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A review by saphibella
Unraveling Destiny by Amelia Hutchins
3.0
Being left with this meh *shrug shoulders* feeling after reading the newest book in one of my favorite series is not a fun thing.
3 stars is all I will give, for although the story was enjoyable, with great pacing and me not feeling bored at any point during the book, the empty feeling of a book that has gone exactly nowhere leaves me kind of sad.
Other than adding a lot of fluff and other items to an already bloated plot line the book does not manage to resolve essential plot line items from earlier books.
As mentioned earlier books plot line items (healing faery, taking down the mages, building a new guild, finding the light heir etc.) do not really get resolved with the Ryder-Syn storyline, they are touched upon, but nothing really happens.
Instead a lot of other things from other storylines gets included but it doesn’t really feel like it belongs as anything other than a way of expanding the universe.
In fact much of this book suffers from what I would call the Marvel Cinematic Universe syndrome, where a lot of storylines have to fit together, so to resolve all those it takes away from the actual story the book should focus on.
Storyline 1 (the actual one about Syn and Ryder’s relationship and struggles)
Where to start, Syn and Ryder get married, it takes two tries, and a lot of wedding preparations that got old really fast. In essence Madisyn wants a big fancy wedding, Syn just accept everything to keep the peace although none of it really fits her. And you get no actual feeling of whether this is what Ryder wants as well, or he just want to get on the good side of his mother in law.
The triplets are oh so adorable, and needs protecting, and after Syn's badassery with blades and magic might finally be safe(r). But this kinda gets lost in all the other things going on.
A whole new plotline of things gets added, and make the book more like the start to a new series with a new plotline than a resolution or continuation of a series, and have in my opinion not been integrated into the previous books.
The triplets are part of a prophesy which has not been mentioned at all in previous books, and it is very apparent that the author tries to sneak it in with an excuse of it not being mentioned before.
Original witches, Demi goddesses and children of Hekate, which have not been mentioned at all before are suddenly introduced as prisoners of the guild, and actually are the drivers of Ryder’s kidnapping and the opening of portals between Faery and Terra which will not close.
It all feels very sloppy and last minute change of storyline, because the author cannot bear to close up the storyline.
I can’t be the only one that thought after book 4's epic ending and healing of the tree, this would be the last book and Faery would be healed, and everything resolved? but nope that is not how it goes.
Storyline 2
Ciara kind of gets her own storyline now with some dragon shifters, and it feels more like a standalone story getting crammed in and not finished, to create an opportunity for another book series.
Storyline 3
Lucian and Lena/Kendrah gets introduced to the Fae Chronicle series, more on that further down.
Storyline 4
Ristan and Olivia's relationship is also touched upon.
Time for nitpicking, since some writing choices in this book annoy me quite a lot.
1. Universe entanglement
When creating a universe of multiple series it is in my opinion anathema to make them so entangled that you have to read them all to understand what goes on in the separate series.
As mentioned Lucian and his storyline (Playing with Monsters) now gets introduced to the Fae Chronicles storyline, but when it is done in such a clumsy manner that if you have not read Lucian's book you have no clue what is going on when Syn interacts with Lucian it ruins the enjoyment for the reader.
To a lesser degree the references to Ristans story also does this, but since his story has been touched upon in this series I would more call it a side story than an actual separate series.
2. Culture references
Several times throughout the series contemporary songs have been used for a certain kind of mood.
As a paranormal series it is of course allowed to blend together culture from the actual world with the imaginary world, but in my opinion it should be understandable to a broad audience and stand the test of time. An example of a good cultural reference could be that Zeus is very shortly introduced, and a lot of people know Zeus' history and will continue to do so in the future no matter which generation.
But the danger of referencing specific songs is that they are often known to a specific generation and when no longer popular they are more a confusion to a reader than any help in setting an atmosphere or mood.
3 stars is all I will give, for although the story was enjoyable, with great pacing and me not feeling bored at any point during the book, the empty feeling of a book that has gone exactly nowhere leaves me kind of sad.
Other than adding a lot of fluff and other items to an already bloated plot line the book does not manage to resolve essential plot line items from earlier books.
As mentioned earlier books plot line items (healing faery, taking down the mages, building a new guild, finding the light heir etc.) do not really get resolved with the Ryder-Syn storyline, they are touched upon, but nothing really happens.
Instead a lot of other things from other storylines gets included but it doesn’t really feel like it belongs as anything other than a way of expanding the universe.
In fact much of this book suffers from what I would call the Marvel Cinematic Universe syndrome, where a lot of storylines have to fit together, so to resolve all those it takes away from the actual story the book should focus on.
Storyline 1 (the actual one about Syn and Ryder’s relationship and struggles)
Where to start, Syn and Ryder get married, it takes two tries, and a lot of wedding preparations that got old really fast. In essence Madisyn wants a big fancy wedding, Syn just accept everything to keep the peace although none of it really fits her. And you get no actual feeling of whether this is what Ryder wants as well, or he just want to get on the good side of his mother in law.
The triplets are oh so adorable, and needs protecting, and after Syn's badassery with blades and magic might finally be safe(r). But this kinda gets lost in all the other things going on.
A whole new plotline of things gets added, and make the book more like the start to a new series with a new plotline than a resolution or continuation of a series, and have in my opinion not been integrated into the previous books.
Spoiler
The triplets are part of a prophesy which has not been mentioned at all in previous books, and it is very apparent that the author tries to sneak it in with an excuse of it not being mentioned before.
Original witches, Demi goddesses and children of Hekate, which have not been mentioned at all before are suddenly introduced as prisoners of the guild, and actually are the drivers of Ryder’s kidnapping and the opening of portals between Faery and Terra which will not close.
It all feels very sloppy and last minute change of storyline, because the author cannot bear to close up the storyline.
I can’t be the only one that thought after book 4's epic ending and healing of the tree, this would be the last book and Faery would be healed, and everything resolved? but nope that is not how it goes.
Storyline 2
Ciara kind of gets her own storyline now with some dragon shifters, and it feels more like a standalone story getting crammed in and not finished, to create an opportunity for another book series.
Storyline 3
Lucian and Lena/Kendrah gets introduced to the Fae Chronicle series, more on that further down.
Storyline 4
Ristan and Olivia's relationship is also touched upon.
Time for nitpicking, since some writing choices in this book annoy me quite a lot.
1. Universe entanglement
When creating a universe of multiple series it is in my opinion anathema to make them so entangled that you have to read them all to understand what goes on in the separate series.
As mentioned Lucian and his storyline (Playing with Monsters) now gets introduced to the Fae Chronicles storyline, but when it is done in such a clumsy manner that if you have not read Lucian's book you have no clue what is going on when Syn interacts with Lucian it ruins the enjoyment for the reader.
To a lesser degree the references to Ristans story also does this, but since his story has been touched upon in this series I would more call it a side story than an actual separate series.
2. Culture references
Several times throughout the series contemporary songs have been used for a certain kind of mood.
As a paranormal series it is of course allowed to blend together culture from the actual world with the imaginary world, but in my opinion it should be understandable to a broad audience and stand the test of time. An example of a good cultural reference could be that Zeus is very shortly introduced, and a lot of people know Zeus' history and will continue to do so in the future no matter which generation.
But the danger of referencing specific songs is that they are often known to a specific generation and when no longer popular they are more a confusion to a reader than any help in setting an atmosphere or mood.