Gah, I can’t believe how long it took me to read this book, especially considering how good it was! I think my life just isn’t really supporting reading that much these days between work and recovery from surgery. I feel bad that it took so long, but now that I’ve finished it, let me gush.
First of all, the world is quite fascinating. It’s not jarring, you could easily see this world existing within our own. I would like to see more of the world, and I do think that’s coming as the characters grow up (which I imagine is coming in 1 to 2 books….) and leave school to do the work their training for. The idea that they are children of these forgotten gods is a concept that I would like to see play a bigger role in future books. They have exceptional abilities, depending on whether they are a defender or a mage, but I feel like we got only a glimpse of that so far. So I want more.
I think there wasn’t as much of that as I would ultimately like because that’s not what this book was about. That’s more the backdrop to the bigger mystery of what is going on at the school and with this new student, Damien. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll simply say Daly didn’t pull punches! She is one of those authors that will torture her characters a bit and I always love that. It keeps you on your toes. On one hand, I was pretty confident about a couple characters, but every now and again she’d make me doubt myself. Whether I turned out to be right is for me to know… because that might spoil things for you.
I will warn that there is a bit of love triangle going on. But not exactly. There’s undeclared feelings and repressed feelings and not sure of what they’re feeling feelings going on that complicate it in such a way that it’s not a typical love triangle. Usually in a love triangle it’s out in the open and someone is obviously getting hurt while someone else can’t make up their mind. And it’s not like that at all. And for me, it’s the hurt feelings while someone can’t make up their mind that bugs me about love triangles, so I was not bothered. But a heads up for those who are really buggered by them.
The ending was both good and frustrating. Things have wrapped up enough that it’s not a cliff hanger at all. However, if there were a book 2 out I’d already be reading it, because I seriously want…NEED more.
Definitely recommend this book and hope to see a publish date for book 2 very soon! I haven’t seen it listed as a series yet on Goodreads… but with that ending I KNOW there’s more coming. (Side note: Michelle did the cover! Isn’t it great!?!?!)
I’m so happy you loved it no matter how long it took you to get to it! Lex and I have talked about it – I hope Daly writes #2 FAST!! I just loved it. If you ever want to chat theories, just message me. LOL Great review, Berls.
Miss you!! {{{BIG HUGS}}}
Oh no! Recovery is important, far more important than reading books (although both is certainly nice) – but on the bright side, it’s a nice thing to get back into? I’m happy you enjoyed this one – hope the sequel will be up to expectations as well!
Glad you loved it, even if it took so long to read. I’ve been in a reading slump lately – with every book taking longer than it should to finish. Not sure what I can do.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it so much! There’s nothing like a great book. Anne – Books of My Heart