Anita

If you're a fan of "The Roots of Chaos" series, this book serves as an excellent transition between the two volumes. However, it is heavily reliant on knowing who the characters from the Priory are before diving in.

Perhaps if I hadn't read the Priory first, then I would have enjoyed it more. I can see how satisfying it would be to go from this book into the next, following through to their conclusions.

I look forward to more from this series.

I want to preface this with: when I finished A Night Ends With Fire, I had to put my e-reader down and calm myself, because I needed to process the injustice Meilin faced at the end of Book One.

I completely understand the need and the sheer sudden way things ended because of the time and the misogyny towards women in this timeline, and yet...

The Dragon Wakes With Thunder explores the dark and gritty much more than the first book. It gave us more information and delved into the usually hidden or barely explored themes, which really built and helped us understand and feel with Meilin, while throwing in plot twists and carrying on with the light romance that had been opened up.

I really enjoyed this book and kick myself for not getting to it earlier. If there is a third, I will be very pleased. If not, I can come to some sort of peace with Book Two.

Kristen Ciccarelli did not mess about, and she threw us right back into the plot.

The world-building continues to be immaculate, following with a solid plotline that rivalled the first book. Rune and Gideon lived up to the enemies-to-lovers trope, with the slowburn and angst that I could feel from them. The pacing was fast, the side characters held their own, and I ended up reading the entire thing in one day.

I had the same feeling with The Crimson Moth, but maybe this book just hit me in the right mood, because I enjoyed it very much.

Carl's Naughty Little Piggie.

That's it, that's the review.

I almost wish it hadn't ended, but I'm happy with where it did.

While I started reading this series with absolute confusion thanks to the way it started, it wasn't until it was shown to be such a big thing to the story that I came to enjoy it.

The story itself is good and holds interest, there are some loopholes and questions raised that are never addressed but they don't need to be because of the theme of the plot.

Zorian himself grows on you, despite not being a perfect protagonist. In fact, it plays well with his initial teenage self, and the way he grows throughout.

The ending has an interesting setup, which I hope it explored in the future...though as I'm writing this, I have looked to see what else nobody103 has produced and alas, it might just be something we never see grow.

Overall, it was highly enjoyable and I can see why this has been so highly rated!