Author: Michelle Madow
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Length: TBA
Source: ARC from Author
The vampire queen is dead.
Annika shouldn’t have been able to kill the vampire queen Laila—such a task can only be done by the Nephilim, whose race is extinct. But somehow, she did kill the queen. Now she’s the number one target on multiple hit lists, and she’s only alive because she’s a fugitive at the neutral kingdom of the Haven.
As if that weren’t enough to deal with, the world is in danger and she’s the one prophesied to save it. But she doesn’t have to do it alone. When fate brings her and Prince Jacen together again, they team up on a quest to find the only object that can save the world as they know it—the Holy Grail itself.
The adventure continues in the fourth book of The Vampire Wish series, and get ready to brace yourselves, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!
Review:
Characters: I seriously love the characters in this story. I mean, as much of an ax wound as Camelia is, there's a small part of me that really and truly wants her to have a happy ending, one that doesn't conflict with the more heroic characters that is. While for the most part, this is still Annika's story, and boy what a story it is, Karina definitely rules the second half of this book and the lengths that she'll go to to get her soulmate Peter back are staggering. Her mission takes a few twists and turns in this story and where it ended up had me gasping for air. Annika, after kind of, sort of, accidentally killing Queen Laila flees to the Haven where she learns of her Nephilim blood and what that means for her fate. She embarks on a dangerous quest that will determine the fate of the world and I loved every minute of it. Annika is a strong and capable character and watching her adjust to her newfound abilities, and her reactions to said abilities, is fantastic.
Romance: After the end of the previous installment, where Jacen learns that not only did Annika not die as he thought, but she deceived him for reasons he doesn't quite know or understand, their romance is sort of left up in the air. It doesn't take too long to know where things lie with these characters. The romance in this book isn't the building of relationships, in fact, all in all, most of the romances in this series have already been established and now they just get the chance to evolve and strengthen, or weaken should that be the case. I liked seeing Annika and Jacen interact truly as each other, and there were a few moments that really solidified why I root for them as a couple. As I said above, Karina will stop at next to nothing to be reunited with her soulmate, but she's bonded with Noah, the First Prophet, and that bond may or may not be romantic, throwing a possible wrench into her plans. Will she drop her mission to try and find love again, or will she risk it all for the smallest of chances to raise the dead?
World Building: So, I'll say that this story doesn't feel as much like filler (without actually being filler) as The Vampire Prince did, and honestly there is enough of a story for me to not even think of describing it as anything even adjacent to filler, but I did feel like there was something in this book. I think because I still feel like there's more to tell for just one more book, as this series is tentatively a five book series, and soon the whole it feels like it's missing something. As for what is in this story though, there's quite a bit. We learn a whole lot more about the Nephilim and the supernatural community at large. We learn more about the origins of certain supernatural(s) and there's some serious magic in this tale. Things are definitely coming to a head, though I was sad that there was no more plot progression on the cliffhanger twist at the end of the previous installment... maybe that's what was missing.
Predictability: In terms of things with actual foreshadowing to them, I pretty much nailed those "twists," I mean part of me doesn't even want to call them twists since the author's biggest twists don't usually have that much, if any, foreshadowing to them, and, well, this book had a few great twists. There are a few really interesting twists in this story that will be interesting to see explored as this series comes to a close and I can already see some seeds for the extensions to this world.
Ending: So, this ending is neither as anticlimactic as the previous one, nor does it have as mind-shattering of a cliffhanger. There is a cliffhanger, as this author loves to torture her readers, though she writes books quickly so it's not like there's a long wait, and this cliffhanger is more of one to really ponder on the ramifications rather than freak out over some big reveal. The final climax of this story is fantastic, and while I would have liked a bit less of a straight up cliffhanger on one character's story, overall I'm excited to see where this all leads.
Rating:
I'm honestly shocked I'm giving this book 5 stars, but looking back on it, even if there feels like something's off, it's not a big enough thing to get annoyed over since it probably won't be that long of a wait for the next (final?) book, and even though sometimes elements of this story might feel a tad derivative (something I didn't go into in this review to avoid spoilers) it's still a fun adventure and an exciting ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment