Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Thank you so much to Berkley pub for the free book!
4.5 stars
This book picks up almost immediately after the ending of book one. From the very first page, I was drawn into the book. I loved it. The story and world were so engrossing. I found it extremely hard to put it down.
At times, it was hard to trust anyone. The characters were often fueled by their own ambitions. Each character was complicated and messy. Meilin, our main character, most of all. She constantly rested between the desire for power and her own morals. There were many moments where she was so overcome with greed that she could not tell if it was her or the dragon within her causing it.
This book felt even darker than the first. As the world became more entwined with magic, I could feel each character slipping into the darkness. The author doesn’t shy away from the corruption that comes with power. Every bit of magic comes with a price.
Despite everything, I still held so much love for Meilin. This book was fully her story. The good and the bad, I truly loved the way the author wrote her character. It’s rare to see a character like Meilin. I love that the author allowed her to be messy and selfish at times. She was so strong and fierce, yet she was also vulnerable and so empathetic. This girl went through so much, but I absolutely loved every second of her journey.
I would be remiss to not include a mention of Lei. I loved that man since book one, and I loved him even more in this one. I loved how fully he embraced every single aspect of Meilin. He never shied away from any part of her.
I am devastated that this duology is over. I don’t want to leave this world or characters behind. And yet it was the most perfect ending? It was a beautiful journey, and I loved every page.
4.5 stars
This book picks up almost immediately after the ending of book one. From the very first page, I was drawn into the book. I loved it. The story and world were so engrossing. I found it extremely hard to put it down.
At times, it was hard to trust anyone. The characters were often fueled by their own ambitions. Each character was complicated and messy. Meilin, our main character, most of all. She constantly rested between the desire for power and her own morals. There were many moments where she was so overcome with greed that she could not tell if it was her or the dragon within her causing it.
This book felt even darker than the first. As the world became more entwined with magic, I could feel each character slipping into the darkness. The author doesn’t shy away from the corruption that comes with power. Every bit of magic comes with a price.
Despite everything, I still held so much love for Meilin. This book was fully her story. The good and the bad, I truly loved the way the author wrote her character. It’s rare to see a character like Meilin. I love that the author allowed her to be messy and selfish at times. She was so strong and fierce, yet she was also vulnerable and so empathetic. This girl went through so much, but I absolutely loved every second of her journey.
I would be remiss to not include a mention of Lei. I loved that man since book one, and I loved him even more in this one. I loved how fully he embraced every single aspect of Meilin. He never shied away from any part of her.
I am devastated that this duology is over. I don’t want to leave this world or characters behind. And yet it was the most perfect ending? It was a beautiful journey, and I loved every page.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A grand ending to such a sad tale. I do feel like a lot of it was kinda all over the place and a little confusing at times, but I still liked it and thought it was a great ending to this doulogy
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Did I completely miss the point?? The past book was about Meilin finding her voice and her power to become free. She was going to prove she could be as good or better than any men. In this book, seems to me like she is backtracking on everything: her ambition in not ambition but greed and it is poisoning her and she regrets not being content with her life before the war and now she is a villain and victim. Feels to me like she is telling me that wanting more is bad, so you should be happy with what you have.
The love triangle is a Tamlin-Rhysand situation and it feels very off with how the characters were presented in the first book. Their change feels irrational and completely unjustified. Same with Meilin, she became a damsel in distress who is constantly suffering cause she is addicted to magic, and withdraw makes her sick and weak, and sleepy, so everybody has to carry her and protect her all the time. There are also times when she acts like a spoiled brat and that's when I wish the commander would just decapitate her. My guess is that the author was trying to make a distinction between the voice of Meilin and the voice of the dragon influencing Meilin, but I feel like that only emphasizes the idea that Meilin was not the powerful strong warrior she wanted to be in the first book. She never had any agency and it was always the dragon making her who she was, which I think contradicts the idea of a feminist Mulan. 🤔
the story felt very disjointed as well. It felt like 2 or 3 different main plots in one story: Meilin wants Sky to be Emperor, Meilin escapes with the prince to find spring to cure herself and Meilin goes to war against the spirits. And the writing is so repetitive. Meilin is constantly thinking back to what other people told her before and so you get entire pages repeating paragraphs of text you already read. Once or twice is fine, but I feel like she did this in most of the chapters, so it got very annoying.
I don't know if it's me who just didn't get the point of this story, but I was so disappointed with this book. It was one of my most anticipated releases of this year and I almost DNF it multiple times. I kept reading hoping it would get better, but no... I'm heartbroken 💔
The love triangle is a Tamlin-Rhysand situation and it feels very off with how the characters were presented in the first book. Their change feels irrational and completely unjustified. Same with Meilin, she became a damsel in distress who is constantly suffering cause she is addicted to magic, and withdraw makes her sick and weak, and sleepy, so everybody has to carry her and protect her all the time. There are also times when she acts like a spoiled brat and that's when I wish the commander would just decapitate her. My guess is that the author was trying to make a distinction between the voice of Meilin and the voice of the dragon influencing Meilin, but I feel like that only emphasizes the idea that Meilin was not the powerful strong warrior she wanted to be in the first book. She never had any agency and it was always the dragon making her who she was, which I think contradicts the idea of a feminist Mulan. 🤔
the story felt very disjointed as well. It felt like 2 or 3 different main plots in one story: Meilin wants Sky to be Emperor, Meilin escapes with the prince to find spring to cure herself and Meilin goes to war against the spirits. And the writing is so repetitive. Meilin is constantly thinking back to what other people told her before and so you get entire pages repeating paragraphs of text you already read. Once or twice is fine, but I feel like she did this in most of the chapters, so it got very annoying.
I don't know if it's me who just didn't get the point of this story, but I was so disappointed with this book. It was one of my most anticipated releases of this year and I almost DNF it multiple times. I kept reading hoping it would get better, but no... I'm heartbroken 💔
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes