He lost her to his enemies, but he will burn kingdoms to get her back.
After the dragon prince steals Lira to make her his bride, Tavish, the ruthless Unseelie King, watches his world fall apart. His fated mate is gone, and now, his own people threaten rebellion.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Seelie arrive, demanding the return of their daughter, further straining a fragile alliance.
But Tavish doesn’t care about alliances or rebellion. He has one goal—keep Lira from the dragon prince. She belongs to him, bound by fate and blood, and no force in this realm will keep them apart.
Reading has always been one of my favorite hobbies, even as a little girl. When I was a toddler, my parents would read stories to me over and over. I would hear them so often that I had the books memorized and could recite the story word by word.
My favorite genres are fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance. So of course that's what I'm inclined to write.
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I wanted to love the ending of this series for Tavish and Lira, but two main things set me off (spoilers ahead)
1. The ENTIRE book was a back and forth that consisted of Tavish telling Lira he wouldn’t let her fight and how he couldn’t risk losing her then Lira telling Tavish she was strong and could handle it and him relenting. Then they’d have the same conversation again. And again. AND AGAIN. And nearly every time Lira would go out and fight, she ended up in some sort of situation where she was in danger/injured and calling for Tavish to help her, thus distracting him and proving the point that she should’ve just stayed home!!!!
2. I hate that the series built up how special the fated mate bond between Tavish and Lira was and how there hadn’t been one in forever, then in the epilogue everyone gets a mate?!! Completely ruins the importance of the bond.
Finnian was the saving grace of the entire book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Sorry but this is basically a TEMU version of the ever king/queen by lj andrews😭😭😭 the ending was rushed and i didnt particularly like the way the fighting just ✨ended✨ like cmon man give us some closure
Additionally, in book 1, it was mentioned that in the entire history there had only been TEN fated mates but, naturally, everyone gets a fated mate in the end like???? If they’re incredibly rare, how come THREE people got found theirs in the span of like 5 months? Seems a bit too much imo
The Kingdom of Flame and Ash is the final book in the Fated to Darkness trilogy. I went into this one hoping it would blow me away because book two was a bit of a struggle but that’s unfortunately not what happened. This one was really repetitive, and a lot of the action ended too quickly. I also didn’t see any character growth of maturity for either Tavish or Lira which was a bummer. After everything they went through, I’d have expected at least some. Instead, there was a lot of “don’t do that you’re in danger”, Lira going and doing just that, and him having to save her all over again because she can’t listen. Now I’m all for independence and not listening to a man tell you what to do but EVERY SINGLE TIME she had to beg him for help…. So, it defeated the whole purpose of being independent and thinking for herself.
Anyway, I read it, didn’t love it, but finished because I already read the other two that I may as well have read this one to see how it ends. It’s my least favorite of the series and while I think you should read it if you’ve taken the time for the other two, I wouldn’t personally recommend it. The first book was good, and they went downhill after that.
This one was just ok. I called the ending pretty early on. And I got tired of hearing Tavish threaten someone’s life for just looking at Lira and petty things like that. I’ve read books with mate bonds, but this one was to the extreme. It started to get toxic in this book to where I thought for a minute that he was a Tamlin😅 But it was a nice conclusion to their story.
This picks up right where the last one leaves off, but I was so done with this story. I swear if I had to read Fated mates one more time I was going to scream. Why have the tattoos if you are just going to remind everyone what felt like every other sentence that you are mates. Tavish was just lacking. Its like when you needed to see that power that he is supposed to have, its always just depleted. I also got tired of ending every chapter with some big emergency that just had to be handled right then and there. Then you get to the end and before the battle is truly won you jump ahead 5 years to what is now going on from Tavish's POV. The first book was decent the second less so and this one was just bad and annoying. Nope.
The first book in this series was outstanding, this is a classic example of a story being drug out to the point that it’s almost unrecognizable and awful. If you took a shot every time someone said “fated mate” you would be dead by 25% - also the first time someone was confused over Earth slang, it was fine, by the 85th time I had had enough. This story was repetitive and I would have given it 2 stars if not for Finnian. I’m going to pretend book 1 was a standalone and wipe 2 and 3 from my memory.
Oh. My. God. I .... This..... Ugh. This book has a lot of problems, like a lot. It feels like it was written by AI in a number of places. The thing that got me was that EVERY chapter ends on a cliffhanger gotcha. ALL OF THEM... And usually there's nothing suspenseful on the other side of that chapter. At one point they're going to interrogate a prisoner. They make that decision. They go to the prison. They open the door, and then the POV character says something like, "and then I saw the last thing I wanted to see..."
