adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

Really enjoyable fantasy with intriguing twists. The voice actors were lovely to listen too.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Updated review 5/21/24: Jensen’s books are genuinely emotionally damaging to me. Other people may anticipate the twists in the road better than I can, but upon finishing both of the books in this series I have been triggered in the truest, most clinical sense of the word. If you are someone who has experienced complex trauma from manipulation and narcissism, please consider whether this story is right for you.

That being said, I was hooked by this story. Freya and Bjorn’s chemistry and their ability to twist the threads of fate kept me interested. This book was harder to love than its predecessor, with much more violence and death and much less sexual tension. Themes of distrust, manipulation, and grief are thick.

The big plot twist and subsequent details left me genuinely sick to my stomach, and then the story moved right into a what felt like a somehow rushed yet rambling and too-magical conclusion. Certain points of high tension were introduced and then resolved without much thought or narration, while others dragged on gruesomely. As a reader, I would have liked time to process the trauma alongside the characters after the climax, rather than rush through the events to the conclusion.

I need to make an extra therapy appointment and go reread The Spellshop.

🛡️🔥🪓

I’ll write a better review after I process the story. My initial thoughts are:

-more strife, less spice than AFIIB
-I love the women in this book—equal parts viciously mean and compassionate
-once again I had to lock myself in the bathroom because my emotional outbursts about the plot twists were confusing my toddler
-ending felt a little rushed, a little too magical
-I hoped for more spice, not less, after the 1st book was the slowest burn with so much teasing
-really WTF just happened though
-I was hooked from start to finish, overall really enjoyed the book

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm giving this 4 🌟 for the twist. I did not see that coming. It was a slow read to begin with but once I got beyond 60%, the story was coming together for me to continue. 

Freya, she annoyed me so much in the beginning. I was trying to be on her side, but she came across as brat. Why are FMC's like this? 🙄

Poor Bjorn. He tried and tried to do the right thing IMO. I'm glad he got a HEA. 

The plot is good, I enjoyed it. Shame it was a slow start.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous tense fast-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

Overall this book was super fun, and was about on par with the first book. I still don’t love the insta-love that we got with our MCs, but the banter between them was fantastic, the minor characters still stood out with fun/unique personalities, and the plot was twisting. We had just enough world building to set a scene but not drag on. I appreciated that this book felt more plot driven than character, and with that, the romance was a little more on the back burner. The female rage that we got with Freya was great, and I loved watching her grow as a person as more information was uncovered.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense medium-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I lived the first boom and was excited for this one. However I was slightly disappointed. I love this world and the magic system and found it interesting and unique. In this book my biggest issues is the back and forth from Freya and Bjorn on whether they are in live or not. It felt very juvenile and went on for nearly half the book.  I got to page 167 and was going “we are still on this, really”. And then it felt like there was a sudden switch up and they are back to madly in love. 

I enjoyed the big mystery reveal and the action that was caused by this. I really think this only made up about 1/3 of the book and could have been a little more of a focus then the back and forth between Freya and Bjorn. 

Great wrap up for the duology otherwise. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The first 50% was mid. Lovers quarrels and a lot of foreshadowing with crudely constructed plot. Because the author wants you to get somewhere. And once you're there, it's a lot of fun and back to back scheming. Very good second half. 
I'm pleased it's only a duology, dragging this would have been too much. I kept on getting confused between some characters (Skade and the skald) mainly because the name and profession read the same in my dyslexic head, so got confused more than once. Otherwise, good twists and a lot of death.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark inspiring tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Solid conclusion to this duology, plenty of intrigue, adventure, and twists. I definitely feel okay with the story arc overall and don't feel the want for more of the storyline/characters.

I found the pacing of this book dreadfully slow at times. The plot points seem to have such a reflective hold over the MCs that it stopped them from progressing or pushing the story. There were several points where I was frustrated and annoyed with the MCs because it was almost too much reflection, where holding onto an emotion or waiting for something to happen but nothing would happen for chapters at a time. Sometimes all this reflection made past story arcs or plot points virtually pointless at the end. This definitely lowers the quality of the storyline itself. But the Worldbuilding continued to be amazing, the characters multifaceted. I would have loved more ties into the Nordic gods and their direct roles in this second book throughout rather than just at the end. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings