Well, this brings us to the end of Cole and Lexi's story. I can't tell you that I'm sad it's over. While I loved them from the get go, my love slowly diminished as the series went on. They spent less and less time together, Cole got more and more psycho, and Lexi accumulated more and more power. 

I will admit that it was nice after hating Cole so much through the last couple books, to have a big chunk of this one from his point of view now that the shadows aren't completely in control of him, but now Lexi is gone, apparently we can't get them all the way together. 

We do get an ending, and some closure, but it's kind of an open ended ending. We're moving on to another couple's story, and I assume we'll have to watch through their eyes to see how the story of Cole and Lexi really ends. 

I'm excited to read about someone new, but yet stay in this world. I don't know if Lexi's story needed to be six books long, as I was getting bored of the same things over and over again. The side characters in this series were always my favorite, so I'm so happy they get their own stories. 

I didn't enjoy this book for the majority of it. I hate everything Cole has been turning into, I can't stand the extra possessive overprotective alpha crap so that put a really big damper on this one for me. 

We got a lot of answers surrounding Lexi, but this book felt slow and repetitive to me. We didn't get into any real action until the last quarter of the book. The rest of it was everyone traveling around trying to recruit people to join them for the war. 

(Side note: Zombies? Really?)

The romance isn't romance anymore because Cole is being controlled by shadows, so all we get are these random sex scenes when Cole DOES manage to come into full control of himself. It feels weird to me to be completely honest.

This author is amazing with her battle scenes, and they are written so well, I'm not confused about who's where and doing what. The fighting scenes are some of the best in the whole book and I was thankful when we finally got into the war against The Lord. 

I didn't love this one as much as the last, I don't think. 

The war is here, and I love the action that takes place in this book. It was so fun seeing our characters growing into their power, and I am loving Lexi turning into such a badass. The fighting is so well written, I don't find myself getting bored or skimming it, and it doesn't last 15 chapters, which is something I appreciate.

I love the supporting characters, and I want more of the supporting characters. I want them to be less supporting characters and more front and center. The characters are really well developed, and all have great personalities. They shine so brightly in this series, so I wish that we didn't spend quite so much time focused on Lexi and Cole. I know the books are really about THEM, but here's my issue. 

Cole has turned into this possessive dick, can't control himself around other males near his mate, and I. Forking. Hate. That. So much. It's a wolf thing, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. I still hate it. So much of this book surrounded Lexi and Cole's relationship, and I struggled because I'm not feeling their relationship at this point.

The plot is great. Hands down, I love the story, and overall, that's truly what has me hooked.

This book was a mess. 

I think I finished this book more confused about Darcy's powers and the goddesses than I was going into it. Which is saying something. 

Because 4 mates wasn't enough, Darcy gets a new mate, like, a third of the way through the book. I guess the plot stalled, and we needed something to rev it back up again? I'm not sure, but what I can tell you is that it didn't work. She hadn't even mated with 2 of her mates yet at this point. Why in the hell did we need to add another one? Not only that, but the rest of the book pretty much was just her mates going after the guy for thinking he had any claim to her. Which. I guess he did because “fated mates” or whatever. 

This book was convoluted and an absolute mess. The action and plot got lost behind all these men fighting each other for their “right” to Darcy, and it was disgusting. 

I felt the series was extremely repetitive and very convoluted. We barely scratched the surface on the explanation of what Darcy's powers even were then, poof! The book is over. Honestly. The entire ending of the book happened in 4 pages. And it ends abruptly, on the battlefield. Just done.

Brutal. This was brutal. 

I'm sorry to say that this one just wasn't as good as the last. 

There's a lot more going on in this one compared to the first. I do have to admit that I'm missing the adorable falling in love vibes. I'm losing the feeling of chemistry between Lexi and Cole as we come to the end of the third installment. Since completing the trials, Cole is becoming a lot more possessive of Lexi and not in a romantic “I'll protect you” kind of way. It's a psychotic “I own you” kind of way, and it's not working for me. Looking back, it's probably done intentionally, but I still hate it.

There's also a LOT more smut in this one. There was a bit there where it felt like sex scene after sex scene, and it was a bit much. 

I'm finding myself more interested in reading about the brothers rather than our MCs and I'm a little bit worried about how I'm going to feel going forward in this series, but my hopes are high. Lexi is coming into her power, and I'm banking on her turning into a badass and taking control of some of the chaos in her life. 

