This series earned all 5 of those stars. It took Arin and Kestral forever to get together, but it had a lot to do with their circumstances and wasn't for stupid reasons. I also think that the struggles they faced, especially in this book, made the relationship so much more satisfying once it was established. Roshar ended up being one of my favorite characters in the series in general. He had snarky humor, but still acted within his political interests, which is what I would expect from anyone in his position. He was also a really good friend to Arin and didn't have any qualms about teasing him and Kestral. I'm glad that Rutkoski didn't go overboard with Kestral losing her memory. A lot of times authors can let tropes get out of hand, but the author is great at using tropes in creative ways. The way Arin and Kestral grew back together was sweet and well paced. It didn't feel rushed at all and was realistic. The ending of the book definitely took the cake, though. Kestral used a game of bite and sting to poison the captain. That was so left field I didn't see it coming, but it was so intelligent and in character for Kestral. I do think it's a shame Jess and Kestral weren't able to rekindle their friendship, but in any case I think Jess is the losing party. I think it was a good way to show that war can change relationships, sometimes permanently. This is officially one of my favorite series of the year. I hope to read more books by Marie Rutkoski in the future because this was a super fun ride!

I found Jean-Claude creepier than usual in this book. He's the stubborn stalker who you can't kill, in Anita's case. My negative feelings toward him were exacerbated when Richard told Anita he was afraid Jean-Claude would rape her when he was saving her life. That part of the book made me super uncomfortable. As always, these books are super fast paced and action packed, which is really the reason I like them. The action was top notch and kept me on my toes. You never know who is going to die in these books, I thought Richard was a goner for a while there. Being a werewolf comes in handy for survival, though. I'm glad Anita can have a semi-normal relationship with him, which is what she wants. I can understand why Anita refuses to date any creature that's technically dead. Morally I'm sure vampires and other undead are something that are hard to adjust to, and I'm not sure I'd personally be down for that. Larry was a nice addition to the story since we don't really get to see what Anita was like as a rookie. Larry serves as a character that shows what Anita's former years might have been like. Her criticism of him also helps. I like the kid a lot, personally. I was afraid for his life since he showed up, though. I still can't believe Burt threw him straight into the action alone like that. Overall, a nice installment in the series.

Thankfully this was better than the last book. It didn't have as many ridiculous analogies and similes as book 1 and Juliette want as whiny. We also got to see a lot more of Kenji which is really the highlight of this series. It's getting more interesting finding out that Warner and James have their own powers too. It's pretty cool that Warner can project other people's powers and that James can just heal really quickly. The romance, just like last book is pretty horrible. The insta-love is real, making the relationship not believable, unfortunately. On the bright side, Juliette does break up with Adam for good reason. Being able to accidentally kill your boyfriend are pretty solid grounds for a breakup, I think. I know a lot of people in the fandom love Warner, and I fail to understand why. He's creepy at best. I don't understand how it's attractive for a dude to invade a girl's privacy by reading her diary without permission and then consistently confessing his love to her and rambling about how they belong together. I also don't see Juliette realistically feeling anything more than lust for him. Mafi seems to be wanting to pair them up for the next book, but I fail to see any good connection between the two characters. Their conversations are pretty vague and there hasn't been enough time for Warner to really redeem himself. He's still a pretty big jerk to everyone except Juliette and I need more evidence that he's changed overall as a person to justify Juliette liking him. Also, best part of the book was probably Kenji calling Juliette out on her crap and about feeling sorry for herself and not growing as a person. This book gets 2/5 because it didn't fulfill any potential I thought it felt like book 1 may have built up to. The series didn't get better really, outside of chilling out with the similes. Not looking forward to the next book. I'll still read it just to be able to write a review on it, though.

I was immediately excited by the premise involving dragons in this book and was looking forward to see a romance develop between opposing sides of the human/dragon war. We did get to know Ember and Garrett pretty well throughout the book. Although, I wish more time was dedicated to getting to know Riley and Dante. It felt like Riley's feelings for Ember were a bit rushed. With Garret we got to see his perspective a lot more and he spent way more time getting to know Ember, so his feelings for her flower a bit more naturally in the pacing of the story. It is suggested that dragons don't feel romantic love in the same way humans do, so that may be a factor, but I didn't feel completely satisfied with the explanation. I think Ember is definitely physically attracted to Riley, but the one she truly cares for is definitely Garrett. As for Dante, I'm hoping we get to see more of him in future books because I finished this book feeling like I didn't get to know him as a character as much as I would have wanted to. His actions were pretty predictable by the end of the book, but I still think there is hope for him to change his mind about Talon. In the future I'd like to see more exposure for characters we didn't really get to know in this book like Dante, as I said before as well as a bit more action. It is a good introduction for the series, though.

I was super excited at the prospect of seeing a female Sherlock in action and I was very happy with what was delivered to me. Charlotte Holmes has to struggle to find her place in a society that restrains women to the roles of wives and childbearers that mostly don't work. In order to escape the prospect of an arranged marriage and a jobless future, Charlotte leaves her home and begins to solve cases in anonymity using the alias Sherlock Holmes. She does have a hard time at first, but eventually her circumstances line up well enough that she is able to inconspicuously help in the investigation of a murder. There is a complicated romance involved in the book as well, which I wasn't expecting. I do have to say that the author did a great job of making it all make sense. It is definitely a romance based on mutual intellectual admiration rather that sheer passion, which is just the kind of relationship I would expect for a character based on Sherlock Holmes to be in. The ending was open ended and I'll definitely be reading the sequel in the future. Definitely highly recommend for anyone into mysteries and historical books that explore women's roles in society in the past.

