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cbuck26's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
jillian_2000's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
4.5 ⭐️
This book was such a freaking roller coaster 👏👏👏
I loved it but also at the same time I was bored in parts. Specifically with Lia Mara’s chapters idk why I was just annoyed with all the self doubt that seemed to take up the majority of her page time. However I still love her and she is a great character! Harper pissed me off in the beginning for continually forgiving Rhen’s MASSIVE mistakes and atrocities toward his literal brother AND a child! Idk I think I’m just not a political fantasy kind of reader and Rhen and Harper gave that energy for the first half of the book. Although now that I’ve finished the book I can accept their weird little relationship, I don’t love it tho.
But you wanna know what I DO love??? GREY. That mannnn holy- that is a book boyfriend if I’ve ever seen one! His character arc throughout the series is just chefs kiss fantastic!!! I love that his first instinct to teach or connect with someone is to basically take them to a tavern! Like : Tycho, Syl Shallow guards, Lia Mara, Rhen, and then Solt but that was just dinner. We love and unsuspected hero! And the way he treats Lia Mara is so disgustingly cute agh yes!
And of course for some other reason my other fav character- MISS ZO👏 listen, ik her role is small and her time in this book isn’t a ton BUT she is iconic and THAT girl👏 ok👏 she knows what she stands for and who she stands for. While still being respectful she rightfully stood up against rhen and didn’t take his bullshit. She was the only one to truly stick by Harper’s side. Queen Zo goes through quite the journey and let me just say how grateful I am for her presence throughout this book! Also I’ve officially fancasted her as Amita Suman so ya.
Any way, Lilith can go to Tartarus and burn Thankyou. I mean geez I think she may be one of the most evil and terrifying villains I’ve ever read! Like no joke. And I love that! I feel that it’s really important to have a truly I redeemable villain sometimes and it truly pays off here!
I often have trouble finishing series, I get distracted very easily so finishing this trilogy is quite a testament to the greatness of Brigid Kemmerer’s writing and the vice like grip this story has on me. I highly recommend this book and most importantly this series!!!!
This book was such a freaking roller coaster 👏👏👏
I loved it but also at the same time I was bored in parts. Specifically with Lia Mara’s chapters idk why I was just annoyed with all the self doubt that seemed to take up the majority of her page time. However I still love her and she is a great character! Harper pissed me off in the beginning for continually forgiving Rhen’s MASSIVE mistakes and atrocities toward his literal brother AND a child! Idk I think I’m just not a political fantasy kind of reader and Rhen and Harper gave that energy for the first half of the book. Although now that I’ve finished the book I can accept their weird little relationship, I don’t love it tho.
But you wanna know what I DO love??? GREY. That mannnn holy- that is a book boyfriend if I’ve ever seen one! His character arc throughout the series is just chefs kiss fantastic!!! I love that his first instinct to teach or connect with someone is to basically take them to a tavern! Like : Tycho, Syl Shallow guards, Lia Mara, Rhen, and then Solt but that was just dinner. We love and unsuspected hero! And the way he treats Lia Mara is so disgustingly cute agh yes!
And of course for some other reason my other fav character- MISS ZO👏 listen, ik her role is small and her time in this book isn’t a ton BUT she is iconic and THAT girl👏 ok👏 she knows what she stands for and who she stands for. While still being respectful she rightfully stood up against rhen and didn’t take his bullshit. She was the only one to truly stick by Harper’s side. Queen Zo goes through quite the journey and let me just say how grateful I am for her presence throughout this book! Also I’ve officially fancasted her as Amita Suman so ya.
Any way, Lilith can go to Tartarus and burn Thankyou. I mean geez I think she may be one of the most evil and terrifying villains I’ve ever read! Like no joke. And I love that! I feel that it’s really important to have a truly I redeemable villain sometimes and it truly pays off here!
I often have trouble finishing series, I get distracted very easily so finishing this trilogy is quite a testament to the greatness of Brigid Kemmerer’s writing and the vice like grip this story has on me. I highly recommend this book and most importantly this series!!!!
hsecen's review
3.0
Well I finished and I feel like I really don’t have a ton to say about this one. It just felt decent. Nothing fantastic but nothing terrible. It probably won’t be a series I’ll read again.
I’m glad that we were able to get all the point of views in this book. It highlighted the message that there’s more than one side to a story and there’s so many perspectives on an event.
The pacing was okay throughout. It felt shorter and some things felt like they came easily because things happened so quick.
It was an okay conclusion to the series. There were somethings that felt unaddressed but most things wrapped up pretty well. Like I said, I liked it enough but I don’t think it’s a story that I’ll revisit.
I’m glad that we were able to get all the point of views in this book. It highlighted the message that there’s more than one side to a story and there’s so many perspectives on an event.
The pacing was okay throughout. It felt shorter and some things felt like they came easily because things happened so quick.
