I’ll probably come back and write a better review for this but first impressions: no one touch me or I’ll cry.

Best book of the series, had everything you could want and then some.

Writing out my full review below, any spoilers will be hidden, I'll probably continue to come back and add to this the more I process the book and with re-reads

Okay, coming back to this after sleeping on the book following an 11 hour reading binge. Took some time to process this book, what I liked, disliked and I think I'm good to finally make a somewhat solid review. I do plan on re-reading when I receive my physical copy so this is subject to change.

I stand by my initial conclusion that this is my favourite book in the ACOTAR series. There were parts that made me laugh, cry, blush, scream and throw my kindle across the room... it had a great mix of everything and overall a good book that told the story of Nesta and Cassians journey, both as independents and a couple.

I think I'd give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads sake. The main driver that brings the rating down is that the ending was way too rushed. I thought the first half of the book had great pacing, even may of dragged in a couple sections, but that was fine. But the second half and the finale genuinely felt like someone pressed fast forward x3. There wasn't enough time to digest the resolution to the major plot points and it was one of those situations where you're reading and looking at the number of pages left and know that there's no way the author can resolve this properly in the amount of time that remains, which unfortunately was the case. The characters did not get the time to breathe and just be.

Speaking of the characters, I was a big fan of Nesta's character going into this, and still am. Watching her go on her personal journey of finding her love for herself and her own found family was emotional and held many gut wrenching moments, but also extremely heartwarming. The common ground and sisterhood she built with Emerie and Gwyn continues to bring a smile to my face.

With respect to her relationship with Cassian, I was 100% on board and I think the way their relationship began

Spoiler

as friends with benefits

made sense in context of the two characters and their dynamic that we've seen throughout the book. There were some important scenes that I felt were either rushed or non existent due to the stories latter half pacing that I really think should have been in there so truly round out the characters relationship.

This next section I'm going to touch on the Inner Circle's involvement, so will put it behind spoiler tags as I'll be delving into a bit more specifics.

Spoiler

When SJM originally posted the sneak peak for this book it was made clear they'd be going to the Illyrian Mountains, somewhere between then and now that plot changed for her and instead it switched to the House of Wind in Velaris. This switch resulted with the Inner Circle (IC) being more involved with the story than I had anticipated and I do wish there had been more separation between the two, which I think the originally plot of being in the Illyrian Mountains would have solved.

I do not think the Feysand pregnancy plot line needed to be in this book and I think it was there as a driver to (i) have the IC be involved more heavily in this story, (ii) give a reason for Nesta to "prove herself" (which I deem as unnecessary), (iii) provide a reason for Nesta to lose the bulk of her power so she's not stronger than Rhys and Feyre (which annoyed me).

I'm still grabbling with my thoughts on all of this, but will finish this off with the notion that I think more of the IC needed to apologize to Nesta for their behaviour, and I mean direct apologies. Especially Rhys and Amren. For me, this is a story of learning to forgive oneself but also acceptance of your flaws and pursuing a better you in the future. I think having those apologies would've really resounded with that message.