Respectfully…what the fuck are y’all doing comparing this to ACOTAR? The absolute disrespect Sarah J Maas has endured…

I read a few books from JLA’s Lux series in 2016, and I ate them up and left absolutely no crumbs. But even then, even my newly into reading, 18 year old brain knew that was subpar writing and corny as hell. I was hoping beyond hope that now, at 24 years old, JLA’s newest series that has come out like a decade after Lux, would be better and the writing much improved. How wrong (and disappointed) I was. I’m just going to break this down into lists of likes and dislikes and move on because I have been dreading writing this review for two weeks now. 

What I liked: 
⚔️Poppy’s redemption comes in the fact that she is not a damsel in distress like many heroines are. She defends herself very well and doesn’t immediately look to the man in charge of protecting her when shit goes down. She just pulls her dagger and goes. 
⚔️What smut there was was decent. Hawke gives me the yuck a bit but, their sexy talk and doing it during times and places that they shouldn’t was hot. 
⚔️I liked Vikter’s character and his taking on a role as a parental figure for Poppy. He had a hand in making sure she was self-sufficient and able and I wish he would have lasted longer in this story. 
⚔️A lot of people are bagging on this book for being predictable, and although I did predict some of the plot twists, I was questioning myself on if they were really going to happen or not. I would think something was going to twist, and then something else would happen that made me think otherwise. So, some of it was predictable, but some stuff did trip me up and I liked that. 


What I didn’t like:
⚔️There were so many plot points, character traits and just general parallels to several other fantasy series I’ve read. I KNOW things are going to overlap and tropes are re-used constantly but it was so hard, for instance, not to think of The Darkling when they started talking about “the dark one”.  It was literally the same character, using the same seductive tactics to trick the MC into working with him. So many things felt borderline plagiarized. 
⚔️This book was info-dump central at the beginning, but almost none of the right info. The world-building and rules were all clumped into the first few chapters, meanwhile I had no idea what was going on with the characters and why I should care about the rules and world at that point. 
⚔️The only POC character with a name, Tawny, had no influence on the plot whatsoever besides being the bestie to the “badass” white, princessy character. Really she felt like an afterthought. What I did see of her I liked and I wish there was more (and generally more representation).
⚔️Poppy (because how the fuck do you spell her actual name), is so dense, and does not act in the slightest like the sheltered, innocent, forced to be non-verbal around most people, girl she’s described as in the beginning. She has a mouth on her and continuously makes dumb decisions, WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING that they are dumb and reckless.