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A review by perilous1
Flight of the Raven by
3.0
A bit more worldbuilding, and a lot more symbolism.
There's a touch of excitement early on as the small band who escaped in the first book encounters dangers on their way back to Damien's kingdom. But once they do arrive, the pacing slows significantly and stays there until about 70% of the way through. There's a lot of Selene being insecure about her new husband, and repeating her presumption of his rejection over and over in her internal monologue.
I'm usually a sucker for a marriage-of-convenience trope. But the chemistry here just didn't quite do it for me. (Might have had something to do with the hero and heroine voices sounding too similar too often--which is sort of the risk you run character-wise with a sensitive male and emotionally repressed warrior female.) In terms of intimacy, both are evasively shy and almost painfully innocent.
Despite Selene's mother being power-hungry, ruthless, amoral, and conniving... Lady Ravenwood doesn't seem particularly intelligent. Though she considers her daughters to be her primary means to an end and has trained them to be skilled fighters, she's done little to prepare them for emulating her viciousness. No desensitizing lessons in killing things--not even animals--prior to the development of their dream gift. No preparing them for the weight of their expected responsibilities (she just springs it on them partway into their orientation that she expects them to assassinate people.) No lessons in how to use their beauty and feminine wiles to get what they're after in less deadly ways (which Lady Ravenwood herself is clearly good at). Gross maternal negligence doesn't seem a sufficient explanation for poor planning.
Then again, Selene's mother has also aligned herself with the Dominia Empire--the evil bad guys who originally wiped out her Great House--in a plot to get revenge upon all the other houses that just sat back and allowed her House to be exterminated hundreds of years prior. (Oh, except for the House of the dude she's having an affair with, of course. They apparently get a revenge pass for his... services. >.>) So yeah. Maybe she's just not that smart.
The end was a touch of twisty and surprising. I give it kudos for subverting my expectations. But given the sometimes draggy pacing, I'm just a little less sure if I'll end up finishing the series.
There's a touch of excitement early on as the small band who escaped in the first book encounters dangers on their way back to Damien's kingdom. But once they do arrive, the pacing slows significantly and stays there until about 70% of the way through. There's a lot of Selene being insecure about her new husband, and repeating her presumption of his rejection over and over in her internal monologue.
I'm usually a sucker for a marriage-of-convenience trope. But the chemistry here just didn't quite do it for me. (Might have had something to do with the hero and heroine voices sounding too similar too often--which is sort of the risk you run character-wise with a sensitive male and emotionally repressed warrior female.) In terms of intimacy, both are evasively shy and almost painfully innocent.
Despite Selene's mother being power-hungry, ruthless, amoral, and conniving... Lady Ravenwood doesn't seem particularly intelligent. Though she considers her daughters to be her primary means to an end and has trained them to be skilled fighters, she's done little to prepare them for emulating her viciousness. No desensitizing lessons in killing things--not even animals--prior to the development of their dream gift. No preparing them for the weight of their expected responsibilities (she just springs it on them partway into their orientation that she expects them to assassinate people.) No lessons in how to use their beauty and feminine wiles to get what they're after in less deadly ways (which Lady Ravenwood herself is clearly good at). Gross maternal negligence doesn't seem a sufficient explanation for poor planning.
Then again, Selene's mother has also aligned herself with the Dominia Empire--the evil bad guys who originally wiped out her Great House--in a plot to get revenge upon all the other houses that just sat back and allowed her House to be exterminated hundreds of years prior. (Oh, except for the House of the dude she's having an affair with, of course. They apparently get a revenge pass for his... services. >.>) So yeah. Maybe she's just not that smart.
The end was a touch of twisty and surprising. I give it kudos for subverting my expectations. But given the sometimes draggy pacing, I'm just a little less sure if I'll end up finishing the series.