I read this series after it was recommended to me by a friend, but couldn't find myself truly invested in any of the three books. 

I enjoyed the story for the most part, the worldbuilding and magic mechanics were really interesting, but the plot is where it fell short for me. I remember yelling to my friend (about the second book, not this one), "SHE'S JUST GONNA KILL ONE OF THE CHAMPIONS, STEAL HIS IDENTITY, AND FACE NO REPERCUSSIONS?!" and it felt as though my enjoyment of the rest of the series only went downhill from there.

I don't like Lila. She's insufferable, and while that's the point, she also never changes, or shows particular remorse. She gets away with so much just because she's "special", whatever that means - we keep hearing other characters refer to her as good at things, or clever, or apt, but we never physically see these qualities in her character. It hit me how much of a psychopath she is when

Hastra has a bit of a breakdown over taking his first life. I remember thinking, "woah, that's the first accurate response to trauma I've seen in this book!"

Lila has never done that! She just goes along with horrific things that happen to her, and seems to do just fine with the power of an "I'm not like other girls" complex alone.

The plot armour is so thickly layered on these protagonists that I got conditioned into not rooting for the NPCs at all. If an NPC got brought into the fray - they were gonna die, them's the rules.

Too many hot twinks lost to defending the world's most magical heteros.

I jest. Mostly.

ALSO, and this is a personal gripe,

EMIRA GOT DONE SO DIRTY. Half the book was going on about how she was this cold, closed off person who had a lot of issues, and then they just offed her. She never got the control she so lacked in life, she never got a badass fight defending Rhy (who was present!), she didn't even get properly mourned in my opinion.

Plus, still not over Alucard's name. The name only exists because of Castlevania, it's Dracula backwards, that's the only point of it. You named another character a symbolic name from a different franchise for no reason. Come up with your own! 

Too many mcguffins (too easily gained), plot armour that wouldn't have been as noticeable in a standalone book as it became in a trilogy, a lot of cliche/repetitive writing tricks, to the point where I could predict what quip or description a character would go with as I listened to the audiobook. 

The ending was satisfying, though, I'll give the author that. I had to see this story through to the end.