Labyrinthine DNF Review: The Maze Lost Me First

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Every once in a while, a romantasy book finds me at exactly the wrong moment, or maybe I find it at exactly the right one, and it still isn’t enough.

Labyrinthine by CJ Holmes had everything I should have loved. A cursed princess. A labyrinth full of deadly trials. Suitors who lie, love, and kill (sometimes all three at once). Ancient gods collecting their due in blood. A mythology-woven world that promised shadows and secrets around every corner.

I wanted to get lost in it.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t. To be frank, I ended up DNFing this first installment in the Thrones of the Forsaken series.

I made it to the halfway point before I had to be honest with myself. But let’s be clear, this isn’t a review where I tell you the book is bad, because I don’t think it is. It’s a review about the space between a book that looks exactly like your thing and one that actually is your thing. Sometimes those two things aren’t the same. And sometimes the maze isn’t the trap; the reading experience is.

Here’s where I got lost, and why it might be exactly where you find home.

Title: Labyrinthine (Thrones of the Forsaken, 1)

Author: CJ Holmes

Publisher: City Owl Press

Format: eBook

Genre: Romatasy, Fantasy, Romance

Release Date: May 12, 2026

Pages: 405

Star Rating: DNF

Spice Rating: didn’t get to the spice

What CJ Holmes Gets Right in Labyrinthine

Let’s start with what Labyrinthine gets right, because there’s enough of it to matter.

When Labyrinthine opens, the prologue snatches your attention and holds you there. Holds you close. We meet Azhara mid-escape, sneaking out of the palace, running from a tyrant father and a fate she never chose, desperate to outrun another Reaping before it swallows her whole.

And she almost makes it, that is, until Mallen, her guard, steps out of the dark and brings her back home. Back to the cage.

It all does a great job of setting you up and letting you fall into its intrigue. The magic, the myth, the curse held within Azhara.

And that intrigue carries into the story itself. Labyrinthine is rich in detail (sometimes maybe a little too rich). But Holmes layers it with intention, painting fine strokes until you’re standing inside it.

You picture the dresses Azhara moves through the palace in. You picture the castle and its shadowy corners. You picture Mallen’s forest green eyes, and you don’t stop picturing them.

To say the least, the world is dark and mesmerizing.

The Writing Style: Beautiful But Imperfect

But through all that beauty, something kept pulling me out of it.

Not the writing exactly. Holmes has a style, and style is a subject. Though I’ll be honest: the sentence structure didn’t always work for me. Sentences that feel like they end before they’re finished, like a thought drops off mid-breath. Sometimes it adds to the atmosphere. Sometimes it just left me reaching for something that slipped through my fingers.

But that wasn’t what broke our connection.

What broke the connection was the magic system. Or more accurately, the absence of one. Labyrinthine mentions its magic constantly. It’s in every room, every exchange, weaving through her decision, and threaded through Azhara’s bloodline like it’s the whole point.

And yes, at the 50% mark, I still couldn’t tell you how it works. You understand that its bones are death, but beyond that, nothing.

The curse is real, the power she holds within her body real, the gods requesting blood and silently watching all real. But the rules? The shape of it all? I am still waiting on it.

And I don’t know about you. But when a fantasy world asks me to care about stakes I don’t fully understand, built on magic I can’t clearly see, I start to feel the don’t care walls closing in. And that’s definitely not what Holmes intended.

The Love Triangle: Mallen, Darian, and Where It Falls Apart

In addition to the lack of direction of the magic system, I have qualms about the love triangle.

I don’t have a blanket problem with insta-love. I really don’t. Convert me with enough tension, enough charged silence, enough something building beneath the surface, and I will follow you anywhere. But Labyrintihine doesn’t do that.

Mallen arrives in chapter two, and the possessiveness is immediate. No build, no earned heat, just you’re mine, don’t let anyone touch you energy with nothing underneath it to justify the claim. Like sir. We just met.

Darian at least has a little room to breathe. His dynamic with Azhara has more space, more push and pull, something that at least gestures toward tension. But the author’s hand is visible the entire time. You can feel Holmes steering you toward Mallen, nudging you away from Darian, making the choice before Azhara does.

Which brings me to Azhara herself. Because of the waffling. The back and forth. What starts as understandable indecision slowly hardens into something that grates on me, page after page, until her inability to land anywhere stops feeling like character complexity and starts feeling like a plot device keeping the triangle alive past its natural expiration date (and there is a clear date).

And that’s the thing that nagged at me the most. Because by the time Azhara declares what she wants, the whole thing feels less like something integral to who these characters are and more like scaffolding. Necessary for now, maybe meaningful later in the series, but at 50%? It felt like a detour dressed up as a destination.

So, Who is Labyrinthine for?

If atmosphere is your love language, this is yours. Holmes builds a world you can see, dark and layered and dripping with imagery that lingers. If you’re the kind of reader who can live inside a vibe, who lets the mood carry you further than the mechanics, you will find so much to love here.

If intrigue is what gets you turning pages. The premise alone will keep you hooked. The Reaping, the cursed bloodline, the gods collecting their due. There’s enough mystery threaded through to keep you reaching for the next chapter.

And if you’re someone who doesn’t need the magic system explained to enjoy the magic. Labyrinthine will not frustrate you the way it frustrated me. Sometimes not knowing is part of the enchantment. For some readers, that ambiguity is the whole point.

Final Thoughts: A DNF with Potential

I wanted to love Labyrinthine. I really did.

The bones are there. The atmosphere, the myth, the promise of something dark and consuming underneath it all. But as the story unfolded, I found myself caring less and less. Not in a dramatic “this book wronged me” way. Just quietly. The way you stop noticing a candle burning until you realize the room has gone dark.

And when you reach that point, when the pages stop pulling, and you have to push, what’s the point of finishing?

So I didn’t. And because I didn’t, you won’t find a star rating here. I don’t typically rate what I haven’t fully lived in. But Labyrinthine isn’t without its magic. It has potential, real potential, and the right reader will find exactly what they’re looking for in its shadowy corridors. Maybe that reader is you.

Read it. Prove me wrong. I’d love nothing more.

And when you do, shop indie. Grab your copy through Bookshop.org and support independent bookstores while you’re at it. Amazon is available too, but you know where I stand. 🖤

Thank you so much to Owl City Press for providing me with a copy of Labyrinthine to read and review.

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