A review by velvetyaverage
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

Did not finish book. Stopped at 67%.

Somehow, the first book in a series is suffering from second book syndrome. At first, I was all for the idea of a story about "the chosen one" after the quest is done and she's not needed anymore. The politics of being a hero in peacetime and used by the Queen as a pawn was especially interesting.

But the quest isn't done and the Gods straight up tell her that destroying the dragons was their plan for her all along. So instead of being a new story after "the quest," this is just a continuation of the quest that we missed the first half of.

This feels like the sequel to a book that doesn't exist. It's the middle book that shuffles the plot along and sets things up for the last book. Except there is no first book to get the reader invested! The war and the relationships between characters that were established five years ago play a huge role in the current plot but we, the reader, have no idea about any of it unless it's spoon fed to us through info dumping.

Plus, the pace is slow and the book gets caught between trying to be both a romance and a fantasy and not giving either genre enough depth to make it interesting. I'm not sure if it's because I am very far from the young adult demographic or if it is just the book but I'm bored. Life is too short to spend another almost four hours on a book that I have no strong feelings about, even if I am mildly curious about what happens next. (I've seen some reviews that hint at the ending but I have yet to find anyone that spoils the whole thing. From what I have seen, though, finishing this book is just going to make me mad.)