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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
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:
Yes
The first two books were very strong. This one felt rushed.
The book read like an outline not a fully developed story. It seemed to break with all the poor development of the previous 2 books in the series to introduce new lands and characters that didn't connect well. It was a disappointing end to a series that had so much promise.
2.5 ⭐️
I’m so sad. I so badly wanted to love this book after adoring the others. But it just fell short for me. It felt as those this book was completely different from the series. The conflicts that arose in the first two books were set aside for a completely new enemy that was never mentioned in the first of the series. I think this book would have been absolutely incredible as an additional book but it missed the mark as the final book in the trilogy.
Zelie
I think she had absolutely spectacular character growth in this book. She fought with the might of the gods to defeat all that came for her and those she loved. Her renewed powers as well as her new powers brought her the strength she’d always dreamed of wielding. And yet she still fought with her soul and her love before she fought with the magic swirling in her veins. Her willingness to forgive those her hurt her in the face of war was admirable.
Inan & Amari
The siblings also had such wonderful growth in this final book. They fought with the force of every cruel monarch that came before them but with the heart of the maji. They realized where they went wrong and even knowing they couldn’t fix it, fought alongside the maji. They both faced incredible hardships in this book as well. But Amari found the warmth of a new love and Inan met the cool brush of death.
The characters single handedly kept me fighting through this book. The heart break and agony to the laughter and hugs. It was so warming to see all the relationships from the previous books come together. Now, while I absolutely adore Amari & Mae’e I so wish that Roen hadn’t been completely written out of this book. We ended Children of Virtue & Vengeance with a blossoming relationship between Zelie and Roen but in this book Roen is barely mentioned.
While the character growth was a welcome read, this book was too much information packed into a very small finale. A new enemy, new war, new power, an entirely new land and people, and so much more was introduced into this book and while it was all written beautifully it was too much to contain the final book in a series. I would have loved to see this book get the justice it deserves but it truly was too many new things in one jam packed finale.
I’m so sad. I so badly wanted to love this book after adoring the others. But it just fell short for me. It felt as those this book was completely different from the series. The conflicts that arose in the first two books were set aside for a completely new enemy that was never mentioned in the first of the series. I think this book would have been absolutely incredible as an additional book but it missed the mark as the final book in the trilogy.
Zelie
I think she had absolutely spectacular character growth in this book. She fought with the might of the gods to defeat all that came for her and those she loved. Her renewed powers as well as her new powers brought her the strength she’d always dreamed of wielding. And yet she still fought with her soul and her love before she fought with the magic swirling in her veins. Her willingness to forgive those her hurt her in the face of war was admirable.
Inan & Amari
The siblings also had such wonderful growth in this final book. They fought with the force of every cruel monarch that came before them but with the heart of the maji. They realized where they went wrong and even knowing they couldn’t fix it, fought alongside the maji. They both faced incredible hardships in this book as well. But Amari found the warmth of a new love and Inan met the cool brush of death.
The characters single handedly kept me fighting through this book. The heart break and agony to the laughter and hugs. It was so warming to see all the relationships from the previous books come together. Now, while I absolutely adore Amari & Mae’e I so wish that Roen hadn’t been completely written out of this book. We ended Children of Virtue & Vengeance with a blossoming relationship between Zelie and Roen but in this book Roen is barely mentioned.
While the character growth was a welcome read, this book was too much information packed into a very small finale. A new enemy, new war, new power, an entirely new land and people, and so much more was introduced into this book and while it was all written beautifully it was too much to contain the final book in a series. I would have loved to see this book get the justice it deserves but it truly was too many new things in one jam packed finale.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Oh boy, here we go... spoilers ahead.
When I got notified that this book had shipped, I was THRILLED! I remember how much I loved the first book, and the second book left me a little confused and hoped for an amazing closer to the trilogy-- but friends, this wasn't it.
SpoilerThis book picks up about a month after the second book ended, but five years between books is a long time. I fear that it was so long that Tomi had forgotten what the hell she was writing and who the characters were, what the plot was, and honestly, it felt like she was bored of the main character and gave her new powers.
It started by taking twenty fucking chapters to get off the damn ship. It was a long, drawn-out process that just had me wanting it to be over already, and move the story along. The book is not that thick, and the audiobook was not long enough to have so much information about getting off the boat. Then Tomi introduces new characters and new lands, and honestly, it felt like a standalone novel with its own plot with the entirety of the original plot thrown out the window.
Orisha maji and titans and everyone fighting? Nah, forget about it.
But this weird new guy who came from nowhere to find Zelie? Sureeee.
I really cannot understand what the author was thinking when she published this. How many times did Zelie need to die? You keep bringing back characters from the dead like that and it loses any real value. Besides-- Zelie, our OG MC, didn't actually do anything to be so revered? Her whole identity in this book was kind of just background noise, overshadowed by so many others POV.
