Reviews with content warning for Violence - Ignite Me

taylor swift songs for this book are “false god”, “peace”, “I think he knows”, and “dancing with our hands tied”

I hate Adam now, and I am a Warner STAN. Aaron Warner is the king of being DOWN BAD for Juliette. Let’s normalize men being this obsessed with the fmc (female main character). I am loving for this enemies to lovers arc. I freaking love Warner!!!! He may be a murderer, but a FREAKING HOT ONE! Warner is the king, the OG morally gray character, he basically invented it. Why I love Warner over Adam so much is that Adam thinks he loves Juliette in spite of her flaws and Warner loves Juliette because of her flaws. Warner sees the real Juliette, not some glorified version of her that Adam made up in his head and needs to be protected (small, weak, fragile, etc.). Warner knows she’s a bada** and treats her as such, pushes her to be better, accepts, loves and encourages her while wholeheartedly accepting and loving her faults/her dark side. I saw someone on tiktok say that they love the enemies to lovers trope so much bc someone’s after seeing the worst parts of yourself, and even when they have every reason to hate you, actively chooses to love you anyways. That is exactly it. And that is Warner and Juliette 100%. I love how far these characters have come as well as their development, all of the characters are constantly changing and evolving and growing together. I totally get the hype for these books now, I’m sorry I didn’t see it earlier. The romance is TOP TIER. And the major action/dystopian plot is pretty interesting too, I think it’s a great concept that is executed really well. Juliette is my QUEEN, she is the original girlboss. Again, there’s a lot of rambling/stream of consciousness type of writing, as we can read Juliet’s thoughts, so if you don’t vibe with that, you won’t like these. But gosh darn it if I didn’t fall head over heels for Warner.

This is not really graphic or explicit, it’s more describing the emotions that are happening and you can imply what’s happening. I’d say 0.5/5🌶 it literally lasts like maybe 5 minutes and it doesn’t really say anything explicit at all, it’s just all implied. I was told that it would be spicy, and it’s the good kind of spice, where it feels so romantic and hot and real but without graphic detail- describes vividly the emotional intimacy, implies physical intimacy if that makes sense.
Age rating: 14+

Content Warnings

jen1804's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

So this book gets a 4 star but those points are mainly because I love Aaron and there were parts of the ending which were pretty good and I’m pleased that we’re finally seeing some, albeit perhaps could be considered much too rushed, character development of Juliette.
Overall though I’m feeling kinda disappointed by this series. Especially after reading Mafi’s acknowledgments section at the end of the book, calling this a ‘final instalment’. It makes me wonder where the hell the next half of the series goes because there’s loads of books left. Were the next books actually planned or did the readers demand more after reading Ignite Me and being left disappointed?
The various character developments during this book feel kinda odd in places. And there’s scenes where I’m like hmm odd choice from Mafi there. I don’t fully know how to explain.
The ending of this book is good and fast paced and interesting and we get some badass Juliette scenes, but it is also so, so rushed, like what, I was left thinking, that’s it? It was that easy? I mean maybe it’s supposed to show just how powerful Juliette is, she essentially single handedly took down the supreme commander, all it took was her learning to accept her powers as a strength and not a curse. But I can’t help reflecting on the wider plot points of the whole series up til now and just being confused.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s also scenes which I love though, namely Aaron scenes lol. And also the blossoming friendship between Kenji and Juliette and also little James. Adam can get in the bin for all I care though, I don’t like him. He is so sour and angry and bitter in this book. I actually wasn’t totally keen on him from the start of book 1 but during this book he is sooo dislikable.
Something Mafi put beautifully was explaining that of course Juliette fell for the first and only person to ever show her kindness and the only one who was able to touch her. She’d never experienced that before. Adam was a default relationship, it was never love and I loved everything about those revelations and how Mafi put it. I loved that Juliette learned so much about her power during this book, getting shot changed her, she wanted to do something worthwhile, she accepted herself, enough to control her energy to the point she can now touch whoever she wants without harming them. And how she was overjoyed that this means she’d never have a love by ‘default’, that she is entirely free to choose who she gets to embrace and this was wonderful. Her hugging Kenji for the first time was lush.
But everything in the latter half of the book just seems to be described as happening way too fast, like Warner finding out he had brothers and then it was like ‘okay, we’re cool now then I guess, I’ve always wanted brothers’, despite the fact that 5 mins ago they couldn’t stand each other and wanted each other dead. Then within a couple pages of them having this bro moment it’s all of a sudden like ‘right let’s go to war’, and then within a further handful of pages Anderson is dead and Juliette is like this invincible super hero and announces she is now going to run the world and she challenges anyone who disagrees with that notion - which made me cringe because what a 180(!) and I’m like oh god the soldiers and civilians are probably thinking they’ve gone from one oppressor to another by the way she’s talking - and I was just like wait, what, how did we even get here? How can we even call that a ‘war’ what do you mean ‘the war is over’ that wasn’t a war that was barely even a single battle??? It felt like it lasted 10 minutes.
Also I get Anderson shot Juliette or whatever and she had a score to settle but what about all the rife he’s given his sons throughout their lives, would it not have been more poetic and had more of an impact for the reader had Adam and Aaron been there for the ending of Anderson? It was just all so FAST. I feel like Juliette’s character arc was ‘pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, still pathetic, still pathetic, suddenly no longer pathetic, invincible’?????.
Aaron is such a beautifully complex character and I love it so much. I loved learning more about his past and his mum and his grief. And thank fuck Juliette and Aaron finally got together, woohoo, I want more of that and I want them to become all powerful and shit together.
Satisfactory ending? Mostly yes.

Content Warnings