If I hadn't predicted how everything would end up unfolding, I would have been ok with this purely for how greatly gritty it was but, sadly the lack of surprise and the vibes throughout never had me overly enthused.

More than anything else it's just not my style, I'm not into blackmail and a never ending game, chasing ones tail. Especially when I saw the outcome long before it became apparent, and even some of the earlier plot twists did not surprise. I also never gave a shit about the characters, so that didn't help.

I still stand by my earlier comment, when I was debating DNF and went to look at some reviews to be inspired to stay. I understand why so many of the 5 star reviews respond positively to the gritty edge and negative complexities of the police force with all the blackmail, gov cuts, impossible situations etc. 

This entire book is full noise from page one. Impactful, powerful, fisty, the best kind of aggressive and assertive. Perfection in the way the messages are presented. Creative and mind-bending much like the first book. But that ending was so flat, so soft, such an insane build up for such a dismal conclusion. Honestly, at the half way point I thought this would come home as a five star or at least 4.5 but it kind of just coasted.

Still love all the characters that encompass this series. And the audiobooks are out of this world, even the non-audio readers should get on them, such a great time, incredibly engulfing sound effects. 

No its not original, yes is it predictable. No its not complex, yes it is insanely tropie. No, its not overly New Adult more like YA in the writing style any how. Yes, there are great on page adult scenes that I guess age it up and "mature themed" banter. And thank fuck our FMC isn't an innocent virgin I feel like it gets an entire star for that one.

Its fun and bingeable and for what its worth its rather dam nostalgic. I enjoyed Vi, her humor and self-confidence was great. Nice to see a FMC try, fail and try again (over and over again). Tairn was unreal in the best possible way.

The fight scenes are great, the dragons everything you could hoped for.

For the most part I aged everyone down a few years. I'm not into naïve jealously and there's a bit of that in this book. Given the overall vibe its to be expected. The dragons are what made this book for me but, its incredibly bingeable and will be pre-ordering the squeal without hesitation. 

"Scholar, snob and pain in the ass."

A world-bending journey with a few of my favorite bookish characters.

“All worlds are open to us. If we are bold enough to enter.”

I enjoyed Ninth House, I adored Hell Bent. Logically Ninth House is far superior in its world-building, magical lore and layering. But Hell Bent's storyline with the combination of character dynamics had me in a chokehold from page one.

“Galaxy Stern,” Darlington said, his eyes flashing gold, “I have been crying out to you from the start.”

PS: What I would do for a book featuring Turner, past, present, or future. 

An entire novel about mundane life and living with the weight of your best friends suicide.

"Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action.”

A stunning and moving exploration into the life of a young man in his late teens to early twenties going through life on auto pilot, and the impact people can have on your life and journey, likewise the impact you can have on theirs.

"I don't care what you do to me, but I don't want you to hurt me. I've had enough hurt already in my life. More than enough. Now I want to be happy”

Moving through this novel is similar to watching a tranquil stream flow. Calming and subtly moving.

"No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn someth from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.” 

The Immortality Thief. Set on an abandoned 1000 year old ship thats design and age has crated more of a maze of horrors than a sleek sci-fi vessel. Although the world building isn’t insanely elaborate, there are some pretty nice surprises, more explicitly the eyes that lurk in the dark, and the rooms that open up to the sky.

Throughout the narrative you follow the seemingly unreliable, morally grey, arrogant and selfish Sean Wren. The guy who just doesn’t know when to STFU. I enjoyed his character from the first few pages, he’s the kind of annoying human I relate and gravitate towards.

With a dangerously tight time frame between finding what everyone is after and getting to safety in time, keeps this book moving at an incredible rate. That said however it didn’t prevent this book from being surprisingly easy to disengage from for the vast majority of the novel. I can understand why a large number of people would DNF this book before they get halfway through it. Due to I imagine the writing style being relatively… simple. Although it does have mature themes (brutal deaths, violence, criminal activity and blackmail) it does come across as slightly young in the writing style.

The Immortality Thief also jumps backwards and forwards in time as Sean reflects on his childhood, fighting with his troubled memories of the relationship he had sister and what was left of his home town. This style of witting isn’t for everyone, a lot of people find that it can take you out of the flow of the narrative and become extremely jarring. I personally loved these moments. When an author can take a character out of a present trauma, and deposits them into a memory (or illusion), so you still fully understand what is happening in reality however are experiencing it from foggy distorted glass. Stunning, and was extremely well done.

At around chapter 50, The Immortality Thief completely turns around. Before this point it was a solid three stars, a good book, enjoyable, not to memorable. But if there’s one thing that does it for me it’s selfless acts of heroism and kindness, and although you still somewhat trust no one’s true intentions there’s so many epic moments of humanity.

“I will have a great story to tell Bridget” - nearly had me ballin.

The existing and newly formed relationships in The Immortality Thief where really well constructed, and believable. Sometimes your worst option is your only one when it comes to survival, and I love these kind of partnerships, unreliable and fringed with fear.

Call me a sucker, as I know the idea behind the chapters leading up to and Third Eye & In Hindsight are not overly original but those chapters where flawless five star moments over and over and over agin. Pun intended if you’ve read it you’ll get it.

Finally, and I’ve written far more than I intended:

“We all scar differently” - No one in this book is all good or all bad, because there is no such thing. The pros might come on a bit heavier than possibly intended, however there’s still a beautiful message to be told in this narrative regardless of how heavy-handed it is. 

Rapid Book Summary - One POV (Penny) - 19y/o FMC student lusts after a 27y/o MMC professor. Professor is shady, sexy, mysterious oh and rich so very rich. Student is... finding herself? Male student side character/ partial love interest / it gets messy obviously. This books takes place over an unrealistic four weeks. I personally found this book really funny, many moments making me actually chuckle out loud (hence the three stars because I do love to laugh). However the dialogue could be very eye-rolling for many I imagine.


Thoughts and feelings;

There's a strong possibility that the only reason I actually enjoyed this as much as I did, was due the the fact that the last FMC POV I read I absolutely loathed.

The the first two hundred pages had me cackling out loud as I mentioned. Often at the FMC just being rather stupid but less in a ‘fuck your dumb’ more your naïveté is actually believable in this instance and was rather amusing. Lack of braincells in a MC usually send's me up the wall, this one did not. That was until the last 100 pages that turned into a weird over the top drama fest, of assumptions and actions, it wasn't for me. Turns out this is also a series of books following the same couple. So I'm just going to pretend this ended with a fade to grey ending that lets the reader make of it what you will. No one needs that much whiplash drama in their reading life, or at least I don't.


On a different note, my biggest issue with this book was actually the side character, 'Dark Romance' I get the scenes. But no matter how sweet, kind, funny, persistent and friendly a person is. If you had to knee them in the groin to get the words "no & stop" across. Please don't turn them into the kind sweet friend that's willing to grovel for weeks to win your affection. With how this book was structured and written it was not ok for me personally. It made those actions forgivable, outside of a dark romance setting was how the writing and plot felt.