Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Gadriel: If you want me to train you I need you to understand it sucks very much, I was thrown off a cliff with my hands tied behind my back so you need to agree.
Amaris: totes, yeah, I'm all good.
Gadriel: ok, remember it's violent and awful but here's a safeword.
Amaris: yo man, do whatever you want to do, I am in full agreement.
Gadriel: *Does a violent and awful thing that Amaris totally agreed to*
Amaris: *shocked pikachu face*
The first book I rated at 4 stars when I felt it was closer to 3.5, partially I was annoyed at all the people who hadn't even read it giving it a 1 star review because of stupid tiktok drama so I shifted up. This time I'm shifting down, I still think it's a 3.5 but I'm less charitable where this book had more time for editing and the author should have been able to find her stride a bit more.
look, it's good...ish. it's not great. I'll start with the good. The sex scene was good once it got going. Nox's character development is progressing nicely. The newly introduced magical elements were fun, action scenes tend to work, the magical orb heist scene at the university was a fun little adventure. The revelation about Nox's identity was seeded well enough that it didn't come out of left field entirely, I had been suspecting it for awhile (which is good), but not so clumsily telegraphed that it felt too obvious. The temple scene was quite effective for showing the horrors of war and the blurry line between soldier and victim. The apple-induced visions were an effective and engaging form of exposition, I only wish the author trusted us enough to connect the dots ourselves without having to spell it out for us all over again exactly what we'd just seen. she does that a lot I'm afraid, I hope she learns to trust her audience a bit more going forward. It's not exactly Finnegan's Wake here, I'm sure if she stops over-explaining everything we're still going to manage to keep up.
Now the bad. Amaris. She behaved every inch the petulant and immature brat. First she's sulking for days because when he was actively bleeding to death Gadriel didn't wax poetic about the complicated nature of their relationship to a complete stranger. Next she's throwing a complete tantrum because he did exactly what she asked him to do in training her. I am really beginning to hate Amaris, Nox can do better.
Besides that, I still hear the author's voice far too strongly in narration and dialogue choices. Yes, consent in sexy-time fiction is good, but can you stop beating us over the head with the fact that this is what you're doing? 'are you sure? is this what you want? I need to hear you say yes if you want to be together. It's important to have a frank and open discussion about our feelings to make sure we're being healthy in this relationship. seriously though, do you consent?' ughhhhhhh. Same goes for when the story just pauses to discuss the nature of trauma and the different responses people have to it. Like I said before, you can trust you audience a bit more without having to spell things out all the time.
I guess as well we're just going to have to do a little 'the invisible guiding hand of the all mother' hand-wavium to explain how a crazed dragon-monster-demon thing just happened to drop Amaris and Gadriel at exactly the one place in the whole continent where they could get healed (rather than Gadriel being instantly killed for a demon) as well as the location of their current Macguffin hunt. whatever. it's fine.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-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
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“The world is simple when you can bisect it. Everything is so much more painful when it’s gray.”
“You weren’t hiding Amaris, were you?”
I have such mixed feelings about this.
The pacing at times made the read feel never ending. And the Gad and Amaris romance plot line got old fast, his energy at the end was much more what I hoped for. Reading Amaris’ chapters tended to be painful for the most.
But on the other hand the story is filled with things I love: the complex characters and political environment, sapphic yearning, friendship, and the whole Gray Matron aspect.
The fact Amaris was literally made for Nox literally has me screaming still.
Will I keep reading these books absolutely, I’m way too interested in how Nox and Amaris’ story ends but I may gripe about it along the way.
“You weren’t hiding Amaris, were you?”
I have such mixed feelings about this.
The pacing at times made the read feel never ending. And the Gad and Amaris romance plot line got old fast, his energy at the end was much more what I hoped for. Reading Amaris’ chapters tended to be painful for the most.
But on the other hand the story is filled with things I love: the complex characters and political environment, sapphic yearning, friendship, and the whole Gray Matron aspect.
The fact Amaris was literally made for Nox literally has me screaming still.
Will I keep reading these books absolutely, I’m way too interested in how Nox and Amaris’ story ends but I may gripe about it along the way.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping
Things I liked:
- a bigger focus on Nox, who I find the more interesting of the two main characters
- the general outline of the story is interesting. A bit predictable, but it’s interesting.
Things I disliked:
- the characters all feel very samey. I can’t distinguish a unique personality or inner dialogue between Nox, Amaris, Malik, Ash, Gadriel… at points I honestly forgot whose perspective I was reading from because they all felt the same.
- the prose is overly wrought and outright dumb in a few places. I highlighted a few zingers in my kindle because they made me laugh. There is also many instances of hyperbole and overdramatization. Time is a rubber band in this book where days equals years and years equals days depending on the author’s convenience.
- none of the romance feels particularly earned in my opinion. Since everyone’s inner dialogue sounds identical, when people start pairing up it just feels mastabatory.
I’m still in it to see where we go in book three though.
- a bigger focus on Nox, who I find the more interesting of the two main characters
- the general outline of the story is interesting. A bit predictable, but it’s interesting.
Things I disliked:
- the characters all feel very samey. I can’t distinguish a unique personality or inner dialogue between Nox, Amaris, Malik, Ash, Gadriel… at points I honestly forgot whose perspective I was reading from because they all felt the same.
- the prose is overly wrought and outright dumb in a few places. I highlighted a few zingers in my kindle because they made me laugh. There is also many instances of hyperbole and overdramatization. Time is a rubber band in this book where days equals years and years equals days depending on the author’s convenience.
- none of the romance feels particularly earned in my opinion. Since everyone’s inner dialogue sounds identical, when people start pairing up it just feels mastabatory.
I’m still in it to see where we go in book three though.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
This was such a quick read, especially for the 900+ pages it was over ebook!
With the ease granted by the swift pacing, and the development of relationships and introduction of new characters, I had a decent time! The world-building was what really kept me hooked.
Similarly to the last book, I had problems with wanting to know more about certain characters or to go down different storylines or aspects of the world.
I was incredibly frustrated with Amaris and her choices, I was kind of taken aback by what violence was chosen to be detailed, and I otherwise just found it a bit predictable. The questions and qualms I have about the characters’ relationships and their experiences of bisexuality are still more nuanced and interesting than the few others I’ve read, and we need more of that representation!
With all that, I will still pick up the next in the series… immediately, lol.
With the ease granted by the swift pacing, and the development of relationships and introduction of new characters, I had a decent time! The world-building was what really kept me hooked.
Similarly to the last book, I had problems with wanting to know more about certain characters or to go down different storylines or aspects of the world.
I was incredibly frustrated with Amaris and her choices, I was kind of taken aback by what violence was chosen to be detailed, and I otherwise just found it a bit predictable. The questions and qualms I have about the characters’ relationships and their experiences of bisexuality are still more nuanced and interesting than the few others I’ve read, and we need more of that representation!
With all that, I will still pick up the next in the series… immediately, lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, War
Moderate: Child death