Reviews

3.5 stars ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ “Light it up."

A story about loyalty, love, strength, grief and healing. This was like a murder-mystery in an urban fantasy setting with political and romantic aspects as well as magical lore. This book took me a while to get into and I don’t think it needed to be as long as it was, but by the end I was finally captivated and feeling so much. Trust the process?

“Loyal unto death and beyond.”

The last 250-300 pages, especially Part IV were incredible. Pieces of the story start to fall into place in ways I did not expect. So thrilling and emotional. I wish I could say the same for the first 60% of this book. It was not particularly bad but the flow of the first 500 pages was slow -honestly dragging- and the world building and writing as a whole could have been much better. Part I drew me in but the information dumping was a bit overwhelming. So many facts and terms were thrown in and I didn’t feel like as a reader I got the chance to learn them organically throughout the story. Overall I enjoyed this book, but because it took a while to truly get to that point, I don’t feel like I can rate it higher.

“My friends are behind me, and I will protect them.”
“My friends are with me and I am not afraid.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If there’s one thing SJM excels at it is building emotional connections through her characters. Especially through strong female main characters like Bryce. The recurring theme of loyalty was beautiful. In the end I was literally crying over the relationships and sacrifices in this story. Whether it was told through romance, siblings or friends, everything came down to loyalty and love. I’m hoping for potential growth and development in the next books and am especially interested to read more about Ruhn and his journey. A dark haired shadow wielding fae male? I’ll fold every time. And Lehabah….ily.

“Through love, all is possible.”

Because of the references, parallels and hints that were written throughout the story, I have so many theories. Specifically about the prospect of war and how the Maas universes will play into each other. I appreciated the mysterious epilogue and how it left me curious about what secrets will be revealed. Again, this wasn’t my favorite book but I think the way everything came together in the end made it worth the read. I will definitely be continuing this series!

neuropoet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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