Arabella didn’t expect her new life as the Heavens Clan's leader to be easy—and that was before realizing not all of the clan was willing to accept her mixed blood. She quickly discovers that before she can learn how to wield the power of a matriarch, she’ll have to earn the clan’s loyalty if she wants any hope of successfully leading Heavens against the Abyss. Except when she turns to Luca, the handsome seer who promised to stand by her side, for help, he’s suddenly never around. Has he abandoned her after witnessing the clan’s opposition to her?
Luca, after his failure to protect Arabella from Andromeda and Inferno, is determined not to fail her again. Which means staying away from her to ensure she doesn’t stop his visions with her touch. He can’t afford to gain control of his visions if it means going without them, not when it puts the woman he loves in danger. So he’ll stay away from her and relay his visions through his cousins. No matter how much it hurts him to avoid her.
In the midst of these challenges, the Abyss seems intent on taking Arabella’s life before she gains control of her powers—except mindless entities aren’t supposed to have intents of their own. Before Luca can delve into his visions to determine the cause of this, his visions suddenly vanish. The clan, certain Arabella isn’t up to the task of leading them, blames her for Luca’s apparent lack of visions.
With the clan thrown into panic, can a rejected, human-raised leader and a visionless seer bring them together to fight the Abyss?
Dive into this urban fantasy trilogy featuring a sweet, slow burn romance between a young woman raised as a human destined to lead the most powerful celestial guardian clan and a seer driven half mad by his visions, and meddling clan members determined to get them together. Perfect for fans of K. M. Shea's Magiford Supernatural City trilogies.
Violence: Mild. There is a lot of magic fighting of the abyss, and some sparring, but nothing bloody. There are some past recollections of the previous matriarch being abusive and cruel, but nothing detailed.
Sexual: Mild. Just hand-holding, hugging, cupping cheeks, and one not-steamy kiss.
Trigger: Deals with toxic self-sacrifice and a tyrannical leader who (major spoiler)
Really a 3.5 rounded up
So, I'm still getting major "Court of Midnight and Deception" by K.M. Shea vibes from this, especially as Arabella decides she wants to change the culture of the Celestial Guardians and stop their 'power games'.
I think that's why I'm kinda struggling to separate the Celestial Guardians from Fae in my mind when I read. They aren't really different enough as a magical race for me to put them in their own category. They're just people who can shoot light from their hands to attack the dark, and they're stronger/faster than normal with slight precognition. Their culture is basically loyalty to the matriarch over everything, even their own wants and needs, and self-sacrifice for the 'greater good'.
The dynamic between the individuals in the clan is the part I enjoyed the most. Seeing Clyde get sucked into the inner circle when he felt beneath them was sweet. Zoey is an adorable best-female friend material, and Arabella's parents being with her and supporting her made me happy. You don't see that much in this type of story, usually it's the protagonist by themselves without support until they prove themselves. I appreciated that she had a support system right from the start.
Although Arabella's Dad drove me nuts with his 'NO BOYS EVER' attitude, which seemed over the top and unbelievable to me, so it was just annoying and felt like it was 'for the plot' rather than a true characteristic to me.
BUT Romeo. He's my favorite. He's wise, loyal, and strong in all the ways that count. He doesn't let anyone else decide what he'll believe or do, and he supports Arabella emotionally as well as guarding her. And the way he is with Luca...I love that man.
The romance was hampered in this (but it was okay) by poor Luca's panic at not being able to see the danger to Arabella because his visions aren't working like they always have. His character arc in this was sad and lovely. By the end of the book I was rooting for him to get some healing from the major trauma his entire life had been. The moment that It made me so happy to have him get there, and I'm really looking forward to him coming out of his vision haze and seeing who he really is as a person.
This was a solid middle book, which I was glad for, since the previous series "The Hidden Hotel" had a draggy paced middle book.
It'll be interesting to see where the last book ends up! I keep wondering if this series is going to affect the world of the Enchanted Races as a whole, since it seems like the rules are being re-written for the Abyss's attacks. We'll see! (Still can't wait for the Beast-Monger series).
This was a good one to read across my work week because I generally did want to get back to it and find out what was going to happen next, and at the same time, I usually didn’t have too much trouble putting it aside.
I knew at the end of the first book that there were things that were set up that would probably annoy me in the second book and I was right.
