Dylan

Tall, musclebound man with “tawny” skin, dark eyes, and is covered in scars. Oh, and he has a huge, nay, absolutely massive pe——rsonality. Paired with a pale, very, very small (so tiny, so itsy bitsy), badass/snarky woman with unnaturally pretty eyes (and/or unique hair). And what do you get? A modern romantasy novel. Woo! Yay...

The only reason I even finished this book is for the worldbuilding.Which is amazing! A tidally-locked world, unique time cycle involving auroras, the dragons and most of the other little creatures. I loved the descriptors of the locales, the idea of the unique languages (for the most part), etc. I could nitpick a few things I didn't like, but they're so minor and I'm so happy to see a romantasy with actual worldbuilding that I'll let it slide (the bar is in hell).

I didn't like some of the linguistic choices. The usage of male/female made me cringe every time. But it's expected at this point, so whatever. Some words were just minor changes from normal words (dae - day, mahmi/pahpi - mom/dad, for example), which was kinda goofy.

There was a lot of cringe millennial dialogue. A. Lot. Of. Staccato. Writing. To. Convey. Aggression. A lot of fucks/fucking from all the characters. A lot of growling and snarling from the men. And yes, the MMC does roar when he cums, which made me laugh out loud because of course he does. No avalanches here though, so that's a plus (maybe they'll save that for book 2).

The FMC is whiny and insufferable. It got to the point where I debated if it was worth it to even continue. She's so “woe is me, I'm so damaged” and “I can't love, loving me is a death sentence” when she CLEARLY HAS PEOPLE THAT LOVE HER (Essi deserved so much goddamn better, RIP). She snarks after being tortured, for goodness sake.

The MMC is insta-love (you find out why later but it was still annoying) and even gifted her an unasked-for nickname (which is gross tbh). If there wasn't an actual plot-related reason to be so head-over-heels for her, I would have absolutely zero reason to believe he would try so hard for her. She is so aggravating and just pissed me off. The whiplash between reading Elluin and Raeve's perspectives hurt because I genuinely liked Elluin and hated who she has become. He is a consent king (mostly), so props for that over so many other MMCs out there. 

TL;DR - middling book with interesting worldbuilding and annoying characters. I'll maybe check out the sequel, so long as it doesn't turn into smutty garbage and actually continues the world building.

I liked the concept of the premise. I'm usually a fan of the extraterrestrial/unknown but this one didn't do it for me all that much. I'm ambivalent on the “interview” style of storytelling. Not a fan of most of the characters.

The narrator is a faceless unknown G-Man figure with his hands in multiple pots and always has the upper hand in some way or fashion. The book constantly reminds me of how hot Kara is. And speaking of, Kara is immature and reads like a bratty teenager, which is not who I would have pegged as a pilot in the military. She acts and talks like a high schooler that doesn't want to work with a kid in her class. Vincent is an arrogant prick that kinda grew on me. Ryan...exists. I'm intrigued by Rose in the epilogue because as far as we all knew she was dead. 

There was a lot of time spent by the G-Men on the relationships between Kara and the two men in the short-lived, but still godawful (and consequential) love-V. I don't think for a second that an all-powerful G-Man would care about someone sleeping with their coworker(s). I'm grateful the author didn't write out a sex scene. I would've DNF'd on the spot

There were moments that went nowhere. I was promised a trip to Bosnia that happened completely off-page that only lent credence to a boring reveal later in the book about obvious-antagonist turned obvious-villain Alyssa. And there were a few action sequences that were done in a “overhearing it through the phone” interview style that were...fine.
Very conspiratorial “government stooges doing cover-ups and having the upper hand at all times” thriller type stuff. Not really the book for me, to be honest. I might try the sequel and see where it goes.

Hoo boy, this book.

Hated the first half. I don't like academy/school fiction. This book had most of the tropes (plain girl good at everything, abusive curriculum, shitty teachers, goofy guy best friend, and two gorgeous boys (a rich Malfoy and a dark stranger)—thank goodness there was no romance, etc). It was a slog and I nearly DNFd it, if not for the supposed promise of the significantly better second half...

Which. My goodness, the whiplash. 

The beginning of the second half is not for the faint of heart, from the (TW) Rape of Nanjing sequence to the descriptions of actual rape to full-on genocide. 

The supposedly elite military college got steamrolled. and everything following the infamous Nanjing sequence is a corny shonen anime, right down to obnoxious super powers and “power of friendship” escapades.

It's an... okay book, but Rin is so damn unlikeable. The surrounding cast are decent at their best, but Rin is so detestable that she drags them all down with her. The ending feels like she's gonna start a revolution or something, but I don't see anybody rallying behind her for any reason other than maybe fear.
I'll get to the sequel eventually. Maybe.

Yeah, this is a good book. It's a short, easy read that never left me feeling bored or asking “wtf?” the whole time.

I liked the sparse worldbuilding (it was enough to pique my interest, but I would've liked more details), and I liked the description of all the farmland surrounding the castle. 

The monsters were cool, and I kinda wished the fight with the Kalkara at the end lasted a little longer. Same thing with earlier fight with the boars.

I liked that the relationships with his long-time friends wasn't obnoxious. I was worried when Will and Horace had their little spat (I know why it happened and the amount of stress they were under makes it make sense), I was worried it was gonna turn into some Harry-Draco-esque rivalry. It didn't and I can't wait to see how that turns out. 

The girls are kind of there, but I imagine they'll be fleshed out later since they didn't really get POV sections in this book.

Grouchy Halt smiling at the end of the book was cathartic—the following scene when he developed Will's backstory and strengthenes their bond was great. If (when?) they kill this man I'm gonna riot.

All-in-all, good book, I'll definitely read the sequels.