The relationship between Amari and Tzain was weird, staying strong through two books and had a little crack between them after what Amari did to Tzain's hometown. But then it was like POOF Amari suddenly is in love with this new chick and Tzain is perfectly fine with it. That felt like it was done specifically so that Tomi could say she wrote something LGBTQ+ relevant.
And by the way-- where the fuck is Roen??? I kept waiting for them to be like "Oh the mercenaries worked for this guy and Roen sold them out" or SOMETHING, but no. That would have been a much more shocking, realistic plot for the book, but Roen doesn't get even that. He is mentioned just ONCE and never seen again. Zelie was falling for him, brought him back from the dead, tied her life to his and dragged his body all over the place to keep him alive and he's just... no longer in the story? And now we are supposed to have feelings about her and Inan again? What a whiplash.
Inan's death was stupid, and I hated it. It felt pointless and I didn't fully understand what their bodies were doing, or how that happened. It was just: a dreamscape, goodbye, done.
THEN THE ENDING!!!
"He's dead. The end." Are you messing with me??? Are you being serious? That is how you decided to end the series after fans waited five years? Oh wait, I'm sorry, there was a brief epilogue where everything was glitter and rainbows and everyone held hands and sang kumbaya-- even Amari's mother, Nehander. After all her hatred towards maji, we just... accept this? What happened to the years of fighting? The bloodlust so strong in Nehander that she was ready to kill her own children? We are just supposed to accept that after decades of war, it's resolved in less than five pages? Unbelievable.
I didn't enjoy it. It was lazy, it was messy, it didn't make any sense, and four POV's made it worse. She teaches creative writing, and this was what she published? The first book opened the door for so much potential, it was such a beautiful, much needed black-driven fantasy inspired by African culture but it fell flat, shriveled up, and blew away in the wind.
The only reason I gave this two stars instead of one is for the concept and the way she writes isn't bad, it's just the story and the characters were not great.
When I got notified that this book had shipped, I was THRILLED! I remember how much I loved the first book, and the second book left me a little confused and hoped for an amazing closer to the trilogy-- but friends, this wasn't it.
SpoilerThis book picks up about a month after the second book ended, but five years between books is a long time. I fear that it was so long that Tomi had forgotten what the hell she was writing and who the characters were, what the plot was, and honestly, it felt like she was bored of the main character and gave her new powers.
It started by taking twenty fucking chapters to get off the damn ship. It was a long, drawn-out process that just had me wanting it to be over already, and move the story along. The book is not that thick, and the audiobook was not long enough to have so much information about getting off the boat. Then Tomi introduces new characters and new lands, and honestly, it felt like a standalone novel with its own plot with the entirety of the original plot thrown out the window.
Orisha maji and titans and everyone fighting? Nah, forget about it.
But this weird new guy who came from nowhere to find Zelie? Sureeee.
I really cannot understand what the author was thinking when she published this. How many times did Zelie need to die? You keep bringing back characters from the dead like that and it loses any real value. Besides-- Zelie, our OG MC, didn't actually do anything to be so revered? Her whole identity in this book was kind of just background noise, overshadowed by so many others POV.
The relationship between Amari and Tzain was weird, staying strong through two books and had a little crack between them after what Amari did to Tzain's hometown. But then it was like POOF Amari suddenly is in love with this new chick and Tzain is perfectly fine with it. That felt like it was done specifically so that Tomi could say she wrote something LGBTQ+ relevant.
And by the way-- where the fuck is Roen??? I kept waiting for them to be like "Oh the mercenaries worked for this guy and Roen sold them out" or SOMETHING, but no. That would have been a much more shocking, realistic plot for the book, but Roen doesn't get even that. He is mentioned just ONCE and never seen again. Zelie was falling for him, brought him back from the dead, tied her life to his and dragged his body all over the place to keep him alive and he's just... no longer in the story? And now we are supposed to have feelings about her and Inan again? What a whiplash.
Inan's death was stupid, and I hated it. It felt pointless and I didn't fully understand what their bodies were doing, or how that happened. It was just: a dreamscape, goodbye, done.
THEN THE ENDING!!!
"He's dead. The end." Are you messing with me??? Are you being serious? That is how you decided to end the series after fans waited five years? Oh wait, I'm sorry, there was a brief epilogue where everything was glitter and rainbows and everyone held hands and sang kumbaya-- even Amari's mother, Nehander. After all her hatred towards maji, we just... accept this? What happened to the years of fighting? The bloodlust so strong in Nehander that she was ready to kill her own children? We are just supposed to accept that after decades of war, it's resolved in less than five pages? Unbelievable.
I didn't enjoy it. It was lazy, it was messy, it didn't make any sense, and four POV's made it worse. She teaches creative writing, and this was what she published? The first book opened the door for so much potential, it was such a beautiful, much needed black-driven fantasy inspired by African culture but it fell flat, shriveled up, and blew away in the wind.
