melike's review against another edition
1.0
➔ 1.5 stars
very rarely have i read a bigger load of bullshit than this.
more than half of this book was enrique sulking and turning his anger at séverin into his only personality trait. laila was equally annoying. their whole characters revolved around how mad they were at séverin. CONSTANT talk about how they would never forgive him and how terrible he is and and and. i literally spent almost the entire book irritated as hell. and then when séverin tries to explain himself and apologize, they don‘t even let the man talk. i was mostly irritated by him myself up until the very end of the second book, but the way the other characters‘ anger was depicted had me siding with him.
during the last 1/3 of the book, the plot finally started moving forward and it actually got interesting. that enjoyment lasted for only a few chapters though because everything went from 100 to 0 REAL QUICK. that ending was one of the dumbest endings i have ever read. it simply did not FIT into this story, and there was absolutely no coherence. as i said, it was a huge load of bullshit.
also, i feel like the characters changed their personalities a hundred times throughout the books. i would not call it development per se, because they just kept going back and forth between personalities. the only consistent one was hypnos, who was also the only character who didn‘t piss me off at all throughout the whole series, bless him.
there was also little to no proper romantic build-up in this entire series, but especially this book. there was no romance, and then suddenly there was romance. and i couldn‘t love any of the ships because they just felt so lackluster.
lastly, i think there are several gaps in the story, and a few things that are just left unanswered, which is something i dislike a lot. we are just thrown a piece of information, and it‘s like the author just expects us to know what it means and how it came to be without giving us any context or explanation.
let me give you a few examples (some
spoilers ahead, the end of the spoilers have been tagged a little further down):
- at the end of the first book, the matriarch tells hypnos the order tested séverin and it turned out that he was not the heir of house vanth. however, in this one, séverin states the order offered him "his inheritance" again. so does that mean the matriarch lied to protect séverin‘s bloodline? or does the order just have the wrong information? the only thing you can do is guess which one it is, but we are not given a definitive answer.
- in the first book, it‘s stated that tristan had a matching scar with séverin on his hand, the latter of which we know is because of the order‘s test. i was really hoping that detail would be followed up, but it was simply pointed out once only to not be explained at all.
- the entire relationship of enrique, zofia and hypnos is confusing as hell because nothing is properly explained there either. i GUESS enrique and zofia are together, and PROBABLY get married and have children, but hypnos is said to be with them as well. and just... why? like does hypnos not do anything else in his life? find love? ANYTHING??? we literally get no proper information whatsoever which i personally find very annoying because it‘s all so unclear.
END OF SPOILERS
i’m not even going to go into detail about that ending, especially with séverin and laila, because as previously mentioned, it was ridiculous and dumb as hell. i thought it was all building up for an epic conclusion only to get this instead. overall, i was disappointed by this. after the ending of the second book i had hopes for this one, and it just ended up as one badly written pile of clownery.
very rarely have i read a bigger load of bullshit than this.
more than half of this book was enrique sulking and turning his anger at séverin into his only personality trait. laila was equally annoying. their whole characters revolved around how mad they were at séverin. CONSTANT talk about how they would never forgive him and how terrible he is and and and. i literally spent almost the entire book irritated as hell. and then when séverin tries to explain himself and apologize, they don‘t even let the man talk. i was mostly irritated by him myself up until the very end of the second book, but the way the other characters‘ anger was depicted had me siding with him.
during the last 1/3 of the book, the plot finally started moving forward and it actually got interesting. that enjoyment lasted for only a few chapters though because everything went from 100 to 0 REAL QUICK. that ending was one of the dumbest endings i have ever read. it simply did not FIT into this story, and there was absolutely no coherence. as i said, it was a huge load of bullshit.
also, i feel like the characters changed their personalities a hundred times throughout the books. i would not call it development per se, because they just kept going back and forth between personalities. the only consistent one was hypnos, who was also the only character who didn‘t piss me off at all throughout the whole series, bless him.
there was also little to no proper romantic build-up in this entire series, but especially this book. there was no romance, and then suddenly there was romance. and i couldn‘t love any of the ships because they just felt so lackluster.
