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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Character development throughout the series has lead to this. I’m sure others were not pleased by the amount of romance in this book but each romance served a purpose to propel the story forward and gave us enough information about each character to justify their roles/actions in the war. This could have been a very dark story with the loss/ fighting through trauma, but the addition of other characters POV and love forged in hard times it was so enjoyable.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
tense
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
This book series has emotionally wrecked me! It is SO GOOD! It will make you cry, yell, and lose sleep no doubt but it is an amazing story that I have become absolutely obsessed with! 5 stars and a place in my top 5 favorite book series of all time!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Still absolutely adore this series. However I am just hoping and praying that Elloren doesn't fall into that trap of the MOST POWERFUL CHARACTER THERE EVER WAS. You know the types, the ones where it feels like they unlock one thing after another that makes them oh-so-special. I will be kind of bummed if that becomes the case for the next book. But I am still beyond excited to read the next installment.
Audiobook
She made Lukas my fav and then snatched him away
She made Lukas my fav and then snatched him away
As a newcomer to the series, discovering this was the fourth book halfway through was unexpected. While I didn't feel disconnected from the story, the lack of prior character development hindered my emotional investment compared to long-time readers.
The plot progressed, and characters evolved, but the impact was lessened by repetitive scenes and an overemphasis on certain characters at the expense of others. The ending, however, was surprising and impactful.
Marcus Vogel is a compelling villain, driven by a twisted sense of religious conviction. The book's exploration of different races and their physical attributes was confusing at times.
I so deeply wanted to love this book as I was absolutely enamored with the first three but there were times that this was… hard to get through, for me. Which is saying a lot since I read the first three (plus the two prequels) in the span of, like, 2 weeks.
My biggest issue with The Demon Tide was the amount of useless POVs it had. I’m not the biggest fan of multiple POVs in general, but I think it can be good when done right. This book, however, introduced far too many POVs from characters I simply do not care about. Like WHO is Mora and why should I care? I do not. Along with this, how did we have SO many POVs from side characters but not a single Jarod or Diana POV? Why did this series all of a sudden start hating the Lupines after the second book? Their whole family dies but navigating their trauma was not a compelling enough story for them to get their own POV chapters? I will be forever bitter. Diana and Jarod were some of the highlights of the first two books.
The Xishlon portion of this book was an absolute nightmare to get through. Suffering through every minor character’s annoying side love story was painful. The only of these worth reading were Vothe/Trystan, Aislinn/Jarod, and Tierney/Viger (only because Viger is actually an interesting character, unlike some of the others introduced in this book). And while we’re on the subject, why did I have to suffer through THREE different men pining for Tierney? I will never knock a love triangle, but a love square is overkill.
How did a series that started off with so many compelling characters devolve into a love-fest of pairing off every single side character perfectly? Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine for these characters to have their little happy ending, but it could have easily been revealed by a single line of dialogue rather than whole chapters dedicated to these characters. Why give us annoying POV chapters from characters we don’t care about rather than POV chapters for already established characters? Why are Trystan and Tierney the only ones from the original gang who got POV chapters added? Yes I’m complaining about the Lupines again.
My last grand complaint is something I already complained about in my review for the last book (as I wrongly assumed Lukas was already dead). It is an absolute COP OUTTT to kill off one of the love interests in a love triangle to make the decision easy for the main character. Relatedly, Elloren repeatedly stated during this book that she chose LUKAS and very clearly let Yvan know that. My assumption is that her and Yvan are going to get together in the next book, though, which just feels weird because it’s like her saying “damn my first pick is dead I guess it’ll have to be you instead?” I’m a Lukas stan through and through but I adore Yvan and he deserves better than that.
This book also had some weird third person/first person switches, like some of Vothe and Trystan’s chapters were written in first person but then other chapters of theirs were written in third, however I’m willing to ignore this in lieu of all the other glaring issues in this novel.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad. I was glad to see Elloren reunited with Yvan and Lukas’ POV chapters were fun. I was also stoked to see Ariel again, as I kind of thought her plot had been forgotten. I’ll be reading the next one and I’m hoping it won’t disappoint! Fingers crossed she brings back Lukas somehow because I miss my boy already.
My biggest issue with The Demon Tide was the amount of useless POVs it had. I’m not the biggest fan of multiple POVs in general, but I think it can be good when done right. This book, however, introduced far too many POVs from characters I simply do not care about. Like WHO is Mora and why should I care? I do not. Along with this, how did we have SO many POVs from side characters but not a single Jarod or Diana POV? Why did this series all of a sudden start hating the Lupines after the second book? Their whole family dies but navigating their trauma was not a compelling enough story for them to get their own POV chapters? I will be forever bitter. Diana and Jarod were some of the highlights of the first two books.
The Xishlon portion of this book was an absolute nightmare to get through. Suffering through every minor character’s annoying side love story was painful. The only of these worth reading were Vothe/Trystan, Aislinn/Jarod, and Tierney/Viger (only because Viger is actually an interesting character, unlike some of the others introduced in this book). And while we’re on the subject, why did I have to suffer through THREE different men pining for Tierney? I will never knock a love triangle, but a love square is overkill.
How did a series that started off with so many compelling characters devolve into a love-fest of pairing off every single side character perfectly? Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine for these characters to have their little happy ending, but it could have easily been revealed by a single line of dialogue rather than whole chapters dedicated to these characters. Why give us annoying POV chapters from characters we don’t care about rather than POV chapters for already established characters? Why are Trystan and Tierney the only ones from the original gang who got POV chapters added? Yes I’m complaining about the Lupines again.
My last grand complaint is something I already complained about in my review for the last book (as I wrongly assumed Lukas was already dead). It is an absolute COP OUTTT to kill off one of the love interests in a love triangle to make the decision easy for the main character. Relatedly, Elloren repeatedly stated during this book that she chose LUKAS and very clearly let Yvan know that. My assumption is that her and Yvan are going to get together in the next book, though, which just feels weird because it’s like her saying “damn my first pick is dead I guess it’ll have to be you instead?” I’m a Lukas stan through and through but I adore Yvan and he deserves better than that.
This book also had some weird third person/first person switches, like some of Vothe and Trystan’s chapters were written in first person but then other chapters of theirs were written in third, however I’m willing to ignore this in lieu of all the other glaring issues in this novel.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad. I was glad to see Elloren reunited with Yvan and Lukas’ POV chapters were fun. I was also stoked to see Ariel again, as I kind of thought her plot had been forgotten. I’ll be reading the next one and I’m hoping it won’t disappoint! Fingers crossed she brings back Lukas somehow because I miss my boy already.