is probably a bit too feisty and snarky for her own good, but that only made me love her more. Seeing all the culture clashing with her being a Day Witch trapped in the Night Realm was not only wildly entertaining to me, but the way that she interacts with the world and everyone around her was also just so refreshingly real and relatable. Like, how would you react if tragedy strikes and you are suddenly told by a divine being that you’re fated to save the Realm of your enemies by killing their tyrannical Queen? ‘Great joke, but fuck no’, is what Alys thinks, and I can’t say I blame her. Also, girlie loves smutty books, and I love her for that.
“There was bad taste in men, and then there was a pathetic need to find comfort in all the wrong places. I erred on the latter.”
Needless to say, Alys has big main character energy and she absolutely steals the show, but that doesn’t mean she overshadows the other characters. Both the perspectives of my traumatized shadow daddy Maddox and my quiet, scholarly babe Corryn were equally compelling to me, even if they didn’t exactly have the same strong personality and loud voice as Alys does. I found it really impressive how Cantu executed the multi-POV first person narration in Eleutheria without the characters ever feeling indistinct from each other, and I loved discovering how all their paths (or should I say fates?) turned out to be inextricably intertwined with each other.
Moreover, I really appreciated how they each brought such a unique perspective to the world with their diverse backgrounds and own sets of knowledge and skills, which just made the world unfold so organically. And honestly, what a world it is. We don’t just get witches (on actual brooms!), but we also get an opposing Night and Day Realm each with their own unique culture, powers, and rules, we get a vampyre invasion threat, we get nasty goblins, we get compulsion magic, we get meddling gods, and we get a rich history dripping with blood and mystery.
Similarly to the works of Carissa Broadbent and Rachel Gillig, Eleutheria strikes the perfect balance between the dark fantasy and the swoon-worthy romance, with both aspects of the story developing beautifully alongside each other and only heightening the stakes and tension on every level. At times I did feel like some important character/relationship development happened off-page just to move the plot forward and keep the pace up, which sometimes made the characters’ actions and their reactions to some (potentially) life-altering events and information feel a bit convenient or unbelievable to me. Also, if you don’t like characters with a big martyr complex, Alys might make you want to pull your hair out at points.
“Life had offered little at my birth. Pride and stubborn will were precious, but above even those, I had morality – a rare treasure born from Lilain’s cavern of horrors. My conscience wouldn’t crumble, not before queens, not before death. Not even before fate.”
However, the actual revelations and twists and turns themselves were really clever and exciting to me, especially with the way that books and literature played a role in it all; never underestimate the importance and value of a smutty vampyre romance, just saying. Cantu just does a brilliant job of balancing the fun, tongue-in-cheek tone with the dark, heavy content, and I really appreciated how the core themes of grief, trauma, regret, love, fate and Eleutheria (which means freedom and liberty in Greek) were woven into these characters’ journeys. They are all are constantly being torn between their destined duty and their heart’s desire, and I honestly loved revelling in all the emotional turmoil of it all.
And speaking of desire, the level of yearning in Eleutheria is absolutely delicious, especially with these characters being stubborn menaces who know full well that they are playing with fire but then still can’t stop pushing each other’s buttons every chance they get. The enemies to lovers vibes were vibing and the banter was bantering real hard between Alys and Maddox, but I loved that we also got to see some tender moments between them that made me really believe in their developing bond. Also, I was not expecting all the powerful friendships, complicated sibling bonds, and even some (tragically bittersweet) sapphic yearning that we got treated to through some of the other characters, but I was totally living for it all.
“It means you are mine until the last star blinks out, Alys. It means our world might be burning but I’ll gladly burn if it means standing beside you.”
I honestly just came to Eleutheria for the witchy vibes, a good enemies to lovers romance, and some entertaining banter, but it gave me all of that and then so much more. To me, it really shows that Cantu had an absolute blast writing this book, and I had just as much fun reading it. Especially the entire second half was just a wild ride that I couldn’t resist devouring in a single sitting, and I would have flown straight into book 2 if that had been available already. This is just an absolute banger of a debut, and I can totally see Ruth Cantu becoming the next big thing in the romantasy space, so you better don’t miss out.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Eleutheria is scheduled for release on November 18, 2025.
