A review by booksalacarte
Throne of Air and Darkness by Emberly Ash

adventurous challenging dark hopeful reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Throne of Air and Dark ess- 2⭐️4🌶️

Second book
Fantasy romance
Arthurian Reimagining
Multi pov
Fated Mates
Shifter
Mid/plus size FMC
Badass FMC
Journey
Found family
Politics
Prophecy
Intrigue
War

Check your trigger warnings.

At the end of book one, I was intrigued by the premise of the story. The reimagining of Arthur and Roundtable is always exciting for me. This book definitely encompasses the journeying aspect of the Arthurian legend. 

The story picking up immediately after the end of book one. A lot of the lingering questions from book 1 were approached in this book, but so much foreshadowing happened that the twists and turns were expected. 

It came to point about 60% through where I just started skimming because I was tired of all of the Spice that didn’t move the plot forward. It was exhausting having every other plot beat be a bedroom/tent spicy scene. I was ready for the plot to move forward and it seems like every time that things started moving, It got stalled out because of this.

I think part of the faded meat trope that makes it harder to do well is that there isn’t enough establishment of one’s self before the trope is included in the plot. I feel like with their meeting bond being foreshadowed so early in the series, it feels like they have been an official couple for quite some time. And so all of the grappling back-and-forth with  accepting their mating bond was exhausting and made we want to DNF the book. 

The characters are decently flushed out. I love the badass FMC. She was so solid in the first book that I found her wishy-washy in this book. It felt like all the character building and personal growth became completely undone. 

The addition of the two new Pov is were fine… But not necessary. I found that it seemed to just be a way to make us not forget about the characters who were left at home. By the time they were introduced, I was already fatigued by the whole story and found myself not invested.

I will not be continuing this series.

Thank you’re NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op for an arc copy of this book. All opinions are my own.