Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
There was a myriad of emotions for the book and not always the good kind. Her writing style is almost poetic and it definitely takes some getting used to. I was VERY off put by the raising the kid and then falling for her bit. Like it at times really gave me the ick and screamed daddy issues, but the way I was able to mentally climb that barrier was these people are immortal. Every fantasy story has some 58767 year old guy and a young teen fresh into her immortality. Additionally, there were never projected daddy vibes. That was my prejudice and not what was written. Had I not been influenced by several internet reviews that book three was ground breaking for the series, I’m not sure if I would have hung on until book three. I still can’t tell if I’m glad I did or not. The FMC is very ignorant but it’s hard to fault her for that due to the circumstance. It does however make the slow burn/angst/world building bit painful at times. These are bigger books with potential for a very interesting plot line, but I did not really feel like I received much world building, mostly unsatisfactory bread crumbs. And when we are finally getting somewhere by the end of book three, it lands on a cliff hanger. I waited three books for the mate scene and more information on wtf is going on, only to finally get that in the literally last few chapters and all for it to just go it to end with more questions than answers. With that being said, this provoked a lot of emotion from me, all mostly bad but my irritation has driven me to want to finish the series just so I know what is going on. it has a lot of potential and I’m hopeful for the best. Overall, 3/5 and a 2/5 for spice.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
fast-paced
I’m, once again, one of those tortured souls who don’t know how to rate these books. Three stars because I finished it (though did lots of skimming) and I’ll probably torture myself with the next book if it’s on KU. Maybe. This was not a pleasant read for me overall though.
I didn’t particularly like Orlaith in book 1, but I straight up hated her in book 2. The book starts with her on the boat to go be with her betrothed, LIKE SHE CHOSE. She immediately starts making enemies of everyone on the ship and acts like a petulant child again. Not surprisingly, the only person she relates to on the ship is an actual child. She then is somewhat responsible for the ship being wrecked and people dying, which she then drowns in MORE self-loathing for. Rinse and repeat over and over. Add in repetitive nightmare sequences. Need I point out again she was less than 2 when her family died? HOW does she have this much memory stored of her past?
Then she gets to her beau’s land, and, shockingly, acts like a child again. She’s constantly getting herself into horrible situations, then she’s mad every time Rhor saves her, including a time she’s drunk in an alley and nearly gets raped. A reasonable person might be like, hey, maybe I should make different life choices. Nope. Not Orlaith! She just doubles down (more like quadruples down) on her inability to use critical thinking skills.
I think the moment I hated her the MOST was when she burned the book Rhor gave her. He literally handed her a book with at least ONE answer in it for her (and she whined all the way through book 1 about how no one would give her answers). She opens it, almost gets to the word he wanted her to look up, then closes it and tosses it in the fire. Add on top of that the multiple times in this book when someone is giving her truth/answers and her response is “NO! STOP!” Girl, this is what you’ve been waiting 19 years for.
The shocking reveal at the end, though not terribly shocking, is that Rhor is this creature that loves violence and drinks blood. She literally knew all this, even if she didn’t know what to label him. How is she so surprised by this? And, she DELIGHTED in giving him her blood for almost 2 decades. She obsessed over him for years. But now that she has a label for what to call him, she’s like I HAVE TO KILL HIM. Then immediately after she kills him, she thinks “what did I do?” There she goes, using those critical thinking skills again. Geeze, Orlaith, maybe you should have thought through your plan BEFORE you murdered him? Or, I don’t know, tried talking to him first? Also, she constantly drowned herself in self-loathing because she was a murderer, so what does she do? Murders again. Makes sense, right?
I admit I skipped every Kai POV and most of the Baze POVs. I didn’t see how they contributed to the story, especially Kai’s. He was hurt, then it taken care of by this weird, non-verbal, naked, semi-fish lady that he constantly wants to have sex with (even though he’s on the brink of death from his wound). Also add in his struggles to reconnect with his alternative identity that lives in his head, though I don’t understand why he wanted that to come back. So confusing and there was nothing connecting it to the main plot.
If Rhordyn is dead, like dead dead, forever dead, I don’t see the point in continuing this series. I wasn’t in love with him necessarily, but the whole premise of the series was this connection between them. So if that’s gone and all I have left is horrible Orlaith, I just can’t deal with it.
I didn’t particularly like Orlaith in book 1, but I straight up hated her in book 2. The book starts with her on the boat to go be with her betrothed, LIKE SHE CHOSE. She immediately starts making enemies of everyone on the ship and acts like a petulant child again. Not surprisingly, the only person she relates to on the ship is an actual child. She then is somewhat responsible for the ship being wrecked and people dying, which she then drowns in MORE self-loathing for. Rinse and repeat over and over. Add in repetitive nightmare sequences. Need I point out again she was less than 2 when her family died? HOW does she have this much memory stored of her past?
Then she gets to her beau’s land, and, shockingly, acts like a child again. She’s constantly getting herself into horrible situations, then she’s mad every time Rhor saves her, including a time she’s drunk in an alley and nearly gets raped. A reasonable person might be like, hey, maybe I should make different life choices. Nope. Not Orlaith! She just doubles down (more like quadruples down) on her inability to use critical thinking skills.
I think the moment I hated her the MOST was when she burned the book Rhor gave her. He literally handed her a book with at least ONE answer in it for her (and she whined all the way through book 1 about how no one would give her answers). She opens it, almost gets to the word he wanted her to look up, then closes it and tosses it in the fire. Add on top of that the multiple times in this book when someone is giving her truth/answers and her response is “NO! STOP!” Girl, this is what you’ve been waiting 19 years for.
The shocking reveal at the end, though not terribly shocking, is that Rhor is this creature that loves violence and drinks blood. She literally knew all this, even if she didn’t know what to label him. How is she so surprised by this? And, she DELIGHTED in giving him her blood for almost 2 decades. She obsessed over him for years. But now that she has a label for what to call him, she’s like I HAVE TO KILL HIM. Then immediately after she kills him, she thinks “what did I do?” There she goes, using those critical thinking skills again. Geeze, Orlaith, maybe you should have thought through your plan BEFORE you murdered him? Or, I don’t know, tried talking to him first? Also, she constantly drowned herself in self-loathing because she was a murderer, so what does she do? Murders again. Makes sense, right?
I admit I skipped every Kai POV and most of the Baze POVs. I didn’t see how they contributed to the story, especially Kai’s. He was hurt, then it taken care of by this weird, non-verbal, naked, semi-fish lady that he constantly wants to have sex with (even though he’s on the brink of death from his wound). Also add in his struggles to reconnect with his alternative identity that lives in his head, though I don’t understand why he wanted that to come back. So confusing and there was nothing connecting it to the main plot.
If Rhordyn is dead, like dead dead, forever dead, I don’t see the point in continuing this series. I wasn’t in love with him necessarily, but the whole premise of the series was this connection between them. So if that’s gone and all I have left is horrible Orlaith, I just can’t deal with it.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes