Let me start with the good: overall, I liked the story and most of the characters. I even enjoyed the little plot twist/cliffhanger at the end. It was interesting enough to make me want to read the sequel...eventually (lol)....as in it wasn't so great that I had that moment of desperation where I need the next book ASAP. You know what I'm talking about...the type or book that you want to avoid work, school, and sleep for just because you can't put it down. This book wasn't like that for me.
~~SPOILER AHEAD~~
I'm going to try very hard to not spoil what happens in the book. I loathe books that build up these amazing, kick ass female lead characters in the initial chapters and then spend the rest of the book making then weak as hell where they have to keep being rescued by someone. Then we get to the end where they do something extremely powerful but have no idea how, they black out, told they're a missing princess, and the story ends with that cliffhanger. I get that it's a popular trope, but at least have her fighting skill "bad assness" continue throughout the story while her magical abilities manifest and strengthen.
*Romance: multiple "love" triangles across time periods. There's the standard cousin-cousin marital romance that is talked about throughout the book but turns out to not be a real thing--I won't spoil the reason--but somehow over a short span of a week or 2, Eliana goes from grieving Harkan (was it even confirmed that he's dead?) to about to have sex with Simon. Other than them checking each other out, I'm confused about how they were suddenly in love with each other or at least strongly lusting for each other.
*Inconsistent pacing: Sometimes the pacing was good. Other times the story was loaded with erroneous details that had me thinking "who cares" and made me want to skip ahead because it was so boring.
I don't want to pick apart the book, so I'll just say it's not a terrible read and I will eventually read the sequel.
~~SPOILER AHEAD~~
I'm going to try very hard to not spoil what happens in the book. I loathe books that build up these amazing, kick ass female lead characters in the initial chapters and then spend the rest of the book making then weak as hell where they have to keep being rescued by someone. Then we get to the end where they do something extremely powerful but have no idea how, they black out, told they're a missing princess, and the story ends with that cliffhanger. I get that it's a popular trope, but at least have her fighting skill "bad assness" continue throughout the story while her magical abilities manifest and strengthen.
*Romance: multiple "love" triangles across time periods. There's the standard cousin-cousin marital romance that is talked about throughout the book but turns out to not be a real thing--I won't spoil the reason--but somehow over a short span of a week or 2, Eliana goes from grieving Harkan (was it even confirmed that he's dead?) to about to have sex with Simon. Other than them checking each other out, I'm confused about how they were suddenly in love with each other or at least strongly lusting for each other.
*Inconsistent pacing: Sometimes the pacing was good. Other times the story was loaded with erroneous details that had me thinking "who cares" and made me want to skip ahead because it was so boring.
I don't want to pick apart the book, so I'll just say it's not a terrible read and I will eventually read the sequel.