It's not uncommon, especially when binge reading, to notice a writer's flaws more and more the deeper you get into a series. The things the writer may think “worked” for the first books enough to keep writing actually don't work and get more annoying as they keep coming up. So, in some ways this review sounds a lot like the previous ones. The running theme? Vhalla is stupid.
First of all she knows its a bad idea to use the axe. She's trying desperately to keep is safe and keep it secret. So after telling herself it would be terrible to use the axe in front of her greatest enemies…she uses it in front of her greatest enemies. Remember, she took the axe in the first place because she absolutely must keep it safe even though no one else has figured out where it is in who knows how many hundreds of years. What does she do with it after that? Blithely gives it to her enemies, granted in exchange for someone's life but enemies who are liars and that she's worked this hard to keep the axe away from.
I had to laugh at the conversation with Victor where she says she's not stupid. Because, yes she us. Very stupid. This is confirmed by her not even stopping to suspect that Aldrik wasn't Aldrik no matter how many times she recognized him behaving oddly. Even when he was cold it didn't occur to her, stupid girl
And even after all this time with everyone telling her how amazing she is and what a woman she's grown into, she still acts like a petulant child stomping around Victor's office. Really?
I have to confess each book seems less well edited with missing words or broken lines in the ebook. Then there's things like where they untie her and then a few sentences later they decide to untie her. Or she produces the axe and then two paragraphs later she takes it out of the bag. At some point in one of the earlier books she was watching twilight in the morning.
I decided at the end of the second book that if Aldrik died, I’d stop reading. I considered it again when Jax seemed dead though I didn't completely believe he was dead. I’m sorely tempted to stop now with Baldair's death. Its senseless and there is no point to the story for such a good character to die. Death may seem capricious in life but we know in a story the author is killing the characters and it should not be so pointless. And I think losing Aldrik’s magic is sadder than losing her own because there was something interesting about his fire not being able to hurt her.
Also every bad guy is the most horrible creature Vhalla ever met. But you can't have three people that are all the most awful. It doesn't work that way. And everyone is a puppetmaster because they act or speak with intention. It only diminishes Vhalla as unable to make her own choices or take responsibility for her stupidity.
Clearly, Vhalla is not my favorite character. But the characters around her are interesting and offset her enough to keep reading.