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A review by teresab78
Crescendo by Rachel Haimowitz
4.0
****Reviewed for Prism Book Alliance****
3.5 Stars - I loved Counterpoint, book one in the Song of the Fallen series, and was looking forward to this, the second part of the story. It picks up right where the last left off, on the road to the Splendor, the High Court of Agea…
High Court, however, was tedious. I got why the intrigue and plotting was necessary to see but it tended to drag on rather than create suspense and excitement. Freyrik and Ayden’s relationship suffered and I struggled to see the love from either character’s actions. This next bit is a bit of a spoiler: there is a point where Freyrik asks Ayden if it really would have been so bad to have submitted to being raped for the sake of not drawing attention to himself and Freyrik – I found this unforgivable and more a sign of their master/slave relationship then the partners he professed to feel towards Ayden. I felt they spent too much time at High Court.
Once they leave for the dark woods, things pick up and the story becomes much more interesting. I really loved the adventure part and the spooky atmosphere. The details are great and I could imagine the setting. I appreciated that their relationship seemed to be back to better footing, though not completely secure. This was the best part of the book.
However, the ending left me feeling cheated. Where I kept looking at the percentage done on my kindle during the first part and felt time was dragging, during the last part, time flew and at 98%, I couldn’t see how things could be wrapped up well for our heroes. And then a Startrek Voyager “Janeway ending” happened: everything was cut at the climax and the results told in the epilogue/final chapter and tied with a bow rather than letting us experience them as they happened.
Overall, despite its flaws and questions left unanswered, I enjoyed the story and if you’ve read Counterpoint, you need to read Crescendo. In fact, Counterpoint was good enough, if you like fantasy, you should read the whole series anyway.
3.5 Stars - I loved Counterpoint, book one in the Song of the Fallen series, and was looking forward to this, the second part of the story. It picks up right where the last left off, on the road to the Splendor, the High Court of Agea…
High Court, however, was tedious. I got why the intrigue and plotting was necessary to see but it tended to drag on rather than create suspense and excitement. Freyrik and Ayden’s relationship suffered and I struggled to see the love from either character’s actions. This next bit is a bit of a spoiler: there is a point where Freyrik asks Ayden if it really would have been so bad to have submitted to being raped for the sake of not drawing attention to himself and Freyrik – I found this unforgivable and more a sign of their master/slave relationship then the partners he professed to feel towards Ayden. I felt they spent too much time at High Court.
Once they leave for the dark woods, things pick up and the story becomes much more interesting. I really loved the adventure part and the spooky atmosphere. The details are great and I could imagine the setting. I appreciated that their relationship seemed to be back to better footing, though not completely secure. This was the best part of the book.
However, the ending left me feeling cheated. Where I kept looking at the percentage done on my kindle during the first part and felt time was dragging, during the last part, time flew and at 98%, I couldn’t see how things could be wrapped up well for our heroes. And then a Startrek Voyager “Janeway ending” happened: everything was cut at the climax and the results told in the epilogue/final chapter and tied with a bow rather than letting us experience them as they happened.
Overall, despite its flaws and questions left unanswered, I enjoyed the story and if you’ve read Counterpoint, you need to read Crescendo. In fact, Counterpoint was good enough, if you like fantasy, you should read the whole series anyway.