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adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to like this book, but to me it fell prey to the curse that often befalls a second book in a romantasy series: it attempts to expand the world but just makes things extremely confusing, the "conflict" between the love interests feels both contrived and too easily resolved, and the stakes just don't feel as high as the first novel. It's still enjoyable, but it was relatively lackluster for me.
I struggled to entirely grasp the plot, but here's my best shot at a summary. Elowen and Cayden have just conquered the kingdom of Varaveth and Elowen has reunited with her five adult dragons. Now, they are in a war against Elowen's abusive father's kingdom, Imirath, and they must rally other kingdoms to their cause, all while maintaining the front that they have an adoring marriage. But Elowen is still smarting from Cayden forcing her to marry him.
A lot of this book felt predictable, but maybe more importantly, it just didn't feel like there was enough narrative tension. I found myself skimming often, wanting to get to the good stuff, and then feeling disappointed. Elowen wrestles with feeling like Cayden has betrayed her, but her feelings are not all that complicated, and there's not really a build to an emotional confrontation that provides any satisfaction. Cayden's feelings are also so intense and overwrought that I was rolling my eyes at some points. The worldbuilding also just completely went over my head, and I wasn't invested enough to figure it out. It's been a while since I read the first book, so I'm sure that didn't help, but I think this book would have benefited from a quick recap, as opposed to the kingdom names, dragon names, and pronunciations. A lot of people seem to love this book, so maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it?
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
I struggled to entirely grasp the plot, but here's my best shot at a summary. Elowen and Cayden have just conquered the kingdom of Varaveth and Elowen has reunited with her five adult dragons. Now, they are in a war against Elowen's abusive father's kingdom, Imirath, and they must rally other kingdoms to their cause, all while maintaining the front that they have an adoring marriage. But Elowen is still smarting from Cayden forcing her to marry him.
A lot of this book felt predictable, but maybe more importantly, it just didn't feel like there was enough narrative tension. I found myself skimming often, wanting to get to the good stuff, and then feeling disappointed. Elowen wrestles with feeling like Cayden has betrayed her, but her feelings are not all that complicated, and there's not really a build to an emotional confrontation that provides any satisfaction. Cayden's feelings are also so intense and overwrought that I was rolling my eyes at some points. The worldbuilding also just completely went over my head, and I wasn't invested enough to figure it out. It's been a while since I read the first book, so I'm sure that didn't help, but I think this book would have benefited from a quick recap, as opposed to the kingdom names, dragon names, and pronunciations. A lot of people seem to love this book, so maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it?
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wrath of the Dragons picks up right where Fear the Flames left off. Unfortunately, there was a lot I did not remember from the end of FtF so I paused to refresh myself. (Would love if every author included a refresher at the beginning of each new book in a series.)
Now that Elowen has her dragons and is set to marry Cayden, she's got a lot to prepare for before a showdown with her daddy. A huge chunk of this book is expanding upon the world that Olivia Rose Darling built to forge alliances. We are introduced to more characters and they visit a lot of different places. Sometimes it was confusing to keep all the new characters straight (I'm looking at you, Zale and Zarius). There were times when I felt like there was stuff happening with the side characters (I love Finnian, Saskia, and Ryder) and I found myself wanting to know what was going on with them versus the MCs storyline.
While I liked this book more than book 1, I still had some issues with it. I felt that FtF was super tropey and with WotD, it felt very much like a mashup of a bunch of other books and this series struggles with it's own originality. I know that a lot of romantasies can feel the same but here, we were all over the place and it was painfully obvious where inspo was taken from. The pacing was super fast the last 15-20% of the book and I do feel like we needed more background on things cos sometimes, they didn't really make sense or weren't explained (see below past spoiler warning if you've already read the book).
I will say that I was 100% NOT expecting that ending and I was crying like a baby. Of course, I need book 3 cos that was rough. Just please please please do not let book 3 be a repeat of "The Songbird and the Heart of Stone" by Carissa Broadbent cos this could be really really cool or boring as all hell.
Appreciate NetGalley and Ballantine | Delacorte Press for providing the opportunity to read and review this book.
Things I loved/disliked below - beware of ⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️
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Loved
- Cayden in general and getting his POV
- Dragon rep cos I was screaming about them being nonexistent in FtF 🐉
- Elowen and Cayden being marked by the gods 🥰✨
- Finnian and Elowen's relationship - would love our side character's POVs in the next book or maybe a novella after the next book?
