Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lunelis
A Sorrow Fierce and Falling by Jessica Cluess
3.0
This wasn't a terrible finale, but it wasn't great either.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
Merged review:
This wasn't a terrible finale, but it wasn't great either.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
Spoiler
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.
Merged review:
This wasn't a terrible finale, but it wasn't great either.
I'm happy with who Henrietta ended up with in the end, but there's a lot of stuff that happened throughout that muddled and complicated things, so it ultimately wasn't the most satisfying ending for me. It wasn't just that they save the world and Henrietta with the guy I personally liked best finally being together and going off to have a peaceful, happy life, no, the author just made it all mucked up with lots of extra complications and I'm like sigh because they sort of felt... unneeded, and made me feel sort of melancholy after all the death and loss and suffering throughout the series. It didn't have the right happily ever after vibes that I wanted and needed after all the strife.
So, uh, spoilers. I recommend reading only if your reading experience is impacted negatively by certain plot devices in romantic subplots.
Spoiler
1) She does end up with Magnus in the end, which I'm glad for. He was offered the best redemption and was overall the most agreeable and likeable of all three possible love interests.
2) However, she loses her virginity to Blackwood. The book is real good about that not mattering to Magnus in the least, but as a reader, it's always sort of eh when a character sleeps with a character you don't like and know they're not ending up with. Also, Blackwood weaponizes this; he calls Henrietta a slut after he goes all crazy with power and turns on her and then again when she's left him and rekindled her affections with Magnus he's like "well, she fucked me, so, she's ruined for anyone else but me." and I'm like, god, I knew I fucking hated you from the moment I found out your name was Georgie.
3) Henrietta also gets pregnant with Blackwood's child and ends up marrying him on his deathbed. I'm really not super keen on pregnancies and babies, but it's, again, just kind of sad that Henrietta ends up so mired with Blackwood after he was actually kind of horrible.
4) Again, I hate Blackwood. He didn't deserve a kid to be better than his forefathers. He didn't even deserve his martyrdom, since it was just him going "I NEED TO BE THE ONE WHO SAVES ENGLAND" because he's got some weird thing about needing to be at the top of everything. It wasn't even him realizing his mistakes it was like he felt owed the prestige of being the one who threw away his life to help end the war. God, what an unlikable fuckface.
5) Then, after this, Magnus and Henrietta are parted because Magnus is send to the continent for official business and they get all "oh I thought you no longer loved me that way anymore" through their letters and there's this dump period of them being all in doubt and I'm like you fucking endured war and battle together to reunite, you withstood engagements and Henrietta being engaged to and then married for a short time to someone else, are y'all really going to play a game of doubting each other's feelings at this point???????????? Like, god, after all that I had to sit through that gambit for some extra tension that was completely pointless.
So, uh, in terms of this being a romance, I'm sad because while it has the final ending I wanted and had enough development to feel natural and believable (no instalove, thankfully), it came with a lot of the baggage that I don't like seeing spring up in romances. It just... wasn't all that satisfying.
I read through the book pretty quickly, about four hours, because the overall plot was pretty engaging with this being the final stand against the Ancients and what not. Not terrible, the whole series was a fun, easy read but, I'm sad the romance wasn't more satisfactory overall.