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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
slow-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:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
No
What the fuck did I just read?
4 books into a 5 book story...and there's virtually zero plot to be found? All 4 books have been 600+ pages long, mind you, and the actual PLOT part of this story could maybe take up a 400 page standalone. I--
Okay, so, there's gonna probably be some spoilers in this <s>rant</s> review. This is your warning.
Let's start off with, perhaps, the least offensive thing I can think of and work our way up, shall we?
1. Jesus Christ the POV shifts. In the last book, it was a clear divide between Elloren in 1st person and everybody else in 3rd person. Now, we're randomly getting other characters in 1st person too, but some are still in 3rd person. It made reading this book a weird sort of mindfuck. All the random mes and Is ended up blurring characters together, until I struggled to tell them apart from each other and Elloren, despite them being in different places and having entirely different things going on around them. It was fucking annoying.
2. Not <i>everybody</i> needs to be in a love triangle. Tierney having 3 suitors, Vothendrile being torn between duty and Trystan, Elloren's obvious hobaggery that weirdly turns into a throuple thing before, well. Let's just say some bonds get broken... Just. Stop.
3. It's also hella weird, right, that we've heard nothing of Diana, Jarod, or Rafe for over a book? Why aren't we following any of their perspectives? We have literally everybody else's... In the last book, we got literally 1 sentence about Rafe turning lupine on the first full moon after their leaving. That's all we've heard about the lupines since book 2. They finally DO show up about 40% of the way into this, but even that is vague, and viewed through another character's POV. They almost don't exist at all! These prominent characters in books 1 and 2 are just pushed aside for all these random new ones showing up out of nowhere! Justice for the Lupines!
4. It's also weird that for 75% of this book, we're just following like 16 different people as they fall in love with other people. Nevermind that there's a war happening? That shit's going down? No no, we need everybody ever to have a romance!
THIS is probably the worst part of this whole book. The fucking romances have this story in a stranglehold. Never in my life have I read a fantasy series where EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER EVER TO BE GIVEN A NAME ENDS UP IN LOVE. I wish I was joking. I really fucking do.
And it's sad, because I <i>enjoyed</i> some of these romances. Some of them had me SOBBING. Trystan and Vothe and Aislinn and Jarod...god. Yes. I'd read about their romances all day long. I'd prefer them over the weird shit going on with Elloren and her boys any day. But everybody else???? No thank you.
There are too many characters in this story, and not everybody needs to have a whole romance arc. There's not enough time to devote to properly fleshing out such a thing, so a lot of the stories, while compelling, are still shells of what they COULD have been if the characters in question were the MAIN characters in their own series-long tales. And literally <i>everybody</i> in this story has a romantic interest (or 2). The adults, the kids, side characters, I mean <i>everybody!</i>
We're following everybody from Trystan, to people we have only just met and barely know as they have romantic interludes. SOME of these are cute, SOME of these have had the chance to build and get us invested. Others... I don't know these assholes and I don't give a shit that they're kissing each other. Why the fuck am I being forced to read about a professor we heard about maybe twice in BOOK 1! and some random woman who showed up halfway through this book????? Why should I care? Was it necessary to get EVERYBODY together in this book? Even the characters we don't know and have no connection with? No. No it was not.
Halfway through this romance-marathon, I began to wonder if I was gonna get a chapter from Vogel and some random lover, too. I'm honestly SHOCKED we don't. Because every other character that has ever existed in this series, just about, gets their moment. It's so fucking ridiculous!
AND THEN we get to see all those happy moments shatter. Everyone gets <i>almost there</i> before THE PLOT gets in the way. And then, we get to read about THE PLOT from 23973 different perspectives. :| It's literally a repeat of the same events one after another after another. (I get it bro, the mountain exploded and there's broken dragons flying around everywhere.)
5. This book is almost 700 pages. And we could easily have cut over 300 pages of JUST romancey time-wasting.
6. This series had a plot at some point, I swear it did. We have to wait until we're 80% of the way through this book before the plot shows back up. I feel like I cannot stress enough how very un-hyperbole I'm being. I actually checked both the kindle % AND the audiobook % as I was following along. We don't get action and danger and death and PLOT until 80% of the way through, after a mind-melting 16-20 chapters of non-stop characters pairing off and kissing or fucking.
Look I can't say it enough. We are 4 books into a 5 book series. And this audiobook is LITERALLY just 18 hours of people thinking about kissing other people. The plot in this book should NOT begin at the 80% mark. And that's EXACTLY where it starts. 18:15:44 in to the audiobook, we FINALLY get some real action. The audiobook, for reference, is only 22:34:41 long!