- Ryder and Cayden's bromance
- Elowen and her dragon's wrath 🔥
Disliked
- Elowen v. Daddy felt anticlimactic and that mage came out of nowhere to be the baddie we didn't know we had to watch out for? What was that?
- While I assumed that Cayden would present with some sort of magic, when they came out during his vengeance spree and it was shadow related, I did do an eye roll only because at this point, don't we have enough shadow daddies?!
- Obviously Elowen dying
- Cayden going to immediately summon the Goddess of Souls after he takes care of business. While I love an MMC who will burn down the world for his FMC, he's literally a king and at the end I was like "who's gonna be in charge to clean up this mess?" Cayden is now ruling over an expanded kingdom but peaced out without a convo with anyone
Questions I need answers to!
- What kind of magic/power was displayed when Elowen and Cayden were in the water with the kraken? I wanted to know more but get that they were at war so there was no time for explanations
- In general I need more explanation about the magic/powers cos they seem to come up only as conveniences to move the plot forward
- Do we assume that daddy's new queen is just a consort cos she was left alive?
- Who's dealing with the aftermath of the war? Aren't we worried about potential breaking of alliances?
- Did Zarius kill daddy and take the Thirwin throne? I assume yes but it all happened off page so I would love that to be touched upon in the next book
Now that Elowen has her dragons and is set to marry Cayden, she's got a lot to prepare for before a showdown with her daddy. A huge chunk of this book is expanding upon the world that Olivia Rose Darling built to forge alliances. We are introduced to more characters and they visit a lot of different places. Sometimes it was confusing to keep all the new characters straight (I'm looking at you, Zale and Zarius). There were times when I felt like there was stuff happening with the side characters (I love Finnian, Saskia, and Ryder) and I found myself wanting to know what was going on with them versus the MCs storyline.
While I liked this book more than book 1, I still had some issues with it. I felt that FtF was super tropey and with WotD, it felt very much like a mashup of a bunch of other books and this series struggles with it's own originality. I know that a lot of romantasies can feel the same but here, we were all over the place and it was painfully obvious where inspo was taken from. The pacing was super fast the last 15-20% of the book and I do feel like we needed more background on things cos sometimes, they didn't really make sense or weren't explained (see below past spoiler warning if you've already read the book).
I will say that I was 100% NOT expecting that ending and I was crying like a baby. Of course, I need book 3 cos that was rough. Just please please please do not let book 3 be a repeat of "The Songbird and the Heart of Stone" by Carissa Broadbent cos this could be really really cool or boring as all hell.
Appreciate NetGalley and Ballantine | Delacorte Press for providing the opportunity to read and review this book.
Things I loved/disliked below - beware of ⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
Loved
- Cayden in general and getting his POV
- Dragon rep cos I was screaming about them being nonexistent in FtF 🐉
- Elowen and Cayden being marked by the gods 🥰✨
- Finnian and Elowen's relationship - would love our side character's POVs in the next book or maybe a novella after the next book?
- Ryder and Cayden's bromance
- Elowen and her dragon's wrath 🔥
Disliked
- Elowen v. Daddy felt anticlimactic and that mage came out of nowhere to be the baddie we didn't know we had to watch out for? What was that?
- While I assumed that Cayden would present with some sort of magic, when they came out during his vengeance spree and it was shadow related, I did do an eye roll only because at this point, don't we have enough shadow daddies?!
- Obviously Elowen dying
- Cayden going to immediately summon the Goddess of Souls after he takes care of business. While I love an MMC who will burn down the world for his FMC, he's literally a king and at the end I was like "who's gonna be in charge to clean up this mess?" Cayden is now ruling over an expanded kingdom but peaced out without a convo with anyone
Questions I need answers to!
- What kind of magic/power was displayed when Elowen and Cayden were in the water with the kraken? I wanted to know more but get that they were at war so there was no time for explanations
- In general I need more explanation about the magic/powers cos they seem to come up only as conveniences to move the plot forward
- Do we assume that daddy's new queen is just a consort cos she was left alive?
- Who's dealing with the aftermath of the war? Aren't we worried about potential breaking of alliances?
- Did Zarius kill daddy and take the Thirwin throne? I assume yes but it all happened off page so I would love that to be touched upon in the next book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, Alcohol