Lee
I did not expect to like this book as much as I do. The first thing that I noticed was the writing. It's gorgeous and I'm constantly thinking back to certain lines, passages, or descriptions. While the story may be slow at times (the small and cramped font making the reading process slow), there was a certain momentum that made you want to keep reading. I love this book and I love Henry Strauss.
It was enjoyable at parts, but it was also an incredible drag. The characters didn't feel right, their personalities felt like they were told feather than showed. The characters also felt like they were copies from Emily Henry's previous books. Overall, the writing style is definitely not for me and I felt like the romance wasn't even the main plot, which would be fine if this weren't marketed as a rom-com.
Also they weren't even rivals,, like at all??
The concept of this book is interesting, the execution however...
I did not connect with any of the character. For as much information and backstory that they have, they all pretty much fell flat and did not feel like they could be real people. I did not connect with it care for any of the characters. There were some really awkward and contextually inappropriate scenes. Maybe this book just wasn't for me, but definitely one of the worst I've read in a while.
Spoiler Free:
War Storm by Victoria Aveyard is the epic conclusion to the Red Queen series. I really enjoyed this book, although there were some aspects that were annoying at times. Overall, I think that most of the characters developed compared to the beginning of the series and they all pretty much got an ending that they deserved. The writing was beautiful and the action scenes were very well done. I also enjoyed the different POVs offered.
Spoilers:
Okay, let's get into this. There's honestly so much I'd like to talk about since so much happened in the book, but I'll keep it to a few main points that I liked, didn't like.
I really did enjoy reading this behemoth of a book. I think that Cal and Mare's relationship was written really well in the beginning, but it personally fell flat in the later chapters. I enjoyed the tension between them, it was really nice reading that, not to mention I kept squealing like a fangirl all their remarks. In the end, though, they didn't end up together... but they kind of did? It just didn't seem right that after four books of trying to get together and proving how much they care for each other that Mare and Cal would go on a "break." I understand Mare's reasoning behind this, but it didn't feel right, especially after reading about Mare's deep feelings toward Cal during the Harbor Bay fight. Personally, I'm not a fan of this kind of ending, I like knowing what happens to the characters long after a series ends, but that's just me
Moving on, the action in this book was really nice. The way Aveyard described the action/war scenes was really nice. I enjoy her writing style, its very descriptive and it really helps you picture the scenes and immerse yourself in the book. I also really enjoyed how you got to see different POVs during the battle scenes and the way they skipped along the timeline of the story worked really well for the story. For example, while Mare, Maven, Farely, and the rest of the Scarlet Guard are underground a train passes by and we see Maven look upset as it rushes by. We later find out that that was Evangeline making her escape. I thought that it was really nice putting the pieces together from the different perspectives.
As I mentioned before, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. The last five or so chapters seemed rushed and awkward. I thought that the cease-fire came out of nowhere and quite suddenly, especially since the majority of the final Lakelands battle seemed heavily tipped toward Iris and queen Cenra's side. I just thought that they gave up too easily.
Authors have a tendency to repeat phrases and words and Victoria Aveyard to no exception. It was as if during certain sections of the book she chose a word or certain phrase to repeat until she found a new one. Some examples that come to mind include "smarts," "showing quarter," some variation of "saving rats from a sinking ship," and many more. It's easy to overlook nitpicks like these, but once you're aware of them, you can't unsee them.
Another thing that annoyed me was the fact that every single character, without fail, was an expert at reading faces and expressions. It got to the point where Mare could read Cal's thoughts based on a single muscle quiver in his cheek. I'm being serious when I say that Mare or Evangeline could have an entire conversation with each other by only blinking and breathing based on how well they can read people. This was one of the more annoying aspects of the book that made it less enjoyable.
There's so much more I could talk about, but I simply don't have time. Although there are certain things about the book that was annoying, it was a very nice conclusion to the four-book series. Despite its size, it didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would since I read it hours at a time. It was very captivating and entertaining and it made me not want to put it down. The ending was questionable, but the characters and dialog were hilarious and very enjoyable. All in all, this was a great book and I would recommend the series to anyone interested in a political fantasy story.