Lord of the White Hell, Book One

3.75 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it had good world-building and I really liked the dynamic between Kiram (main character) and Javier (love interest). I thought that the way Ginn Hale was able to capture the raw, honest emotions of these characters navigating their feelings for each other and present them on the pages was truly mesmerizing.That said, my enjoyment of this was at the highest during the middle when we start to see the first signs of the characters properly admitting and succumbing to their feelings and desire for one another. The part where my enjoyment faltered was during the last 1-2 chapters and the ending of the book in general. This first book ended on a very angsty, bitter note where I was left feeling angry at Javier, and I just felt very taken aback in general. Normally I'd bump my rating down to 3.5 stars (rounded down to 3 stars on Goodreads) for this aspect alone since endings matter a lot to me and this ending did hamper my enjoyment quite a bit. However, I won't judge this aspect too harshly just yet because there's a possibility that this might be like the situation I had with the [b:Captive Prince Trilogy 9305362 Captive Prince (Captive Prince, #1) C.S. Pacat https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356028113l/9305362.SY75.jpg 14188292] where the first book left me with really mixed feelings, but after finishing the entire series everything that didn't sit well with me in the first book all started to make sense and made me have a greater appreciation and love for the first book in hindsight.Also, the fact that Javier is only a freshly turned adult raised in such a bigoted society while simultaneously living with the nuisances of the white hell makes me inclined to see his behavior at the end as something that's just simply a realistic response to the situation for a character in his circumstances. Yes, I'm aware that this doesn't make his actions right, but he's a human being whose flaws aid in making him a well fleshed out, believable character, so that's something I'm keeping in mind for now rather than making my own negative assumptions off the bat. I still think the conflict at the end between Javier and Kiram was slightly contrived, but still, there is room for Javier's redemption in the second book so I'll have to read that before I form my final concrete opinions on this first installment.Also note that this first book is definitely more of part 1 to this overall story; you will not get any form of a complete or satisfying story by just reading this alone. This didn't bother me too much because I already knew about this based on the reviews I read prior to starting this book, so please do set your expectations properly or just don't bother reading this if you can't commit to reading two books to get the whole story.