Ever get a job that sucks? My name is Iza Black and my life IS the sucky job.I mean yeah, there are perks. Live-in maid service, free food and I get this purple, sparkly aura thing. But there are way more bad parts.So many people, so much pain. Sleep has divorced me completely and I’m living their nightmares now too.I’m not sure I’m strong enough for this, that I can do what needs to be done. But … what needs to be done. But I have to. Because it’s my job…because someone needs to. These people need violence to meet violence. Hugs don’t always fix things in our world.
Then there’s Phobe. Frustrating, Phobe-the-jerk.
How does he fit into this, you may ask?
Keep reading and you’ll find out.
Please be advised: This book contains violence and other content which may be triggering to readers.
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Ascension picks up where Elusion left off with Iza finally arriving at her destination. Iza does accept, albeit grudingly, her destiny and Ascends. This book has a completely different feel from Elusion, slower pace and more in-depth character & world building. It’s more about healing and discovery than any dark subject matters.
Iza struggles with her role, even after she accepts it. She’s afraid that she isn’t what the Feyrie need and doesn’t believe she’ll be able to do what’s needed for them. Despite doubting herself she’s proven wrong time and again by her actions. Iza needs to believe in herself and focus on being the monster she is. She is exactly what the Feyries need to come back together as a people to heal and come out the other side stronger.
Phobe (swoon), is never far from Iza. Phobe is one of the few people surrounding Iza that doesn’t want to coddle her. He knows she has a rough road ahead of her and that using kid gloves isn’t going to do her any favors in the long run, nor make Iza happy. While Phobe is quite protective of Iza he lets her fight her own battles. He only steps in if he needs to or if she asks him to. I find this behavior refreshing. Phobe is confident in her abilities, he knows Iza is extremely powerful, and he lets her gain confidence by showing her how to be strong & stand on her own. I grow tired of reading book after book that no matter how strong or capable the female is the men/love interest is a hovering helicopter lover who wants to wrap her up in bubble wrap, and lock her in a tower while he plays hero. It’s amazing to watch Phobe go from the callous and hard prisoner in Elusion, with no clue to what emotions feel like to someone that realizes how deeply he cares for Iza. Love is simply an inadequate term for what these two share.
The Feyries are confronted with a few potential enemies. There’s her uncle Kaet, who is as dirty as they come and quite frankly a scheming coward, imo. The mysterious human organization who do experiments on beings that aren’t human. Of course there is also potential danger from Feyries looking for power and money that wouldn’t hesitate to try to take the Sidhe throne from Iza. Iza and Phobe meet all challengers head on. There are a couple insistences where an enemy was confronted, but instead of killing them immediately they were allowed to escape. That in itself is a unsatisfying plot device. You know that Iza or Phobe could have easily taken them out but didn’t for one reason or another. They live to see another day and cause more and more problems.
While I do love this book there seems to be more grammatical errors in Ascension than in Elusion. Not enough to be annoying but enough for me to notice the difference. Another quick sweep through would clean it up.
I know others that found Ascension boring in comparison to Elusion. They were expecting the same darkness to carry over. I think the overall tone of healing and coming together was important for the series as a whole. It gave us time to further develop relationships with Iza and Phobe, as well as a host of new side characters. You get to see just how abused the Feyries have been as a people, and once again realize that everything you knew about the Fae world doesn’t hold up in Zoe Parkers books. While I enjoyed seeing a softer side to Iza I do hope that her crazy monsterness returns in full force with the next installment.
I wish Iza would adopt me. I mean, I am a tiny bit older than her kids but I promise to eat the enemies if that’s what it would take. Speaking of, eating someone who made an enemy out of you, now that’s another thing I wish I could exercise lmao. And no, I don’t mean to demean or mock Iza and the Dark Feys and all the other monsters out there. In fact, I am in awe because these supposed to be dark creatures make a better family and a community than most.
Of freaking course, the read couldn’t really be a Zoe Parker read if there’s no angst and no tearjerker element, now could it? Yes, I am speaking about this very, very heartbreaking tidbit between Iza and Phobe. I was kind of still reeling from that background story development but I think I at least got the hang of what it should be. God, knowing Iza…I am not surprised she has to compartmentalize it. And gdi, it was really unfair. Now I feel more and more glad for her whenever she saves the kids.
Phobe, the love-not enough word for it, I know-he has for Iza was the ultimate love story. What those two had trumps most of the classic and well-known love stories out there. Maybe because survival and existence are both incorporated to the ‘romance’ of this story as a whole. Iza and Phobe belong none other than to each other. If there is destiny, it’s like these two are its masterpiece.
Gahhh, I swear I have a lot of thoughts and feelings while deep into the read but I’m currently going blank right now in anticipation to book 3 jfc
For all my talk about grief and injustice and darkness, this read actually packs action and comedy, too. Pretty much everything a reader could ask for is in here
Wow! Iza and Phobe are two of my favorite characters. I love seeing them try to figure out their feelings. Iza is such a fierce, yet compassionate heroine. Phobe will do anything for her, but also lets her take care of her own problems without trying to take over. While Ascension still addresses some dark topics, it is not as dark as the first book. I loved seeing Iza prepare for holidays as much as I loved seeing her try to figure out her role as Shepherd. I can’t wait to see where Book 3 takes us!