Reviewed by Ashley on
I really liked this, and I was actually fully prepared to give it 4.5 stars, but the ending made me take it down to just four. I didn't like the direction it took.
I hated everything about Yuebek. I was glad when I thought his portion of the story had ended... then he turned out to have a bigger role than expected. And I didn't hate him in the way I usually like to hate "villains"... I didn't even yearn to see him dead; I just thought he was so annoying and stupid that he wasn't worth my time to read about. Usually I want to savour taking out a villain, but in this case I was thinking more like, "Just cut his throat so we can move on."
Then Rayyel... I did really want him to be the bad guy, so I was disappointed when it seemed Yuebek was the bad guy instead. Then Rayyel turned into a bad guy again, but not in the way I wanted... I wanted Rayyel to be the bad guy because he was suddenly ambitious for the throne and wanted to take over and kill Talyien. But instead, Rayyel was the bad guy because he was feeling stupidly insecure about Talyien having "cheated" on him, despite Rayyel also having cheated in the exact same circumstances... but somehow that's not a problem when he does it, and it's only a problem when Talyien does it? Fucking hypocrisy and the need for women to be "pure" before marriage, but not men. That whole concept just made me lose my love for the idea of Rayyel as a "villain". Instead he was just aggravating.
Frankly the ending really left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and despite enjoying most of the story I'm not sure I'm going to continue with the series.. But we'll see.
Reading updates
- 7 February, 2020: Started reading
- 14 February, 2020: Finished reading
- 14 February, 2020: Reviewed