So this book is kind of a mess. The title barely has anything to do with the story, but that's not that big of a deal.
I didn't like the beginning so much with Vhalla on her own. But Jax is a fun character with his mood swings and irreverence. He does a lot of the heavy lifting to keep things interesting.
Through the middle, the progression of relationships Aldrik and Baldair as well as Vhalla with Elicia, with Daniel, with even Jax make the middle work. The arguments for war and the morality of that felt weak and from that off-tone viewpoint all the books have. But that's manageable. There are thick descriptions in some places that were easy to skip over, which makes it easy but not good.
The axe is stupid because it’s obvious where its hidden and its obvious she makes a terrible mistake. Like the kind of mistake people make memes out of where a big epic voice says, “Don’t do it. That's a bad idea!” and the hero says, “eh they probably don't mean it” and does it anyway. Like literally that stupid.
But the worst of it all is the ending. Well, Aldrik and the ending. In the first book Aldrik is all strong and interesting. In this book he's reduced to being the story's whipping boy. First there's the struggle with alcohol that comes out of nowhere and then vanishes in a day.
Then the end is completely emotionally erratic for no reason, or for badly explained reasons. She knows Aldrik is lashing out and lying and yet she still takes it to heart and lashes back even harder? Then in the midst of this ridiculous fight she realizes he's this poor broken man that only she can fix? And the only way to fix him is to walk away without context or explanation? And Vhalla is sick of all the lies but im struggling to remember and lies she told or was given other than that stint with the doppelgängers. Then on top of all that everyone suddenly seems him as abusive because she got into the middle of a fight. She tells them how it really happened and they still see it as something else. The characterizations that come out of nowhere just for the sake of conflict are annoying. Plus! Plus now this twenty-five year old prince is engaged to a fifteen year old girl like that’s somehow ok.
Also, no matter how much everyone praises her for being amazing, she's still a stupid girl. She's stupid if she thinks Victor can be trusted with the axe. I think I’m only continuing to read to get to the moment where she is forced to realize how stupid she is but I sadly have little hope for Aldrik in the coming books.