Ugh. This book is such a disappointment after really enjoying the first and liking the second. This book felt so damn unnecessary.

What I liked:

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I actually rated this book at two stars until I began writing this review and realize that there was literally nothing I like about this.

What I didn’t like:

1. Too much science talk. This story is about a plague that manifests when the blood of two people mixes together. Let’s forget for a moment how asinine that is. I can suspend disbelief to some extent if the story is supposed to be supernatural in nature. But then to try to explain it in a scientific way is just absurd. I was listening to the audiobook and all of the scientific talk just went in one ear and out the other because it was ridiculous.

2. The romance. 🤢
I don’t get the Stellan/Avery hype. First of all, the love triangle was sloppily handled by the author. If it happened organically over the course of the theee books that would be one thing. But it felt like the obstacles thrown in front of Avery and Jack were just plot devices created to drive them apart and put her and Stellan together. To be honest, I kind of forgot about Jack for the majority of this book because he doesn’t do anything. When she finally breaks it off with him it was so devoid of emotion that I just didn’t care.

And the intimate scenes and romantic scenes between Avery and Stellan are cringy as hell. I am not one of those people who dislikes romance. I LOVE romance in the books I read. But this was so poorly done. I can’t directly quote the text because, as I said, I listened to this on audio, but it went like this:

Avery (thinking): Oh my, I love him so much. I love you. I want to say it. “I love you.” I say. And I do. I love him. “I love you.” I say again. I don’t know why I never said it before. I love you, I think to myself. “I love you.”

Stellan: “I love you, Kuklachka. I love you. I have loved you since I had to share oxygen with you. I love you.”

Avery: “I love you. Ever since we woke up tangled up together lying next to my ex-boyfriend. I love you.”

🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

The dialogue was so so bad. Yes, that is a slight exaggeration, but not by much.



3. The pacing. Dear God, this book was so damn slow! I listened to the audiobook on double speed and it felt like it would never end. NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK. NOTHING. There is one big reveal that happens near the beginning of the story that should be a big deal, but I just couldn’t be bothered to care about it. But the second half is so drawn out. Then as we’re approaching the ‘climax’ of the story, and the author could have built up some tension and momentum, she takes a break for who knows how many pages (it felt like forever) to throw a birthday party for Avery where they all hang out getting shit-faced and making out in The Louvre. It felt utterly ridiculous.

4. The audiobook. I listened to all three of these on audiobook. I appreciate that the author had several different characters with several different accents to do, and I think her accents were, for the most part, good. But for some reason her Stellan and Jack voices really rubbed me the wrong way. Especially Stellan. I don’t think it was why I didn’t like the Stellan/Avery relationship, but it sure didn’t help it.

If I hadn’t already read the first two, I would’ve DNF’d this book. Honestly, I could’ve read a spoilery summary of this and called it good, because almost nothing actually happens in this book. I’m not sure how that could be, since this is supposed to be an action-adventure type story, but it just did not work for me.