“A bit of kindness chased by a bit of cruelty.” TW: ableism, abuse, alcoholism, animal death, blood, child abuse, death, death of a loved one, domestic abuse, fire/fire injury, injury/injury detail, miscarriage, physical abuse, rape, sexual assault, (explicit) sexual content, torture, violence, vomit. Note: Because I get asked this occasionally, this book is more mature than the Cursebreaker series as far as sexual content goes, but not in the terms of violence/gore. There are several explicit sexual scenes in here that go beyond anything in the original trilogy, but the gore/violence is very minimal and not nearly as descriptive as in the original series. I've been trying to figure out how to review this book since last night and I'm still not entirely sure. Whenever a series continuation gets announced, I'm always hesitant for several reasons. The first is that it usually seems like a cash-grab, and the second is that I'm always concerned about what the author will do with characters I care for. And yet, I still usually pick them up because I love the original stories and characters enough to be excited about new content. This book was the ultimate example of both my hesitation and interest in series continuations, which is why I feel so damn indecisive about it. I love Brigid Kemmerer and I love the Cursebreakers trilogy, even the parts of it I've seen people complain about. So... I'm not shocked I enjoyed this, but I'm also not shocked I'm extremely frustrated by the existence of this book. Instead of rambling, I'm going to list what I did and didn't like so this review has some semblance of cohesion. Things I Liked 1. Getting to revisit the world/characters. 2. The new characters. 3. Getting to see both sides of the story. I know that there are only three points here and I'm not super enthusiastic about any of them, but before I get into the negatives I want it to be clear that I really did enjoy this book. Her writing was as captivating as always and I had a great time on an entertainment level. Things I Didn't Like 1. The plot. In execution though? Eugh. A lot of this book is just the same few scenes written in different ways. I know that doesn't make sense, but trust me here. All of Tycho's POV is him having the same scene with different characters/emotions/locations. The same goes for both Jax and Callyn, except 99% of their scenes take place in one of two locations (the forge or the bakery). It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it grew really tedious after awhile. On top of that, there's this idiotic subplot about hosting a royal championship in order to bring peace? 1.) what the hell would that fix and 2.) it was literally only a plot device to make sure character A was stupid enough to leave character B in the last act. 2. Grey's character. The same thing happened here, except it was Grey's flaws that were exaggerated in favor of Tycho becoming his own person. I love Grey. He's one of my favorite characters of all time, and I know how many flaws he has. With that being said, Cursebreaker Grey would've kicked this Grey's ass. This Grey was a terrible king. (I'm sorry but I was about five seconds from joining a rebellion against him. He was a terrible friend. A terrible leader. And the second that things went south emotionally, he lost absolutely all sense of logic and reasoning. I get that he was in pain and frustrated, but the way he was treating everyone just felt like such a far cry from how his character would've handled any of this. There were a few moments where he felt like himself, even a grumpier version of himself, but they were overshadowed by how much I wanted someone to kick him. 3. Everything felt forced. A lot of the book only happens because person A was in the same place as person B at exactly the right time or because someone miscommunicated something in a way that was easily misconstrued and could have been easily avoided, or whatever else the case was. Not even mentioning the use of deus ex machina at the end. I realize this is the first book in a new series, but the ending was so neatly tied up so quickly that it was irritating. Every wrong is forgiven and every bad thing is set to right, the end. (Minus the epilogue.) 4. Overall I'm not sure if I recommend it, even to people that loved the original series. If you read this review and think that you may still like it, give it a chance. I hope it works for you. It just didn't for me. There's a high likelihood I'll read the next book because I still love Brigid Kemmerer and this world, but there's also a high likelihood I wouldn't rate it, if it's anything like this one.
The reason series continuations are so popular is because we have so much affection for the original series and that was definitely true in this case. For the first quarter of the book, I felt like a kid with how excited I was to see some of my favorite Cursebreaker characters.
I had my struggled with them, but overall both Jax and Callyn were very distinct, welcome additions to the book. I sympathized with both of their unique challenges and liked both of them, except for when I didn't lol.
If there's one thing I love, it's when things aren't portrayed as black-and-white. Brigid Kemmerer has done this fantastically in nearly every book I've read from her. This was, however, definitely the weakest example of that ability, as I feel like there were several plot-holes put in place to strengthen the case of one side but that's irrelevant.
It was still a factor in this book and I will eat it up every time.
Starting off strong here, but I'm sorry, what the heck was this plot? In the barest bone sense, yeah, it's a decent premise. Two friends get "accidentally" (accidentally my ass, btw.) involved in a plot against the king and things go from there.
I was concerned going into this book about characters being wrecked, especially after AHSFAB/AVSBAD kindaaaa exaggerating Rhen's flaws to make us more attached to Grey as he became one of the central protagonists.
From the moment that the characters first get involved with the rebellion, I was worried that everything else about the book would feel similarly convenient and unfortunately, I was right.
I have more thoughts and feelings on this but if I don't stop now, I'm going to sound like a petulant child that didn't have the exact snack she wanted. There's already a pretty good chance I'm there. Like I said, I was entertained by this book, but I was also really, really disappointed with it.
