mypatronusisajedi's reviews
838 reviews

This book was such a disappointment. The first 3 books are some of my all-time favorites - all 5 star reads for their narr tive, character development, and good mix of romance/fantasy elements/action sequencs. 
Book 4 started to lose the plot for me a little. I still enjoyed it, but the constant shifting through SO MANY POVs is jarring, hard to keep track of, and frankly a little boring. I enjoyed it more the first time I read it than I did with my reread this time around. 
I have been waiting YEARS for book 5 and when I tell you it was a SLOG to finish. I found myself choosing a music playlist to listen to be playing my audiobook. 
My major issue is again, too many POVs. The constantly shifting back and forth (sometimes within the same paragraph) is unnecessary and jarring. Everything is written in third person POV except for Elloren's which is first person POV (and it takes HOURS before we even circle back to her in this book). I wish the book could primarily have been told from her POV. For me it loses a lot of personality, charm, and emotional investment to constantly change characters. It didn't add anything to the story.
The second issue I had was the romance. EVERYONE FELL IN LOVE WITH EVERYONE. Like, you just let a week ago?? It all felt rushed and I didn't believe the relationship development at all. I was honestly so so annoyed by how much of this book (and the last book) were focused on how thirsty everyone was for each other.

also, the way she can't decide who her characters end up with - so she just cheats the system so they don't have to choose?? Lmao Tierney gets 2 lifetimes so she can be with both of her loves..Lukas sacrifices himself so Elloren can marry and start a family with Yvan. It cheapened the emotions and felt like such a cop out.

 
Most of this book felt so busy and detailed that I honestly should have kept notes. But then it also felt like it dragged on way longer than it needed to. Too much going on and not a lot actually happening to forward the plot. 
I don't like negative reviews and I have been such a fan of this series. But I'm so disappointed and annoyed at everything about this book. 

This was interesting enough, but not my favorite dystopian. Felt slow in places and a lot of details that proved important and difficult to keep track of. 

Oof. This is painful. I am an Elise Kova fan. Top tier. Reread her stuff all the time. The last book in the married to magic series, Duet with the Siren Duke, was a 5⭐ read. So so good. The plot, the dialogue, the friendship to relationship development - TOP TIER. But. But this freaking book. Bored me. Not interesting. The friendship and relationship development was not believable. No chemistry. I was so disappointed. I thought the plot twists at the end felt rushed and not well developed. Just wanted to cry 😭 not what I'm used to from Elise.

This story was described to me as Indiana Jones + The Mummy + National Treasure. Now, I love all of those things. The Mummy is my all time favorite movie. And while the story was mostly entertaining, it didn't give what I was promised lol the FMC was witty and intelligent - which we love. The MMC was also supposed to be smart but just kept digging himself holes he couldn't get out of (see what I did there? Archaeology humor). The miscommunication had me rolling my eyes. The romance was cute, but so cheesy and a little spicy. Though I will say, the descriptions of the spice felt a little cringe at times

at one point she literally says she wants to feels his penis in her vagina and that gave me the ick and immediately took me out of what was happening

I also felt their history wasn't delved into enough. I felt their present day chemistry but I didn't feel their emotional connection based on their past friendship/rivalry. Overall enjoyable but fell a little flat as far as execution.

Honestly I was bored for 70% of this book. The ending was great! So tense and exciting, made me actually want to read the final book. I'm not crazy about the male narrator on the audiobook, but it's tolerable.

recap don't have to reread before the audio comes out later this year lol: Hawthorn has been taken prisoner and sent to the Scarlet Tower; Thea has passed the great rite and become a War Sword, she is teaming up with Talk to go save Wilder (instead of going to get her special horse).

I'm a little conflicted about this..I did enjoy it, but I also got bored. It felt long and slow and more about furthering their relationship than the actual plot. Don't get me wrong, the plot does thicken but I was not surprised at all by the twist ending which was disappointing. I enjoy Thea as an FMC but Hawthorne as an MMC is kind of tedious. We'll see what happens in the next book!