Luca and Arabella bugged me differently than I’d expected. I thought Luca would withdraw and they might pine over each other or something, which largely didn’t happen. Luca did withdraw and it was foolish, but lots of people beyond just Arabella notice it and fuss at him over it, which is kind of cool, now that I think about it. He doesn’t just withdraw from Arabella. He withdraws from the community, and members of the community besides Arabella notice and are concerned. It’s still annoying as it plays out, and by the end of this book Arabella and Luca’s relationship is about where it was at the beginning of this book in terms of how well they actually know one another because they spend most of their together time through this book with him pulling away and her trying to figure out why he’s pulled away. It’s too bad, because this already has a sort of insta-love, fated mate flavor to it because of Luca’s visions of their future together, and the author could have mitigated that by having them get to know one another and letting the reader see why and how they connect, but oh well.
Arabella and Luca’s relationship is further complicated and they are further kept apart by the over-the-top subplot about Arabella’s father who apparently thinks his 18 year old daughter should not be looking at or speaking to most boys her own age, let alone holding hands with one. I don’t know if he’s supposed to be funny, or what, but by maybe the midpoint of this book I actively disliked him. It doesn’t help that he’s supposed to be the best fighter Heavens ever had. Honestly, that just makes him more annoying. And while I understand that the former matriarch was evil and Arabella’s father did what he felt he had to do to protect his freedom and his girlfriend-at-the-time’s life and later his wife and daughter’s lives, his clan does have a point that what he did was irresponsible with regard to their safety, and his wife and daughter would have a point if they cared to make it that what he did with his lies of omission to them is such a breach of trust that they could reasonably question whether they could ever trust him fully again. He’s not a perfect character. He’s deeply flawed. And that’s beautiful and human. He could be so much more interesting. And instead he’s very two dimensional. One dimension is “I’m a paragon of perfect fighting and ideal Celestial Guardian (even if I did abandon my calling, my training, and my people for two decades) and everyone should look up to me, learn from me, and wish they had made all the correct decisions like I did” and the other dimension is “No male (except weirdly for Romeo who doesn’t count for some reason) between the ages of 15 and 25 shall come within 3 feet of my precious daughter Arabella for any reason, ever.” Man, I can’t stand him!!!
This will be unpopular with the however many people underlined these quotes, but the quotes about mothers being safe or mothers being the moral compass - I can’t remember exactly, but there were two places this came up that made me react. One is after Arabella goes home and hugs her mother and starts sobbing and her father gets jealous and she feels the need to cater to his feelings and explain why she’s crying to her mother. This whole passage is just wrong to me in so many ways. First, fine her father is jealous…we’re all human. When 3 year olds go through that stage where they only want one parent and won’t get help from the other parent…and then flip. I know that sometimes hurts the parent being rejected even when they understand what’s happen. Feelings are feelings. But most parents recognize it, suck it up and keep going. Most parents are glad their beloved child trusts someone. Not Arabella’s dad. After she’s been kidnapped, held hostage, kidnapped again, found out her father lied to her for her entire life, has been threatened, and has had to give up her dreams and plans for her future her selfish father wants to get upset that she’s falling apart in the arms of the parent who didn’t lie to her her entire life? Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. And he expresses his feelings so now instead of it being about Arabella getting comfort, it’s about Arabella having to take care of her father. Double ugh. Then she gives this sappy stuff about mothers being safe. As in all mothers, everywhere are safe. No. Her mother was safe. Especially right then since her mother hadn’t lied to her. Most mothers are safe. So are most fathers. Not every mother is safe. Unfortunately being a mother is not some sacred thing that makes you divine in all ways. The second time it comes up is a point where Arabella makes a decision of some sort and asks her mother to weigh in. And her mother (who also does her fair share of making things all about her angst and her needs and forcing Arabella to take care of her through this novel) gets all self-effacing and “I don’t know why you’d listen to me since I am no one and nothing, blah, blah,” and Arabella tells her mothers are something wonderful - I think it’s about being a source of moral direction or something. And people underlined it and I’m sure took comfort from it. And I get it. Mother guilt is real. Talking and doing and trying your best to teach your children right and hoping you’ve said enough and done enough that they’ll be okay and launch out into society and self-sufficient productive citizens…it’s an endless job. I’m sure that sentence felt very validating to some readers. But mothers as a whole are not paragons of virtue or the moral compass for the world. Arabella’s mother may be her moral compass. Applying it like a universal truth annoyed me.
