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A review by kyillme
Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong
3.0
Corny as hell? Yes. Super fun? Also yes. If you’re into the enemies-to-lovers trope you’re going to be able to predict every plot twist 50 pages before it happens, but I’m honestly not even mad about it. It’s just fun to read. Some of the tropes it played into were so predictable they had me laughing out loud .
Also, I’m like 99% sure this author used to write ATLA fanfiction. Maybe that’s a hot take, but ALL of Moria and Gavril’s will-they-won’t-they thing is very Katara/Zuko to me. Don’t get me wrong! I’m loving the whole misunderstood hot guy with the absolutely insufferable hard headed woman who is incapable of understanding nuance thing. The book is just so full of familiar cliches that I find it hard to believe it’s NOT adapted from an early ‘10s fanfic.
We also, predictably, get our Moria love triangle introduced in this book, since Gavril is ~eViL~ now. Tyrus is like a fly buzzing around my face — harmless, but fucking annoying. He’s written like he’s a dog. I couldn’t tell you one single thing about Tyrus that I couldn’t also say about a golden retriever. He just feels so utterly inconsequential that I think there is almost no chance he gets to the end of the series alive, let alone winds up as endgame with Moria. And I get that these characters are supposed to be 16 (which is WILD), but how is it possible that Moria and Ashyn don’t have a single brain cell between them? OBVIOUSLY we’re going down a double-agent route with Gavril and have been since book 1. How have I known the plot since two days ago and these girls can’t figure it out as it is actively happening in front of them?
Overall, this book just kinda feels like a filler that’s relying on cliches to keep its audience entertained — but boy does it work! There’s very little actual substance to this book, but it’s a fun way to get a little relationship development and angst in before we go hard into the final book. Personally, I would have gone much much harder into the angst aspect than the fanservice aspect and really pulled on some emotional heartstrings. We’ve still got one more book to make me feel something, though, so onward we trudge.
Spoiler
(I mean, the Moria-Gavril jail and arranged marriage plot? Come ON, dude, that’s some 2010 fanfiction shit.)Also, I’m like 99% sure this author used to write ATLA fanfiction. Maybe that’s a hot take, but ALL of Moria and Gavril’s will-they-won’t-they thing is very Katara/Zuko to me. Don’t get me wrong! I’m loving the whole misunderstood hot guy with the absolutely insufferable hard headed woman who is incapable of understanding nuance thing. The book is just so full of familiar cliches that I find it hard to believe it’s NOT adapted from an early ‘10s fanfic.
We also, predictably, get our Moria love triangle introduced in this book, since Gavril is ~eViL~ now. Tyrus is like a fly buzzing around my face — harmless, but fucking annoying. He’s written like he’s a dog. I couldn’t tell you one single thing about Tyrus that I couldn’t also say about a golden retriever. He just feels so utterly inconsequential that I think there is almost no chance he gets to the end of the series alive, let alone winds up as endgame with Moria. And I get that these characters are supposed to be 16 (which is WILD), but how is it possible that Moria and Ashyn don’t have a single brain cell between them? OBVIOUSLY we’re going down a double-agent route with Gavril and have been since book 1. How have I known the plot since two days ago and these girls can’t figure it out as it is actively happening in front of them?
Overall, this book just kinda feels like a filler that’s relying on cliches to keep its audience entertained — but boy does it work! There’s very little actual substance to this book, but it’s a fun way to get a little relationship development and angst in before we go hard into the final book. Personally, I would have gone much much harder into the angst aspect than the fanservice aspect and really pulled on some emotional heartstrings. We’ve still got one more book to make me feel something, though, so onward we trudge.