A review by ashley_mrose530
Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is a perfect ending to this duology.
In this book we have two POVs and I really enjoyed that Shio's perspective. It was great to watch

their redemption arc unfold as they realized that what they were searching for all along might have been right in front of them the whole time. And then watching them make up for their mistakes and become a hero in their own right was so heartwarming.

I also enjoyed the hero's journey that Teo and the others had to go through. It reminded me a lot of Percy Jackson with the different monsters popping up everywhere out of nowhere. It was great to watch Teo slowly gain confidence in his role as the Sunbearer and leader of the group and learn to trust his own instincts. I particularly liked that he had to learn quickly that

he couldn't be helping every individual person that was in trouble. Instead he had to focus on getting the sun back so that he could help everyone as a collective. I feel like that's an important lesson that people have to learn sometimes. You can't always help everyone on a daily basis because sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and that will help them in the long run.

I also loved Aurelio and Teo in this one. They were so cute together and supportive of each other. They had some really cute moments, but I loved that it wasn't overwhelming the plot either. They were in a race against time and didn't have much of it to waste on romance, so I'm glad that it was kept to little moments here and there. It really kept the pacing of the book even and didn't get in the way of the plot at all which is much appreciated.
I do remember being confused at the world building in the first book, and I think that was still a little bit of an issue here. It seemed they could easily walk or get on a boat to any of the cities so they must be fairly close together, but I still have a hard time believing they trekked all that way in under two weeks. It didn't seem like enough time. Also, if they are all so close together, then

how could there be a whole hidden village in the forest? Wouldn't someone have found it earlier? If not the gods or their children, then at least other humans. It just seems unlikely they would have been able to hide for what? Thousands of years? It really didn't make sense to me.

 
Overall this was a fantastic book. I even enjoyed it more than the first one. A very solid duology.