Author: Maria V. Snyder
Category/Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Release Date: December 31st
See it at Goodreads
She's fought death and won. But how can she fight her fears?
Avry knows hardship and trouble. She fought the plague and survived. She took on King Tohon and defeated him. But now her heart-mate, Kerrick, is missing, and Avry fears he's gone forever.
But there's a more immediate threat. The Skeleton King plots to claim the Fifteen Realms for his own. With armies in disarray and the dead not staying down, Avry's healing powers are needed now more than ever.Torn between love and loyalty, Avry must choose her path carefully. For the future of her world depends on her decision.
I completely adored the first two books of this series, but couldn't find myself all that attached going into this installment. Maybe it's been because of the recent reading slump I've been in--haven't had much the desire to do much reading or anything at all--and it's left me feeling all meh toward this one. My largest problem was the first hundred-fifty pages or so, I felt I was getting too much detail into how Avery felt… I MEAN ALL THE FEELS, Y’ALL… And the action seemed to seriously slack. It left me bored the majority of the beginning, despite the gorgeous writing and tension build-up. Despite how excited I'd been to return back to Snyder's world and these characters.
I also have to be honest to say that I completely missed the ending. I'd been about 60 pages away from it when my e-galley expired. Ugh. So it's definitely going to deserve a re-read either way, and when I do maybe I won't be in such a slump and will have a different opinion about a few things? I was such a big fan since book one, so it was sad that things felt off to say the least at this stage for me.
I'm still not thrilled with how a few things turned out from book two (a few readers might know what I mean-- character 'reunion'/reincarnation thing, ya know? Mixed feelings on this.) and this continued to transition into Taste of Darkness. Would have loved some different scenarios, but things still worked and it wasn't bad. I particularly liked the start right from where the last page of the second had left off at, without all the unnecessary backstory and additional commentary/refresher when reading a series installment (c'mon, you're reading *book three*... shouldn't need a few pages of filler backstory to explain where the characters are, right?). I also did like the emotional rollercoaster for the most part as I have been an invested fan (and shipper) of Kerrick and Avery.
I gave it a 3 star rating for now because while I enjoyed it, I was very "okay" about it, too. But it's possible with a re-read later--and to find out the last bit of the ending--it could be higher. I have to get out of this slump. :/
P.S. You may have also noticed a bit of a blog hiatus recently. The holidays destroy me blog-wise. And I’ve been down lately with some kind of a sickness, flu or something. I don’t know. Just all around icky feeling. I am trying to blog when I can and hopefully return to a normal schedule as soon as possible. Thanks, lovelies. <3
I didn't know that e-galleys expired. Bummer. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like you missed too much. I haven't read the first two books, but "heart-mate" in the blurb here made me laugh, and I doubt that was the intention... Wishing you Happy Holidays! :-)
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