This installment in the series focuses a lot more on Ronan and the Lynch family in general. I like Ronan as a character and despite his complicated relationship with his siblings, he definitely loves them and they all care for each other. It was an interesting element to find out that his mother was technically a dream of sorts and also that Ronan can manipulate dreams in real life. Blue's romantic feelings are also explored more in this book. I already knew that Adam wasn't someone who's feelings she truly reciprocated, so I'm glad that is out of the way. Now I want to see how Adam copes with Gansey and her potentially becoming an item. His self esteem isn't exactly great as is, but hopefully by the time they're actually a couple he'll be better off. I'm not as head over heels for the characters as of yet, but the series is definitely gradually becoming more interesting. I'm hoping that I end up becoming more attached to them as the series progresses. It's definitely more of a slow burn series. I'll let you know if it's worth it by the end of the series. So far, it's all right.

This book solidified the fact that I don't like Riley. He's very possessive over Ember and in many ways is facetious is his way of thinking of himself and other dragons as being above humans. By the end of the book Riley comes to respect Garrett and vice versa, but Garrett is a much nicer person overall. Garrett understands that he's done horrible things to dragons and genuinely regrets his actions. He doesn't expect anything from Ember while Riley sees her as someone he has a claim to. I'm not a fan of that at all. Garrett also doesn't hold as much resentment for dragons as Riley still holds for humans. Ember is very confused about her feelings in this book and I really don't like love triangles because it makes me feel insecure about the feelings if the indecisive party. In this case, Ember. I'm hoping she gets a bit more clarity about what she's feeling in the next installment. Garrett isn't there anymore. I'm hoping she tries out this relationship with Riley and realizes that despite Garret's short lifespan, he's still probably the better romantic partner.

As far as Dante, I'm hoping he starts to understand Ember better. He's still very much against what she's doing and isn't giving her much space to talk to him about it if they meet again. He's a very rigid person and I feel that if his well protected bubble of beliefs about Talon is burst he isn't going to take it well. I really do want his bubble burst, though. A good continuation of the series so far.

I still stand by what I said last time, I like Garrett better! He's much more accepting than Riley ever was about Ember having a romantic relationship with someone else. I do like that there is an explanation given for why Ember still feels something toward Riley despite obviously liking Garrett. I'm excited to learn more about the Eastern dragons. They're definitely more ancient than the dragons of the west and had mastered the art of coeexisting with humans before unfortunately getting pulled into the war between Talon and St. George. The most shocking thing about Talon is probably the fact that they use young female dragons to breed for the rest of their lives. St. George is just as bad in other respects. They have no respect whatsoever for civilian lives as revealed by the passages exploring Cobalt's past. It's literally a war between clandestine evil corporations. 

I'm also really dissapointed in Dante. I was really sad to see that he epitomizes the fall of a lawful good character. At first he seemed very shocked to find out all the horrible things Talon was doing but then progressively just goes along with it. He's going straight down the rabbit hole of becoming evil. Both Talon and St. George are horrible organizations at this point and I'm rooting for the rebel side all the way. Dante seems to be getting to the point of being beyond redemption. Maybe he'll eventually make a turnaround. We'll see.

I'll be more upset if Garrett dies, though. I really like him as a character. It's horrible that the leader of the organization told him his parents were murdered by the organization he's been raised by his entire life. It was such a cowardly way to get the upper hand on him. I highly appreciate his selflessness and his conviction to his personal morals. I also do ship Ember and him and don't want my ship to sink, so I'm biased. Looking forward to him staying alive next book.

**SPOILERS PERTAINING TO ROMANCE IN THE BOOK AHEAD**



I have to say this installment had me on my toes. Lia is a master at surviving. She really did feel terrible throughout the book for having to play Kaden all the way to the end, but she even had me as a reader questioning her true feelings at times. It's obvious as the story progresses that she's sure about her feelings and Rafe is the one she is in love with. She isn't purposely manipulative or a bad person. Unfortunately, circumstances often make people make morally questionable decisions as is clear even at the end of the book. I like how characters like Kaden, the Komisar and Calentha are given dimension and nuance. They aren't all bad nor all good and each have their own share of insecurities as well as moral boundaries. The love triangle was handled very well, mostly because it mostly one sided and Lia was sure about what she felt the whole time. What usually annoys me about love triangles is when someone in the triangle can't choose who they favor for reasons that are within their control. The only way that works is if the love triangle ends in a polyamorous relationship, at least for me.

Something else the author did very well is showing the cultural differences between kingdoms in a very realistic light. Lia makes a great comparison of her experience at home and in Venda. She realizes that the Venda and Morrighan aren't as different as they'd like to believe and both imprison and restrain her in similar ways. It's an experience that puts her mixed feelings about the complex politics around her into perspective. While in Venda, the people that she initially thinks of as her enemies, start becoming human beings and individuals as she gets to know them. It's easier to be detached from a situation when you don't put faces to a nation of group of people. It was nice to be able to see that through Lia's perspective because it helps to make her and her situation very relatable.

The Komisar was also an amazing antagonist. It was very hard to read his true intentions until the end. He definitely uses his power as a shield to cover up his insecurity. He enjoys being in power because he feels protected by it. He also had aspects of him that were kind, as shown by the fact that he saved Calentha from further abuse from her father. This made it harder to simply dismiss him as an evil person. I like villains that are three dimensional like he was. It made it more surprising and interesting to see that he was someone that was still cruel enough to kill a child in order to show his off his power. I'm hoping that Rafe is able to find help because Lia's situation wasn't great by the end of this installment. Great writing from Peterson. I hope to check out other books by her after I'm done with this series.