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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4.5/5
Pages: 656
Started: 26 January 2023
Finished: 28 January 2023
Summary:
It's just another morning for Eliza Jones--waking up screaming from a dream that feels more like a memory, feeling constricted by the weight of the prophecy predicting that she has a mystic gift- that is until she wakes up to an angel invasion. Dressed in divine white and toting harps, the angels make their way to the Vatican to speak with the Pope. However, the angles are no paragons of divinity. Led by the vicious Jael, they crave weapons with which they could annihilate the Chimaera once and for all.
Karou hasn't forgiven Akiva, but she has started to understand him, and more than that, she understands their combined power. By merging their armies, she knows, there might be a chance at defeating Jael and building a world of peace. But even as they strive for tenuous accord despite the animosity between races and the onslaught of angel forces, there are other powers--some great, some purely evil--that they must contend with before they can hope for victory and true redemption.
Thoughts:
While not quite as perfect and squeal-inducing as the previous, this book--all six hundred fifty pages of it--was a joy to read. The writing was fun and light, surprisingly not at odds with the complex world-building and messages. I loved the characters, the way that new and seemingly unimportant people would eventually become vital, the tension and banter in relationships, the jokes about horrible Morgan Toth and his pillowy lips that Eliza wanted to bounce quarters off. The end-of-chapter sentences were also very interesting--there were a lot of "And he looked around." dinkus "And so it was." which made it very easy to keep reading, but also were a tad overdramatic at times, though who am I to complain about things being dramatic.
There were a significant number of real flaws, too, though. The suspense and dramatic irony were nearly unbearable. Despite over one thousand pages of slowburn, Karou and Akiva never actually got together? There were so many opportunities for a conversation or kiss or something to break up the tension and give a small resolution or at least bit of progress, but there kept being things that got in the way, and while that's great a few times, it's horrible if it never stops. And the number of times people did things because they didn't know about another situation was equally hard to take. Dramatic irony is great for suspense, but the readers deserve a reward sometimes. The biggest flaw, though, was the lack of plot arc. It was present in the other books, but third books are a chance to wrap all the details together and create a cohesive, sectioned arc. This book did not have that. The pacing of the plot felt like the author had a broad idea of how the series would start and end, but didn't outline the middle, to her detriment. The war with the angels and its victory was all good, but the even-bigger-bad-guy situation with the Stelians and the world-consuming monsters felt tacked-on to the series. It's a fascinating idea, don't get me wrong; I just think that plot arc needed to be started earlier or have its own book or even companion series. If the monster had been behind all the bad things happening, it would have made more sense to the overall plot, but the way it was done just felt unnecessary.
That doesn't mean I'm not incredibly glad I read this book-- I adore this series now, and I very much look forward to purchasing copies and rereading in the future.
Words:
Vindicated (v) clear of blame or suspicion
Laconic (adj) using very few words
Preponderance (n) the quality or fact of being greater in number, quantity, or importance
Staid (adj) sedate, respectable, and unadventurous
Expat (n) expatriate; someone living in a country other than their country of citizenship
Presage (n) a sign or warning that something, typically something bad, will happen; an omen or portent
Depredations (n) an act of attacking or plundering
Vulpine (adj) relating to a fox or foxes
Soporific (adj) tending to induce drowsiness or sleep
Bilious (adj) affected by or associated with nausea or vomiting; spiteful and bad-tempered
Immolate (v) kill or offer (something) as a sacrifice, especially by burning
Fugue (n) a state or period of loss of awareness of one's identity, often coupled with flight from one's usual environment
Contrite (adj) feeling or expressing remorse or penitence
Parlance (n) a particular way of speaking or using words, especially a way common to those with a particular job or interest