4.23 AVERAGE

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous reflective 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 challenging emotional mysterious 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
hopeful slow-paced
adventurous emotional tense fast-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

considering kiva spent a decade surviving zalindov, how does she have 0 survival or critical thinking skills?

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 7/10

World building: 8/10

Action: 5/10

Epicness: 7/10

Enjoyability: 9/10
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

I really liked this one from the middle until the end. Everything was unfolding and the bits we get that something bigger is brewing that we don't know about yet is always a hitter for me! I also love Caldon ofc! I was however so annoyed during the first half of the book cause almost every chapter ended with: "Kiva cares so much about these people and they care about her but she need to do what she came here for and it's not to look into Jarens big beautiful eyes when he tells her every single thing he loves about her. Kiva needs to fight for these people that she doesn't even know anything about but she guesses she loves". Don't get me wrong although Kiva is annoying sometimes with this, I can understand the torn she feels but what im talking about here is that its annoying writing wise to end so many chapters in one way. This kept me from reading a bunch of times even if the actual story was interesting. 

When I got into it, I really got into it and am excited for the last book but am not sure when I will get to it for different reasons, mainly that I'm going to Paris for a year and I can't bring an entire suitcase of books (or can I???) 


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I would have scored this book so much higher if Kiva weren't so incredibly frustrating throughout it. Kaldan is amazing (gotta love a pansexual prince with brains and emotional depth). Jeren is still a bit boring but I appreciate his goodness and his devotion to Kiva. Tip is still a sweetie. I enjoyed meeting and learning about the other royals and the political entanglements. Kiva's brother is awesome. Kiva's sister is a great villain.

Kiva, though... Part of the problem is that the text is trying to convince the reader of her devotion to her family, but lacks the emotion and the logic for it--especially when in direct contrast to everything the reader sees in contradiction to it, with her family's repeated failures both in the first book and in this one as well as the positive experiences from the royals. Because the motivations are, at best, shaky, Kiva's stupid decisions aren't justified. They just seem stupid. The end of the first book established Kiva as an unreliable narrator which hurts this one two-fold: I as the reader can't trust Kiva, and, in failing to justify her decisions, it makes Kiva out to be a proper fool when there isn't a similar reveal about deeper motivations by the end.
challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings