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A review by thewordslinger
Forging Darkness by Julie Hall
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The amount of things that ride these characters...<i>hard</i> is too damn high. Literally it's everything except <i>other characters</i>.
Also, now that we're 2 books in, I can definitively say that I don't particularly care for Steel at all. If "dumb military grunt" was a trope, he'd be the poster child. All he does is growl and brood and smash things. Did his angelic ancestor mate with a gorilla? Because that's exactly how he acts.
And he's not even <i>that</i> great of a warrior, even if everyone in the world tries to convince us of this fact. He's just an emotionally stunted kid with anger issues.
It's his half-cocked plan to go off on his own hunting down 'his sister' that gets everybody into this mess. And every fight they get into he ends up shredded and near death. Emberly has to come to his aid literally every single time.
Which cool, yay badass woman. But it's realllllly not a good look for the love interest to be <i>this</i> inept.
And let's face it: the relationship between Emberly and Steel is based <i>entirely</i> on nothing but a couple kisses. There's nothing that really draws them together, no reason other than his weird ass dreams and her weird ass "mine" thing--neither of which has thus far been explained at all.
All the emotional confession stuff that happens in this book doesn't land because as great as it is in the moment, it ultimately means nothing; there's barely anything between the characters that could be considered friendship, let alone a relationship. I'm not buying into them AT ALL as a couple. And I feel like I should be wanting to root for them by now.
I hate to say it--because I know Thorne gets his own book with Nova later--but he and Emberly immediately have more chemistry than Emberly and Steel ever did. Even when he's being a shit to her, beating her up, and leaving her to be soul-melded or whatever. <i>Even</i> when he's being a big bad villain and destroying London. Not only can the guy actually fight, he's clever and witty and intelligent--he matches her energy.
If ever there was a time to break away from love interest number one in order to find one's true mate, it's now.
But alas.
Also, now that we're 2 books in, I can definitively say that I don't particularly care for Steel at all. If "dumb military grunt" was a trope, he'd be the poster child. All he does is growl and brood and smash things. Did his angelic ancestor mate with a gorilla? Because that's exactly how he acts.
And he's not even <i>that</i> great of a warrior, even if everyone in the world tries to convince us of this fact. He's just an emotionally stunted kid with anger issues.
It's his half-cocked plan to go off on his own hunting down 'his sister' that gets everybody into this mess. And every fight they get into he ends up shredded and near death. Emberly has to come to his aid literally every single time.
Which cool, yay badass woman. But it's realllllly not a good look for the love interest to be <i>this</i> inept.
And let's face it: the relationship between Emberly and Steel is based <i>entirely</i> on nothing but a couple kisses. There's nothing that really draws them together, no reason other than his weird ass dreams and her weird ass "mine" thing--neither of which has thus far been explained at all.
All the emotional confession stuff that happens in this book doesn't land because as great as it is in the moment, it ultimately means nothing; there's barely anything between the characters that could be considered friendship, let alone a relationship. I'm not buying into them AT ALL as a couple. And I feel like I should be wanting to root for them by now.
I hate to say it--because I know Thorne gets his own book with Nova later--but he and Emberly immediately have more chemistry than Emberly and Steel ever did. Even when he's being a shit to her, beating her up, and leaving her to be soul-melded or whatever. <i>Even</i> when he's being a big bad villain and destroying London. Not only can the guy actually fight, he's clever and witty and intelligent--he matches her energy.
If ever there was a time to break away from love interest number one in order to find one's true mate, it's now.
But alas.