A review by mastersal
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett

5.0

Brief review follows:

More like 4.75 stars

I really enjoyed this book - and I don't care how little "progress" we made on the "main timeline". That sort of misses the point for me - this was the first book wholly and mostly focused on the female POV's and I loved it. Even though I didn't like Renna personally but it was good to see the POVs expanded - especially for Inevera. This series is really not about the demons but about the people and I loved the fact that in this book's case, this meant women. Their hopes, their roles and their fears. And yes, sex as well. This book does put sex front and centre - in that this is a grown up book. The acceptance of violence as normal but not sex has always struck me as odd. And no, the sex is not titillating or obscene but it is frank. This might not be to everyone's taste, that I get - but for me, it was good to see the women in the book accept, desire and enjoy sex instead of the typical SA we get in fantasy being a short-cut to 'grittiness'. Even in that I think the series has improved IMO.

My only issue was the ending - that came too abruptly and felt more like set-up than part of the narrative of this book. There was a clear pivot near the end to refocus - which I didn't mind - but it needed a little more time. As a result, I can't give this a full 5 stars even though I loved most of it.

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March 18 2024

Putting back on the TBR until I get the audio book back. Stopped at Chapter 11 - was going really well so I don’t want to lose the excitement by switching formats.