3.5
I've read a fair share of TJ Klune novels by now, and admittedly I love most of them. I love the Tales of Verania series. I love the characters and have a great time reading about their dumb actions and how their love for each other keeps growing. I really do.

After three books in this series though, I have to point out little aspects that annoy me. They have come up in the previous books too but I was able to look past them as they were tiny in comparison to the positives. While reading Consumption though, I couldn't let these things go. They were a little too visible to me.

The negatives:
- Repetition. For the first half I felt like rereading too many paragraphs we already got in the previous books. Some, over and over again. Book 2 only came out 5 months ago, I KNOW you're angry at the wizards, I KNOW Kevin and Gary are on a break, I KNOW ABOUT THE BIRD FFS stop saying it in every chapter!!!
- Women [lack thereof]. Three books (so far), twenty or thirty characters, not one of them is a well-rounded female character that stands on her own without being a stereotype of a sweet mother figure, old crazy witch or ridiculous fangirl. Also, having to call the female dragons lady-bro or lady-dude was unnecessary. UGH.
- Jokes? In the previous books, I found the jokes aspect so funny. And it's not that they aren't funny anymore, but simply that there are too many. I watched Thor: Ragnarok the other day and realised the exact same thing: jokes are nice, but having five jokes every minute, in the middle of heart-felt moments especially, just breaks the pile of emotions I was starting to accumulate because of brilliant heartfelt conversations.

But ultimately? My heart aches and feels warm at the same time. This found-family of dumbass kids who protect each other is what I live for. I still feel very attached to them and I don't want them to suffer anymore SO STAWP IT!

I need the fourth book But also I don't want it to end.