7. 4 books into a story, we should be WELL into the battling by now. We should have a hero or heroine well-versed in her power being a total badass and taking out enemies (if not the main enemy, then surely his minions). But once again. Elloren is goddamned useless. We don't get to see her power because up until about 85% of the way through the book, she's still tree-bound. Magicless. And when her magic IS unbound, she's immediately taken over by Vogel. But even once she's corrupted...does she use it to scorch the city? Nope. She blasts fire a couple times at Yvan. And doesn't even kill him. The only interesting part of Elloren's tale in this book happens 90% of the way through, when she encounters III. But it's just the set up for book 5. It's not actually action and plot in THIS book.
Now. All of THAT aside. The action we did get was decent. If confusing. Which is only natural when you have to write out 16 different perspectives fighting. The Dryads showing up is also interesting, but if you know the name of the last book in the series, it's not wholly unexpected. The ENDING of this book has promise, a good set up for the final installment in the series.
But do I have any faith that that won't be just 700 more pages of will-they-won't-they kissy-face mating?
No. At this point, I do not. I fear it'll be another 18 hours of Love Island followed by 3-4 hours of actual shit happening. And frankly, I don't know if I can do it.
I'm giving this 2.5 stars
4 books into a 5 book story...and there's virtually zero plot to be found? All 4 books have been 600+ pages long, mind you, and the actual PLOT part of this story could maybe take up a 400 page standalone. I--
Okay, so, there's gonna probably be some spoilers in this <s>rant</s> review. This is your warning.
Let's start off with, perhaps, the least offensive thing I can think of and work our way up, shall we?
1. Jesus Christ the POV shifts. In the last book, it was a clear divide between Elloren in 1st person and everybody else in 3rd person. Now, we're randomly getting other characters in 1st person too, but some are still in 3rd person. It made reading this book a weird sort of mindfuck. All the random mes and Is ended up blurring characters together, until I struggled to tell them apart from each other and Elloren, despite them being in different places and having entirely different things going on around them. It was fucking annoying.
2. Not <i>everybody</i> needs to be in a love triangle. Tierney having 3 suitors, Vothendrile being torn between duty and Trystan, Elloren's obvious hobaggery that weirdly turns into a throuple thing before, well. Let's just say some bonds get broken... Just. Stop.
3. It's also hella weird, right, that we've heard nothing of Diana, Jarod, or Rafe for over a book? Why aren't we following any of their perspectives? We have literally everybody else's... In the last book, we got literally 1 sentence about Rafe turning lupine on the first full moon after their leaving. That's all we've heard about the lupines since book 2. They finally DO show up about 40% of the way into this, but even that is vague, and viewed through another character's POV. They almost don't exist at all! These prominent characters in books 1 and 2 are just pushed aside for all these random new ones showing up out of nowhere! Justice for the Lupines!
4. It's also weird that for 75% of this book, we're just following like 16 different people as they fall in love with other people. Nevermind that there's a war happening? That shit's going down? No no, we need everybody ever to have a romance!
THIS is probably the worst part of this whole book. The fucking romances have this story in a stranglehold. Never in my life have I read a fantasy series where EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER EVER TO BE GIVEN A NAME ENDS UP IN LOVE. I wish I was joking. I really fucking do.
And it's sad, because I <i>enjoyed</i> some of these romances. Some of them had me SOBBING. Trystan and Vothe and Aislinn and Jarod...god. Yes. I'd read about their romances all day long. I'd prefer them over the weird shit going on with Elloren and her boys any day. But everybody else???? No thank you.
There are too many characters in this story, and not everybody needs to have a whole romance arc. There's not enough time to devote to properly fleshing out such a thing, so a lot of the stories, while compelling, are still shells of what they COULD have been if the characters in question were the MAIN characters in their own series-long tales. And literally <i>everybody</i> in this story has a romantic interest (or 2). The adults, the kids, side characters, I mean <i>everybody!</i>
We're following everybody from Trystan, to people we have only just met and barely know as they have romantic interludes. SOME of these are cute, SOME of these have had the chance to build and get us invested. Others... I don't know these assholes and I don't give a shit that they're kissing each other. Why the fuck am I being forced to read about a professor we heard about maybe twice in BOOK 1! and some random woman who showed up halfway through this book????? Why should I care? Was it necessary to get EVERYBODY together in this book? Even the characters we don't know and have no connection with? No. No it was not.
