Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

The fact that I ended up slightly disappointed by this book will be my villain origin story.

Will has been my favorite out of the four horsemen from the get-go (take aside the fact that I was completely blown away by Damon in Kill Switch who I now love so much it actually hurts). I loved seeing his sunny golden-boy demeanor in the past chapters, and was absolutely crushed by how much he had changed from that in the chapters taking place in the present. As we got so many glimpses already of Will‘s love for Emory, my excitement to finally see these two together and find out their story couldn‘t have been put into words. I really thought this book would crush me, and I hate how much potential in there was wasted. Neither Will nor Emory deserved that. But first things first.

Will‘s and Emory‘s backstory might be my favorite because it‘s a tale of first love, of finding your light, of keeping the other one treasured, and it was the most adorable thing ever! They were pure and beautiful together, and seeing Will completely in love with her was such a joy. Emory was a fantastic character who‘s been through a lot, her backstory filled me with rage, and all I wanted for her is to open up to Will, but I understood all the reasoning for her actions. She hadn‘t had it easy, and it made sense that she wasn‘t a happy kid. The fact that Will was the one person, the one thing that brought her happiness made my heart ache because I saw how much he had changed. Emory‘s need for Will was comparable to Damon‘s. Another element of the past that I truly loved was her bonding with Damon. Those chapters left goosebumps all over my body, and I was looking forward to see them meet again.

With everything that happened in the past, I expected to see the tables turnt in the present: now Will was the one who couldn‘t be happy, and Emory had escaped her biggest nightmare. As both of them found themselves at Blackchurch, I also hoped the dynamic would switch as in Emory becoming to Will what he used to be for her. Unfortunately, our poor boy was filled with so much rage and his own agenda that it was rather hard to crack that armor he put on himself. The Will Emory met now is not the Will she had fallen in love with nine years ago. He was cruel, hostile, and an absolute prick to her. And yet the tension, the unspoken words between them, and the fact that they knew they‘ve lost something that barely began was so prominent between them, I was just waiting for one of them to finally break apart. I was sitting on the edge of my chair, flipping those pages like a madwoman, savoring all the interactions, the fights, the tiny peeks we got under their masks, and so eager to see them find their way to each other, and just before that happened, it was ruined by the one character I‘ve come to hate: Alex.

Now before any Alex fangirl or fanboy hits me with a bat, let me explain this. I enjoyed Alex as a secondary character just as much as any secondary character that was being introduced, but to me there was just no place for her to have a bigger part on the stage. I knew that Will and Alex‘ relationship was more intime, not only in terms of them getting physical with each other but also because their friendship helped them both emotionally. However, after she basically claimed Will as her own in Conclave, I knew this woman would become a problem I wanted to be dealt with quickly. Now, it wasn‘t the fact that Will and Alex had a shared past that I disliked about this book. To be honest, a bit of jealousy as a tool to push romance is something that I do enjoy if done correctly. However, what truly annoyed me was how much space her story took up. It quickly put Emory‘s and Will‘s relationship aside, focusing too much on her as a character and her own romantic interest. Now I could‘ve easily stomached that since the book is big enough, but once the Alex drama started, the development of Will‘s and Emory‘s relationship felt too rushed and lacked of the intimacy I craved. And don‘t get me started on the train scene. I was simply not able to enjoy that one in the slightest.

Generally I feel like there was lots of potential from the backstory wasted because of the course the story took. All the unspoken truths between Will and Emory, Emory‘s bond with Damon, Damon and Will‘s friendship was barely shown in the presence, and the way they dealt with the villains of the story. I also would have loved to see the jealousy of Will in terms of Emory and Aydin, and of Emory in terms of Will and Alex better handled as a tool instead of using it just for some conflict and then letting it evaporate. And my biggest complaint? The almost fade-to-black scene once Will and Emory found to each other. Penelope Douglas, this is not what I signed up for reading these books. Gimme thirty pages of them losing themselves in each other, thank you.

Since this is also the last installement, of course there was some spotlight on the other couples and characters toward the end, and while I enjoyed that, I can‘t deny that it left a bitter taste to see how rushed parts of Emory‘s and Will‘s journey has been which almost felt like a 180 degree turn without the necessary release of the tension that was so perfectly built up before. I also felt like some plotpoints were rushed as well, and some of the reveals and explanations didn’t feel as big or mindblowing as I hoped they would. However, I still enjoyed seeing all of the characters back together and finally forming the family they had always been. It was a sweet ending, and left me craving for more which is why I‘m too excited to dive into Fire Night right away.

This book could‘ve easily been a favorite if the storyline of Alex wasn‘t present or at least better taken care of. The fact that Will and Emory‘s backstory was so beautiful, and held so much potential which wasn‘t developed well enough in the present storyline will be my villain origin story, because I loved these two characters way too much to see them overshadowed by a different romantic storyline.