This seemed like the perfect book: heists + dragons, but unfortunately it just fell entirely flat for me. I'd probably have DNFed this if it hadn't been a book from Fairyloot ages ago, and while I'm glad I finished it and can be sure I want to unhaul it, I also wish I'd spent the time on literally any other book. I'd tried to read this book shortly after getting it but had gotten distracted a third through, and I honestly should've just taken that as the sign that it was!

Overall, I think I just really wasn't a fan of the main character, Sky. She just seemed so shallow, both as a person, but also just as a written character. There wasn't much substance to her, and even her main motivation felt flimsy at times. Most of the other characters also feel just as thin, and it leaves the story feeling overall lifeless.

I also felt the plot itself was really weak, especially the heists. Everything worked out perfectly except when it clearly wasn't supposed to, and I felt like Sky never had to actually struggle to make things work. There's also so many places for depth, like the power hierarchy in dragon society/being exiled, etc., but it's all just kind of waved over or entirely ignored just so the plot can wrap up nicely. There was never any real tension or struggle anywhere, making the book overall quite bland and boring.

I honestly just don't have the words to describe this book. It somehow became my favorite book of the series, even though I already loved the first two with my whole heart and I didn't think either of them could be usurped.

I love how this book fully explores the consequences of what happened in the first two books, while still adding plenty of new content on its own. There was just, so much here. We're exploring both the current destruction of the enclaves and the original creation of them, the grief that comes with leaving someone behind, rediscovering yourself after an extremely traumatic experience, and coming to terms with your destiny, your dreams, and your responsibilities. It was just beautiful and heart-wrenching and I honestly wanted to highlight every line on every page. This book, and this series, is something I'll carry with me forever, and I'm already looking forward to the millions of rereads to come.

2.5 stars, rounded down because I really did not like certain aspects of the ending and romance.

Usually, when a romance starts as strongly as this one did for me, I'm hooked. Unfortunately, it felt like each consecutive time I picked this book up to read, I liked it less and less. It felt more and more like a chore to finish it, which was disheartening because I found the beginning so adorable and fun.

I think my biggest issue is how shallow every aspect of the book was forced to be due to how many storylines and plots it contained. It felt like we couldn't actually dive into any of it, and instead were just pinballing between each option. This was most obvious in the ending, where I felt like I couldn't get a satisfying conclusion to any of the big issues because there just wasn't the space for it. I think the book could've benefitted a lot from having the plots weave together a bit more, rather than everything feel as separated and isolated as it did. (Another big issue for me here: it felt a lot like Mercy and Hart were solving their individual issues on their own, and only came together for the emotional/romantic plot sometimes, rather than the pair tackling things together. This definitely contributed to me losing interest in them as a couple as well).

I also just became extremely frustrated with the romance, on top of all of the above. I never like miscommunication plots, but I can't even blame most of my dislike of the romance on that aspect anymore. Sure, the extreme frustration of this specific miscommunication led me to look at other things more critically, but I also just couldn't forgive some things Mercy said to or thought about Hart during/afterwards, and I absolutely hated the reconciliation scene. It was just so horrible, how

Spoiler

utterly terrified Hart was of Mercy, of being near her and going against her wishes for him to stay away. And for Mercy to turn around and want him to be sorry for following her demands? It ruined any good I still saw in this relationship, and soured the rest of the book so quickly for me

.

Overall, I had such high hopes for this book after positive reviews from my friends, and even from the first half of this book even, but it just was not for me at all in the end.

+1 star for the audiobook narrator (my favorite!!!) and Jack... Honestly the premise just ruined 85% of this book for me, enjoyed the ending after it all blew up

The narrator definitely made this a lot better for me (also I went in with suuuper low expectations and then ended up having a lot of fun??)

3.5, rounded down, I feel like most of the time with anthologies there are a few stories that really stand out, and a few I really dislike, but these all felt sort of okay for me. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll end up remembering much of this a few months from now, but it was still a decent audiobook to accompany me through some chores! I did like quite a lot of the concepts, + the explanation of vampire lore and how authors played with different aspects of vampires in their stories, but I also felt like too many stories purposely ended on extremely open moments. It felt more like some of these stories were teasers for something longer, like a full novel, rather than a short story in their own right.

I picked this up as a quick read last night, and I honestly ended up loving this so much! I didn't quite know what to expect going in, because I hadn't heard of the existing webcomic before receiving this advanced copy from Netgalley, but the art drew my eye and I wanted to give it a shot! I'm really glad I did, and I'll definitely be looking into the webcomic or keeping an eye out for future volumes!

This book felt like a perfect balance of adorable woodland creatures and heartwarming stories, with a bunch of humor and a light touch of spookyness thrown in. It took me a second to get into it, since at first there are a lot of individual little stories (about 1 page each), which meant we jumped around between a lot of new characters at first. However, once we started seeing the same characters again and again, and how their stories started to overlap, I was so engrossed in it. I loved so many of these little guys (Bucket Boy! The Robber Duckies!!!), and seeing them come back time and time again in these little tales was adorable. I also really liked that this volume ended on a longer story that really brought together some loose stories, and it was just a perfect note to end it on. I also just loved the art style so much, and I really can't wait to read more of these tales (if there are more!)