A review by iam
Ashes and Flame by Jill Haven, Aiden Bates

2.0

Not gonna lie, by book 3 of this series it's starting to feel a bit lackluster.
Which isn't to say there weren't good parts. In a way, I actually quite liked Rez and Daniel's relationship. I liked that there was a lot of talk about consent, and I'm a sucker the kind of lovable if a bit silly and overly optimistic protector Rez is.
However, the rest...

Content warnings include: homelessness, death through burning, violence, injury, sex on-page, mild daddy kink; mentions of: running away from home, death.

I wasn't a fan of how on the move the characters were. I generally dislike roadtrips, and that's what the book felt like to me. That's an issue based on my personal preferrences.
While I liked some aspects of the romance, I wasn't a fan of others. I found the whole attraction between the two kind of iffy in the first place, given how vulnerably Daniel was. Rez had all the power, and Daniel was entirely depended on his goodwill, so adding a sexual component into that mix which also had some mild power imbalance in it.... it wasn't entirely comfortable.

Also, the plot. It was fine by itself, but I've been waiting for some kind of overall arc that ties together all the vague "dark things are coming" stuff that has been hinted at since the beginning of the series, but... again, nothing but a couple hints. The hints were cool, sure, but they didn't connect any dots, instead adding yet more questions to the ever growing list of what even is going on.
And to be honest I'm getting a bit tired of waiting for answers.

The book wasn't bad, but I wasn't really engaged.

I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and volutnarily.