Community Reviews
I know the vast majority of people did not enjoy this book and I can understand why. However, I do think my reading experience did differ a little bit from everyone else's because many reviewers said that this book was like a wannabe version of ACTOR and FBAA and I have not read either of those series so I believe I had a fresher point of view when coming into this story.
The beginning of the book got me hooked on the story because of the way that the fanasty elements were set up. I was extremely intrigued by the veil, the fairies, the "heretics" practicing the old religion in the woods, all of it. However, after the initial introduction to these elements the world-building kinds of just stops. There is no explanation as to why things are the way they are, and some elements are just mentioned without ever referring back to them or are randomly thrown in (like the creatures in the caves and the primordials). I think that the original plot of this story becomes a subplot immediately when the male love interest is introduced; the romance plot takes over and the book suffers because of that.
And speaking of the male love interest, oh boy. When Caelum is first introduced he seems like an okay dude. That quickly becomes derailed. He acts like he is better than all of the other men because he does not force himself on the female main character, Estrella, when that is literally the bare minimum. He constantly tries telling her what to do and makes comments that generally make her uncomfortable and he overall acts like a douchebag.
As for Estrella, I really like her character in the beginning. She was a strong and smart fighter and I wanted to see where she would go on her journey next. However, once Caelum is a part of the picture a majority of her time is spent going between wanting to fight or fuck him so often that I was getting whiplash and it was incredibly annoying. I also did not appreciate how she was supposed to be so smart yet there were clear signs about the big plot twist that anyone could see from a million miles away and she chose to ignore them. Like girl come on. You are not that naive you are just choosing to turn a blind eye.
Somehow though despite all of this I managed to finish the book because I just needed to know when the big plot twist was going to happen (that any reader could see coming) and Estrella's reaction. So for keeping me hooked this book gets three stars. I however will not be continuing the series as I tried reading the sequel and had to DNF it barely a quarter of the way through because I simply could not handle Estrella and Caelum's back and forth anymore nor Estrella's pity party.
The beginning of the book got me hooked on the story because of the way that the fanasty elements were set up. I was extremely intrigued by the veil, the fairies, the "heretics" practicing the old religion in the woods, all of it. However, after the initial introduction to these elements the world-building kinds of just stops. There is no explanation as to why things are the way they are, and some elements are just mentioned without ever referring back to them or are randomly thrown in (like the creatures in the caves and the primordials). I think that the original plot of this story becomes a subplot immediately when the male love interest is introduced; the romance plot takes over and the book suffers because of that.
And speaking of the male love interest, oh boy. When Caelum is first introduced he seems like an okay dude. That quickly becomes derailed. He acts like he is better than all of the other men because he does not force himself on the female main character, Estrella, when that is literally the bare minimum. He constantly tries telling her what to do and makes comments that generally make her uncomfortable and he overall acts like a douchebag.
As for Estrella, I really like her character in the beginning. She was a strong and smart fighter and I wanted to see where she would go on her journey next. However, once Caelum is a part of the picture a majority of her time is spent going between wanting to fight or fuck him so often that I was getting whiplash and it was incredibly annoying. I also did not appreciate how she was supposed to be so smart yet there were clear signs about the big plot twist that anyone could see from a million miles away and she chose to ignore them. Like girl come on. You are not that naive you are just choosing to turn a blind eye.
Somehow though despite all of this I managed to finish the book because I just needed to know when the big plot twist was going to happen (that any reader could see coming) and Estrella's reaction. So for keeping me hooked this book gets three stars. I however will not be continuing the series as I tried reading the sequel and had to DNF it barely a quarter of the way through because I simply could not handle Estrella and Caelum's back and forth anymore nor Estrella's pity party.
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