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A review by whatshereads_
Heartless Sky by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.0
Spoiler heavy review!!
Okay, let’s talk about lazy writing and a money grab. About 50% of this book was unnecessary. First of all the Darcy curse storyline was foreshadowed so badly. From chapter 1 I was able to deduce that the curse was in fact still present and that the murders as soon as they began were by Darcy. Now for Tory and Darius - they went from having beautiful chemistry with sex scenes that built and crescendoed perfectly. This time there was no chemistry, there was just cringy nicknames and sex scenes that were thrown in just so the authors could say there’s spice in this book. I have another issue with the sex in this book and that is that the consent during sex scenes was almost nonexistent. Let’s talk about two scenes in particular and trigger warning ahead. Darius sexually assaulted Tory, it doesn’t matter that in her dream she was having sex, it does not matter that once awake she was enjoying herself. What matters is Darius went down on her while she was unconscious. It was gross, it was triggering and there was absolutely no reason for it to occur. The second sexual assault happened between Lionel and Lavinia, she raped him. He explicitly said no and she continued no matter his protests. I would like to mention that just because a character is evil it does not mean reading their rape scene is easier, it does not make it okay. What more, it does not make it okay to have absolutely no trigger warnings in the blurb or at the front of the book. If you would like to see trigger warnings done well please check out Gild by Raven Kennedy. Dark scenes are okay to include in a book but the reader needs to understand what they are getting into before picking up the book.
Other lazy writing and that 50% that was unnecessary- let’s talk about how Tory and Darcy spent months, MONTHS training their powers and we got to see none of it!!! Instead of including world building and lore building instead we see ridiculous scenes of badly written jokes and pranks, we spend time in the heads of side characters seeing side stories in first person perspective when the same impact could be had on the reader by including little updates throughout important characters perspectives and through tiny side scenes. But no, the authors felt it was necessary to show us a pube bush growing out of control. Like what the fuck, this is an adult book written by adults. I think perhaps the authors are out of touch with what the lives of people in their early adult lives are actually like and what they are interested in. For example I don’t know a single 18-22 yo who is that dumb who is somehow mature enough to be taking on a war but also tries to figure out the best way to dress up their cock.
So with all the criticism why does it get 2 stars and not 1? Well I finished it at least. For all the poorly written sex and jokes and hullabaloo, I’ve invested time with these characters and I care about what happens next. Will I be picking the final book of the series when it comes out. Yes. Will I probably struggle through it? If it’s anything like the quality of book 7, yes.
Okay, let’s talk about lazy writing and a money grab. About 50% of this book was unnecessary. First of all the Darcy curse storyline was foreshadowed so badly. From chapter 1 I was able to deduce that the curse was in fact still present and that the murders as soon as they began were by Darcy. Now for Tory and Darius - they went from having beautiful chemistry with sex scenes that built and crescendoed perfectly. This time there was no chemistry, there was just cringy nicknames and sex scenes that were thrown in just so the authors could say there’s spice in this book. I have another issue with the sex in this book and that is that the consent during sex scenes was almost nonexistent. Let’s talk about two scenes in particular and trigger warning ahead. Darius sexually assaulted Tory, it doesn’t matter that in her dream she was having sex, it does not matter that once awake she was enjoying herself. What matters is Darius went down on her while she was unconscious. It was gross, it was triggering and there was absolutely no reason for it to occur. The second sexual assault happened between Lionel and Lavinia, she raped him. He explicitly said no and she continued no matter his protests. I would like to mention that just because a character is evil it does not mean reading their rape scene is easier, it does not make it okay. What more, it does not make it okay to have absolutely no trigger warnings in the blurb or at the front of the book. If you would like to see trigger warnings done well please check out Gild by Raven Kennedy. Dark scenes are okay to include in a book but the reader needs to understand what they are getting into before picking up the book.
Other lazy writing and that 50% that was unnecessary- let’s talk about how Tory and Darcy spent months, MONTHS training their powers and we got to see none of it!!! Instead of including world building and lore building instead we see ridiculous scenes of badly written jokes and pranks, we spend time in the heads of side characters seeing side stories in first person perspective when the same impact could be had on the reader by including little updates throughout important characters perspectives and through tiny side scenes. But no, the authors felt it was necessary to show us a pube bush growing out of control. Like what the fuck, this is an adult book written by adults. I think perhaps the authors are out of touch with what the lives of people in their early adult lives are actually like and what they are interested in. For example I don’t know a single 18-22 yo who is that dumb who is somehow mature enough to be taking on a war but also tries to figure out the best way to dress up their cock.
So with all the criticism why does it get 2 stars and not 1? Well I finished it at least. For all the poorly written sex and jokes and hullabaloo, I’ve invested time with these characters and I care about what happens next. Will I be picking the final book of the series when it comes out. Yes. Will I probably struggle through it? If it’s anything like the quality of book 7, yes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault