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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Find this review and more on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
3.5 stars
Following the events of The Damned, Odette Valmont is grievously injured, and the Court of Lions has but one option left to save her – a healer from the Sylvan Vale. Arjun, being half fey, is the only one of them who can cross over into the fey realm, a world he hates, but for Odette, he agrees. Pippa Montrose is days away from her wedding, but she is determined to find Celine who has seemingly disappeared into thin air along with Sebastien. With Eloise’s help, she sets out to find the gateway Arjun uses to travel between worlds, and she unheedingly marches through, only to find herself in the dangerous world of the fey.
You might recall that I wasn’t too impressed with The Damned, and the drastic change of tack in this book was what made me curious enough to pick it up, just to see if a change in POV would make any difference to the tale. It certainly helped! I really enjoyed the initial parts of the story because Pippa and Arjun have been characters I’ve liked right from the beginning and it was so nice that this story was almost entirely focused on them. The world building was the strong aspect of this book and I particularly liked that we got to see more of both the Sylvan Vale and Wyld. The writing was wonderful, and as always, Renee Ahdieh’s narrative style never disappoints.
What this book essentially did was take two side characters and make them into main characters, a risky choice, and one think, that could have only worked with these two characters. Arjun’s been a character that I’ve found interesting right from the first book so it was great seeing his POV and getting to know more about his history. Celine and Bastien barely make an appearance and they didn’t feel like the characters we know from the first two books at all when they did. There was kind of a side plot going on there but I found it really hard to care about any of it. Back to the main plot, which is more or less the romance between Pippa and Arjun, despite a couple of cliche tropes, it was still a rather engaging read overall.
I felt the pacing was better in this book, but it still devolves into a chaotic mess towards the end that was so hard to keep track of as everything happened all at once. What I’m saying next is probably a spoiler, but I’m entirely too irked to not talk about it. What annoyed me most about this book has to be the introduction of a character from The Wrath and the Dawn verse, the author’s earlier series. I honestly don’t know what the author is thinking with this crossover, not least because the two worlds are entirely different, but I’m definitely not happy about it.
Though I generally try my best to read any series I start through to the end, whether I read book 4 depends entirely on what its premise will be, despite the cliffhanger ending of this book. Given the potential crossover ahead, I’m not too excited for the finale, but if you’ve enjoyed this series so far, I would recommend picking up this book.
3.5 stars
Following the events of The Damned, Odette Valmont is grievously injured, and the Court of Lions has but one option left to save her – a healer from the Sylvan Vale. Arjun, being half fey, is the only one of them who can cross over into the fey realm, a world he hates, but for Odette, he agrees. Pippa Montrose is days away from her wedding, but she is determined to find Celine who has seemingly disappeared into thin air along with Sebastien. With Eloise’s help, she sets out to find the gateway Arjun uses to travel between worlds, and she unheedingly marches through, only to find herself in the dangerous world of the fey.
You might recall that I wasn’t too impressed with The Damned, and the drastic change of tack in this book was what made me curious enough to pick it up, just to see if a change in POV would make any difference to the tale. It certainly helped! I really enjoyed the initial parts of the story because Pippa and Arjun have been characters I’ve liked right from the beginning and it was so nice that this story was almost entirely focused on them. The world building was the strong aspect of this book and I particularly liked that we got to see more of both the Sylvan Vale and Wyld. The writing was wonderful, and as always, Renee Ahdieh’s narrative style never disappoints.
What this book essentially did was take two side characters and make them into main characters, a risky choice, and one think, that could have only worked with these two characters. Arjun’s been a character that I’ve found interesting right from the first book so it was great seeing his POV and getting to know more about his history. Celine and Bastien barely make an appearance and they didn’t feel like the characters we know from the first two books at all when they did. There was kind of a side plot going on there but I found it really hard to care about any of it. Back to the main plot, which is more or less the romance between Pippa and Arjun, despite a couple of cliche tropes, it was still a rather engaging read overall.
I felt the pacing was better in this book, but it still devolves into a chaotic mess towards the end that was so hard to keep track of as everything happened all at once. What I’m saying next is probably a spoiler, but I’m entirely too irked to not talk about it. What annoyed me most about this book has to be the introduction of a character from The Wrath and the Dawn verse, the author’s earlier series. I honestly don’t know what the author is thinking with this crossover, not least because the two worlds are entirely different, but I’m definitely not happy about it.
Though I generally try my best to read any series I start through to the end, whether I read book 4 depends entirely on what its premise will be, despite the cliffhanger ending of this book. Given the potential crossover ahead, I’m not too excited for the finale, but if you’ve enjoyed this series so far, I would recommend picking up this book.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
mysterious
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
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh, this was such a great sequel, so much happened, and I can't wait to finish out this series!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
What was this book? Two side characters somehow become the main focus of this story and the plot started to drifted someplace entirely different with no reasoning what so ever. So disappointing. This should have been a side novella instead of the continuation of this series.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No