Where I Still Read

Not my cup of tea.

This is a really long book that somehow manages to have too much information and not enough substance at the same time. I want to believe that maybe I just read it at the wrong moment, because the only part I genuinely enjoyed was near the end, when Onyx saved Saeris.

The story begins exactly where the previous book ended, but for a large portion of the novel it feels like very little actually happens. Yes, Saeris is now the new Queen and the unique half-fae, half-vampire mestiza, but she spends most of the book feeling lost and surprisingly unprepared. For someone who is supposed to be incredibly powerful, everyone keeps treating her as if she’s helpless whenever she’s alone.

My biggest frustration is that she never seems to follow through on anything. She starts training but doesn’t continue. She begins learning about her powers, then that plotline is suddenly pushed aside. The book introduces dangerous vampires, power-absorbing zombies, and all kinds of high-stakes threats, but none of it feels fully developed.

The supporting characters don’t help much either. Carrion mostly delivers jokes, and the «true king who doesn’t want to be king» spends more time growing flowers than doing anything particularly memorable.

The final ten chapters are probably the most interesting part of the book, but even then, the biggest revelation is basically just a new name. After hundreds of pages, I wanted much more.

The story also suffers from trying to do too many things at once. We have fae, vampires, zombies, dragons, ancient powers, kingdoms, prophecies… and yet, by the end, it somehow feels like very little has truly moved forward.

What frustrated me the most was the relationship between Saeris and Kingfisher. There are several graphic scenes between them, but they rarely seem to contribute anything meaningful to the plot or character development. At one point they’re separated again, somehow meeting in dreams, and neither of them seems particularly interested in questioning how or why that’s happening. Instead of exploring something that could have been fascinating, the story just moves on.

I still have some hope for the third book, and maybe with some distance I’ll enjoy this one more on a reread. But for now, it feels like a story overflowing with ideas that never quite come together into something satisfying.

Brimstone by Callie Hart