Court of the Undying Seasons

‘I don't want to lose myself to the callousness of immortality. It would be as easy as going to sleep. Caring is now a choice I have to make, over and over again.'This was a SUPER fun read. The author pretty much went “hey what if I do vampires but I ALSO give them a whole bunch of superpowers and then put them all into an academy.” and it WORKED. This kept me invested from beginning to end, and the atmosphere was so lush and beautiful. The found family vibes showed up to the party and made everything better, even though there was an edge to it all because vampires are naturally more ruthless in this world.

I really only have two things I didn't like in this book, both having to do with Kashire: I didn't like how everyone was so shocked that Fin thought Kashire was the killer. I feel like obviously she would think that, and she had no reason to apologize even after she found out differently because?? He literally almost killed her at the very beginning of the book? Like of COURSE she thought he was the one killing novices, he has repeatedly proved that he doesn't care about the lives of humans or foundlings. She had every right to think it was him and she shouldn't have had to apologize for it.

I also don't like how Kashire didn't give the whole “You know you don't HAVE to be an evil vampire, you could just feed and then heal them, or enthrall them so they like it. Or you can just read their minds and only feed from and kill the evil ones.” speech until the very end of the entire book, when literally everyone could tell that Fin would've benefitted from that speech much earlier since she was obviously resenting the fact that she was turning into a vampire. This whole speech also could've helped redeem Kashire himself in Fin's eyes earlier on if he didn't want to be seen as a killer, which he didn't because he was pretty offended by the (reasonable) insinuation earlier on. I just feel like this speech needed to happen a lot earlier in the book and it loses some of its ‘oomph' by happening so late and after Fin was already a vampire.

In regards to Claudia: I have to admit: that reveal really got me. The saddest point in the book was when Fin accepted that she had to let go of the idea that Claudia was her mother and that they could never have that relationship again. The author sort of went back on this decision though because Claudia is seen caring for Fin up until the end, even after she said she wouldn't, but it's easy enough to overlook.

Overall, this was a pretty fun read. A good way to kick off spooky month. I like that it's a standalone since I don't have the energy for a series at the current moment, but I am a bit curious if making this a duology or a trilogy would've given us more time for world-building and building up the plot. Things ended up happening very fast in the end and we didn't really find out anything about the “big bad” so to speak until the final battle. It might've benefitted from more than one book, but I'm still happy with what I got.