multicoloredbookreviews's reviews
1023 reviews

 The repetitiveness and lack of thorough proofreading are starting to get to me. But with those cliffhangers, who can resist jumping into the following book? I thought the last one with the forced public sex had been insane, and this one was even crazier.

The adventure continued and our protagonists faced new challenges, discovered new courts, and clashed again with old and new enemies—the Shadow King reached new levels of assholery and I'm sure we ain't seen nothing yet.

3 of the keys to unlocking Faerie's Heart are now in play (no idea how many there'll eventually be), the guys are all head over heels, and Amiah continues to attribute all her feelings down to some out-of-control horniness LOL I liked that this book, unlike the previous one, had more of a balance between plot and relationships.

I'm still wondering, after Nephilim's Destiny (the prequel series), if Cassius' youngest brother, Dominic, is actually dead or not (ND had made it sound like he'd disappeared, and how convenient would it be if he turned up in Faerie?) since a big part of his emotional trauma, and lack of control over his fire is linked to him. The first mating brand has also entered the chat, so that will be causing lots of drama, I'm sure. And Amiah's powers continue to grow and evolve in surprising and unexpected ways.

The tension continues to build. The race for the Heart is heating up, and so are things between Amiah and the guys. I'm tired of the angsty inner monologues but excited about everything else going on. Here's hoping the last two books will knock it out of the park.

 

 Not a lot of progression plot-wise (nothing much happened about the Heart of Faerie thing). But we did get a bit of progression in the relationship development department—mostly from a one-sided perspective, but still.

Everyone is slowly coming to terms with their feelings and desires but not really making a move yet.

Holy fuck, that cliffhanger, though! I legit wasn't expecting the whole throne room thing to actually happen. The follow-through was a complete surprise. Farie is a fucked up place and both the Winter Queen and Shadow King are cray-cray.

And WTF is up with the Winter Court being all sentient and its magic liking Amiah? Girly is not gonna stay in Winterland having a bunch of royal hybrid babies, is she? That'd actually be nuts.

I wanna see more character growth going forward—and better proofreading, the use of commas is proving to be atrocious.

Hawk seems like the only one that's a well-adjusted individual. Sebastian has commitment issues and is poisoned with demonic magic, Amiah is stuck in her "I'm-weak-and-useless" mentality and having mental break-downs all too often, Cassius is being ruled and overwhelmed by his emotions on an hourly basis and Titus will sooner rather than later have to deal with the fact that this is RH and girly is NOT gonna be solely his, dammit!

Also, demon-vampire samurai anyone? 😉

 

 As most reviews point out, yeah, there's absolutely no way you can read this series and understand what's going on unless you've already read Nephilim's Destiny. I tried and couldn't get past the first chapter before hitting the metaphorical pause button to go hunt down the series Angel's Fate is spun off of.

I'm partial to multiple POV stories so, in that sense, I enjoyed this series more. Similarly to Nephilim's Destiny, there was a lot of trauma going on. Essie's character's main traits got divided between Bane and Amiah. The cheeky fae got the constantly being in pain trait, while the healer angel got all of her emotional neurosis. I hope Amiah deals with her issues faster than Essie did because otherwise, I can already see it getting annoying and repetitive really quickly—100 years is more than enough time to deal with your emotional issues and get over them.

But I'm glad that Angel's Fate will tackle a whole different side of this universe than Nephilim's Destiny—the Fae realm. I think it's safe to say we'll get to see all brand new stuff, and fae courts are always very complicated and interesting!

I'm also willing to bet that this book already put into words the idea the whole series will be centered around: "A treasure hunt where the competitors are trying to kill each other". Which, again, is a departure from the "different villains for different books" of ND, and an idea that, at least for now, I like better. I'd rather an overarching plot than an individual one per book. And I'm also curious about how many mates Amiah will end up with. Four seem to be confirmed already, but there's a fifth one roaming on the very edges that I'm super curious about.

And I'm already wondering whether Essie's team will make an appearance in the future as Bane seems to be struggling with something I think she could easily fix for him. I think everyone coming together in the last book (kinda like in the Narnia series) will be a lot of fun.

But for now, cliffhanger ending!

 

 Destined Radiance was more of the same we'd gotten throughout the Nephilim's Destiny series, plus a twist that brought the whole thing full circle and back to (almost) where we'd begun.

