cunningempress's Reviews (526)

This was a confusing read. In a way where you're not sure if the narrator is reliable or not. And some twisted stuff happened and it was so, so weird.

This kind of reminded me of The Secret History and If We Were Villains.

Took one star off just for that ending alone.

Spoiler

Can we agree that the prophecy was shit and confusing and unnecessary?

This book got all the same tropes as FBAA and some more. And it was frustrating as fuck.

I read a lot of fantasy. I like to think I'm great at understanding and remembering world-building and magic systems but holy shit, these books are a mess. I feel like I would need to read through the whole damn FBAA Wiki to even begin to understand how shit works and who's related to who and what are all the THINGS that they keep mentioning. I'm pretty sure that Chosen can mean different things depending on who you speak of, Sera, Poppy or anyone else and I'm also pretty sure that Ascension is several different things depending to who it happens to.

And this book just has WAY too many things, it's hard to keep up with and understand all the things and it's just so fucking frustrating.

I hope this was just some fun side project for JLA because this was bad and it was pretty much just a copy of FBAA. I don't have high hopes for The War of Two Queens right now but I really fucking hope it's better.

Out of all the books by Margaret Rogerson this has been my least favorite.

Which doesn't mean it's bad, because her other books are great. It just means that I was expecting a lot more.

The main character was a bit boring, I wish there had been more of the side characters to add to the story. MC's struggle with her PTSD was interesting to learn about, though. There was a really touching scene towards the ending, in chapter 26 and I just wish the whole book would've been more like that.

This book was a bit meh but I see a lot of potential for the sequel.

I just don't really think the sequel will have the same characters, because the ending seemed like the book was done.

I didn't think this series would ever become a serious favorite for me but this book might just have made it.

There is so much stuff going on in these books that's it's nearing on fucking annoying. Lineage to keep up with, names of dead people to keep track of, similar names (Nyktos and Nektas, Ileana and Eloana etc), different species that are all somehow different but oh, so similar and all the rituals that I'm supposed to tell apart but really can't. I am hardly understanding half of this and it's annoying as fuck to read about something that has clearly been mentioned before but I can't for the life of me to remember what or who it is. There's probably some bit of information I missed.

But also this was my favorite book in the series. Why? Because I really loved to see Poppy without Casteel. It wasn't all so much about the romance. And there happened so much in this book. Like I said, it was a lot in a bad way too, I can't keep up, but also it was so much fun.

However, it sucks that there were no major plot twists that would've caught my breath.

And also, I have to talk about the drama. (READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

Spoiler

So, apparently some people were weirded out about the threesome. It's literally been hinted at for several books, this whole series is full of smut and somehow you draw the line at a threesome? What the fuck. Just choose a different book if threesomes bother you.

But then there's the people who call Poppy and Kieran's deepening relationship cheating. That Poppy started falling for Kieran and didn't tell Casteel. First off, did we read the same book? At no point did I think Poppy and/or Kieran were cheating on Casteel. At no point did I think that they were falling in love. Loving someone and falling in love with them are two very different things. Casteel loves Kieran and he's in love with Poppy. Poppy loves Kieran, and she's in love with Casteel. Kieran loves Casteel and Poppy. And Poppy and Casteel talked about their relationship and feelings toward Kieran. This is also not polyamory, like I saw someone say.
For anyone to think that the next stage of a relationship from best friends is to fall in love is small minded. Poppy and Kieran are something more than best friends but not lovers. Same goes for Casteel and Kieran.

I just can't with these claims.

I like that this is a romance but not overly romantic? There's also a lot of Shangai. And politics, and talk about the people and good and bad and fair and just. A lot of vibes too.

This is such a nice book! A rom-com for sure! A light read but not as "fanficcy" as the synopsis makes it sound. Luc and Oliver actually felt like real people with all their problems and there was so much stuff to make me laugh.