You can see all my reviews here: Books Are The New Black

I apologize in advance that this will be one heck of a rant. I’ve stewed over this long enough that it’s time to just write this review and see what comes out of my crazy mixed emotions with this one.

First of all, this thing is massive. I had no idea it would be this long. I was COMPLETELY blind on purpose. I’ve been enjoying my reads like this lately. Anyways, let’s also talk about this horrendous cover. It’s bad. I was so torn on pre-ordering it because I hate it. I just love SJM so much that I did it anyways.

Okay, I was really excited for this one and had really high expectations because it seemed everyone was giving it 5 stars. It seems that I am the unpopular opinion.

I was really looking forward to Nesta’s story. She wasn’t a favorite until the end of the original trilogy. I was really looking forward into really delving deep into her character. I feel like there are times that we get some things but mostly surface. There was a lot of lost opportunity for me. She’s going through a lot of regret and guilt. There’s a lot of PTSD and dark emotions but we don’t really get into that. She just needs to “get in shape and over it,” but that’s now how life really works.

I did really enjoy Cassian. I love how he was so gentle and thought about the women he was training. I loved the female empowerment in this book.

Now.. onto what really drove me nuts. The sex. Oh my gosh. I have nothing against some good ol’ sex scenes but this was over the top. When they weren’t having sex both of them were BOTH constantly thinking about it. I couldn’t go one instance or training without them talking about jerking off or what not. It was so much and basically all the 2/3’s of this book is. I missed SO much plot. It took me weeks to finish this book because it just didn’t call to me.

It wasn’t until page 400ish that I really started getting into the plot. The story finally started to move and I got through the rest easier. With that being said, the pacing is just so slow. Beyond the slow plot was the amount of this book that was beyond predictable. I guessed everything about this book because it was just all there.. no surprised and that was part of my issue with the plot.

I did really enjoy the last 1/3 of the book. When things start to happen and unfold then it really caught my attention and I had a harder time putting it down. I did guess the ending but I was really happy with how things ended up. Although, I do think that we got a bit too much of Rhys and Feyre. They had their trilogy and I don’t think they should have had a such a major role in this one. I might be just nit-picking now.

I am pleased to have learned that this is not the start of a trilogy. We will be getting standalones with the characters BUT I’m sure there will be a lot of overlap, like this one.

Overall, I didn’t hate this book. I was just massively disappointed and I was a bit confused on what Maas was trying to do here. She changed her writing style and it was too much. I will probably (most definitely) read the next one because I still stan Maas but I will dash my high expectations a bit.