lastly, i think there are several gaps in the story, and a few things that are just left unanswered, which is something i dislike a lot. we are just thrown a piece of information, and it‘s like the author just expects us to know what it means and how it came to be without giving us any context or explanation.
let me give you a few examples (some
spoilers ahead, the end of the spoilers have been tagged a little further down):
- at the end of the first book, the matriarch tells hypnos the order tested séverin and it turned out that he was not the heir of house vanth. however, in this one, séverin states the order offered him "his inheritance" again. so does that mean the matriarch lied to protect séverin‘s bloodline? or does the order just have the wrong information? the only thing you can do is guess which one it is, but we are not given a definitive answer.
- in the first book, it‘s stated that tristan had a matching scar with séverin on his hand, the latter of which we know is because of the order‘s test. i was really hoping that detail would be followed up, but it was simply pointed out once only to not be explained at all.
- the entire relationship of enrique, zofia and hypnos is confusing as hell because nothing is properly explained there either. i GUESS enrique and zofia are together, and PROBABLY get married and have children, but hypnos is said to be with them as well. and just... why? like does hypnos not do anything else in his life? find love? ANYTHING??? we literally get no proper information whatsoever which i personally find very annoying because it‘s all so unclear.
END OF SPOILERS
i’m not even going to go into detail about that ending, especially with séverin and laila, because as previously mentioned, it was ridiculous and dumb as hell. i thought it was all building up for an epic conclusion only to get this instead. overall, i was disappointed by this. after the ending of the second book i had hopes for this one, and it just ended up as one badly written pile of clownery.
acrow's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Um final satisfatório para a trilogia, mas quase se perdeu no caminho
elodiethefangirl's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
lisaliest's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I‘m sad that the series is over, but I’m glad to have read it.
I’ll miss the characters and their interactions. I especially liked Zofia, she truly is the light of the series. And together with Enrique she is unstoppable. I didn’t quite get how Hypnos fit into this duo, but that may be, because he was the least developed character.
I wasn’t satisfied by laila’s ending, I would have preferred a better explanation, which leads me to my biggest complaint about this book: The plot wasn’t very strong, the stakes didn’t feel very high. It was mostly wonderful created scenes and a brilliantly described world, which I enjoyed greatly. I admire chokshi endlessly for her writing talent. More plot would have made this a nearly perfect book..
I’ll miss the characters and their interactions. I especially liked Zofia, she truly is the light of the series. And together with Enrique she is unstoppable. I didn’t quite get how Hypnos fit into this duo, but that may be, because he was the least developed character.
Spoiler
I’m a little bit sad, that he didn’t pursue a music career and share his song with the world. To me that would have fitted very well.I wasn’t satisfied by laila’s ending, I would have preferred a better explanation, which leads me to my biggest complaint about this book: The plot wasn’t very strong, the stakes didn’t feel very high. It was mostly wonderful created scenes and a brilliantly described world, which I enjoyed greatly. I admire chokshi endlessly for her writing talent. More plot would have made this a nearly perfect book.
Spoiler
My last disappointment is, why did she let the magic vanish? To me it felt as if she killed the book/the world a little. Thats so sad to me. She set it up with so much care and intricate world building. Sooo, whyyyyy?hey_itsme's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I wish reading this book didn't take me two months when i devoured the first two in a week but I found myself not wanting to keep picking it back up. There's nothing really wrong with it but I stopped caring about Severin and Laila a quarter into book 2 and I think that ruined a lot of the magic :/
That being said Zofia is one of my favorite characters in any piece of media which is why this book is still almost a 4 star; I cannot give her less! Enrique is also a wonderful character and I loved every minute in his POV as well- please for the love of god give me a spin-off of their trio adventures im begging
That being said Zofia is one of my favorite characters in any piece of media which is why this book is still almost a 4 star; I cannot give her less! Enrique is also a wonderful character and I loved every minute in his POV as well- please for the love of god give me a spin-off of their trio adventures im begging
jj_29's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lydiapike's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
sophiaeve's review against another edition
4.0
that epilogue was written just to hurt me. roshani you will be paying for my therapy
marianne_m_h's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5