Alana

Short, sweet, and right to the point. For a chronic procrastinator like me (who also happens to be a mortal), I devoured this one in a day. Poses a lot of cool questions that makes you rethink how you're spending your time, life, and more, and man oh man did I need those questions!

READ THIS BOOK. I repeat: READ THIS BOOK. Not all scifi appeals to me, but this one did. The polyam rep in place of the standard YA love triangle cliche, the violence that isn't too much but enough to make your heart race, the pacing, the plot, the characters...this novel is strong, and so much happens but none of it makes you dizzy or need to go back and read ten pages prior because it's muddled. No - this one is well-developed, well-paced, well-everything. Iron Widow #2 has me a DEDICATED reader.

Kind of gave me 13 going on 30 vibes. It's a cute idea about time travel and age, though I wasn't as engaged as I went in hoping I would be (especially since I love 13 going on 30 so much).

As always, Orwell's classic political commentaries are relevant beyond the time he wrote them.

I've finally done it. I've finally read ACOSF! Since it was released I was doing my best to keep my eyes off all the buzz, though when it comes to this series, that's hard to do. I did enjoy most of this book. Maas is an author who excels that building up her characters and world, sometimes for chapters at a time, which can make plot pacing seem choppy here and there (though nothing I mind too much, as I do appreciate a strong world with a strong system - be that magic, political, or otherwise - when reading). My gripes have to do with how QUICKLY the book ended...and fell flat. We are given hundreds of pages of in-depth character interactions and Nesta grows beautifully...only to have the bloody end be concluded with a ‘sacrifice' I didn't totally love. Nesta had progressed into such a strong woman...only to give away all her powers (but plot twist! Your super powerful warrior girl changed her anatomy so she can have a baby.)

When I read that part, despite all I had really enjoyed about ACOSF, this was my face (I'm not kidding):



Not only can I just NOT see Nesta as a mother (Aunt Nesta is something I can see...but a mother? No.), but it also widdles her character down into the same, tired trope of “all women, regardless of personality, inevitably want to be mothers.” Never mind the fact that it is totally inconsistent with her character. And yes, I know she did this to save Feyre, but you're telling me Maas could think of NO other way for Nesta to ~redeem~ herself + save her sister without wholly giving up the power she'd just learned to wield? For Christ's sake!

Honestly, had the ending not been what it was, this book would have been a 3 or 4 stars - not perfect, maybe, but strong enough and enjoyable. But that ending...boy, oh boy, did it leave a bad taste in my mouth.

I get that I am in a minority of reviewers here, and hey, I love Nessian just as much as the next! But in my [sometimes not-so-humble], yet completely SUBJECTIVE opinion (isn't that what all book reviews are, the good and the bad?), the ending tarnished a character I had grown to love.