ashurredly's reviews
453 reviews

I liked this. Probably would have given it five stars, but the Inej/Kaz romance bothers me. It was very obviously coming from almost the beginning, but I wish it had been slow played and maybe shown up in book two. Or that there ended up being a different way for the ending to play out - Jesper gets kidnapped, maybe, and the rest of the crew have to convince Kaz to go after him by promising him most/all of their shares. Also, I like the hints at Wylan/Jasper, but it's definitely just hints - unlike the hetero couples in this book and that bothers me.

Well, damn. This was good. I felt slightly cheated at the end because my Nook was still showing another forty or so pages and then that turned out to be the cast of characters and a preview for another book and I was not ready for this story to end. I wanted more! I wanted to see these characters really settle into new lives - that's not a complaint about the novel, but I think an indication of how much I enjoyed this (although I do wish the last chapter hadn't been from Pekka's point of view. It makes sense, but is somewhat unsatisfying).

The one character death was the "right" character. Matthias' major characteristic was his conflicted love for Nina - his death made the ending sad, but not devastating in the way another character's would have (except maybe Kaz. I could have lived with that, honestly.).

I enjoyed that the Kaz/Inej relationship was harder and didn't magically get resolved. The thought Inej has about how she won't waste her life trying to heal Kaz is one that I really appreciate because it seems so rare in fiction.

The world is interesting, but the writing is a little clumsy and I had to carefully not think about several things that made no sense. Also the "oh no corsets and dresses" bits were sort of annoying and overdone. Still, definitely about to start the next book.

5 stars for actual risks and consequences.