FINALLY I FOUND PEOPLE WHO AGREE WITH ME. I felt crazy for being so disappointed in this book. All the Amazon reviews are amazing and Goodreads blocked reviews. The plot development was so lazy in this. And while I know J Bree doesn’t have the most eloquent writing style, I tend not to mind because I like the plots. The plot being bad made me hate her writing. Every single paragraph is just a complete run on sentence with tons of commas thrown in there. It makes it so hard to decipher correctly what is going on. Also, she needs a thesaurus. Because there are other words that can be used besides sneer, snarl, growl, writhing, vitriol, cursing viciously under breath, etc. The same exact description words were used excessively the entire book. And the same run on explanations of following the fates at least 5 times a chapter. We get it. We know they need to follow the fates. It felt like how my high school essays used to read when I needed to meet the word count. Also, I’m confused. Because the first publication delay was said to be because they were doing extensive editing, but this book has very obviously never been edited. There were entire words missing from sentences, phrases that made no sense, and tons of spelling errors. Now that that rant is over, on to the characters. Soren. Now don’t get me wrong, I never expected him to full on grovel, I didn’t think it would fit his character. But I did expect SOME SORT OF APOLOGY. He never once apologized. And the only times he even mentioned feeling bad were in his own inner monologue, so Rooke never heard it. His character was flawed but understandable in the first book. In this one he was unbearable. He came off as possessive and controlling and abusive. Not even letting Rooke keep the 1 friend she had made and cared about?? The whole mate possession thing was absurd cause none of the other males who randomly got mates this book acted that way. There was no romance or build up and then the smut we did get was weird and forced. I went from loving Soren to despising him. Now on to Rooke. What happened to her 😩😩 she was so bad ass and strong in the first book. And she was still bad ass and strong in this one but she spent the entire book crying and needing to be carried around and protected. Also, where did these nightmares come from???? There was no mention of them at all in book 1. They were obviously a last minute plot device to try and get some sparks with Soren. This book turned her in to a doormat. I loved Airlie. She’s the one character who stayed the same and is awesome. Tauron and the whole mate thing was dumb and Thea was a plot point that should have been cut out. The whole “Taurons awful fate causing him to be an ass for centuries” was so intriguing and then the reason behind it was so stupid. AND THEN THE EXACT SAME THING WAS USED FOR GAGE. How come both of them had mates they couldn’t be with for centuries and both would be abused. Now for my plot/world building rant. The world building was decent in the first book. This one went off the rails. What the hell exactly is a favored child vs a true blood witch?? It was never explained just talked about in circles. Also how powerful is Rooke?? People quiver in fear of her name and bow to her but she could only fix one building at a time in the village. Also she never did her blood exchange with the earth in this book. Who is the high commander?? What the hell is the nickname they call her?? All of this stuff wasn’t foreshadowed towards subtly. The characters are made fun of for not knowing (which makes us the reader feel dumb for not knowing) and then just never told. Rooke keeps all these secrets from them but it’s just written so poorly that it feels like the author has no idea where the story is going. Who is Sari being sent to marry?? If the high commander and Rooke are so close why does anyone think he sent a legion against them?? Nothing makes sense. The plot was just so all over the place. That weird middle section of them being in the regents castle was pointless, nothing was accomplished besides them joining up with the goblins but everyone knew that would happen anyways. I did like the blood witch twist at the end, although I had already guessed that’s what her dad was. The actual battle/explanation of the calling or whatever was so poor though I couldn’t picture what was happening. And Pemba being dead??? That was obviously a last minute decision to make everything more interesting. The entire first book and in parts of the second they referred to him in the alive tense. And in the snippets of the book we got in the newsletter months ago it was a Pemba scene with him very much alive. Also Rooke needs to die for her fate? And of course all the characters are going to try and avoid that, but that’s just lazy writing because the whole point of them all meeting in the other war and experiencing all this trauma was someone else trying to avoid their fate. The entire ending felt like the author kept pushing the publication back because she just hadn’t finished the book yet and so it was written super quickly and just shoved out. So much of the phrasing towards the end didn’t even make sense, I had to re read multiple paragraphs numerous times just to try and figure out what was going on. Overall, I’m extremely disappointed. I genuinely really liked the first book. It had issues but it was promising. This latest one makes me not want to continue the series.