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Much of the filler in this book was spice. The book is so horny. Don't get me wrong, I love some good spice, but when a book is this long, I don't think we need quite *that* many sex scenes. It felt like filler to make the book longer instead of being meaningful.
The book also tried to touch on so many heavy themes or 'hot button' issues: assault, suicide, general trauma, abortion...there's more I'm sure. At first is was interesting, but then it started to feel a little shoe horned in, a writing challenge to see how many heavy/triggering topics can we fit in here or how can we stretch this book out even longer than it needs to be. It stopped feeling genuine very quickly.
You know Sera ends up pregnant at some point, but I don't love how it was done. Maybe its the place I currently am in life (hi from a childless cat lady), but I did not love the long bits going on about being pregnant and how wonderful & magical it is to be a parent. Had I been reading the physical book and not the audiobook, I would have skimmed/skipped those sections. I was over it very quickly.
The whole plot with the prophecy felt very convoluted to me. What they thought it meant, what other characters thought it meant, what it actually means and how it ties to the Blood & Ash series. I got so lost. I have not currently read the last two B&A books, so maybe that's part of the issue? I know enough to be dangerous, but not helpful? I also got lost in the last chapter that was part of the future
Last notes - I thought this series had way too many characters I did start to mix them up. However, some of them had fun personalities and were very interesting. In this book, too many people blended together and felt flat. The charm that I found it a large cast was lost.
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, War
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content
Graphic: Sexual content
Of the two series, I am definitely more partial to FAF and I felt like this was a fantastic conclusion to the series overall. This one did take me a while to get through however. The book picks up immediately after the last book and I felt there was still so much unnecessary repetition. A lot could have been edited out without it impacting the story whatsoever. But once I got over those initial hurdles, I was hooked and couldn’t put this down.
JLA is an extraordinary storyteller, however, her writing style sometimes doesn’t flow. Oftentimes certain phrases are used that feel more modern/trendy that pulled me out of the story a bit. Phrases that don’t feel rooted in the world that has been built. And, as with FBAA, we again lose a bit of Nyktos to the lust and Sera championing that goes on. While not as bad as FBAA, Nykotos still maintained more of his own personality, he still felt heavily engulfed in his lust for Sera and whatever came with that. She couldn’t even hug her father-like friend without him growling. While I am all for a MMC growling “she’s mine” to some background douche or the villain, the constant posturing against your own friends and family is annoying. I also had a bit of an issue with the pacing of the story. Overall, it felt a bit slow and it wasn’t until I was about 50-60% through before I was finally into it. Too much unnecessary dialogue/scenes and the most important parts of the plot seemed to be jammed into the last 30% of the book. The final showdown with Kolis, unfortunately, was rushed.
I appreciated how JLA handled Sera’s trauma and healing journey from her SA and Nyktos’ gentleness as he helped her through it.
I enjoyed the scheming, strategizing and political aspects. I absolutely LOVED the karma that was doled out. Nektas, Reaver and Jadis were, again, my standout favourites. I need a series just about the drakken. There were moments that made me laugh, cry and moments that had me on the edge of my seat. I loved learning more about the prophecy and puzzling it out alongside Sera. This series did a fantastic job weaving together the events of FAF and FBAA and I’m so excited to grab the next FBAA book to see how everything ties off.
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy
Graphic: Incest, Sexual content, Pregnancy
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
Minor: Body shaming, Confinement, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, War
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Abortion, Death of parent
Minor: Medical content