Fall of Ruin and Wrath

date read/dnf 2024-oct-1

I'd give this book a solid 3.5 stars. The heat was def there but the story was a bit slow. The ending was interesting and I will read the next book. But I hate the way women were used in this book. Gave me a bit of a yuck feeling. She had no consent to anything even though the men said she did. Interested to see book 2.

DNF

This will probably be an unpopular review, but it is what it is.

I like JLA books, I really do! I love Blood and Ash and Flesh and Fire, and I was actually convinced she was improving a lot as a writer.
I did think an editor would improve her work, thus my excitement to see her new book being published by TOR.

Such . . . a . . . disappointment!

So . . . about . . . this . . . book:
- You take Blood and Ash and mix it up with Flesh and Fire.
- You search for synonyms of intriguing and opt for interesting and enthralling
- Liessa is used already . . . You decide to change it for na'laa
- you eliminate all traces of a plot
- You remove gradual world building and add it all up as info dump at 70% (you all know what usually happens at this point of the story).
- To increase the length of the book, you use ellipsis every chance you get! Don't forget to add a space between every dot, this will ensure you barely need to write a story.
- Procede to add bits of plot in the last 15% of the book, in between some intense action scenes, so you can prepare a cliffhanger to hook readers for a second book.
- To make it TikTok worth it, you add smut every chance you get. If everything goes right, nobody will notice they are reading recycled material without any story behind.

The characters:
- Lis is special, obviously, but she is no maiden! She is some rich lord paramour, and sometimes even works as a courtesan. She is abused ALL THE TIME, but apparently, she only complains when is the MMC, and she actually wants it. As the story goes on, she slowly converts into Poppy, finds herself a dagger and stars throwing things to MMC. More powers appear and I expect she will be a Queen at the end of the series.
- Cas and Niktos had a son, but he is horny and feeds on desire. Said horniness will avoid the necessity of creating a personality for Thorne, maybe on the second book. He senses (and sees) the FMC being abused, but he is very hungry, so he let's everything happen, and patiently waits for his turn.

Unfortunately, I don't believe I will continue with this series.

Really disappointed in this one.  The first 10% and the last 10% were the best parts.  The middle was just a smut fest.  I didn't feel the connection at all.  What I want most out of my romance is the the romance.  And I just didn't feel it.  Wouldn't hurt to also have more world building to help with the fantasy part.  I don't think I will continue with this series.  I feel like I'll get the same, a few interesting things buried in smut.

I had a couple of problems with this story. First, I get that the character's knew each other a long time ago. I get that they were in love. What I don't get is the love. Maybe there should have bee flashbacks to when they were just first a budding love. Better character development would have helped to. These character's are obsessively focused on each other, it got annoying rather quick, but you would think with as much focus as there is on the relationship, I would understand how they a good for each other. TOO MUCH ANGST!

This could also use some editing. Parts need shortened, others need a more in depth explanation. The dialog has moments where the author really shines, other times it seemed to really sway from what I had how the characters had responded and acting during previous parts of the book.

In a nutshell: MEH! Needs work, but has potential.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.