chaos_tempest's review
2.0
I wanted to love this book, I wanted to love the romance between Bastien and Ember so much, I wanted to further the story in some way, shape or form, and it failed me in all three ways. I have loved Sherrilyn Kenyon for years, she was the first real romance author I religiously followed, but the last several books from her have been less and less promising.
Bastien, as we know, was convicted of killing his family in a failed coup d'état and was sentenced to be a thrill kill for would be assassins. He hides out on a planet, often used by Andarions for the Endurance right, that blocks the tracker hidden in his body. Ember was a captain on Bastien's home planet, his partner, actually, after a controversial mishap with another aristo. Before the uprising, they of course fell in love, do we get to see this happen, no, not in the slightest. Ember becomes scared and backs out of the relationship (not Bastien's fault), leaving him wide up open to take the fall. Time skip, jump thing, insert Jullien, then Dancer, then Jullien again, keep in mind, these scenes are from other books and in BoV it takes up over half the book. When Bastien is finally, and I mean FINALLY, reunited with Ember, it was almost like nothing happened, they pick up right where they left off, with no build-up or romance.
If you can't tell, this book was a cop out filler, and a poor one at that. The Bastien that was portrayed to us in the other two books was strong and independent, willing to take a beating to save two kids he barely knows. We don't get to see that Bastien here. In BoV, Bastien whines, woe is me, think of Ember, more woe, etc. The scenes from BoL or BoF could have been beneficial to character building, since they are from his perspective instead, but they weren't used that way. The romance and love that Ember and Bastien shared could have been a cute and riotous story. They both have the potential characteristics for raising Hell and getting reactions from people, they had SO much potential, why wasn't it utilized?!
Also, I don't understand why SK keeps saying that this series can be read independently. If a newbie went into this book, no knowledge of the rest of the series, they would have no idea what was going on. This series absolutely should be read in order!
Bastien, as we know, was convicted of killing his family in a failed coup d'état and was sentenced to be a thrill kill for would be assassins. He hides out on a planet, often used by Andarions for the Endurance right, that blocks the tracker hidden in his body. Ember was a captain on Bastien's home planet, his partner, actually, after a controversial mishap with another aristo. Before the uprising, they of course fell in love, do we get to see this happen, no, not in the slightest. Ember becomes scared and backs out of the relationship (not Bastien's fault), leaving him wide up open to take the fall. Time skip, jump thing, insert Jullien, then Dancer, then Jullien again, keep in mind, these scenes are from other books and in BoV it takes up over half the book. When Bastien is finally, and I mean FINALLY, reunited with Ember, it was almost like nothing happened, they pick up right where they left off, with no build-up or romance.
If you can't tell, this book was a cop out filler, and a poor one at that. The Bastien that was portrayed to us in the other two books was strong and independent, willing to take a beating to save two kids he barely knows. We don't get to see that Bastien here. In BoV, Bastien whines, woe is me, think of Ember, more woe, etc. The scenes from BoL or BoF could have been beneficial to character building, since they are from his perspective instead, but they weren't used that way. The romance and love that Ember and Bastien shared could have been a cute and riotous story. They both have the potential characteristics for raising Hell and getting reactions from people, they had SO much potential, why wasn't it utilized?!
Also, I don't understand why SK keeps saying that this series can be read independently. If a newbie went into this book, no knowledge of the rest of the series, they would have no idea what was going on. This series absolutely should be read in order!
athenaevarinya's review
5.0
Actually, this is more of a 4.5 stars rating to me, but GoodReads doesn't divide stars into quarters so I can't put that. I just feel that the ending for Bastien and Ember was a bit rushed, hence the half star deduction.
thenovellush's review
3.0
Sooooo, I pre-ordered this book because SK is one of my favorite authors and in my eyes, she can do no wrong. Especially in this particular series. BUT, I was sorely disappointed with this book. It was boring, the two main characters went basically the entire middle 3/5 book without any interaction, and the whole thing seemed to be in fast forward making the timeline foggy and hard to keep up with. Some chapters and passages were labeled ___ years later, or ____ weeks later, and then some weren't labeled at all, leaving you to figure out the weird time jumps on your own.
