Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have a lot of issues with this book.
- The huge number of apparently pointless characters and interchangeable use of their first and last names, making following who’s who a nightmare.
- Violet’s infatuation with Xaden to the detriment of her and others’ safety and the story! Plus her total preoccupation with how hot he is, which maybe makes sense given his actually personality is missing.
- The lack of character development for the MMC, and to a lesser extent to the FMC too.
- The romance didn’t hit because MMC remains a mystery.
- The blocking of the spice scenes is also a mystery. Cannot understand the positioning logistics!
- The lack of an alternate POV (Xaden where where you!!) until the very last moment when we were then dragged out of the main story to side characters’ POVs. Which would have been fine, had any air time been given to these characters for the last 500 pages.
- Still no more insight given into the workings of the Empyrean. These dragons are the heart of the books; give us more!
- Violet being plain stupid and not listening to Aaric sooner.
- The rushing of critical plot points right at the end leaving massive cliff hangers. This felt like it was marketing driven.
Good stuff:
- The Irids.
- Tairn, always worth it.
- The action - fast paced and a lot of it made an exciting read.
- Seeing some new places even though they were kind of bananas.
I think the moral of the story is that it’s a fun read that could have been incredible with editing and a better character focus. I guess we’ll never know!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, War
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence
adventurous
emotional
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Toxic relationship
adventurous
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, War
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death of parent
Minor: Cursing, Grief, Death of parent
adventurous
tense
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Blood, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm continuing to love this series. I read the first two books back to back, so I had no problem remembering characters or plot lines. However, it's been a year since then, and I was lost when I realized the third book took off immediately from the end of the second book. Thankfully, I found several write-ups online that helped me remember what had happened. The author also has an excellent chart at the beginning of the book that breaks down the names of the significant characters and their dragons or griffons. Once I had that, I was ready to jump into the action with Violet and her dragons.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
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:
Complicated
I enjoyed this book but struggled with several aspects of it. First of all, I understand the importance of big reveals and dropping hints and skillfully crafting a story without giving us all the information up front. However, if you’re so cryptic all the time that barely any of the hints are detectable, it loses its power. How can any reader possibly keep track of this many tiny clues? And so many different plot lines simultaneously? Props to all the folks on Tumblr and TikTok etc doing recaps and summaries because without you I’d be lost. Second of all, some of the writing feels excessively long-winded and unnecessary. This is worsened by the audiobook narrator who, while definitely skillful in her pacing and ability to pronounce all this wacky stuff, overly emphasizes parts of the sentence that don’t seem important. And she does it over and over again, so the emphasis is overused and nothing ends up standing out. It’s too much. What I DID love about this book was the direction RY took with the Xaden-Violet relationship. It’s much healthier overall, and we finally stopped with the obnoxious back-and-forth of their repetitive arguments. Shoutout to Ridoc and Rhiannon and all the side characters who are honestly some of the best parts of the book. Not enough Rhi in this book, imo. Ultimately, I ended the book with a giant “WTF just happened?!” But I suspect I’m not alone there. RY has me hooked on the world she’s built for these folks, so I’ll definitely still read the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War
adventurous
funny
sad
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
I don't need sleep. I need answers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Woah. The second half was really really good. I savoured a slow read of the first half. But couldn’t resist a faster pace reading the rest. The final act is enriching to read with multi pov but some of the last two chapters are hard to read and left with several questions and confusion
I still don’t see how her second signet was what she needed. Unless it’s more than what it appears to be.
I still don’t see how her second signet was what she needed. Unless it’s more than what it appears to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content