Reviews with content warning for Death - Crystal Crowned

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Crystal Crowned by Elise Kova

8 reviews

indigo_ewenicorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Book 5 finished this series beautifully!
The story takes you through many very emotional and heart wrenching parts.
I love how everything wrapped up and I'm looking forward to read more books in this world.

We start the story with Vhalla having lost her magic. The kingdom is in turmoil with Victor taking over. There are many heartbreaking moments in this book. Learning of Jax's backstory is enlightening and heartbreaking.
Vhalla's miscarriage is so emotional and bittersweet as she regains her magic.
There is so much loss in this book but also so much found and gained back.
I knew at the end that Vhalla would be pregnant with twins. I want to read their story and see where the kingdom goes 15-20 years after this story.

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lisashelves's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.75

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morriganlefaye's review

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dark funny sad 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

4.0

These characters had to fight very hard for their happy ever after.
In the end, it was a bit much pain and suffering for me, but it made the ending that much sweeter.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.0

I really liked how this book series ended, I thought it was done in a pretty consistent way of the whole world

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koistyfishy's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

No one is sadder than me, that I am not rating this higher! Crystal Crowned is the final book in the series and as such is the epic conclusion of the AMAZING journey I have been on with the Air Awakens Series but overall I am pretty disappointed. I am not sure if I was emotionally broken after the events of Water's Wrath, but I battled to finish this book and find the drive to push through to that final neat "bow" conclusion I knew was waiting for me at the end.

There are numerous things that I didn't like in this instalment - which LARGELY attributed to the great aversion I had to complete this book... I had contemplated to DNF this (or even soft DNF), but I like a sense of completion so I finally grit my teeth and accepted my agony.

I did not like that there was no clear villain in this book, whilst we did have Victor as the main antagonist, he isn't really physically present until the final battle and is more of a presence that felt while the heroes battle his lackeys. Victor is also just a pale comparison to the vile sadistic villain of the previous Emperor.

Vhalla ANNOYED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!! She quickly became too stupid to love/live and made annoying decisions. On top of this, her mood swings due to *certain events* felt repetitive and overall, even though she should have grown in the last "2 years", she felt more and more like a child.

There was hardly ANY romance in this book, it was miscommunication after miscommunication and then just an utter lack of communication on things. Aldrik and Vhalla felt like they were constantly fighting with each other, instead of for each other and after dealing with 4 books to get them to this point, I felt annoyed.

A lot of what happens in this book is not very clearly explained, I am still not sure how Crystal Magic works or how Crystal corruption worked. There was a vague prophecy in this book that isn't explained or elaborated on and many loose ends are just left dangling, and since this is the last book - we won't ever have this resolved.

There was a little too much just "talking politics and war" that I was bored, feeling like I was in school again in a history class. I love some political intrigue, but this felt draggy, unnecessary, and a little too much.

This leads me to the last thing I didn't like and it's more a comment on this series, I think towards the end it felt a little too dragged out for no reason. I was surprised initially that book 4 occurred when the "first war" was over in book 3, BUT the story continued and I am not sure if Elise Kova had a 5 book deal so HAD to write 5 Books, but halfway through this I just lost interest.

DISLIKES ASIDE... I am glad that I did finish this!!!! I have a special place in my heart for the side characters too... I love Jax and his story and understand him a little more; Fritz is too precious for this world! Elecia with her hard stone exterior but soft inside is the friend we all wish we had...and poor poor Daniel - he deserved better.

In the end and looking back at the series as a whole, the Air Awakens series will always be memorable and I did enjoy my adventures with Vhalla and her found family. It was easy to read with romance, action, epic fight scenes, and fantastic characters and had an interesting magic system muddled in with thrilling fantasy elements. The series was one of the few that made me ugly-cry in a bathtub for 30 minutes, so I will NEVER FORGET the great emotional connection I have to these characters and the ordeals they went through.

I do not think this series is for everyone, as it heavily revolves around the romance - but for me...for me it was just what I needed.

I will miss my time spent in the Solaris Empire.

Long Live Solaris

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blue_dip's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

I really wish I hadn't read this book. Somehow I could stand it up til the last 100 pages. I literally thought I was going to DNF right then and there. I sifted through to the end and the epilogue, but even with closure, this book sadly left a foul taste in my mouth.

divine intervention? Are you seriously playing that card? And bonding through a wall, while sure, vhalla got the military prowess from her previous bond, she didn't half turn into him, and he didn't have the ability to poke into her mind while she noticed. I think it's a weak way to give Victor any advantages, and a poor way to work in more exposition.

