gperna01's reviews
317 reviews

This book had me in a CHOKEHOLD! I finished this book in 24 hours, and I could NOT put it down. I was obsessed and stayed up until 2am reading it knowing full well I had work in the morning. There are some things I didn't necessarily love about this book but I feel like the pacing, the romance, and humor really made that not seem as important. This story is told from the POV of Elowen Atarah the exiled Princess of the Imirath. When she was born she was given five dragons eggs who were thought to be dead, all five dragons hatched at her birth ceremony and a seer prophesied that she would be the ruination or the greatest thing of her kingdom. This caused her downfall at four she was separated from her dragons and abused by her father for many many years. The story begins with Elowen in her early twenties and hiding away from her father. She is spying on enemy soldiers when she is caught by the infamous Commander Cayden Veles and makes a deal to save her kingdom, herself, and most importantly her dragons. 

This book was chaotic but so good, there was not a lot going on plot and world building wise but the romance was the biggest factor in this book and boy did it stand out. The tension between Elowen and Cayden is palatable from the beginning. Their banter was always top notch and I cannot stop thinking about it. I felt that the length of tension was perfect when they finally got together it did not feel rushed and not like you were screaming "finally taken you long enough." The side characters really added to this story with their banter and humor, I found myself laughing many times at their comments and it felt super relatable. I felt that I was reading from the POV of someone around my age and their friends but not so modern I was off put by it. It has all the crowd favorite tropes/themes/things: 
-Found family
-enemies to friends to reluctant lovers
-forbidden love
-grumpy sunshine
-stabby FMC
-equally violent MMC
-I would burn down the world for you
-touch her and you die 
-Dragons / Dragon rider queen 
-Heists
-partners in crime
-only one bed

I very much enjoyed this book but some of my critiques is that some of the dialogue felt a little juvenile and the plot and world building kind of fell to the wayside. I felt that in some descriptions I was being told more than I was experiencing through Elowen's eyes. It is in the first person and I would not be explaining to myself what things looked like. But overall I think the romance of this book kept the pacing moving at a high speed and made me want to know what happened at the end, which I must say I was very satisfied with. It was not so predictable that I was disappointed but happy it happened. I would 1000000% pick up the next book I was hooked and Olivia is a great romantasy writer. Cannot wait to see what she does next. 


Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press - Random House Publishing for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly I want to thank Realm Studios and Emilia Jae for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
HOLY MOLY did this book take forever to read. I DEVOURED the first two books and read them back to back in less than 72 hours. I was so excited for this book and I just trudged through it, it did not keep me interested. I felt that at least 100 pages could've been cut and it felt like the same dialogue the same stupid decisions and the same romance scenes. The romance fell flat for me and the dialogue between them felt forced and childish, it did not feel the same as the first two books. I loved loved the first two books and I am very disappointed by this last book, it felt rushed and everything fell flat and forced. Things just happened to happen to have a happy ending and there was hardly any real loss for the main characters like there was in the first two books. I think this should've been four books instead of three, I feel like she was trying to execute a House of Dragon or Kingdom of Ash battle build up but it did not work out. I thought it was unique but this last book just did not do it for me and I am so extremely easy to please. The pacing was terrible and it did not start moving until the last 30% and the rest was just endless build up and unnecessary scenes. I felt that there was no character growth for Lia and she stayed the same reckless hot headed irrational person whereas most of the other characters had significant character growth. I did enjoy the happy ending and the battle was pretty well written as were the villains, which I feel like were Emilia's best written characters.

This book was so profoundly unique in its magic system and its plot. The world building can be a tad bit confusing at first but about 30% of the way in everything began to connect and make a lot of sense. Stewart is the queen of multiple POVs which gives her the ability to weave a story and interconnect all the characters slowly but effortlessly. It took me longer than I expected to read this book as it was a lot to take in, it is by no means a fast-paced book as the world building takes some digesting. 
This story centers around four main characters, Rasha, Hakara, Nioanen, and Sheuan. The mortals have leeched the world of all its sustenance and the gods have allowed it, so when the world is dying one god is forced to make a deal with another god, Kluehnn, to save the earth. Kluehnn's plan to save the world above is to restore every country, he cannot do this all at once but bit by bit. When the world is restored, any mortals left are altered into the image of the gods, but the hitch is that only half of the population survives restoration. The story begins with young sisters, Rasha and Hakara trying to escape their home being restored by the god Kluehnn. During the chaos of the restoration the sisters are separated, and it leads to a 10-year long search for one another leading to strife and perseverance. Both are irrevocably changed and not who they once were ten years later. One fights for Kluehnn and the other fights to bring his demise. 
In typical Stewart fashion this book was top tier high fantasy and filled with a magic system I have never seen before; I am curious about the other worlds yet to be put on the page that live in her head. This book unlike her first trilogy has a lot more tropes and I enjoyed it. It had enemies to reluctant allies to lovers, force proximity, cute cat guy, and found family. The tension of the romance in this book was so well written and I enjoyed the buildup and then the reveal at the end. This book was nothing but fantastic and I cannot wait for the sequel. 

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit books for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very interesting. It would have been a 3.75 if not for the pacing. The pacing makes it a 4-star read for me, this book FLEW by, and I could not put it down. The plot was interesting and so was the magic system, but I felt that some basic world building was needed. I was very unsure whether to read this first or Lilly's other book since apparently this is the second book. The information was unclear from the publisher's email or Goodreads. The plot seemed kind of lackluster and dragged on for so long with going back and forth between the different time periods. I thought the switching back and forth was necessary to further the plot but could have been done better. It felt very choppy and not well thought out. There were some things in there that pertained to modern times, I thought this was a fake world and the use of Greece or modern words did not make much sense to the story. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the forbidden romance aspect and the characters as whole. I felt that Blanche was really great and her friendship that blossoms into love with Robert was the best part. I wish we could have gotten more of them. The ending was super interesting, and I am curious where Lilly will take the next book. I will most definitely continue to read this series as she definitely has me hooked. 

Thank you to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.