Hello, my lovely booklovers. It has been some time since I have written a review and I figured why not write one now.
Let me just start with this book took me over a month to read and was probably the hardest book to get into. There was a massive info dump at the beginning and the first 500 pages were probably the biggest let down for me.
There are quite a few triggers in this book. So be warned for those. The biggest one I noticed was drug use. The swear was a lot and sex was pretty much watching a porno. I want to be blunt and upfront with my reviews from now on, so here we go with the main review.
So as stated above, the beginning of the book was a huge info dump that I could have cared less about. While important, I don't feel it was important enough to really constituent 500 pages. There were details in the book that bothered me and were unnecessary. I really didn't care how short Bryce's dress was or if you could see muscles through her clothing. I'm pretty sure everyone who read it understood more people found Bryce attractive and wanted to sleep with her which is fine.
Now touching on some of the more technical aspects. This book was written in YA style with added adult content which was rather depressing for me. I was really looking for deep characters and a deep, deep plot that normally comes with adult fantasy. Sarah is the queen of smut and we all know this. Sadly, smut and swearing doesn't make an adult novel. So this was a super let down for me and I'm sure the cussing made up at least 1/8 of the word count for this book. So if swearing bothers you please don't bother with this book.
Now, let's dig into my biggest complaint about this book, if you have read Maas' other works you have pretty much read this one. With some name changes and location and time change, Maas' has somehow managed to take all the same characters shes written and write them into a new exciting plot line and managed to destroy your hopes of the good ones to continue on in the plotline. Let's look back at Sam and Nehemia. Well-loved characters taken from us to soon. There were many points in this book where I felt I was reading The A Court series and Throne of Glass all over again. Bryce was Aelin remade. Which really made me disappointed in the main character as a whole. Though I think I have far more rooted feelings for how I feel than just her being a remade character with a different exterior. Continuing on into the more story moving similarities. "Like calls to like" was yet again used which is fine, it helps connect the world Maas is making and allows the words to connect like we know that do. (Aelin flying through Velaris and Crescent City in Kingdom of Ash.)
Now onto the Good, this story after page 500 finally started moving and the pace picked up and did keep me entertained. I was finally okay and didn't want to chuck the entire book across the room. The swearing subsided and finally got to the deeper part of the story. While the climax of the book felt familiar, it did leave me content with the book.
Overall this book was a solid 3 out of 5 stars. It was a 1 or 2 before I reached the 500-page mark solely because the ending redeemed the book. The genre of the book did nothing for me as I'm not a fan of urban fantasy. I think I went into this book expecting deep writing like some of my favorite adult fantasy writers and just didn't get the depth I was hoping for. So I think that list plays a huge role in my rating and review of this book. I did enjoy the read, but it was not up to par with my expectations for the adult fantasy genre.
