Reviews

Between Kings by W.R. Gingell

memyshelfsterling's review

4.0

A satisfying ending to this 10-book series. It went there with the gore, the threads of plot and details coming together, but I couldn't give it 5 stars because I am at heart an emotional reader. I thought it was great, but I didn't love it. I don't think I have as much of a connection to the characters as I should have had having followed them for 10 books, and I honestly don't think all the impacts of the characters emotions and psychology were done as well as they should have been.

shebephoebe's review against another edition

4.0

I’m gonna quietly screech to myself about this one for a while. Still processing it, but it tied up everything so nicely, and I still very much love the characters. What faults I found with it aren't enough to overshadow how purely entertaining the whole series was. There's only two things I wasn't fond of, and neither strictly detracted from the story, only my expectations.

Second read: So I'm more discontented the longer I sit with this one. Technically it did tie up everything, but the bow feels decidedly clumsy. The ending answered questions I didn't even know I should be asking, the first half of the book felt like wasting time, Zero should have been there.... It works, but it's not exactly satisfying. 

acreatureofbooksandtea's review

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I’m sad this series has ended, but I truly enjoyed it and am still grateful that it saved me from a months-long book slump in 2021.

As for book 10 itself, the last in this series, I mostly enjoyed it.

It was full of the tense action that has made all of these books so hard for me to put down, which I loved.
But for the story itself, some of the main characters from previous books were almost entirely absent in this one, and I missed them a lot.

Also, the entire story was way more bittersweet than I was expecting. Every scene with Athelas felt really raw, and in this book we got an up close view to

what he did to Pet’s parents through his memories, along with other scenes that really drove home how selfish and cruel he’s been in a way that made him feel pretty irredeemable

.
And then what Pet went through (and lost) in the end just felt so unfair and depressing to top it all off.

Speaking of the ending, I wish things had felt more tied up and concrete. It just felt a bit unsatisfying in how open ended it felt, especially after making it through 10 books.

Overall and as a whole, I truly enjoyed this series and would recommend it to any urban fantasy fans. But due to the last book, and also how emotionally heavy many parts of the series are, I don’t see myself doing any rereads.

_ellen_'s review

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Absolutely love this series which is probably why this one's getting a bit of a lower mark. It's the end for now and that automatically makes me a little more critical that I usually would be. Plus I found the tone a little off? It wasn't as funny or as lighthearted as the other ones which makes sense plus some very endearing tertiary characters don't make it through which is something I never really liked in stories and I really isn't enough time afterwards to really give it the weight that it needs two been worth writing which is just my opinion