Clark thought he knew what grief was. Addie thought she understood the dangers of the Tempest Sea.They couldn’t have been more wrong.When their only chance at survival lands them on opposite ends of an island that shouldn’t exist, they will both be forced to contend with the consequences of their latest mistakes – and each other’s.Will they be able to keep the promises they made one another, even … made one another, even as loss and circumstance morphs them into the very people they never thought they would be? Or will their relationship be the next casualty in this never-ending battle?
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I am definitely not stalling to read the last book so the series doesn’t end, definitely not.
I feel like my heart is being broken and the pieces are slowly getting put back together. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the sheer amount of angst and pain. There is so many things happening, the plot is going down it’s windy road, full of equal parts healing and destruction. My mind has been full of the words on these pages, and I never want to leave the world- although my time there is coming to a close.
As it was with its predecessor, the flashbacks are quite literally killing me. Again, I understand their importance- but I really just want to keep reading the current. It really makes me mad that once the pace picks up and the conflict gets to a high point, it’s interrupted. I feel like it would have been better if they came at better times, rather than at a consistent interval.
As always the plot and character development are phenomenal, I literally have nothing bad to say. I am caused so much emotions by this book- I’m internally crying one second, and then sitting with my mouth gapping the next. I am in for the long ride, and I don’t wish it to end. I want to stay in this bubble of a world, where I’m constantly on edge waiting for the next thing to happen- while realizing how utterly boring real life is. If you want to get lost in another world, this will always be the one I will recommend: I don’t need to read the last one to confirm that, although I gladly am going to.
Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with an ebook advance reader copy for free- in exchange of me leaving a review both honestly and voluntarily.
The story was very intense considering what kind of situations the characters put themselves into. The plot has become more interesting in this one, there are so many nice twists and turns that made me want to pull my hair out due to my own frustration. The story put its focus more on the Levelian king, Nell’s role as the Queen, Addie’s training and why she was so important, and the uses of the necklace. This time around, the story finally focusing more on the actual important matters which really makes this book far better compared to the first two. But I still enjoyed all of the books in this series.
This book can be very depressing since there are lots of death in this book. The death of innocent souls; men, women, and children. Those deaths proved how vile and ruthless the Levelian king is.
The king finally make an appearance in this book and I get to know that he is the ‘Uncle’ that Nell has been talking about in the second book. Honestly, I hated the king with much passion. He was pretending to be all nice to Addie, giving her all the creeps, and shot her his predatory gaze was enough to disgust me. He was literally preying on a girl younger than him. Of course Addie is 18 and legal, but still she was too young for him and he doesn’t even care about the age gap which bothers me a lot. All he craved was power, and since the necklace already bonded with Addie, he doesn’t just want the power of the necklace, he wanted Addie too. It was sickening how he really want to claimed her as his own. The king give me the creeps throughout the whole book.
Addie had to go through a very hard time and she had to make the hardest decision in this book. As much as I liked how confident she is, and how clever her plan was…well, I was so stressed out and get frustrated after knowing what kind of plan she had in this one. I’ve never wanted to throw a book as much as I did with this one. She has developed so much in this book and I really-really liked seeing how much training she had, especially when she was trying to understand how to wield the power of the necklace—which she doesn’t had the time for in the previous books. This book really showed the importance of her role, and how much potential she had. I’m glad the author didn’t waste the potential of Addie’s character. She really grew a lot as a character this time, and has become a lot more mature than she was previously.
Clark on the other hand is still pretty much a stubborn and hot-headed person, and yet he was still the amazing and admirable character. The first part of the story focus on his grief. It was very rare to see him that way, but after how the second book ended, I knew it was coming. He was still mourning and grieving the loss of the person he cared for all his life, and it was understandable why he acted so distant in the beginning. He did come around and realized how wrong he was because he ended up hurting the one person he love. He become more important in this one, and I liked how he doesn’t acted recklessly to get Addie back, but instead he followed the plan that he and the others had been working on. What I hate the most was, seeing how the others know of Addie’s plan but they didn’t want to tell him and left him wondering. I get that they’re afraid he was going to ruin their plan by acting so reckless, but if one of his brother going to talk him out of it and ask him to calm down, I’m sure he’ll listen. The whole time, I feel so sorry for him because Addie made a plan that can eventually ruin what they had and hurt him, and the others keep Addie’s plan a secret from him. My heart hurt for him the most.
Gunther and BeLa are both getting their own time to tell their own backstory in this book, which is not really that surprising since it was hinted at the end of the second book. Learning more about Gunther’s life in the past and what are his thoughts regarding the current situation they’re all in, it proved how much he grew a lot as a person and also it makes me understand him a bit more. It was really weird seeing how different he acted in this book compared to the previous books, but it made sense why. In this one he finally met his match that he hasn’t met yet in the previous books, so I get why he was so different in this one, and I was grateful he doesn’t lose his unique charms.