Plus, the main issue that initially broke up Bas and Ember? The big reveal? NEVER HAPPENED. What the hell?! Ember just totally ignored the fact that Bas's father threatened them if they got married and never told Bastien what happened after I spent the whole book waiting for it. And then that same father never seemed to protest the fact that he married the sister instead.
The characters were really just kind of weird and inconsistent and unbelievable to me, especially Bastien and the sister (you know which one) and there was no real reasoning or explanation behind her douchbaggery. Overall, I think the 3 star rating was kind of generous, and I'm even more disappointed because I waited with bated breath for this book to come out and I love SK so much. Sad face! I'll definitely do an in depth book talk on my channel soon
Plus, the main issue that initially broke up Bas and Ember? The big reveal? NEVER HAPPENED. What the hell?! Ember just totally ignored the fact that Bas's father threatened them if they got married and never told Bastien what happened after I spent the whole book waiting for it. And then that same father never seemed to protest the fact that he married the sister instead.
The characters were really just kind of weird and inconsistent and unbelievable to me, especially Bastien and the sister (you know which one) and there was no real reasoning or explanation behind her douchbaggery. Overall, I think the 3 star rating was kind of generous, and I'm even more disappointed because I waited with bated breath for this book to come out and I love SK so much. Sad face! I'll definitely do an in depth book talk on my channel soon
craftingrama's review
3.0
a bit confusing and hard to figure out but glad I persisted, it finally got sorted out after awhile
ozettegirl's review
1.0
After the first chapter this book became unreadable. The timeline jumped ahead unevenly, the plot was ludicrously all over the place with tons of ransom characters. Wow, so bad.
fronik's review
2.0
I usually love Kenyon's series, but I found this plot choppy and hard to follow at times. One minute they are Meeting and the next deeply in love and - with seemingly little provocation- falling out and embroiled in a multi-verse revenge war. I was able to finish it in one day because I flipped through some of the - sorry! - unengaging fight scenes. I hope she writes more, but goes back to her style of building up plots and filling in back story with the admirable skill she used for the Dark Hunter series.
pixi_reads's review
4.0
It was alright. There was a lot of overlap with Dancer's story, and I feel most of the book was a retelling from Bastian's view. Even with this, I still rather enjoyed the telling of Bastian's story and got a surprise with the bonus story at the end - not an epilogue, a bonus story.
misskrislm's review
3.0
I have to be honest and say that I was slightly disappointed in this book. I love and appreciate that most, if not all, of the Kenyon books have overlapping characters, stories, and plots. By doing this, there is an intense level of continuity between each volume and it gives the full view of each part of the story.
My issue with this novel is too much of it was a repeat of previous novels' events without an overwhelming amount of new information or forward progress. The story before the current League war was spotty and could have been given a greater amount of detail as we knew nothing about him or his life to this point. Everything during and after the war was the same material as [b:Born of Legend|25868031|Born of Legend (The League, #9)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1445742413s/25868031.jpg|45740250] and [b:Born of Betrayal|23848002|Born of Betrayal (The League #8)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426664309s/23848002.jpg|41132851].
Don't get me wrong; I still loved the book, and went out of my way to pre-order a signed copy. Still, I'm looking forward to the next installment giving me more original material.
My issue with this novel is too much of it was a repeat of previous novels' events without an overwhelming amount of new information or forward progress. The story before the current League war was spotty and could have been given a greater amount of detail as we knew nothing about him or his life to this point. Everything during and after the war was the same material as [b:Born of Legend|25868031|Born of Legend (The League, #9)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1445742413s/25868031.jpg|45740250] and [b:Born of Betrayal|23848002|Born of Betrayal (The League #8)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426664309s/23848002.jpg|41132851].
Don't get me wrong; I still loved the book, and went out of my way to pre-order a signed copy. Still, I'm looking forward to the next installment giving me more original material.