The clan. I wasn’t sure what to make of the clan or the culture. I think it could have been better developed. And I hated what happened with Wiley, who was a really good character in the first book. Once Arabella’s father entered the picture, all of a sudden Wiley is the wrong one. Disappointing. Marco too, but to a lesser extent. And Marco’s parents were just awful. Not sure from a story telling perspective why it was so necessary to have all that awfulness. It just seemed very black and white with the clan, Wiley, Marco’s mother - too many characters on too many fronts. It should have been more nuanced, I think.
The Abyss is weird. It’s apparently got the ability to think and plan. This is not how it was portrayed in the first novel, and I’m not sure it entirely (or even partially) makes sense. I love that Eatough has created all these unique Enchanted Races that don’t exist in other mythology or fantasy systems. The flip side is having to come up with things for these races to do or enemies for them to use their powers on. It seems like with Arabella figuring out her powers and having so much power, and with Heavens as a clan having so much power, there was nothing left for a third book so the Abyss had to get worse in order to be a threat, and the way it got worse was…growing sentience? Evil master-mind sentience.
I want to know what’s going to happen next (or I guess I want to see some of Luca’s nicer visions play out), and there is something appealing about Eatough’s writing. It’s readable and makes me curious about what’s going to happen next. So, will be reading the third book even though I have mixed feelings about this book.
I did like that Luca forgot he and Arabella weren’t already a couple in this book. It made for a light moment (one of the few in this book) and was a nice balance to the times in the last book where he forgot he’d met Arabella already.
*Series or Connected Books?* 2nd of a trilogy & must be read in order
*Point Of View:* mainly Arabella (with some chapters from Luca’s)
*Any Cursing Or Possibly Offensive Language?* None!
*Romance?* Yes! Just kisses
*Things To Know:*
–there is some fantasy violence/fighting
-it is mentioned that a character’s parents were murdered (past event)
Review:
This was so much fun! I loved seeing Luca’s desire to protect Arabella at all costs (and her getting through to him most times others couldn’t). I loved seeing more of the brotherly cousins together with all their teasing (Luca, Romeo, & Marco). Especially when it came to talking to Luca about his (obvious to the cousins) feelings for Arabella. And having Arabella’s overprotective dad at most moments Luca & Arabella could have shown their feelings to one another at the ready to separate them was very funny!
I can’t wait to find out what happens in the last book!
Summary:
Arabella didn’t know what to expect when being introduced to her clan, but being compared to the previous matriarch time and time again wasn’t it. Sure Arabella still needs to learn how to harness the power from the stars to power her clan in the battle against the Abyss, but comparing them is anything but helpful in achieving that goal. And when Arabella discovers more and more about the Heavens clan’s previous matriarch, she is determined to not be anything like her. But does Arabella have enough sway to get her people to follow her in this new direction? With how Luca has been distancing himself from her, Arabella doesn’t have high hopes that they’ll listen.
Luca was devastated when he didn’t foresee the threat to Arabella’s life back at the Red Alder hotel. He can’t allow it to happen again, which means that he’ll have to stop allowing Arabella to hold his hand so the visions can keep coming to him. But with the changes in the Abyss’s attacks, nothing is as it’s been. Even with his visions, Luca is feeling helpless against it. Nothing he does helps. So when his visions are suddenly gone, Luca doesn’t know what to do. What is he without his visions?
I liked this book, and I will read the next one, but I can’t say that I “really liked” it. Arabella’s woe is me/frustration with the situation is valid, but without other people pushing her into it she didn’t really do anything about it for most of the book. Yes, the circumstances are difficult but I would have liked to see her trying something of her own volition and failing rather than just rehash the “I don’t know how/what to do” over and over. Also, I missed sweet Luca from the previous book, so I hope we get back some of that in final book.
Excellent story! Full of adventure and danger relationships and figuring things out. I recommend it. Start with the first book in the trilogy if you haven’t read it.
I liked this book, but not as much as the first in the series. Trying to put my finger on why, I think it was a little too slow for me and the slow burn romance was non existent in this party of the series. Looking forward to the next, though!
The concept of the celestial guardians fighting the abyss is novel and compelling. My biggest complaint is Trenton acting like an overprotective Victorian era father. It was too much.