A review by bookbonds
The Price We Pay by Auryn Hadley

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

"I won't promise to be easy. I will promise to protect you. Even from the things you don't know you need to be protected from." "Such as?" I asked, glancing back. He watched me for a moment before answering. "The Temple of Temptation isn't run by Zeal. There are a lot of people who won't like what you've just become." "Not really worried about that," I assured him. "You should be."

this book is absolutely batshit crazy. but lemme just say one thing first: if you don’t end up liking the characters after like 50 or so pages, i don’t think this will be for you. this book is primarily just nariana going through school/whatever the fuck you would call what she’s doing. we get chapters from when shes 9 years old all the way to 19. so pretty slow moving. dense in information and it’s hard to keep track of sometimes but some things are reiterated enough times that it’ll stick in your head. besides that we get to know the other key characters really well and tbh i got attached quickly. this book has really big found family vibes. absolutely love it. and also WOW. this book is so lgbtq+ friendly and just open minded in general. absolutely love it as someone who’s also queer. you got ace, straight, gay, bi, all the above fr fr. in the main cast of characters too! not just side characters. overall great read and i’ll be reading book 2