The thing is, when there have been fights to the brink of death in every single book of a series, then the epic battle against the final boss doesn't hit as hard. Everyone's already been mortally wounded at least once, our heroine has already decided to lay down her life and sacrifice herself for the greater good previously... We've already been there and seen all that, and there's only so many times you can repeatedly hit the same notes before they grow stale.

But then again, IMO the first few books wouldn't have been as good and enjoyable as they were without all the tension, danger, and angst. Maybe if a more delicate balance had been achieved, and those plot points hadn't gotten overused so much in the beginning, the latter books of the series would have been more impactful. Or maybe the series would have been broken down into fewer books. I'm not sure what the best solution would have been.

Overall, the series was super quick to read because of the fast pace, and pretty entertaining despite the repetitiveness. As a whole, I'd give it 3.5 ⭐, and I think fans of slow-burn RH will enjoy it. 

Things were not what they seemed, and what feels a bit like a cop-out was taken to avoid a mess that was built to be insurmountable.

Destined Storm was very much a continuation of Destined Fire, like the conclusion of a small two-parter contained inside a bigger series.

There were lots of brushes with death (again), lots of pain and suffering (again), lots of angst (again), lots of emotional turmoil (again)... You get the gist.

Now, I'm guessing a demonic (or arch-demonic) mommy dearest will get revealed? I liked this series better when we got one villain that had to be defeated per book.

On the positive side, these books are so short and SO fast-paced I have no time to get bored at any point!

Things are getting intense!

Destined Fire, unlike the previous books, was a lot more centered around the relationship development than anything else. Destined Darkness and Destined Blood were more about a big, bad villain that needed to be defeated, while this one wasn't and instead focused and Essie and the guys.

It was still super angsty because she was constantly fighting her feelings for the guys and feeling super insecure and unsure whether they'd accept her once her Nephilim nature was revealed. It broke my heart a little to witness her struggling alone so much.

And I think my predictions from the previous book were on point, will have to wait to check since that cliffy ending left me on the edge of my seat. Shit is not gonna be easy going forward.

It's wild that the drug plotline turned into the one that overarched over most of the series LOL

And I'd like to know why Marcus hasn't received an angelic mating brand. Feels unfair.

 Much like Destined Darkness (book 1 in the Nephilim's Destiny series), Destined Blood also kept up the angstiness.

Essie kept stressing and worrying about the guys finding out her secret, which, with her developing deeper relationships with all of them in this book, only made those feelings more pronounced and added a healthy dose of guilt into the mix.

My predictions though, are that Marcus will not care much one way or another when the secret finally comes out since he didn't fight against the Nephilim during the war. He has no past trauma tied to Nephilims, unlike Kol. In a rank of which of the guys will care the most to which one will care the least, my order goes Kol, Gideon, Jacob, and Marcus. The incubus has a trove of repressed PTSD tied to those dark times, so I can't imagine he'll react well to Essie being one of the creatures so tied to his trauma.

Either way, I'm hoping it will all come to light soon so that it can be dealt with because I'm beginning to get a little tired of Essie constantly disparaging over it.

And, like it or not, aside from the either natural or magically induced emotional attachments, Gideon and Jacob's lives are now tied to hers, so what's the worst that could happen?

Steam is slowly picking up speed, but a poly scene seems to be firmly off the table and very far off still.

Onto the next life-threatening fight with an overcharged super! 

 Loved the fast pace, loved the tension, loved the angst. The slow-burn was 100% slow-burning. Nothing much has happened as of yet on the RH front, but I'm so excited for when it finally does!

Great introductory book into a new series. I'm very much looking forward to delving deeper into the Nephilim's Destiny series. 

 As far as prequel novellas go, this was one of the best I've read in some time. Not too long, but exciting enough to whet the appetite and drive the reader to want to delve deeper into this fictional world. I'm looking forward to reading more about Essie and the urban fantasy/pnr world of Nephilim's Destiny. 

 

A book full of encouragement, validation, easy recipes, and good ideas for simple things to make when you just can't even. A literary hug, 100% non-judgemental and comforting.

My favorite recipes were the "roll a dice" ones, perfect for when you just want to turn your brain off and not have to think about what to make for lunch or dinner.

**I received a digital advanced copy through Netgalley. All opinions are my own**