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koistyfishy's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Well that headache is finally over! I think if I had read these a little more spaced out and not one after the other, I probably would have liked this a little more as I wouldn’t have easily picked up on the unoriginal writing style, and plot elements that I felt like I had read about over and over. However as a result this book feels completely underwhelming, overly recycled, and just dragged on forever with no real direction. I was gritting my teeth to have it just end already.
Spoilers for the previous books to follow…
The story starts off almost immediately where the previous book ended and has Emberly and Steel follow Camiel, her MIA Sereph Angel father, to Eden. Yes I also rolled my eyes at the originality of that name. There she meets some of her long lost family and the missing Angel-line descendants. But all is not what it cracks up to be in this new found paradise and then things progress from there, while everyone prepares for the coming war that has been kicked off in London…
This whole series could have easily been condensed into 2 books, as a lot of the plot of these books is… Emberly and Steel get in a fight with the Forsaken/Fallen. They are beaten and then have to escape and then she “somehow” Emberly ends back with Thorne and rinse and repeat, she escapes for the cycle to start again. (Yeah you know how that kept happening in book 1/2 as well… especially the “they get beaten and captured part”…. 😑)
I’ve complained over and over in my reviews of this series that everything is too “face value”and there isn’t any real drive or motivation behind the actions of characters and you can really feel this in the villain character of Seraphim. You just need to accept she is Fallen and had a reason because it’s told to you she had a reason (but never what the reason is) so she is just “evil”. As such she feels juvenile, underdeveloped, lacking motivation and boring. There is actually a section in the book where Emberly asks Seraphim why she is doing this and her reply is basically “because I can”….
Let’s quickly talk about the side characters… and me saying I get that this is a YA and that the plot centres around teenagers! But really teenagers should not attempt to save the world in their own hands! Especially when they have an elite military force they can call on for advice, guidance, and support… but no obviously they have to take everything into their own damn hands and screw up half the time… if you just talk to the adults and have meaningful conversation half the crap that happened in these books would not happen.
Greyson - My man I have respect for your level headedness at times…
treat Ash right she deserves a good man to look after her
Sterling - You were good, you could have been great
Ash - I battled with you… whilst I was actually preferring to read your POV cause I was more interested in hearing about the Nephs than Emberly’s drama llama, you were a walking contradiction. Book 1 had you all sassy and bold, then at times here you were all timid and shy
I would still love you as my best friend! You gave me total Lilly Moscovitz vibes and I loved it!
Nova - Girl I just love you! Glad you getting your own story because damn girl I wanna know what’s in your cagey head!
Aurora and Blaze - my fantasy is I really want a spin off series for these two when they are older and working as keepers to cover all the shenanigans they get up to but for Aurora to find love and Blaze to be the protective bro….
Tinkle - I hate you but I also love you. If you had not “slept on the job” literally…half the times Emberly was taken would not have happened… also why your attachment to Nova.. this was another thing the reader just had to accept as fact and wasn’t explained.
Now on to Steelie boy… my dude I still don’t like you. Any of your brothers were a better love interest than you (including the kid - when he is older of course). What did make me LOL though was you went full TikTok quote and I loved it (but also rolled my eyes in a “seriously… this is happening right now” way)
Quote in question: “Do you want to know why you prefer the villain over the hero? Well that’s because the hero will sacrifice you to save the world, while the villain will sacrifice the world to save you”
Actual quotes from the book - said by Steelie boy:
“If the choice comes down to saving the world or saving Emberly, I’ll choose Emberly every single time.
“Let me make one thing abundantly clear: I will watch the world burn before I let you go.”
“The world is more important than I am.” He shakes his head. “Nothing is more important
(Emberly)“Then the world will fall and burn, and it will be all our fault.” (Steel) “So be it.”
Not kidding 😂😂😂
Then there is the Thorne in my side… I actually didn’t mind him in Book 2. He showed so much promise and then 56% of the book I hated him as much as I hated Rhys and Warner in book 1. I was utterly confused by his actions at the end… He is “killed” and left for dead and then comes back and then just kills his mother because “near death experiences tend to give a new perspective”… we are in your head dude and get nothing but 3 lines about why you switched sides???? Seriously that’s just lazy writing and another instance of the reader just needs to believe it cause it’s written and the author is not going to show/tell you why.
The plot is very predictable (including the twist) that was revealed way to soon. You as the reader are told about 50% in what is happening and I feel there is a missed opportunity to have dragged this out more to give a little more oomph to the plot.
On to the writing. This is well written in places and easy to understand but when it throws in terms like “nom-nommed” more than once so it gets very childish in places. There was one phrase used in all the books that by this one, every time I saw it my skin prickled… and that was “I bite my lip”. I actually counted (since I read this on my IPad) and there are 10 mentions in this book alone of biting a lip… never mind the numerous others of “I touch my lip” or “my tongue licks my lip”… there must be another way to describe that because it just got old. This actually became an almost inside joke for Steel by “how sexy Emberly is” when she bites her lip cause he would always tell her to stop… maybe I wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t read all the books so quick in succession but I did and now all I can think about is how that phrase annoyed me.
Overall this end was meh, the series went down hill from book 1 and didn’t really get the push it needed to climb up. It’s not bad per se but I think it’s definitely targeting slightly younger YA and if I was still I teen I might have enjoyed this more…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Self harm, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse
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