delightful_reading 's review for:

Eden Conquered by Joelle Charbonneau

2.0

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In the aftermath of Andreus' betrayal, Carys is in the woods with 1 person she trusts, 1 person she wants to trust, and Garrett who claims he doesn't want the throne. This journey through the woods part wasn't too bad- (I may or may not have been shipping Carys & Errik for the majority of this part). BUT we still have Andreus POV. Andreus still believes he was perfectly in the right to leave his beloved sister TO DIE. He starts having doubts around 40% into the novel-but STILL. To top that off his POVs were pretty boring and the councilmen started running together (I can point out defining characteristics such as Ulrick only has one eye, Jacobs has a long black braid (SNAKE) and C-something is the uncle of Garett, BUT I can't keep track of their plans) I just got a little annoyed here and there. Honestly, having a couple chapters in Errik's POV (like right before the FINAL BATTLE and in the middle of the book in the woods) would have worked better and it would also help give Errik more of a purpose and personality besides "love interest of Carys, who supports her." Errik being a mysterious, charming gentleman worked in book 1, but he needed more of a personality for this book, and he didn't really get it.

Anyway, I probably could've stood all that and given this novel 3 stars if it hadn't been for that ending. Call me old fashioned, if you want, but I'm of the mind that the "electrifying conclusion to the Dividing Eden series" actually needs a conclusion. That's right there is not an ending. There are still a lot of loose threads and the author introduces a couple of new storylines in the LAST CHAPTER after the FINAL BATTLE. I had to check 3 times to make sure that this was supposed to be a dualogy and not a trilogy.

Spoiler

So after tons of reveals that don't make a ton of sense- like Andreus is the son of the queen and her lover-NOT the king and that Carys is the daughter of the king and his mistress not the queen. Thus, Carys is the true ruler. Then there's the whole we're twins even though it's not by blood sentiment. Then there's Carys who believes blood defines people-even after that blood does not define family bit- so Andreus should rule because he is from a new line. The author then decides to let Andreus be king-after he and Carys sort of agreed she should be queen, and Carys goes off to some island in the middle of nowhere to learn to control her powers. There's a nice conversation between Andreus and Errik discussing whether or not Carys is alive, which they both agree she is. So Errik sets off to find her, and Carys is hoping that Errik will find her. Meanwhile Andreus is waiting for his betrothed to arrive. Honestly just a little epilogue in which Errik & Carys are together and Andreus meets his betrothed-and they are a nice match, would've been ok. But instead we are left with this awkward not-quite-complete ending that doesn't fully make sense. Also, Larkin's death is not fully utilized. Like Carys isn't given time to mourn. Maybe a paragraph or a couple of sentences, but still this is Carys BFF who is like a sister to her. Shouldn't there be at least a page of reflection?

Furthermore, that final battle was just meh. It was full of big reveals that didn't make a lot of sense and a lot of crazy coincidences- which allowed the end of the battle, but not a lot of detail revealed about how that outcome occurred because we only got the twins POV.
All in all, this just wasn't executed in a way I could like. And that's a shame because this book had a great deal of potential to be great. (Maybe the I HATE Book 2 curse is back to haunt me)