I got exactly what I asked for in book 2, and I am over the moon! There was so much more action in this one! A little more political intrigue and a little less romance if I'm being honest. I'm not upset. Overall, I think it was a good trade in order to get more of a plot to follow, and boy, we're we ever given a plot! 

I will always love a trial based book. It is one of my favorite things, and I'm so drawn toward any storyline that has one, so this one absolutely delivered. Cole is so badass, and while I think his romance and mating with Lexi is kinda lackluster and a little bit boring, Cole's character is awesome, and I love him. I also love Lexi. She herself is a little bland, but she has these quirks that I'm finding myself drawn to. 

I love seeing more of the brothers, and I love the enchanted castle that's got this thing going on with Lexi. This book was so fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Also. THAT. END. Can't wait for the next one!

I have no idea! 

On one hand I like Lexi a lot. She's cute and super innocent and it was adorable watching her fall for Cole. I'm also super interested in seeing more of his brothers.

On the other hand, not much happened in this book. There was hardly even an introduction into the world let alone any real plot development. The first half we were moving along nicely, but then Brock got hurt and the entire book stalled and all they did was sit around for the rest of it. 

I think I'm going for 4 stars, because I did like the relationship growth and I can see how this is a good start to a (very long) series. But I want more political intrigue, more action and more world building. I'm rather confused as to how there's modern day books, but no modern day technology other than electricity (kind of). 
So it's 4 starts, on the hopes that this book develops into something more

This book was right on par with the first, I found myself finishing it feeling the exact same way I did when I finished This Vicious Grace. 

It's a really good book, but nothing ever pushed it over into great.

 

Honestly, the majority of this book was Alessa and Dante hiding things from each other, keeping secrets and doing whatever it takes for the other to not discover it. Pretty typical YA stuff I suppose, but I just found myself annoyed with them, pretty constantly. We also did a complete do-over from ThIs Vicious Grace, and Alessa's touch was once again dangerous to Dante. It's one of my pet peeves when authors default back to factory settings aka, use a plot point they've already written. Which is pretty much exactly what happened here.

I really liked the “game” aspect between the gods that this turned out to be. It was really reminiscent of the kids movie The Book Of Life. Just, with more war and magic powers I guess. I wish there was more of that in the heart of the book, rather than just thrown into the last couple chapters as an explanation of sorts because that's a plot that I could really dig my fingers into. 

All in all, while maybe a bit YA typical, it was well done and quite enjoyable.

I want to love this, I really do. It's so well written, the author does such a great job at creating this world. But this book is dreadfully slow. It's awful. Nothing happens for huge chunks of the book and it could not hold my attention. I was so bored for so much of it. Then we'd hit these action packed parts that pulled me in so strongly and I didn't want to put the book down. I really needed more of that, and less of the repetitive arguments and training scenes. 

One big issue I have with this book, and the last, is the confusion that surrounds everything and everyone. No one seems to know what's going on with Darcy. She has these powers, and everyone says it's because she's queen, but we don't really get any further answers than “because that's the way it is”. I keep finding myself looking for more of an explanation or an original story and instead I got these little blips of Eleanor's story that didn't explain anything other than her relationship with Nordreg. 

I really dislike the whole story line with the goddesses. All three of them are frustrating and only bring about more questions than answers, which, I suppose, is par for the course. At this point, I'm struggling to find aspects about the book I do like. There's no development in the relationships with her mates, all they do is run around constantly demanding to protect her and take care of her. They worship her as their queen but are still constantly overruling every decision she makes (which is fair because she has absolutely no experience or know how to be a queen, but still). There's also very little personality to any of them. They were put into these little boxes of where they fit in the relationship and no one has grown from it. Aka, The Outsider. The Serious One. The Funny One. The… Big one? I don't know. That's all I get. They live to love Darcy and that's it. 

I'll finish this by saying that although this book doesn't work for me, the writing really is wonderful and so well done. 

We're leaving behind the Gorgonian Grotto and arriving at the Hotel Denouement! 

While this was not my favorite installment,  my daughter absolutely loved all of the old characters making appearances throughout the book. Every time one of the Baudelaires opened a door, we were guessing who was going to be behind it, which was the most fun part about this book. 

I really liked the addition of Dewey, but I won't lie, I was hoping for a few more answers on the VFD, and I think I left this book with even more questions, which is SO frustrating! Especially after 12 books, I hate that I still know next to nothing! 

I'm still hoping to see a few more characters and to get a thousand different questions answered. I have no idea how Snicket will manage to wrap it all up with just one more book.