Venom & Vow follows Cade McKenna, a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother and Valencia Palafofox, a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana. Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect while Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, which Gael has vowed to destroy. What Cade doesn’t know? Gael and Valencia are the same person. What Valencia doesn’t know? That every time she’s fighting Patrick, she’s actually fighting Cade.
In a true twist of the mistaken identity trope, Venom & Vow is the mindbending tale of two people simultaneously falling in love and trying to destroy each other at the same time.
As with any McLemore book (and this time around we get a book written by the married couple!), I was incredibly in love with the characters and the featured representation. A trans prince in hiding and a bigender assassin from opposites sides of a war? Oh yeah, that’s my jam. Val and Cade have so much on their plate as the world around them constantly seems to shift and alliances are thinning out. Both Val and Cade get their own individual story of growth but together, they’re even more fun. I think their characters’ journey complemented each other well and the hidden identity trope worked well for the story.
What I do have to say though is that I was confused quite a few times in Venom & Vow.
While I love McLemore’s magical realism stories and understand that a bit of the magic with that genre is that you don’t have to know everything and have to let your mind expand, I feel like in a fantasy book, I actually need more information to fully immerse myself in the world and get the magic system. There were quite a few passages that felt too long without actually telling anything about the world that would help the reader to situate oneself. However, that’s just a me thing probably, considering I don’t read fantasy that often.
What Venom & Vow may lack in terms of world-explanation, it makes up for with a fast pace that keeps you turning the pages and an enemies-to-lovers romance you can’t help but fall in love with. All in all, I think this book has the potential to make lovers of the YA fantasy genre very happy this summer.
If you’re a fan of enemies-to-lovers, fast-paced fantasies with authentic queer representation and the mistaken identity trope, then Venom & Vow is the book for you!
Venom & Vow is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of May 16th.
Will you be picking up Venom & Vow? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Two enemy kingdoms are forced to work together to break a curse in this lush YA fantasy, featuring a transgender prince and a bigender dama/assassin in the lead roles.
Keep your enemy closer.
Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother.
Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana.
Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect.
Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.
Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person.
Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade.
And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.
Cowritten by married writing team Anna-Marie and Elliott McLemore, Venom & Vow is a lush and powerful YA novel about owning your power and becoming who you really are – no matter the cost.
