I read the first book in this series, We Are the Origin, last year and really enjoyed it, so I couldn’t wait for the sequel! However, this one just did not work for me. I DNF’d at 44% in. 

There were a few things I did enjoy, so we’ll start with those. I always have and always will love the shaders! And I especially loved the baby shader Ronka who was introduced in this novel. So adorable!😍 I loved the chapter headings and highlighted several of them! The writing of those was gorgeous. And I was very intrigued by some *reveals* that happened in this story. (I obviously can’t say what because of spoilers lol) I found those very interesting and I thought they would move the story forward.

But honestly, I was almost halfway done with this book and NOTHING had happened. All they did was sit in the woods and talk… It felt like one long scene. They didn’t change locations, no action had happened since the first few pages, most of the conversations that were had were either unimportant or could’ve been had later in the book after the actual story started, NOTHING was happening. The story did not move forward at all. And I thought once the *reveals* that I mentioned earlier happened, that the story would move along, but nope, they’re still just sitting in the woods talking… 

I also did not enjoy how much meaner (and weaker) the characters were in this novel. I understand that the main character, Brandi, is not supposed to be nice, and I enjoyed her not-so-niceness in the first book, but in this one she’s a straight bully. And Sarah, who is another character that I liked in the first book was so much weaker in this one. And don’t get me started on Noble, who is even meaner than Brandi. I just couldn’t stand any of the characters in this book, and that was very disappointing because I enjoyed some of these characters in the last one.

This was just a disappointing sequel for me. I tried to push through so I could continue the series, but I just can’t. Maybe another day when I can prepare myself for the slow pace, I’ll pick this back up so that I can try the next book. 

Thank you to the author for this arc. All opinions are my own.