More like 3.5

I have received this ARC from BookSirens, opinions here are all mine.

This is a sequel series to the Aster Prequel Trilogy. It follows shortly after when the Asters have a new unknown threat who is killing both Affinities and Deciples. Sophie is worried about Nathan as his powers are only growing bigger which makes no sense as they shouldn't anymore past the age of 18. The Queen is dead and there is nobody to help them against the King of South America, so how will 5 young Asters save the world on their own when they have no clue what is happening or who the bad guys even are?!

Sorry for that lousy description, don't know how to explain without spoiling everything. I went into this book without having read the prequel books, which made it a bit hard. Sure it does explain the past quite a lot but the significance of certain characters' decisions and changes doesn't feel significant to me as I haven't known them before.

The world-building, history, and magic system didn't make much sense… The author claims this book is so diverse when only 2 of the 5 Asters are mentioned as POC (maybe 3 if Nathan is also as he does look tanner on the website but no mention of his heritage so I don't know if it counts), with no other diversity or disabled characters feels like a stretch… just for marketing. It also claims to be found-family which also doesn't feel accurate, especially regarding Nathan and his feelings for Sophie…

The fight scenes were a blur, characters' motivations were messy. Nathan was boring as hell. So was Matu, while Sky was more interesting but in a bad way. Lian was kinda funny but that's it. Sophie's character was an exact copy of Annabeth Chase from her looks, personality, and powers. The author really thought we wouldn't notice?! The way she explained her thinking face and eyes exact copies of how uncle Rick did. The stormy gray eyes 🙄

My favorite character was ironically the supposed villain which I can't even mention without spoilers. Overall there wasn't anything distinct evough about this book to stay in my memory and feels, just a bland YA (why make Ya but the characters are 19 or in their early 20s?!) fantasy adventure. Not interested enough to want to read the sequel and see what happens. I only stayed for one specific character and I don't think it's enough to go read the sequel. My goal for 2023 is to only read books I genuinely want to, not request and accept any more ARCs (besides sequels which I really want to know how they go), and only read sequels that I am excited about and can't wait to get. That's it, so this series doesn't fit into my 2023 reading goals, so bye!

Sorry for being too harsh, but as an idea it is a good one, but it needs more nuance for it to work. I know some may enjoy this so if it really sounds like your kind of jam, go for it! My opinions are just that, opinions. Not facts.

The cover is gorgeous by the way!