Note: I'll be getting into several spoilers here so if you haven't finished it yet then go no further!
Okay so first off and for the 5th time now(I started reading these just after the second book came out)...WHY?!?! Seriously Stephanie are you trying to kill me with these cliffhanger cutoffs? I swear to you I will still read the next book even if there is no cliffhanger! I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship with these books lol.
Anyways It is now just after 4 am where I live and I am wide awake after having just finished tearing through this book. Unfortunately I am a binge reader, once I start I can't stop myself until I've reached the end. Which to be fair I probably should've ignored the little ding alerting me the book had been downloaded at midnight...oh well who needs sleep anyway?
***last chance before the spoilers***
So now getting back to the book...well I've got to say I was a teency bit disappointed this time around. Mostly because there was a ton of indecision in this book. Okay maybe indecision is a bad word more like hesitation before making a decision. Such as in the beginning when Amelia took like forever to decide whether or not she was going to step into the tree, then later when the warriors three(yes that is what i am calling the shapeshifters) were trying to decide what to do about Amelia. Also, and of course this could obviously change in the next book, but how exactly is her jumping into a portal to hell going to save the vampire race? I mean why didn't she ask the tree guardian what she had to do to fix it first? Seemed like a big point.
Another problem for me is that she didn't really try to stave off Trice's advances...I mean come on after the first time he kissed you, you think you'd know better than to trust him! Bite his lip, kick him in the crotch! She said she felt guilty about cheating on him, but then she just let it happen again and again!
But I am getting too negative here, time to focus on some positives:
As usual Stephanie paints an excellent picture with her storytelling, the battles were explosive and the characters shine just as always. Though to be honest I found the warriors three to be slightly annoying with their accents. That was the point though, for them to sound authentic, I get that. They did grow on me more, towards the end. Also it was never explained how Trice knew Amelia...I am really hoping that's touched upon in the next one because I'm highly curious.
I did like though getting to see Lucius' history in more detail. Though I'm still very confused about his gloved hand...because if it was completely cut off how is he wearing a glove? I know he said in the third afterlife book that I would grow back eventually but then if that's the case why does he still have to wear a glove? Did it grow back grotesquely like freddy Krieger or something?
Also the relationship between him and Lucifer was rather interesting. The comment he makes at the end of chapter three, when he says "you will bring me my queen"...it makes me wonder if her other novel 'devil in me' is set in the same universe as this, if that's so then is he referring to lily? Because lucius was never in that book...eh maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Another thing I'm curious about is whether or not lucius is actually the king of death, because I feel like in one of either the later afterlife books, which of course would've taken place way earlier than this series, they mentioned the king of death and how he'd already found his electus(I could be wrong though, of course).
I am really happy she stuck with her canon in regards to amelia as a baby by explaining it the way she did. A lot of authors break established canon, by changing things later, which bugs the crap out of me when it happens. And after having read through the afterlife saga finally(took me awhile because I didn't enjoy it as much as this series), I was like "wtf, she was born a human at the end of blood of the infinity war?"
Seriously someone needs to start up a fan site or something, I need some peeps to share my thoughts with, I apologize for this review being so long but honestly this has been very therapeutic for me lol. In spite of my problems with it, I still very much enjoyed the book, and I can't wait to read the next one. Here's to two more months of longing!