As for BeLa, she was so fun to read. No wonder she and Gunther is the perfect pairing, these two has a lot of similarities, and it was clear enough to see that these two literally can relate to one another. Both of them has bright and fun personality and both can easily be the readers favorite characters. At first, BeLa was totally different than the characters that already appeared in this series, all the emotions she felt was very foreign to her, and she was conflicted regarding her feelings for Gunther. But it was nice to see how she handle it, and slowly getting use to the new feelings she felt.
The pairings in this series truly make sense; Addie and Clark, BeLa and Gunther, maybe…Nell and Xavier. Nell and Xavier can just be close friends, but I can’t deny there’s a bit of an attraction there between the two, and it seems like the author wanted to go for a slow-burn route when it comes to those two. Ever since the first book—even without much interaction—they just clicked, and there was a spark between them.
Clark and Addie’s relationship was on a vey rocky path in this one, and at the start of the story, it was so painful to see how the two of them doesn’t communicate much with each other. And their relationship as a whole in this book fell back to the way it used to be back in the first book; full of drama, angst, and dishonesty. I’m more frustrated with how their relationship is being handled in this book. Addie’s plan about the new marriage was enough to make me want to stop reading the book. The whole time I’m on Clark’s side, I feel bad for him since everyone knew of Addie’s plan, except for him and Xavier. The new marriage in this book really irks me, but I’m grateful it doesn’t last long because let’s face it, it was only part of the plan to take down the ruthless king and never meant to be permanent. I just want no more secrets between Clark and Addie, and I want Addie to be upfront and honest instead of keeping things from Clark. The fourth book better don’t put them in more misery or have them far apart from one another.
Speaking of secrets, Nell also has her own secrets that even Addie said to herself how it was uncool of Nell for keeping secrets from her. These two girls are like the only characters that keep the most secret in the whole series. What I’m afraid of the most is that, if they decided to keep a lot of secrets in the next book, it will make things worse and everyone can be in danger. Can fictional characters please learn that keeping secrets is bad? I’ve read enough books to know that keeping secrets won’t do anyone any good.
This book was more stressful than I imagined, and definitely will test a lot of the readers’ patience. As much as how frustrated I got from reading this, I’m still going to look forward to the next book. The ending showed that the big bad is yet to come, and some characters in this book and the previous book has been mentioning the name “Spectrum.” I want to see how threatening they are and I’m sure they will want to get to Addie because of the necklace…AGAIN! How many times do this girl have to make sacrifices and facing dangers because of a necklace? Spectrum better don’t do anything to keep her away from Clark.
About Spectrum, is their leader the real master Yomi? The Court of Yomi believed their master will come back one day. And I wonder if the leader of Spectrum is Yomi, but then again that sound too far-fetched. It was nice to know a little bit about Spectrum, and I have a feeling Addie’s father will play a huge role in the next book since Spectrum has a connection to him. The whole time I thought the king is the big bad, but then Spectrum was revealed to be the actual big bad of the series. There’s a lot of things I need to learn about this big mysterious organization and I want to know the reason behind their experiment with the crystals. I have a feeling things will get even deadly next.
Overall the story was pretty much interesting, and the storyline was quite brilliant, I admit. There are so many heavy stuff happened in this one, some drama, but most importantly the brilliant strategy that the characters put into their plans which showed their intelligence more. It was rare to see these characters putting a lot of thought when making plans, let alone using their intelligent mind and clever brain. It was so refreshing to see that here. This book was great and very enjoyable, and it makes me so excited for the next one.
The third book in the series, and I’m already feeling sad because there’s only one book left!
I love the worldbuilding and the characters. It’s action packed, as well as swoony – you really get all the feels!
Oh Gunther!! I loved that we got snippets of his life in this book! As with book 2, the snippets lead us up to the present, but it was so great to have his POV.
And BeLa…to be able to have insight into Levelian life since the coupe, was perfect! Especially having the POV if the usurper’s daughter helped us see the true power the king amassed.
We continue to see the characters grow and change while still staying true to themselves. The events that take place reveal so much about their inner workings and deeper truths, especially for Killian.
3 hopes for book 4, which I have not read:
-Xav and Nell are a couple and figure out how that works with her being queen
-Clark and Addie get some time to regroup/bond as a couple and end up in the same physical place
-Gunther and BeLa. Just that. In either place, but working and creating side by side…her experimenting and him tinkering.
I mean, the worlds will most-likely not be destroyed, but I think book 4 is going to have some casualties, but I hope the six characters I mentioned above all make it!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I love it when I am totally invested in a relationship in a story. Feeling all the joy and anxiety that comes from their trials and glories. It takes a very talented author to elicit these emotions, and Ms. Dahle is one such. This series is consistently good and well worth the read.