Grace
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I really wanted to love this book, to me it had every element to be an amazing story starting from what was built in Book 1 and following with the quest/mission/goal with which this book started... but to me it was about 300 pages too long:
- Similar to how I felt about Book 2 in Crowns of Nyaxia, it lacked depth and purpose on the first half, neither character had any development at all except for Resheye, and she was gone by past half of the book.
- The magic system that I loved in the first book stopped making sense here, suddenly no rules applied anymore, no boundaries for neither character... The stakes were very high but the resolution was way too easy.
- But what pained me the most was how repetitive it got: I find it more natural to have breaks between Wars, but these guys don't ever have a chance for a break, then the constant battle and sudden conflict makes me feel as if they are more an excuse for a story than a story itself...
- Also some dialogues were very repetitive, I lost count on how many times I read "But he/she felt a magic so familiar they didn't need to see to know who it was", and every chapter Max's scent was described, the mismatched eyes and tan skin description several times when Max was thinking about Tisaanah, Nura's silver braid and cold gaze... I like a great world-building but filling pages with the same descriptions over and over isn't enjoyable.
So overall I kept reading because of Aefe's story, which was jaw-dropping and well developed, and the final plot twist was everything! But I feel like that story will be left Unfinished because the next book is 100 pages longer than this one and I really don't feel like diving in a small-paced end of trilogy.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Carissa's writing, I find it -in many ways- similar to Brandon Sanderson's style, perhaps in his starting point. I do see potential since one of my favorite books ever was written by her and she's gotten better in her prose. In my opinion she just needs to plan her storytelling a bit more and get creative with the dialogues, add breaks from wars and also get creative with what happens during that break, what do the characters learn so it doesn't become a boring break but it also doesn't become an endless battle, balance stakes and resolutions, and keep with the parallel POVs, I really enjoyed the point when you think Aefe, Max and Tisanaah will meet but it turns out they do not share the same timeframe. And then you find out it was Reshaye's backstory all along... it was so beautifully presented.
I know it is hard to get a great second book in a trilogy, and I don't have anything against long books (I am about to start the Stormlight Archives), I just think it's essential to not repeat mistakes (all of the above also happened with Crowns of Nyaxia book 2) or make it a novella or a standalone instead, that's fine too, some stories don't need to be as long, but all of them need to have an ending at some point.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I really wanted to love this book, to me it had every element to be an amazing story starting from what was built in Book 1 and following with the quest/mission/goal with which this book started... but to me it was about 300 pages too long:
- Similar to how I felt about Book 2 in Crowns of Nyaxia, it lacked depth and purpose on the first half, neither character had any development at all except for Resheye, and she was gone by past half of the book.
- The magic system that I loved in the first book stopped making sense here, suddenly no rules applied anymore, no boundaries for neither character... The stakes were very high but the resolution was way too easy.
- But what pained me the most was how repetitive it got: I find it more natural to have breaks between Wars, but these guys don't ever have a chance for a break, then the constant battle and sudden conflict makes me feel as if they are more an excuse for a story than a story itself...
- Also some dialogues were very repetitive, I lost count on how many times I read "But he/she felt a magic so familiar they didn't need to see to know who it was", and every chapter Max's scent was described, the mismatched eyes and tan skin description several times when Max was thinking about Tisaanah, Nura's silver braid and cold gaze... I like a great world-building but filling pages with the same descriptions over and over isn't enjoyable.
So overall I kept reading because of Aefe's story, which was jaw-dropping and well developed, and the final plot twist was everything! But I feel like that story will be left Unfinished because the next book is 100 pages longer than this one and I really don't feel like diving in a small-paced end of trilogy.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Carissa's writing, I find it -in many ways- similar to Brandon Sanderson's style, perhaps in his starting point. I do see potential since one of my favorite books ever was written by her and she's gotten better in her prose. In my opinion she just needs to plan her storytelling a bit more and get creative with the dialogues, add breaks from wars and also get creative with what happens during that break, what do the characters learn so it doesn't become a boring break but it also doesn't become an endless battle, balance stakes and resolutions, and keep with the parallel POVs, I really enjoyed the point when you think Aefe, Max and Tisanaah will meet but it turns out they do not share the same timeframe. And then you find out it was Reshaye's backstory all along... it was so beautifully presented.
I know it is hard to get a great second book in a trilogy, and I don't have anything against long books (I am about to start the Stormlight Archives), I just think it's essential to not repeat mistakes (all of the above also happened with Crowns of Nyaxia book 2) or make it a novella or a standalone instead, that's fine too, some stories don't need to be as long, but all of them need to have an ending at some point.