Halfway through this romance-marathon, I began to wonder if I was gonna get a chapter from Vogel and some random lover, too. I'm honestly SHOCKED we don't. Because every other character that has ever existed in this series, just about, gets their moment. It's so fucking ridiculous!
AND THEN we get to see all those happy moments shatter. Everyone gets <i>almost there</i> before THE PLOT gets in the way. And then, we get to read about THE PLOT from 23973 different perspectives. :| It's literally a repeat of the same events one after another after another. (I get it bro, the mountain exploded and there's broken dragons flying around everywhere.)
5. This book is almost 700 pages. And we could easily have cut over 300 pages of JUST romancey time-wasting.
6. This series had a plot at some point, I swear it did. We have to wait until we're 80% of the way through this book before the plot shows back up. I feel like I cannot stress enough how very un-hyperbole I'm being. I actually checked both the kindle % AND the audiobook % as I was following along. We don't get action and danger and death and PLOT until 80% of the way through, after a mind-melting 16-20 chapters of non-stop characters pairing off and kissing or fucking.
Look I can't say it enough. We are 4 books into a 5 book series. And this audiobook is LITERALLY just 18 hours of people thinking about kissing other people. The plot in this book should NOT begin at the 80% mark. And that's EXACTLY where it starts. 18:15:44 in to the audiobook, we FINALLY get some real action. The audiobook, for reference, is only 22:34:41 long!
7. 4 books into a story, we should be WELL into the battling by now. We should have a hero or heroine well-versed in her power being a total badass and taking out enemies (if not the main enemy, then surely his minions). But once again. Elloren is goddamned useless. We don't get to see her power because up until about 85% of the way through the book, she's still tree-bound. Magicless. And when her magic IS unbound, she's immediately taken over by Vogel. But even once she's corrupted...does she use it to scorch the city? Nope. She blasts fire a couple times at Yvan. And doesn't even kill him. The only interesting part of Elloren's tale in this book happens 90% of the way through, when she encounters III. But it's just the set up for book 5. It's not actually action and plot in THIS book.
Now. All of THAT aside. The action we did get was decent. If confusing. Which is only natural when you have to write out 16 different perspectives fighting. The Dryads showing up is also interesting, but if you know the name of the last book in the series, it's not wholly unexpected. The ENDING of this book has promise, a good set up for the final installment in the series.
But do I have any faith that that won't be just 700 more pages of will-they-won't-they kissy-face mating?
No. At this point, I do not. I fear it'll be another 18 hours of Love Island followed by 3-4 hours of actual shit happening. And frankly, I don't know if I can do it.
I'm giving this 2.5 stars
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
So many thoughts and feelings as I finish this purple book. First- Trysten and Vothe totally could have had their own Novella, same for Tierney. I adored their story lines SO much.
I was disappointed with how little of Elloren, Yvan, Lukas, Diana, Jared, etc. that we got and how we had so so many new characters having their own chapters. I did feel a little lost at points.
The writing of the book was fantastic at times and I really hope the Laurie Forest continues writing and especially keeps writing high fantasy. I would love to see her make the jump into New Adult with how well she writes romance and fantasy.
So many parts of the story were unique! I loved the festival and especially the glimpse of happiness for some characters to help offset the impending doom.
I’m going to read the next book because I have to know how this is all wrapped up but I have to admit I’m a little disappointed in this one and especially heartbroken over the love triangle. I went back and forth on who I shipped the most and coming into Demon Tide I just ADORED Lukas, what a truly great man.
All in all I hope to be surprised in the next book and do look forward to how the story will end.
I was disappointed with how little of Elloren, Yvan, Lukas, Diana, Jared, etc. that we got and how we had so so many new characters having their own chapters. I did feel a little lost at points.
The writing of the book was fantastic at times and I really hope the Laurie Forest continues writing and especially keeps writing high fantasy. I would love to see her make the jump into New Adult with how well she writes romance and fantasy.
So many parts of the story were unique! I loved the festival and especially the glimpse of happiness for some characters to help offset the impending doom.
I’m going to read the next book because I have to know how this is all wrapped up but I have to admit I’m a little disappointed in this one and especially heartbroken over the love triangle. I went back and forth on who I shipped the most and coming into Demon Tide I just ADORED Lukas, what a truly great man.
All in all I hope to be surprised in the next book and do look forward to how the story will end.
This series is my current obsession, 6 stars for me. It’s a little more political/less spicy than my typical read, but I really needed that palate cleanser in my life. It’s also SO SO different than a lot of other popular series out there. The slow burn in this series is chefs kiss. I need book 5 STAT.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book dragged on and on and was so boring and then it ends in a way that made me regret ever starting this series.