I usually review a series after I have read all the books in it. This series, I believe, hasn’t yet come to an end. However I’m reviewing the books so far (1 to 5) cause I don’t think ill be continuing with it.
Before we go ahead, let me just remark that my thoughts about the first four books and the fifth book are in stalk contrast to each other. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that had I composed this review prior to reading the fifth book: A Court of Silver Flames, I would have given it a ‘rarest of the rare’ rating.
So lets begin at the beginning.
This series narrates the tale of a fantasy world in the genre I love: romance. Like many books, there is a human element to the tale, however, it reflects the human society from way back in time.
The story has a thrilling start. A courageous girl, who kills a wolf (who was a fay in disguise) is taken away by the fay Lord whose courtier this hunted wolf was. Because you meet the hero of the first novel in such a beastly form, it takes you a little while to decide whether he is the good guy or bad. Of course, soon you have no doubt that this girl and this wolf man lord will fall foreach other.
What makes these books so catchy is the detailed quality of the fantastical world. So even though you have just entered this atmosphere, you feel that it has existed for centuries because of the little details.
Besides the romance, each of the books in this series have that heroism angle, with more often than not, the females rising to the moment. The best part is that although magic is present, the main protagonist, the human girl, fights back mostly using her human strength and skill (which she slowly builds across the books).
And just when you are ready to nicely put a ‘the end’ tag on this story at the end of book 1, you realize it’s not the end.
In the second novel, the story and some of the characters take a 360 degree spin. The good guys become not so likable and the bad guys become almost angelic. However, at this point, you yourself are falling for the bad guy so you don’t care and in fact want the heroine to just have a change of heart already.
In my opinion, it’s the second, third and forth books which are the best. The forth one is a novella I suppose. There’s promises of eternal love, sacrifices, betrayal, pangs for love lost, what not. The best part: things don’t fall in the laps of these characters. The author takes you through a twisty road full of hurdles and smart heroism (they know when not to pick a fight and actually get hurt).
Trust me, you will race through these four books once you get involved.
Coming to the fifth book….hffffff….
Whatever I wrote about the first four books, just reverse it all, and that’s the fifth book for you.
It has that element of cardboard cut out characters. The good are perfect. Those in love are annoyingly in love and the author leaves no opportunity to nail that fact. The bad are evil and the author might have tried to build gray characters…. But as this attempt was restricted to the main character (who is a different girl by the way), this attempt is wasted as everyone knows she will ultimately be the good one.
I have another very specific issue with this particular book. what’s with all the people snarling and baring their teeth all the time? I mean, I get it, you want to establish that the aggression was coming from a carnal level, but seriously, do they need to snarl each time someone differs from their opinion?
And the worse part, I read the first four books after they had all been released so I didn’t have to wait for them. Seeing how much I loved them, I eagerly anticipated the publication of the fifth book (trust me, I have never checked the release date of any book ever before). And it was such a disappointment…
Overall, if you wish to pick up a twisted, romantic, dystopian novel, by all means, you should go for this series. Just do yourself a favour and consider the series over after the forth book.
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