A review by bannaghealach
The West Wind by Alexandria Warwick

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

So, I loved the book at the start. I'd read some reviews and I was ready to defend it to death - it read like a feverdream (the pacing, the story, the setting), but appropriately so. And then I got to the middle and it just... deflated. It started to read like the author was trying to convince me that this is what happened and she just lost me. Problems are solved too easily, there just doesn't seem to be any real conflict, Brielle is all powerful (essentially) but (spoiler alert!!!) at the same time super dumb and just stays hidden during her lover's fight to the death, which she could stop by just... showing up? Or helping him?

And the end, yes I'm happy for them. But it reads like a caricature of the original characters. I get what the author was going for but it just... almost diminished Zephyrus to this little funny guy, which is completely at odds with the mysterious, wise, sexy stranger displayed throughout the first half of the book. Character development or just... a different character entirely?

And Brielle, well... she's alright. Go girl and all that, but she too seemed to lose herself towards the end.

And the whole memory loss thing just really didn't work. It never does, people should really stop trying.