A review by suzjustsuz
Hellforged by Nancy Holzner
3.0
This is a good series overall and I was quite pleased that the author closed up the blossoming love triangle without dragging it out and making it angsty. We didn't to share in the resultant heat and I thought that was a bit of a cop out, but overall I was pleased that the author chose not to toy with the readers with a much over used triangle trope.
The world is quite rich and the elements exist in a constant state of push/ pull that feels very real to me. Some times it's gritty and other times it feels a bit too bubble gum, but when I stop to think about it life can be that way too so it seems to flow naturally for me.
I liked that there was a resolution to a longer arc with a nemesis in this book, too. The heroine was petrified that she was out matched and for a good bit of the book it looked like that might be the case. She even had a bit of dumb luck that played into it.
I feel a bit torn about the ending, to be honest. It's an unresolved set up for the next book, possibly even the new long arc given that the old long arc got resolved in this book. It wasn't jarring and it didn't feel manipulative but it certainly didn't feel like a resolution either. In fact she began introducing the story early in the book and weaved it into the book arc in such a way that it would be fair to say that it not only is the introduction of the long arc but it's also an unresolved piece of this book arc, leaving this book feeling a bit unfinished and like a "part 1 of 2" kind of thing without actually saying it.
I can't decide if I'm not flipping out about the "cliff hanger ending" because it wasn't jarring or because I just wasn't that invested in the book. Normally I give 1 star ratings for cliff hangers but since I can't really put my finger on this one I'm only going to grade down a star for a general sense of incompleteness. Otherwise it was a solid 4 stars that I would upgrade to 4.5 if we could have gotten a peak at the consummation of the relationship commitment.
The world is quite rich and the elements exist in a constant state of push/ pull that feels very real to me. Some times it's gritty and other times it feels a bit too bubble gum, but when I stop to think about it life can be that way too so it seems to flow naturally for me.
I liked that there was a resolution to a longer arc with a nemesis in this book, too. The heroine was petrified that she was out matched and for a good bit of the book it looked like that might be the case. She even had a bit of dumb luck that played into it.
I feel a bit torn about the ending, to be honest. It's an unresolved set up for the next book, possibly even the new long arc given that the old long arc got resolved in this book. It wasn't jarring and it didn't feel manipulative but it certainly didn't feel like a resolution either. In fact she began introducing the story early in the book and weaved it into the book arc in such a way that it would be fair to say that it not only is the introduction of the long arc but it's also an unresolved piece of this book arc, leaving this book feeling a bit unfinished and like a "part 1 of 2" kind of thing without actually saying it.
I can't decide if I'm not flipping out about the "cliff hanger ending" because it wasn't jarring or because I just wasn't that invested in the book. Normally I give 1 star ratings for cliff hangers but since I can't really put my finger on this one I'm only going to grade down a star for a general sense of incompleteness. Otherwise it was a solid 4 stars that I would upgrade to 4.5 if we could have gotten a peak at the consummation of the relationship commitment.