The only reason I gave this two stars instead of one is for the concept and the way she writes isn't bad, it's just the story and the characters were not great.
adventurous
emotional
fast-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
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Compared to rest of the series, this book felt super rushed. I was slightly confused throughout most of the book and a few of the events in the book that were meant to “hit you” didn’t land fully (for various reasons).
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
dark
fast-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
What a disappointment.
This book gets three stars because it wasn't bad. But it wasn't what I wanted for the conclusion of a series.
It truly hurts to write these words, especially coming up on the 7 year anniversary of me finding this book, but this was not what I was hoping for from this series.
I had an inkling that this was gonna be bad when my mom got me this book and began reading it herself. She loved it - and wasn't confused at all, which doesn't make sense when you know that this is the conclusion of a trilogy. Reading it confirmed my worries; this book has almost nothing to do with the original duology and didn't resolve most of the plot points I wanted to see resolved.
First of all - Oya now is in storms? Something never before discussed until this book? Checks out for Adeyemi not knowing where she was going and retconning something.
Second of all - we're getting other countries and their magic involved? Kay, why were they never even mentioned before this book? Another instance of convenient retconning
Third, the reason I loved this series was because it was all about black people and characters. The magic, the setting, the villains, the heroes - all represented black fantasy and fiction. Now, we've got a white villain who is literally putting black people in cages - AND trying to get brown people in those cages as well. Fantasy should hold a mirror to the real world, but it should also provide some escape and this slammed me too close to home as a woman who have been seeing Mexican children being put in cages in the real world. Now I get to see it - and horrible body mutilation - done to black bodies in a book where I did not expect it.
I honestly think that Adeyemi wrote herself into a corner in the second book. She made the titans and the magi hate each other so much that she couldn't figure out how to make them work together. So she created an outside force that would force them to work together, but it didn't work. It would've been better if this book was a timeskip - Zelie became queen, but Orisha was still at war over the past 20 years. An outside force takes advantage of it and the kingdom finally is put together.
Also Inan's death was stupid and I hated it but that's personal bc he was my favorite character
If you read this book without the first two, it's decent. I liked seeing more of Tzain, the other magical world was really cool with a different magic system, and I enjoyed how fast paced this story was. As a conclusion to a series that I've been reading since 2018, this was disappointing and didn't answer the major questions I had - how was Orisha going to thrive when not everyone is a magi? Bardugo, in the Shadow and Bone series, has a somewhat similar world building issue and I really liked how it was discussed in her series and wish that Adeyemi took time to figure it out and write it out for this series. She had the time but I'm not sure what she was doing with it.
contains violence, torture, magic, romance, gay characters
This book gets three stars because it wasn't bad. But it wasn't what I wanted for the conclusion of a series.
It truly hurts to write these words, especially coming up on the 7 year anniversary of me finding this book, but this was not what I was hoping for from this series.
I had an inkling that this was gonna be bad when my mom got me this book and began reading it herself. She loved it - and wasn't confused at all, which doesn't make sense when you know that this is the conclusion of a trilogy. Reading it confirmed my worries; this book has almost nothing to do with the original duology and didn't resolve most of the plot points I wanted to see resolved.
First of all - Oya now is in storms? Something never before discussed until this book? Checks out for Adeyemi not knowing where she was going and retconning something.
Second of all - we're getting other countries and their magic involved? Kay, why were they never even mentioned before this book? Another instance of convenient retconning
Third, the reason I loved this series was because it was all about black people and characters. The magic, the setting, the villains, the heroes - all represented black fantasy and fiction. Now, we've got a white villain who is literally putting black people in cages - AND trying to get brown people in those cages as well. Fantasy should hold a mirror to the real world, but it should also provide some escape and this slammed me too close to home as a woman who have been seeing Mexican children being put in cages in the real world. Now I get to see it - and horrible body mutilation - done to black bodies in a book where I did not expect it.
I honestly think that Adeyemi wrote herself into a corner in the second book. She made the titans and the magi hate each other so much that she couldn't figure out how to make them work together. So she created an outside force that would force them to work together, but it didn't work. It would've been better if this book was a timeskip - Zelie became queen, but Orisha was still at war over the past 20 years. An outside force takes advantage of it and the kingdom finally is put together.
Also
If you read this book without the first two, it's decent. I liked seeing more of Tzain, the other magical world was really cool with a different magic system, and I enjoyed how fast paced this story was. As a conclusion to a series that I've been reading since 2018, this was disappointing and didn't answer the major questions I had - how was Orisha going to thrive when not everyone is a magi? Bardugo, in the Shadow and Bone series, has a somewhat similar world building issue and I really liked how it was discussed in her series and wish that Adeyemi took time to figure it out and write it out for this series. She had the time but I'm not sure what she was doing with it.