I felt like I joined the Fanclub when these books were still romance driven, with a war in the background, but Elise decided to put the war very much in the foreground in this book, and it was not at all the type of romance I needed.

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nadiana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.25

Wow, an ending I wasnt completely spiteful towards... good job Kova.

By far, 'Crystal Crowned is my favourite installment out of the whole main 'Air Awakens' series, closely followed by the first book.

I loved the part where our main rag-tag group has to navigate through the world together, the end war, Vhalla griping with the fact that she now is bonded with Mr. Bad Guy and so on and so forth.

I'll be honest, I was pleasantly surprised with how they handled the pregnancy-scare in the middle of this book. I was close to tossing my phone across the room when I first heard the typical fiction-ey warning signs alluding the pregnancy. However, I'm still a bit bothered by the fact that they didn't explain the deus ex-machina incarnate character that Vhalla seems to be stalked by. First she gets her powers back (although with that came a great sacrifice i.e. her unborn child) and then her life is restored at the cost of... willpower I guess? Not that she had to sacrifice willpower and become depressed for the rest of her life, but that she had to just express that she's willing to still be alive in order to get magically resurrected...?

Idk, this thing is full of shit being pulled right out of the MC's ass.

AND THEN DANIEL!

AAAAAH DANIEL MY POOR BOY WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU!? I understand that we want to have horrible things happen to beloved characters, but again, my critique is that this is not the type of book for those kinds of subjects. It just seems so out of place and honestly quite lazy at times. I feel like all the characters who've lost their "purpose" to the story got disposed of them in the meanest ways possible. It just comes out as lazy and not as impactful as the author might've intended it to be... hence Daniel. Gosh, Kova really did him dirty didn't she? As soon as we got a conclusion of where Daniel and Vhalla's relationship was headed, we just made him go through some off-screen torture that made him delve into madness. Again, it all seemed as a shallow excuse to get rid of his character all together without really killing him off since we've already done that to 99,9% of the other now useless characters.

Now for my fifth and final complaint of this series' pacing. Go figure: it goes too fast. Let me tell you what happens in this 400 page book:

We have a quest across the country, south to east to west with our main group, a wedding, Vhalla getting her powers back in another mini quest, a war, Vhalla becoming evil for a sec (?), then the finale and an additional epilogue that seemed quite the obnoxious ribbon to this box of... stuff, tons and tons of stuff.

It's just too many things happening in such a short span of time.

I was really intrigued by Vhalla getting corrupted by Mr. Bad Guy and her potentially harming her friends, but that storyline get resolved so badly...

ALSO ALSO I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS!!!

So, after Vhalla gets bonded with Bad-Man, she's pushed to the point of being suicidal. Knowing that her life might be tied to Bad-Man, Vhalla makes the conscious decision to... GIVE HERSELF UP TO BAD-MAN IN HOPES HE COULD UN-BOND THEM AND KILL HER KNOWING IT WOULD MAKE HER LOSE THE WAR. WHAT?!

Oki, oki, oki, oki, oki. Again, lives of two bonded pairs is constantly alluded to being tied together. If one dies, so does the other as long as the bond is still in action. Vhalla... darling... The only thing you need to do in order to win the dang war is to kill Bad-Man. If he's bonded with you and you're so plagued by it to the point of being suicidal, why not just kill yourself right then and there for a chance of making him go down with you? WHY DID YOU DECIDE THAT THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION WAS TO GIVE YOURSELF UP TO THE GUY IN HOPES HE COULD UN-BOND AND THEN KILL YOU!? YOU KNEW THE REPERCUSSIONS OF THAT! EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND LOVE WILL DIE JUST SO THAT YOU'D... GET TO BE UNBONDED FOR LIKE A SLIGHT SECOND? Such a huge inconsistency, probably the worst one I've read throughout this whole book. And you know what the worst part is? Kova could've easily fixed this huge plot hole by having Vhalla try to physically kill herself in-camp instead of offering herself up with the same outcome.

It's such a stupid mistake for an otherwise entertaining story...

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bailey1196's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.75

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