“Blood doesn’t make a family, love does”- Gryff
As corny as that sounds, it still got me deep.
While I’m still not over the dubious premise and other issues I mentioned in my review of the first book but the little things I liked got even more fleshed out in this one. And I loved every bit of it- the character interactions, random banter, their back stories etc.
Their uncertainty over their future, mixed feelings of returning home for the summer holidays, moments like those brought back all the bittersweet memories of my school days.
And the nostalgia won me over completely.
That aside, this is primarily an action/adventure series and in that regard the plot didn’t have much going on. I myself got into this for those reasons esp. the monster collection aspects, which unfortunately have yet to be delivered.
I expected much more and so far the monsters are not even the primary focus of the combat, much less them having personalities and forming bonds, becoming partners with the MC and the like.
I understand the importance of laying a solid foundation and getting the readers attached to the characters. And the author is definitely nailing it with that. But I feel there needs to be more of the main promised elements, basically the summoning stuff. There should’ve been a balance between that and the groundwork for the characters.
But well, if I had to choose one, I’ll still have chosen the characters over some epic plot progression. Coz in my case atleast I can do without everything else but I need characters and interactions solid.
The rest will matter only once I start caring for the characters first.
Having said that, I hope the next book finally gets into the meat of it.
Afterall as much as I love slice of life elements, I didn’t sign up for this series with that in mind.
I saw the cover arts of some gorgeous monster summons and I can hardly wait for the MC to get into breathtaking battles with them in his arsenal. Let’s hope there are some epic war scenes here and ofcourse some spicy time with those monster ladies ;)