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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
slow-paced
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
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
A refreshing read. What fantasy romance should be in my opinion. It's reignited my motivation to read. I read daily, but my last few books felt like I was reading them just to read something. This book though, I was so excited for my next bit of free time because I knew I would get to read more of Glory and Lucian's escapades. The ending was so satisfying and everything I could have hope for!
3.5
This is a hard book to review. Because I liked it. There's no denying that. But I so liked book one and just don't feel like this one stands up to it. And it's hard not to let my disappointment color my objectivity and general opinion.
Like [b:His Secret Illuminations|55750790|His Secret Illuminations (The Warrior's Guild #1)|Scarlett Gale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603242434l/55750790._SY75_.jpg|86945240] (HSI), the writing here is fun and easy to read. It's full of a diverse and quirky cast of characters, all of whom I like. But unlike HSI it didn't have the glorious sexual tension to carry the long, slow plot. Instead it had all the sex instead. And while I enjoy a good sex scene (and I'll grant that the scenes here were at least varied) I eventually started skimming them because I was bored of them. I felt like they got in the way of the plot.
Plus, while HSI was full of Lucian's internal conflict, which grabbed and held me rapt. His Sacred Incantation has Lucian and Glory's wholesome love. And while that's not a bad thing, it too became super repetitive. For example, my kindle tells me the word love was used 131 times in the book. Between calling each other "my love" and telling each other that they love one another that's a lot of love. What's worse, my kindle also tells me the word kiss (or variations of the word—kissing, kissed, etc) was used 168 times. And that's just kiss; it doesn't include "pecked on the cheek" or "pressed her lips to his temple," or any of a million other ways to describe a kiss. The book isn't even 400 pages long. That's an awful lot of kissing going on, like more than one every other page! I just got bored with it all. It's sweet, but sweet won't carry a book like internal conflict will, in my experience.
Lastly (and I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this), some of the kink-play felt too recognizably modern to fit the fantasy setting. While I'm well aware that there really isn't anything new under the sun, humans have done it all before, when Gale brought out the kinky collars and leashes (for example) if just felt so very like this moment in time, instead of the fantasy historical time period of the rest of the book. It's not that I didn't think it fit Lucian and Glory's kink, it's that I felt like the kink being expressed in such a stereotypically recognizable way didn't fit the the fantasy world. Like maybe Gale was trying to catch the market since that was, after all, fairly common in trope in erotica for a while. It stood out from the rest of the story, the leash especially.
All in all, this is a likeable book. Despite my complaints, I liked it. I'll probably read anything Gale puts out after this. But I simply couldn't like it as much as HSI and that's a shame.
Merged review:
3.5
This is a hard book to review. Because I liked it. There's no denying that. But I so liked book one and just don't feel like this one stands up to it. And it's hard not to let my disappointment color my objectivity and general opinion.
Like [b:His Secret Illuminations|55750790|His Secret Illuminations (The Warrior's Guild #1)|Scarlett Gale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603242434l/55750790._SY75_.jpg|86945240] (HSI), the writing here is fun and easy to read. It's full of a diverse and quirky cast of characters, all of whom I like. But unlike HSI it didn't have the glorious sexual tension to carry the long, slow plot. Instead it had all the sex instead. And while I enjoy a good sex scene (and I'll grant that the scenes here were at least varied) I eventually started skimming them because I was bored of them. I felt like they got in the way of the plot.
Plus, while HSI was full of Lucian's internal conflict, which grabbed and held me rapt. His Sacred Incantation has Lucian and Glory's wholesome love. And while that's not a bad thing, it too became super repetitive. For example, my kindle tells me the word love was used 131 times in the book. Between calling each other "my love" and telling each other that they love one another that's a lot of love. What's worse, my kindle also tells me the word kiss (or variations of the word—kissing, kissed, etc) was used 168 times. And that's just kiss; it doesn't include "pecked on the cheek" or "pressed her lips to his temple," or any of a million other ways to describe a kiss. The book isn't even 400 pages long. That's an awful lot of kissing going on, like more than one every other page! I just got bored with it all. It's sweet, but sweet won't carry a book like internal conflict will, in my experience.