Want to know what that is? It's the prisoner they were going to interrogate. You know.... The one they deliberately decided to go see. He was - SHOCKER- in the prison! GASP. So much fake suspense and super super clingy vibes. The MMC comes across like an obsessed high school ex boyfriend you have to report to the principal because he won't stop following you. He threatens EVERY man who looks at the FMC to the point of attacking them or threatening them, even when it's her family or his best friend. I just.... It's bad.
Let's start this by saying this book series was so predictable that it was boring. It lacked so many details, that it was just very easy to gloss over the pages. Spoilers ahead...So Fated Mates is extremely rare and there haven't been any for hundreds of years....and by the end of the book, there were multiple Fated Mates? As soon as I started reading the epilogue I said to myself, they better not have ended with pregnancy or a family when it's already so hard for fae to fall pregnant and low and behold pregnancies. The author could have made Pyrthian into a more dynamic character at the end, given him some life, we could have gotten pov from E and him throughout the book since it was as far from a plot twist that you could get, considering the amount of times the author would randomly say, that's so weird why's E looking at him like that, etc. 😐 Were there some characters I loved? Yeah. Were there some scenes that I loved? Yes. And that's why it's getting 2 stars instead of 1. I didn't highlight a single sentence in these books which means nothing really enveloped me as a reader. I probably won't remember the details of this book. Also, heavy cringe for the fact that the titles seem twisted versions of ACOTAR. Especially the first one...come on.
Whole series was worth reading. Its a romantasy that takes place in a Dark Fantasy setting. The MC's are Friends to Enemies to Lovers. Its got fae and dragons, fated mates, seelie and unseelie, adopted and choosen family.
2.5 stars. The first two books weren’t bad and I enjoyed the build up, but this third book wasn’t it. New drinking game alert, take a shot every time they say “My fated mate”. You’ll be drunk before you finish the first chapter and have alcohol poisoning half way through the second. The reason I gave it 2.5 is for the side characters that I really liked and the wolf. Ending was SO rushed but I’m glad it’s over bc I was tired of reading it.
I wanted to like this book just as I liked the first two but there are some issues that came to light. Tavish and Lira over used their fated mate bond waaaaay to much. It was annoying how freaking all over each other they were and how they couldn’t make decisions for themselves without bringing up the fated mate bond. It was just overused. And they almost never used each others names and only said “ my fated mate” which increased my annoyance. Another thing that bothered me was at the end when all of a sudden everyone has a fated mate when it was supposed to be a super rare thing. And it was also cross species all of a sudden?!? It wasn’t even explained and everyone just accepted it. In that way the ending seemed rushed as there was a time skip after they dropped the bomb of fated mates being cross species.
This book didn’t seem as thought out as the first 2 books and the first half of the book was slower than the series usual pace which led me to put the book down for a few weeks before I picked it back up. But the second half sped up and it all came together albeit sloppily. There could’ve been a lot more added to the story at the end to add more closure other than just fast forwarding to 5 years later and everyone is peachy. I did overall enjoy the series so I’ll keep my rating at a 3/5 for respect for these books as a whole.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I know I said I wouldn't read this after how bad the first two were, but I took a long break and thought I'd give it a shot. I will never get those hours back. She really called the dragon prince a twatwaffle 😭
All in all, I really enjoyed this series. My main complaint is that I thought the pacing could’ve been better. The end of the book felt rushed, and I was left wanting more answers. Suddenly a lot happened without much explanation. All that said, very entertaining quick and easy read.
Kingdom of Flames and Ash was a stellar read. Tavish has amplified his murderous possessiveness of Lira to a 10, and I'm loving it. He freely shows anyone and everyone how much he loves Lira, consequences be darned. As for Lira, she's showing everyone what an excellent ruler she would make. She is cunning, sees the overall picture, and shows empathy where it is deserved while also giving people the business. Lira let her dark side come out, and I was here for it.
This book took things to unexpected places such as Lira's bio-parents redeeming themselves, I really didn't expect it but it was welcome. Lira's adoptive parents were also more present in this book, the relationship that Lira has with all three of them (Eiric included) is touching. I knew something hinky was up but not on this scale. There were a few twists that had a twist. The best way I can put it, this story was everything I expected while simultaneously being not how I expected it. There was one important plot hole that wasn't solved but I guess you can't solve everything.
Jen did a great job wrapping up the series, Kingdom of Flame and Ash was a fantastic read.
