It was pretty lovely and didn’t try to be more than that which is very enjoyable. The writing was impeccable and well fitting and thankfully the story didn’t feel dragged, we could however have done without the unnecessary event of the last chapter which seems more like a way for the writer to quickly conclude the conflict…

I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of drama (up until the last two chapters… again unnecessary) and grateful to not have to fall once again in the rake MMC and shy virgin FMC cliché, I do not care that historically men could go and do whatever they please and I’m always happy to face a decent man even though historical accuracy is thrown at the window (looking at you Bridgetown).

However I must say that some element of this book did bothered me, I would have love to have more banter especially in the transition of their relationship, it doesn’t seem that the MMC change as much as the FMC and here actually lie my biggest complaint on this (after the whole fire bullshit) : Katherine is completely replaced by Kate, and by itself it’s not an issue but the quickness of the action makes the whole situation feels a bit rushed and it would probably have been a bit better had the nickname stayed between the two.

Terribly conflicted about this one, I wanted to love it so bad but reading it felt dreadful….

Despite the writing, the characters and the plot all being interesting the storytelling fail to be captivating or at least to captivate me and they all end up feeling repetitive or disappointing. Often I felt a bit lost, from my understanding Parker-Chan purposefully describe action through their characters emotions and as result gives less dialogue or general explanations which makes it harder to follow especially if you’re not familiar with costums from 1400 China.

However the story was captivating and intriguing, just difficult too digest for me, but I’ll give it to the author this genuinely felt like an historical Chinese drama : too many characters for my liking and so many political intrigues that I fail to follow what’s really happening.

I’ll admit I was sometimes a bit bored or lost (especially when they start to travel everywhere really quickly or when too many characters are introduced only three chapters in)… However I’m utterly in love with India Holton writing not only because it’s pretty to read but because it’s so smartly done. All of her books feel like a breath of fresh air especially in a romance industry that feels oversaturated with stereotypical characters, tropes and dynamics ; not only does she mocks those overly done tools but she plays with them to create new and interesting stories !

(+ i’m always up for a good mariage in crisis romance)

I’m getting tired of reading about a bunch of characters who are unable to listen to one another, do you know how many pages the whole group spend arguing over Glimmer ? 50 !!!! FIFTY PAGES !!!

I think one of my biggest problems with those books in general is that the author doesn’t seem to really know how everything is supposed to end. Every books a new big thing is created and therefore every little details prior to this one is thrown away : we are constantly hinted that Mr.Forkle has much more identities but we haven’t learn one more since the fourth book, same goes with Sophie’s powers/memories….. That goes without mentioning my biggest pet peeve which is the amount of characters constantly introduced or re-introduced for seemingly no reason up until omg surprise actually the plot of this book revolves around them !

Truthfully I do really like those books and I know that I’m not the ideal audience (my 12 years old self would have loved this one) and I’ll admit that reading the 9 back to back will make you more aware of Messenger’s formula and plot holes (which wouldn’t happen if I had years between each read). Moreover the author generally gives me what I want (big revelation, declaration and shit) but it always feels like crumbs and that what pissed me off the most with this book : you’ll spend pages, chapters even, reading about the characters not listening and arguing about useless things, complain that nothing happen, but when you finally reach the interesting point (Sophie and Fitz trust exercises, looking for keefe, the whole biological parents fiasco, Kenric cache,…) it often feels empty and brushed away, yes maybe I don’t want five chapters about Fitz and Sophie discussing his anger issues but I don’t think one paragraph is enough when we’ve been told it was a big deal and that it would be interesting on a character building point of view.

All in all I’m a bit confused by this book, I was definitely moved by it but I can’t help but be frustrated at the amount of pages spend in useless stuff when I was begging for interesting discussions (I’m tired of being told by the characters that another is an asshole without having the material to form my opinion, cause most times I’ll argue they’re just adult facing angry teenagers…….) and I thought I’d be more hooked by its end but I don’t really think much of it, everything was very much so predictable and I can already picture the first chapters of the next book twisting every conclusion around to shape the plot in a different way.

On a side note : I fucking love how Sophie treats Keefe and I don’t get why everybody accepts to bear the presence of Stina when she arguably more annoying than Lord Cassius.

The fact that I finally reach the point where I’m not re-reading probably help with my enjoyment of this one. I must say that the first half was difficult to read : nothing was happening and everything was about Sophie’s biological parents when the whole situation doesn’t seem that important.

One of the main issue that I have (and have had for few books now) is that it definitely feels like Messenger is building the plot as she writes, she’s constantly re-writing established truths, ignoring facts or introducing huge information passing them as “Firefox programs sucks“…. And this by itself is not a problème and very much understandable as the whole saga is 10 books long but it too often feels like the author introduced and big secret info three books prior and has now changed her mind about it.

I must say however than towards the last half (similarly to the 6th) everything suddenly become nicer, probably because Sophie suddenly start to re-gain consciousness and that informations were shared. It still becomes tiresome to read again and again the same sequences of actions.