I wanted to love this book, I really did. I love the first three in the series much, but this one just fell flat and was absolutely underwhelming. So let’s get into it.

⚠️ Mild Spoilers

What I liked: probably the only aspect I liked about this book was the flashbacks surrounding Auren and Slade. I think they added to their characters and explained a bit more about why they are the way the are. However I do wish we would have gotten some of Slade’s in earlier books and not starting with book 4.

I also liked the twist at the end and it’s the only reason I gave it 3 stars. It would have been 2 otherwise.

What I didn’t like: *sigh* a lot.

So I’ll break it down:

- The new POVs: there was absolutely no point to Rissa’s and Oserik’s POV. They served no purpose to what little plot this book had. Their romance felt forced and Kennedy just tried to copy/paste Auren & Slades relationship. Him calling Rissa “Yellowbell” was cringy and just misplaced. I didn’t like their characters or their story (or lack thereof) in this. & their chapters were so uninteresting, I hated reading them. There wasn’t a point to them. I’d have much rather seen them in a spin off series or something because they definitely didn’t belong here.
- Queen Malinas POV. Hers served at least some purpose to the plot, but barely. It didn’t really make any sense to the story until the twist at the end and that was it. Her chapters were boring.
- The smut. Omg the smut. I hated it. The dialogue was so cringy and I wanted to gag at some of the lines used, one of them being “he lapped at her arousal” like pls stop, you aren’t dogs.