Not a bad read. I feel like the ending was a little abrupt though. There were a few plot lines I wish were explored a little more before the end. Solid 3 star read
Okay, I have some strong feelings about this series (and romantasy in general, I guess) and I'm going to try and put them all here because it seems fitting.
The first book was alright in the most generous interpretation of that word. I have been on some kind of romantasy binge since the beginning of this year so I know what's going on and that book met my expectations but it wasn't anything to write home about. I have a feeling that if I asked ChatGPT to write a story with the most common tropes in romantic fantasy these days, it would spew out something like this. (And I'm not saying this was written by AI, it was too well-written for that.)
Normal (not so normal) girl swept into a fantasy world unexpectedly ✅️ Dark and broody fae royal hell-bent to kill her (but not really 😉) ✅️ Ridiculous deadly competition (I hate that trope so much 🙄) ✅️
But I still somewhat liked the characters and wordbuilding even though they were both rather flat. It was still better than the majority of the similar books published today. Not by much but still.
The second book was boring in comparison. Pretty much nothing happened, there was very little development on all fronts, and characters were more simpering than before but, unfortunately, that is to be expected from the second book in the series in this genre. However, I still liked intrigues and court politics and it seemed like it was preparing building blocks for the grand finale. I could push through some middle book slog if the next book is satisfying enough.
And then it ended mid-scene. And I don't mean "OH NO! THE CLIFFHANGER!😲" kind of situation. I mean "publisher (probably) told me my book can be only this many pages long so snip, snip" situation. I felt cheated. But I naturally wanted to know the conclusion of it all so I soldiered on.
And the third book started with the continuation of the same scene without any preamble. If I hadn't read on pretty much right away, I would've had no chance of following the plot. I don't like that. This series is not worth a reread it would have needed otherwise. And the worst part is that the aforementioned scene ended a few minutes into the audiobook (10 pages at best). WITH WAY MORE NATURALLY LOOKING CLIFFHANGER AT THAT. Therefore, there was literally no reason to end the second book like that. SMH.
And this book. Oh god. If the previous book lacked in all common "bookish" areas (plot, characters, wordbuilding, etc.), I have no words for this one. There was NOTHING. Nothing moved, nothing changed, nothing got satisfyingly resolved. It was only pages and pages of meaninglessness with a few nice-ish scenes here and there. Every conclusion felt rushed and unnatural. There were no stakes, no urgency. I still can't fathom how can be this book almost 12 hours long on audio. I could probably summarize what happened in 20 pages long short story and I guarantee you nothing would be lost. If I could remember anything about this book in the first place. Which I don't. And I literally finished it today. That says everything.
And some conclusions about romantasy in general because it most definitely applies here too:
1. Please stop with arenas, deadly competitions, gauntlets, Ninja Warriors knock-off, etc. It's stupid and it doesn't do what you think it does because at this point we all know what's up. I'm bored. 2. There are more types of men than broody, "morally gray" shadow daddy. They were one of my favorites back when they weren't everywhere. But now – I'm bored. 3. Please make fae feel fae again. This is a big, big problem for me. And not only with fae but they are go-to these days so it's more noticeable for me. But fantasy creatures in general are losing their otherworldliness. I miss fantasy in fantasy. Currently, fantasy beings are just weird people with poorly defined super powers. Which brings me to the last point even though it doesn't apply to this series that much: 4. Wordbuilding matters! Tell me more! Always more! How does the world work? What does it look like? What do the clothes, food, rooms look like? I feel like characters are always talking either in some white room or some generic-looking living room no matter where they are supposed to be, actually. And, for the love of god, how does the magic work? Even if it is a soft magic system there should be some rules. And not every problem should be solved by using conveniently never-before-mentioned magic or MacGuffin. It makes it look really cheap.
P. S. This series uses words "linked" or "connected" when the main characters speak telepathically and I wanted to bleach my brain each time it was used. It annoyed the hell out of me. I wouldn't include it in the main "review " because it's really just a minor issue for me. But it still deserves a side note.
I have never not finished a book. This one tested me. I won. But at what cost? Those hours will never return to me. This horribly written and honestly boring tale will haunt me for years to come. Thanks.
Once again, the conclusion of this serie is too long, not enough real story. They should have search earlier what happens exactly 12 years ago and Tavish shouldn’t kill every person with an ounce of information.
Again, these books are like junk food for brain. Easily digestible, fun, good palette cleanser and maybe a little annoying because of the sheer amount of repetition.