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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was entirely too long for the lack of plot that I had to sit through while reading it. Once again, the bones of the world/plot are interesting, and the magic system could be good, but the execution leaves more than a little to be desired. Everything about this was giving first draft and I couldn't understand why it would make someone want to continue on with the series.
Rhya wasn't necessarily giving "too stupid to function" but she was pretty idiotic. She was supposed to be learning how to master her powers, the same powers she was kidnapped for, but ofc she doesn't do this at any point. She just has outbursts of power that are lethal when the plot needs her to ~git good without having any of those moments being warranted or deserved.
The romance honestly....what was it? It made no sense to me lol. It's SO obvious who the main love interest is intended to be, but we spend most of the story with Rhya pining after Penn who's mean to her, and talks down to her at every interaction but yes, the romance is blooming between these 2! It didn't even seem like he wanted to be bothered by her, and she was very much more into him than he was into her. Embarrassing. It's supposed to be "enemies to lovers" but the enemy was once again not in the room with us. Yeah, he's rude af, but like even by the book's own lore they aren't on opposing sides of anything going on. So how are they enemies?
Truthfully, this felt like a YA romantasy and I could've been more forgiving in my thoughts if it actually was but apparently this is an adult book so lol.
There simply was not enough active plot to warrant this book being over 500 pages, and you could tell. This was slow as hell with no purpose. Sure, the last ....10% has a point but it's too late by then! I need these authors to stop making 500-600 page books that essentially do nothing but tell us the main characters names. I can't get invested in a story that's just words on a page with the promise of "the next 3 books will have the action". It's wasting my time! #disrespectfully. Yeah, I'm the fool for continuing to read these books I guess but you know great gowns, beautiful gowns.
Rhya wasn't necessarily giving "too stupid to function" but she was pretty idiotic. She was supposed to be learning how to master her powers, the same powers she was kidnapped for, but ofc she doesn't do this at any point. She just has outbursts of power that are lethal when the plot needs her to ~git good without having any of those moments being warranted or deserved.
The romance honestly....what was it? It made no sense to me lol. It's SO obvious who the main love interest is intended to be, but we spend most of the story with Rhya pining after Penn who's mean to her, and talks down to her at every interaction but yes, the romance is blooming between these 2! It didn't even seem like he wanted to be bothered by her, and she was very much more into him than he was into her. Embarrassing. It's supposed to be "enemies to lovers" but the enemy was once again not in the room with us. Yeah, he's rude af, but like even by the book's own lore they aren't on opposing sides of anything going on. So how are they enemies?
Truthfully, this felt like a YA romantasy and I could've been more forgiving in my thoughts if it actually was but apparently this is an adult book so lol.
There simply was not enough active plot to warrant this book being over 500 pages, and you could tell. This was slow as hell with no purpose. Sure, the last ....10% has a point but it's too late by then! I need these authors to stop making 500-600 page books that essentially do nothing but tell us the main characters names. I can't get invested in a story that's just words on a page with the promise of "the next 3 books will have the action". It's wasting my time! #disrespectfully. Yeah, I'm the fool for continuing to read these books I guess but you know great gowns, beautiful gowns.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall I really enjoyed this book. The beginning got me hooked right away and I was super intrigued by Rhya and her powers that she wasn’t even aware of or able to control or understand.
About halfway through the book the pacing went super slow and although I enjoy world building and have to say I LOVE the side characters and found family aspect of this book, I did wonder where the story was going. That was a theme through a lot of the book where I was enjoying the characters and their conversations but also at the same time had no sense of where the story was actually going to… like what are we doing here because Rhya isn’t being encouraged to develop her powers beyond controlling them and pushing them down and the war aspect seemed to have gone very silent. The main focus seemed to be somewhat petty royal court politics.
Towards the end of the book the pacing suddenly increased right back up again and added back in some other main players in the wider plot and helped me get a better sense of where the story is being taken and the longer term direction which helped me get right back into it and invest emotionally into the characters.
Excited for the next one!
About halfway through the book the pacing went super slow and although I enjoy world building and have to say I LOVE the side characters and found family aspect of this book, I did wonder where the story was going. That was a theme through a lot of the book where I was enjoying the characters and their conversations but also at the same time had no sense of where the story was actually going to… like what are we doing here because Rhya isn’t being encouraged to develop her powers beyond controlling them and pushing them down and the war aspect seemed to have gone very silent. The main focus seemed to be somewhat petty royal court politics.
Towards the end of the book the pacing suddenly increased right back up again and added back in some other main players in the wider plot and helped me get a better sense of where the story is being taken and the longer term direction which helped me get right back into it and invest emotionally into the characters.
Excited for the next one!
