Amelia Hutchins

*slams figurative stack of books on the table because I read these in e-book form*
Alright, I read four of these puppies because I am a romance completionist. I read until I feel like the romance storyline is complete. I know that the person who reads erotica for plot is a bit of a dummy, but I am a dummy. I do not rate them highly because as a general rule I love enemies-to-lovers, but I hate emotionally constipated assholes, and that is what the MMC was for the majority of four books until maybe 20% into this one where he admits he loves her. I just feel like all of these books need at least two additional editorial passes, one for copyediting and one for content. Lots of typos. But my real beef is the constant retconning that is happening between books and even between chapters. Like, this is not a long-running comic book series, these are a series of erotic books, and the story just feels like one run-on unedited sentence. That being said the writer has good ideas that get dropped, like a lot. In the first book the protagonist is given traits like the fact that she is a good detective that never come up again. Her best friend Adam is her familiar, this is a plot thread that essentially gets dropped. It was clearly a setup for her to have a male friend, but then turned into a love triangle for no reason. Larissa's death is narratively dumb; she should have been the villain of book one. It is heavily implied for two books that Ryder is the Horde king, but he comes out and says he isn't, so when it is revealed he is it doesn't feel like a reveal so much as the writer changing her mind midstream. The internal lore gets weirder and dumber every single book, and actively contradicts established tropes for no reason. The protagonist is very passive for large chunks of the book, which is frustrating. She is one part macguffin, which is never a good idea because of this very problem, so everybody cares about protecting her and she rarely has to make decisions. I don't really understand what the antagonists want. I think it's genocide? This series is sustained on melodrama alone, these are soap opera style plots. The protagonist's parentage is a constantly changing plot point. The sex scenes are steamy, so there's that, but I don't really like Ryder for three books, so that was my main difficulty.… (meer)

I thought things were bad and weird before—hold on—it’s getting worse.

Adam and I are both going through identity crises of epic proportions as we Transition from who we were, and discover who we were meant to be. More Fae are dying, and I feel as if time is running out for us to find all of those responsible and put an end to the killings.

The people I thought I could trust have betrayed me and the one person I should absolutely not trust is taking me deeper and deeper into his world.

Ryder’s secrets are dangerous and devastating.

With each touch and word, he pulls my heart closer to himself and at the same time he is trying to keep me at arm’s length. The dance he and I have begun, is getting more complicated as our worlds are being shaken from all sides, and the visions of the future are frightening, and nothing like I had ever pictured for myself or those I care for.

This time, destiny is taunting me.

I had always thought that I controlled my destiny. Now, my rights are being taken from me by powerful people and leaving me with alternatives that range between bad and awful.

This time, the choices I have to make can decide the fate of both worlds.

Everything is unraveling, and nothing will ever be the same again.… (meer)

Before I get into this, I have to say something.

After I posted this review, I scrolled down to see what others thought, and came across something that made me very upset.

Reviewers "ShelliP" and "PinkReads" gave this this book one star. That isn't the problem. It was their written reviews. Word for word the same. They were not very short reviews either. They were "copy and paste" the exact same review. ShelliP's review is hidden under spoilers so you don't see them both at the same time. However, they are no doubt either fake or rehearsed reviews and put there by reasons other than honesty. I checked out ShelliP's shelves and she only has a few books shelved, and they only have the exclusive shelves. I could see them having the same glowing review, thereby making it seem that someone paid to have a good review, but one-star reviews? How does this happen? Who benefits from giving an author bad review?

Now back to the review:
I admit that I was a bit worried about this book before starting it. I had become increasingly disappointed in the series, and the last book was (IMHO) not quite up to par for the series.

So, when I started this book at about 10:00 pm last night, I was very surprised and happy to see that my complaints from the previous books seemed to be “fixed” in this one. Not that I expect Amelia to have read my review and revised the book, but the problems I had been facing didn’t plague this one (with the exception of the spacing between paragraphs).

I am not going to get into details as much as the previous review, however I am going to touch on the main points. Minor spoilers ahead.

The book opens up with Cynthia believing she is seventeen and still a guild enforcer, a witch, in a coven with Adam, Lorissa, and Adrien, and she is confused as hell as to why she is in Fairy. Her last memory was being in the Guild catacombs losing her virginity to her boyfriend, Adrien., and she is at the height of her intolerance towards the fae and other creatures (vampires), she was a “good little guild hunter”.

While Adam does his best to try and convince her of the realities of their life, she is convinced he had been messed with by those evil fae standing in the corner of the room watching their exchange. Those evil fae being her husband and his brothers. Ryder finds the whole exchange amusing, and is reminded of how she was when they first met and has fun goading her about it.

The amnesia plot point wasn’t dragged out, and didn’t have any of those feelings we get when our heroes and heroine are needlessly dragged though conflicts that only serve to piss us off.

What it did do was bring back the banter between Cyn and Ryder for a couple of chapters, and add some much-needed comic relief to the book. Remember how she was at the opening of the series, all those creative curses and insults towards Ryder, well they were in abundance here.

The sex, wasn’t primary in this book. It was there, and some of it was pretty long, but it wasn’t pages and pages of sex with a bit of plot thrown in. Ryder was still a bit OTT with the dirty-talk, but it wasn’t so much that I got pissed off. However, he did wax poetic a bit much, it seemed that much of his dirty-talk had turned into love talk. It got a bit tedious, but I can’t complain about it too much because the readers needed to be sure that Ryder loved Cyn and was behind her totally. The tedious plot points of conflict between Ryder and Cyn were gone (we had new conflicts, but they were much easier to deal with).

I wasn’t lost on the plot, characters or inside jokes. If you understood what was going on in the previous book, nothing new was added, and some of the lesser characters you needed to know were missing.

What Cyn went through in the pit from the last book was a big part of this book. What she went through, and how it affected her in the present, and how she dealt with it was a major plot point. We see her POV from memories and dreams. How she and Ryder dealt with it and each other was a main focus for this book.

Of course, we have the “great war” and although it was a major part of the last book, it wasn’t such an immediate and overwhelming part of this one. This book was more about what Cyn went through in the pit, how she and Ryder dealt with it, and dealing with the preparations of going to that final battle. The actual battle scenes take place in the last 80% of the book.

Cyn and Ryder are able to get the whole picture of the sequence of events that lead them to this point, where truths were told and lies were uncovered, and the truths of their existence and purpose in life were finally revealed.

We get to see Cyn and Ryder’s kids as they grow since they show up twice. The first time they are just about to be teenagers, and at the end of the book they are in their early twenties. So, this was a nice way to grow them up for the following books, which I have no doubt will be their books.

All in all, this was a great book. I felt much better about it than the previous books, and am actually interested in re-reading it. It was as if the previous book was showing how far Cyn and Ryder had fallen as characters in general, and this book brought them back to where they should be
So, don’t stress out about reading it if you are worried about being disappointed. Also, it was definitely not the end of the series in that no further books will be written about these characters, but it buttoned up their main arc, and cleared the board for the future. In fact, the final epilogue sets up the next possible book nicely.

Note:
There are scenes of "rape and torture" but they aren't the trigger inducing kind. We relive the horrors Cyn goes through while in that pit, and there are no humans or realistic events that could possibly be equated to what someone would go through in real life. Although, Cyn's feelings on the matter are very relatable.… (meer)