unfortunately have lots of thoughts since i read this for a book club and i’ll start by saying that it was just,, okay. lol i don't want to nitpick and mention all of the little things i found to be annoying so i'll try to condense all my thoughts into more general opinions.

i thought that the plot was a little predictable, but it was entertaining and–for the most part–fun! as an adult novel the writing was juvenile at times, egregious in others, and the punctuation use throughout the novel sometimes made me wonder if the story had an editor. had a terrible case of telling, not showing and the dialogue was also incredibly contemporary. i was picturing a sort of ella enchanted (2004) type of world that mixes fantasy elements with real life

i mean they had fantasy wooden hip abduction machines LOL

so the contemporary language worked in some cases, but it really did make it hard to suspend my disbelief sometimes. also a lot of expletives that were a little jarring to get used to. as a fantasy novel, i thought the world building was on the poorer side and wished there was better exposition—loved the dragons though! as a romance novel, i don’t think the main relationship was developed enough for them to be proclaiming their love for one another by the end of the book, especially since i know this is a series. i would have liked for it to have been more fleshed out over the course of several books because for as horny as violet was, i think there was a lack of intimacy between her and xaden and the vulnerability between them felt a little forced. 

hated dain and loved tairn LOL and will probably watch the amazon series when it premieres because i DO want to know what happens later on but don’t think i care enough to read through another novel written like this. i think the story/writing would work better as a screenplay and i'd hope that it will improve upon some gripes i have with the story.

one thing that pleasantly surprised me though was the way violet's chronic illness was treated. i didn't know she had one going into the novel and i wish yarros would have gone in depth (something i found myself wishing often) on how she initially got sick and how it affects her life other than just been "small and fragile and weak" but i loved the bit with

tairn's saddle! i thought it was a great way to address violet's disability and thought what tairn said to her during that scene rang very true when discussing accessibility

.

one last thing though completely unrelated to the actual book that i need to complain about but to every reviewer that calls this a "grown up version of the hunger games" i implore you to read more books like CMONNNNN you cannot be serious😭 a grown up version of the hunger games is still the hunger games😭😭 i don't ever want to see her catching a stray when compared to this like... the hunger games has actual themes!!! if ANYTHING this is grown up divergent........