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gillian0231 's review for:
Crown of Earth and Sky
by Emberly Ash
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So I really, really, really liked this book in the beginning, but unfortunately it just got way too long and meandering that I ended up getting really bored about 60% of the way through.
This book had a very strong beginning. You are immediately sucked into the story with action and death and a little bit of mystery. The characters are being introduced very well and are all very different and interesting. Veyka was a complex person with her own strengths and weaknesses that are explored throughout the book. Arran was the typical brooding, powerful MMC but it definitely wasn't overdone. We know he spent a good part of his life fighting for his people, but we never really get that weird plot device of whether or not he's a good person and whether or not Veyka can love him because of that. I know this is done a lot in romantasies, so I appreciate that this isn't the case. Yes, Arran is a brutal killer but it's never questioned whether or not he'll do the objectively right thing. The only conflict like this is whether or not Veyka and Arran's goals actually align but it's pretty quickly resolved.
I am very interested to learn more about their backstories, specifically Arran since we saw so little about him and his people. I would say the only critique I really have is that there was maybe too much of the spice in this book. Not necessarily full smutty scenes, but the amount of times that Arran describe his c*ck getting hard after looking at Veyka was a little ridiculous and honestly made me uncomfortable a few times.
The side characters were also very fun to read about and had good roles in the story--no one seemed pushed to the side (except Evander, I still don't understand why Veyka hated him so much).
Now my biggest issue with this book is that it could definitely be at least 100 pages short than it is. The middle of the book is just so bogged down with nothing happening. There's a little bit of world-building going on and personal conflicts, but nothing that is really advancing the plot. Besides the very beginning and end of the book, there are maybe two or three scenes that really advance the plot. The humans aren't really explored even though they advanced the entire book's plot. As someone so bent on revenge, we don't really see Veyka doing too much to investigate who actually orchestrated her brother's assassination. Honestly if there was more minor conflict between the main characters and better emotional development of their relationships, I wouldn't mind the lack of action, but that was not the case. I didn't really feel any major chemistry between Veyka and Arran outside of physical attraction. There was a lot of good groundwork for other relationships (both romantic and platonic), but they're never really explored. As someone who loves books in which I can really relate to or fall in love with the characters, this book really fell short in that area.
Overall, I think this series has insane potential, it just really needs to be edited down and focus more on plot/characters than smut.
This book had a very strong beginning. You are immediately sucked into the story with action and death and a little bit of mystery. The characters are being introduced very well and are all very different and interesting. Veyka was a complex person with her own strengths and weaknesses that are explored throughout the book. Arran was the typical brooding, powerful MMC but it definitely wasn't overdone. We know he spent a good part of his life fighting for his people, but we never really get that weird plot device of whether or not he's a good person and whether or not Veyka can love him because of that. I know this is done a lot in romantasies, so I appreciate that this isn't the case. Yes, Arran is a brutal killer but it's never questioned whether or not he'll do the objectively right thing. The only conflict like this is whether or not Veyka and Arran's goals actually align but it's pretty quickly resolved.
I am very interested to learn more about their backstories, specifically Arran since we saw so little about him and his people. I would say the only critique I really have is that there was maybe too much of the spice in this book. Not necessarily full smutty scenes, but the amount of times that Arran describe his c*ck getting hard after looking at Veyka was a little ridiculous and honestly made me uncomfortable a few times.
The side characters were also very fun to read about and had good roles in the story--no one seemed pushed to the side (except Evander, I still don't understand why Veyka hated him so much).
Now my biggest issue with this book is that it could definitely be at least 100 pages short than it is. The middle of the book is just so bogged down with nothing happening. There's a little bit of world-building going on and personal conflicts, but nothing that is really advancing the plot. Besides the very beginning and end of the book, there are maybe two or three scenes that really advance the plot. The humans aren't really explored even though they advanced the entire book's plot. As someone so bent on revenge, we don't really see Veyka doing too much to investigate who actually orchestrated her brother's assassination. Honestly if there was more minor conflict between the main characters and better emotional development of their relationships, I wouldn't mind the lack of action, but that was not the case. I didn't really feel any major chemistry between Veyka and Arran outside of physical attraction. There was a lot of good groundwork for other relationships (both romantic and platonic), but they're never really explored. As someone who loves books in which I can really relate to or fall in love with the characters, this book really fell short in that area.
Overall, I think this series has insane potential, it just really needs to be edited down and focus more on plot/characters than smut.