Lastly (and I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this), some of the kink-play felt too recognizably modern to fit the fantasy setting. While I'm well aware that there really isn't anything new under the sun, humans have done it all before, when Gale brought out the kinky collars and leashes (for example) if just felt so very like this moment in time, instead of the fantasy historical time period of the rest of the book. It's not that I didn't think it fit Lucian and Glory's kink, it's that I felt like the kink being expressed in such a stereotypically recognizable way didn't fit the the fantasy world. Like maybe Gale was trying to catch the market since that was, after all, fairly common in trope in erotica for a while. It stood out from the rest of the story, the leash especially.
All in all, this is a likeable book. Despite my complaints, I liked it. I'll probably read anything Gale puts out after this. But I simply couldn't like it as much as HSI and that's a shame.
This is a hard book to review. Because I liked it. There's no denying that. But I so liked book one and just don't feel like this one stands up to it. And it's hard not to let my disappointment color my objectivity and general opinion.
Like [b:His Secret Illuminations|55750790|His Secret Illuminations (The Warrior's Guild #1)|Scarlett Gale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603242434l/55750790._SY75_.jpg|86945240] (HSI), the writing here is fun and easy to read. It's full of a diverse and quirky cast of characters, all of whom I like. But unlike HSI it didn't have the glorious sexual tension to carry the long, slow plot. Instead it had all the sex instead. And while I enjoy a good sex scene (and I'll grant that the scenes here were at least varied) I eventually started skimming them because I was bored of them. I felt like they got in the way of the plot.
Plus, while HSI was full of Lucian's internal conflict, which grabbed and held me rapt. His Sacred Incantation has Lucian and Glory's wholesome love. And while that's not a bad thing, it too became super repetitive. For example, my kindle tells me the word love was used 131 times in the book. Between calling each other "my love" and telling each other that they love one another that's a lot of love. What's worse, my kindle also tells me the word kiss (or variations of the word—kissing, kissed, etc) was used 168 times. And that's just kiss; it doesn't include "pecked on the cheek" or "pressed her lips to his temple," or any of a million other ways to describe a kiss. The book isn't even 400 pages long. That's an awful lot of kissing going on, like more than one every other page! I just got bored with it all. It's sweet, but sweet won't carry a book like internal conflict will, in my experience.
Lastly (and I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this), some of the kink-play felt too recognizably modern to fit the fantasy setting. While I'm well aware that there really isn't anything new under the sun, humans have done it all before, when Gale brought out the kinky collars and leashes (for example) if just felt so very like this moment in time, instead of the fantasy historical time period of the rest of the book. It's not that I didn't think it fit Lucian and Glory's kink, it's that I felt like the kink being expressed in such a stereotypically recognizable way didn't fit the the fantasy world. Like maybe Gale was trying to catch the market since that was, after all, fairly common in trope in erotica for a while. It stood out from the rest of the story, the leash especially.
All in all, this is a likeable book. Despite my complaints, I liked it. I'll probably read anything Gale puts out after this. But I simply couldn't like it as much as HSI and that's a shame.
Merged review:
3.5
This is a hard book to review. Because I liked it. There's no denying that. But I so liked book one and just don't feel like this one stands up to it. And it's hard not to let my disappointment color my objectivity and general opinion.
Like [b:His Secret Illuminations|55750790|His Secret Illuminations (The Warrior's Guild #1)|Scarlett Gale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603242434l/55750790._SY75_.jpg|86945240] (HSI), the writing here is fun and easy to read. It's full of a diverse and quirky cast of characters, all of whom I like. But unlike HSI it didn't have the glorious sexual tension to carry the long, slow plot. Instead it had all the sex instead. And while I enjoy a good sex scene (and I'll grant that the scenes here were at least varied) I eventually started skimming them because I was bored of them. I felt like they got in the way of the plot.
Plus, while HSI was full of Lucian's internal conflict, which grabbed and held me rapt. His Sacred Incantation has Lucian and Glory's wholesome love. And while that's not a bad thing, it too became super repetitive. For example, my kindle tells me the word love was used 131 times in the book. Between calling each other "my love" and telling each other that they love one another that's a lot of love. What's worse, my kindle also tells me the word kiss (or variations of the word—kissing, kissed, etc) was used 168 times. And that's just kiss; it doesn't include "pecked on the cheek" or "pressed her lips to his temple," or any of a million other ways to describe a kiss. The book isn't even 400 pages long. That's an awful lot of kissing going on, like more than one every other page! I just got bored with it all. It's sweet, but sweet won't carry a book like internal conflict will, in my experience.
