first and foremost 🗣️RHEAVE CARRIED THIS BOOK🗣️ one whole star of this rating is for him and him alone. whatever genre of romance rheave is, that is the one i need to be reading. all of my favorite quotes are from him
anywho still really enjoy the magic system and the characters. their motivations are believable and well-established, but they have been archetyping just a liiittle too hard for me. like casimir is so baby taking care of everyone, but can we have a little character growth for even a single character at some point? where cas does prioritize himself? or alek has just a little self confidence? just a crumb? (except like truly and genuinely why in the fuck did he not immediately tell ivy what he found in the haven about riven and the gods? talmbout ‘oh i’m so useless’ ok maybe tell her,,,,, that important fact then?) n e way yeah we can’t just keep having casimir be like <3 another man to balance out our group energy and call it a day. i need growth beyond them just going from not trusting ivy to loving her completely
which brings me to my next gripe. this singleminded Ivy Must Be Safe vibe from all the mmcs is way more cringe than in previous books in the face of the threat ratcheting up so far beyond their group. like the ENTIRE kingdom is under fire and they’re all like 🥺 but ivy ! 🥺 meanwhile don’t get me started on how ivy is the worst partner for these guys? just constantly stoking their insecurities and refusing to share anything about herself, which goes right back to these characters being stagnant af for three books straight. i mean ‘this isn’t how i intended our private moment to go, but —— if i’m not meant for this kind of request, what am i good for?’ WHAT !! WHAT !!! this is how our fmc makes casimir, who 1000% has sexual trauma as a courtesan, feel instead of just talking to him. it’s giving feyre telling rhys she just wants to use him as a distraction i’m sick
yet their focus is just exclusively on her. it just made the whole journey of saving the kingdom feel . . . weird. somehow too big for the focus of the group and too small for the focus of the conflict. and honestly BORING omg. okay sorry yeah had a jimmy neutron brain blast there —— shit was boring !!! they just checks notes followed an army and played a few little tricks on the big bad, which was entirely unaffected by anything they did, for like half the book. just so incredibly repetitive. then, instead of our main five actually participating in the climax, they just puppeteered it? idk didn’t love that. the most exciting part of the entire book was the last chapter and even that ??? i saw lothar coming from the moment he was introduced. the twist of ivy being controlled there also just was not set up well whatsoever and makes very little sense to me. like that growing ability couldn’t have been breadcrumbed in at all?
i also can’t tell how i feel about the fmc meets mentor, mentor shows her how to use her magic in like five days, then they have to leave arc. like you’re telling me when the scrappy resourceful thief fmc was overwhelmed by her magic that requires an equal consequence, she never —— not even once —— just tried to . picture the consequence she wanted? like not even one time? i get the premise of her being so frightened to use it that she never tried to work with it and understand it, but i wish that got fleshed out a little more during the training arc. that just felt very rushed to me. it would have been cool to see ivy balancing her magic and non-magic talents, but instead we got more of the same
also the smut was like . boring too. we could have had an orgy in the tent and instead we got 35 chapters of ivy being like ‘i love this daimon who is completely devoted to me and is in a really hot body with a charming, guileless personality and would do anything to be with me . . . but i Can’t’ WHY ??? I DO NOT NEED THE ENGINEERED CONFLICT HERE. GIVE ME RHEAVE OR GIVE ME DEATH HE IS THE ONLY REASON I DID NOT DNF
bars:
”i’ve had the whole world, little vine. i had it for more years than i know how to count. nothing i found in it ever made me as happy as you do.”
“this. this is where i fit.”
“cling to me, my little vine. like we’ll be twined together always.”