This one was good. Clarified some things about Kody but brought up a whole slew of new questions. Typical Sherrilyn Kenyon and I don't mean that in a bad way. Looks like the next book may answer some questions bout Caleb. I will be happy to stay in the present timeline in the next book. Also, I really don't remember who Thorn is so I definitely need to go back and reread the books where he apparently played a part in before.

Man did the last 6-7 chapters save this for me. The world building was flimsy and after reading someone else's comments, I thinks it's because of this all being written from Meira's pov. She has know knowledge of Winter or anyplace else as they used to be and she's kept in the dark about other things purposefully. So she makes a lot of assumptions and the author seems to just roll with them without grounding anything in a more realistic way for the reader. I mean, for example, I'm still confused about why the seasons are the way the are and the rhythms as well. Is that because of magic or what? Also, some things just never get explained. Like, how is Meira able to all this acrobatic climbing. and running around in all the cities if she's never been to one before? I don't know.

Most of the characters are pretty one-dimensional except for Meira. There's really no surprises in this story. Others mentioned twists and turns but everything was so obvious to me. The only surprise was the magic and how it works and only because no one really seems to know anyway.

I will say the Meira growing as a character was cool. She knows herself pretty well and is not too over the top. I am interested to see where things go now that she knows her status in the world.

The action scenes contain all the best writing on this book. Hence why I think the last third of this book is the best. Angra is definitely a proper villain and I am looking forward to him in the next book. I won't preorder it and probably won't even buy it but I will read it.

I am quite proud to have finally finished this after all these months. It is all over the place so it was hard to just read directly through. I wasn't expecting it to read like many of the other anthologies or collected works that I have read and am currently reading. Even taking out the Coming to America vignettes, even just following Shadow's story line, there are so many other story lines coming and going, weaving in and out of his that its hard to stay focused. It felt like there were so many ending and beginnings that I took substantial breaks to read many other books.

So this wasn't a gripping story. I hesitated to pick this up once I found out Neil Gaiman is from England. I was one of the few who thought 'How dare you?' as he says. And I don't quite agree that we mark our sacred places with random roadside attractions. However, its still riveting. The ending was unexpected but shouldn't have been and won't be for those truly immersed in Germanic mythology if nothing else. I'm glad I finished these meandering tales. It turned out well as a whole.

As someone else said, this is about three stupid women. I did like the book though. They all have issues and make horrible choices. Its sort of like a Lifetime tv drama. Just a long character study with a tiny bit of mystery and lots of drama.

I didn't guess the killer until it became obvious. The characters pov is unreliable for many reasons. This are some sad ladies; the type that you can't help but pity if you read about them in the news. But they are interesting in the way a car accident is interesting.

One last thing, the blurb summary is misleading.

This was really interesting. There's fantasy, science, a smidge of romance, mystery horror and history. Its only YA because the main characters are teenagers but it doesn't focus on that. The horror can be pretty horrifying but its mostly blood and gore. This was so well written.

Just FYI you want get any clue as to what's going on until around page 300. I read this as part of a book club pick and I knew going into it it was going to be unlike anything I've ever read and that is the truth. But the blurb sounded interesting. There is some fantasy-like world building which is often mind-blowing. So much terminology that I struggled to grasp what was going on, which I like. This book made me work to understand it and I appreciated that. Usually I go for complex characters and detailed imagery but the complexity in this was in the world itself. And its not over, this is only book one and the characters have just figured out the basics of this world when they get thrust into the new one that will be the focus of the next book. I'm going to give my brain a break before I read The Dark Passages though.

I honestly don't know what else to write without any spoilers so I'll leave it there.

Meh. I got bored with the predictable plot and characters. It feels like she just rewrote one of her other trilogies and just changed charcter and place names. The intro story was different but the rest was typical. Boring.