Lastly (and I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this), some of the kink-play felt too recognizably modern to fit the fantasy setting. While I'm well aware that there really isn't anything new under the sun, humans have done it all before, when Gale brought out the kinky collars and leashes (for example) if just felt so very like this moment in time, instead of the fantasy historical time period of the rest of the book. It's not that I didn't think it fit Lucian and Glory's kink, it's that I felt like the kink being expressed in such a stereotypically recognizable way didn't fit the the fantasy world. Like maybe Gale was trying to catch the market since that was, after all, fairly common in trope in erotica for a while. It stood out from the rest of the story, the leash especially.
All in all, this is a likeable book. Despite my complaints, I liked it. I'll probably read anything Gale puts out after this. But I simply couldn't like it as much as HSI and that's a shame.
adventurous
emotional
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:
No
adventurous
emotional
funny
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:
No
A lovely finish to the first book. The ending was overall quite satisfying and perfectly sweet. Overall, I didn't enjoy it as much as His Secret Illuminations, but it had a lot of interesting new settings and fun characters! I think a lot of what was driving the first book was the relationship between Lucian and Glory, while this book started to progress the book-finding plot again. I do wish we could have combined these elements a bit more throughout both books.
The characters remain lovable overall, thought perhaps a bit too much for the side characters - there was rarely any conflict within our main group and everyone was very idealized. It's clear the author loves all of her creations! I did feel like Glory wasn't as fleshed out this time, taking a backseat to Lucian's growth. This also felt like the case for the sex scenes. I enjoyed the kink overall and it slid nicely into their dynamic, but it was very focused on Lucian at times. I wish we'd seen more of what Glory wanted and what drew her to want to do the things Lucian wanted other than sheer desire to please him.
Most of my complaints about the last book were present here as well. The lack of information about the religious system of the world still felt glaringly obvious. The writing was still littered with a lot of the same small grammatical errors, in addition to growing more repetitive and including more anachronisms. I didn't mind so much in the first novel, but they started to become more noticeable here without the novelty to help me look past them this time.
Overall, I enjoyed spending more time with Lucian and Glory and was glad to see resolutions all the plots set up in the first book! I would still recommend this duology.
The characters remain lovable overall, thought perhaps a bit too much for the side characters - there was rarely any conflict within our main group and everyone was very idealized. It's clear the author loves all of her creations! I did feel like Glory wasn't as fleshed out this time, taking a backseat to Lucian's growth. This also felt like the case for the sex scenes. I enjoyed the kink overall and it slid nicely into their dynamic, but it was very focused on Lucian at times. I wish we'd seen more of what Glory wanted and what drew her to want to do the things Lucian wanted other than sheer desire to please him.
Most of my complaints about the last book were present here as well. The lack of information about the religious system of the world still felt glaringly obvious. The writing was still littered with a lot of the same small grammatical errors, in addition to growing more repetitive and including more anachronisms. I didn't mind so much in the first novel, but they started to become more noticeable here without the novelty to help me look past them this time.
Overall, I enjoyed spending more time with Lucian and Glory and was glad to see resolutions all the plots set up in the first book! I would still recommend this duology.
adventurous
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:
Complicated
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed the first book. This one just didn't work for me. Had it been set a year later, I think I would have been more accepting. It moved a little too fast for me, and I get they're in life or death situations but Lucian has literally never experienced the real world beyond these 4 months and the way he's accepting some of these big changes in his lifestyle doesn't feel real.
I knew this book was going to cover the other part of the recovered book, but it was just ok. I wasn't particularly invested and never felt any worry about the characters. Saying that, I do really enjoy the cast of supporting characters!
Ultimately, I tend to enjoy stories about how the couple first gets together and not so much about them maintaining their relationship. It makes sense that I was already not as interested as I was in the first book.
I knew this book was going to cover the other part of the recovered book, but it was just ok. I wasn't particularly invested and never felt any worry about the characters. Saying that, I do really enjoy the cast of supporting characters!
Ultimately, I tend to enjoy stories about how the couple first gets together and not so much about them maintaining their relationship. It makes sense that I was already not as interested as I was in the first book.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No