A review by beeboisourgod
Rituals: The Cainsville Series by Kelley Armstrong

4.0

I still don't enjoy reading descriptions of sex, so maybe choosing an author best know for paranormal romance as one of my favourite writers was not the smartest move on my part, but I love Kelley Armstrong's writing style, storytelling and especially character building so much that for her and probably her only at this point, I'm willing to gloss it over and excuse it. (Hey, some people love it and that's great, but those particular scenes are just not my cup of tea) I will say, however, that at least those scenes were with the right guy at long last; it only took Gabriel 5 whole books to get his act together but it was worth it.

Anyway, overall this was as always an enjoyable enough read. My love for Gabriel stands, (good choice, Liv, good choice), and the two dryads Helia and Alexios were a cute, fun (and probably my favourite) addition to the cast

Spoiler

until they killed them! *sobs*

, but I can't help but feel that for a grand finale, it was somehow lacking. That could be due to the fact that I set it aside for a couple weeks but I don't know. There just seemed to be all this buildup for a terribly short battle and rather predictable ending, yet one where not everything I hoped would happen happened, you know?

Spoiler

The most prominent being that she never got to see her father outside of prison... I thought they would've ended with his actual release, not just the appeal. But also the fact that seeing as Olivia did exactly what the fae didn't want her to do this whole time, splitting her power between the Tylweth Teg and the Cwn Anwn, she didn't even necessarily solve the dilemma of the "choice" at all, erasing the urgency as if it was that easy with no clever loop hole or anything, just like yup splitting power, you're on your own. Also, gonna level with you and say I barely remembered who Imogen was so the reveal was like oh ho ho she's the sluagh all along and I'm like wait, who is she?.

I think a large part of the disconnect comes from the fact that a majority of the action, not just in this book but in all of them, actually takes place outside of Cainsville. Because I love Cainsville and the concept behind it, I think it has A LOT of potential, but half the time they're in abandoned buildings over here or the city over here or the forest over here and so that potential is not used to its fullest. If ever there was more released on the town though, I would so read it because the lore and history is fascinating.

I'm also really not a fan of how they handled the reveal about what really happened between Patrick and Seanna before Gabriel was born.

Spoiler

Practically victim blaming him after they discover that he was like drugged and raped, not cool, honestly what the heck

But moving on, last thoughts: good book, about another 3.5 stars I'd say, good characters, okay ending for the series, though I feel like we could have tied up a few more loose ends; Gabriel, my beloved *sighs*; I actually don't really have much to say, it was fairly clear where most of this story was going even though at times it had quite a few muddled elements mixed in there *Cough* MK-Ultra *cough*, I mean there were some surprises but they kind of came out of left field so, I'll leave it at that.

Spoiler

Walter's betrayal and Ida defeating the sluagh mainly, I guess Imogen too because like I said I barely recalled who she was. Though Todd having actually killed someone was a good twist.

But I'm happy to have read the series anyway. It was certainly different from anything else I've read and I'd like to find more like it in the future.