It was an okay conclusion to the series. There were somethings that felt unaddressed but most things wrapped up pretty well. Like I said, I liked it enough but I don’t think it’s a story that I’ll revisit.
idonttcareeeee's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
the way i completely forgot everything that happens in the first two, buck i still had an amazing time !!! forgot how much i enjoy reading miss brigid kemmerer's writing
cheryl_gager's review against another edition
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
On a positive, I liked this more than book 2 and a part of me thinks that if it wasn't because of how over the characters I was by the end of book 2 then maybe this might even have been a 3 star. I feel like this book didn't start off with the best chance with me because I didn't care about the characters going into it because of book 2. Going in I felt like this book was forced into existence after book 2 dragged out a story and created an unnecessary plot twist ending for this one to solve and at the start it felt like that, like we were going in circles just to say this book was somewhat necessary. However, I did kind of like and became interested by the second half of this book. I do think the moment the final conflict started and the lead up to the final battle was well done and the pace and emotion was there. However, the chapters after the conflict fell flat. I also still had problems with the characters. Grey was just annoying, Lia Mara still felt very weak (though she did start to show some strength near the end but still not much and it was a bit too little, too late), Harper and Rhen made me roll my eyes a few times but actually they became somewhat likeable/interesting again so at least half the characters ended up not annoying me I guess. Overall, I feel like if I read this series when I was 14-16 years old then I probably would have enjoyed it more but as a 28 year old I just felt like the characters were just not developed enough. I also think that I probably would have liked this book more if I didn't find book 2 as annoying as I did, which is a shame as I am not always so hard on third books in a series when its book 2 suffers from second book syndrome.
lamard's review
It was very slow paced and not nearly as interesting as the first or second books.
ebac622's review
5.0
Loved this conclusion to the trilogy! Took me a minute to get back into the story but i was so happy to have Harper and Wren back in this one!!! ❤️
blurrypetals's review
2.0
What an absolutely lame, joyless experience this was! Here's the thing: I didn't expect a whole lot out of this.
I really enjoyed A Curse So Dark and Lonely but A Heart So Fierce and Broken was one of the worst books I read in 2020. It took everything I loved about the first book and undid, reversed, or changed just about everything I once enjoyed. It turned Rhen into a villain, Harper into a cardboard cutout of herself, and Grey into a completely unrecognizable twat with an annoyingly self-righteous girlfriend.
So where did that leave us for A Vow So Bold and Deadly? I really wasn't sure I was going to read this one. The last time I forced myself to finish a series I wasn't enjoying, it was Throne of Glass, and if you are at all a regular reviewer of mine, you'll know that didn't end so hot. That said, I knew this was (probably) the last book, so I bit the bullet and decided to go forth.
I will say that I didn't loathe this experience the same way I did A Heart So Fierce and Broken. Rhen and Harper are back to Main Character status and, even if their purpose as characters has been neutered, their chapters were always a welcome reprieve. However, as soon as I would relax into their storyline despite how trite it was, I'd be thrust back to Grey and Lia Mara, where I decidedly did not want to be. Everything that made Grey interesting as a character was stripped away from him in A Heart So Fierce and Broken and everything that made Lia Mara interesting never existed at all.
Kemmerer also does this really cute thing where she backpedals on half of the characterization she implemented in A Heart So Fierce and Broken. Were you as upset as I was that Rhen, Harper, and Grey acted completely different from how they did in A Curse So Dark and Lonely? No worries, they are now stuck in a weird homeostasis between their behaviors in the two books wherein they are yet again unrecognizable! You can almost feel Kemmerer's regret in demonizing Rhen and weakening Harper, so Rhen gets redeemed very quickly and very smoothly while all the characters basically have to go on a crash course to forgive him so we can fast-track this finale. Kemmerer even tries her damnedest to turn Grey back into Scary Grey, even going so far as to repeat it a handful of times, but there is just some damage that cannot be undone.
It's all incredibly ham-fisted and it only further proves the same thing A Heart So Fierce and Broken did: A Curse So Dark and Lonely should have been a standalone novel. Kemmerer only dug her grave deeper, taking her so far away from what made A Curse So Dark and Lonely special that she can't get back to it. She's terrible at consistent characterization, mistaking character development for constant heel turns and personality transplants. It's dizzying, disappointing, and leaves me longing for the good old days when these characters actually behaved like themselves.
This sucked. I wish I could say I'm heartbroken, but I really didn't expect so much from it because my heart was already broken by A Heart So Fierce and Broken. Good riddance.
I really enjoyed A Curse So Dark and Lonely but A Heart So Fierce and Broken was one of the worst books I read in 2020. It took everything I loved about the first book and undid, reversed, or changed just about everything I once enjoyed. It turned Rhen into a villain, Harper into a cardboard cutout of herself, and Grey into a completely unrecognizable twat with an annoyingly self-righteous girlfriend.
So where did that leave us for A Vow So Bold and Deadly? I really wasn't sure I was going to read this one. The last time I forced myself to finish a series I wasn't enjoying, it was Throne of Glass, and if you are at all a regular reviewer of mine, you'll know that didn't end so hot. That said, I knew this was (probably) the last book, so I bit the bullet and decided to go forth.
I will say that I didn't loathe this experience the same way I did A Heart So Fierce and Broken. Rhen and Harper are back to Main Character status and, even if their purpose as characters has been neutered, their chapters were always a welcome reprieve. However, as soon as I would relax into their storyline despite how trite it was, I'd be thrust back to Grey and Lia Mara, where I decidedly did not want to be. Everything that made Grey interesting as a character was stripped away from him in A Heart So Fierce and Broken and everything that made Lia Mara interesting never existed at all.
Kemmerer also does this really cute thing where she backpedals on half of the characterization she implemented in A Heart So Fierce and Broken. Were you as upset as I was that Rhen, Harper, and Grey acted completely different from how they did in A Curse So Dark and Lonely? No worries, they are now stuck in a weird homeostasis between their behaviors in the two books wherein they are yet again unrecognizable! You can almost feel Kemmerer's regret in demonizing Rhen and weakening Harper, so Rhen gets redeemed very quickly and very smoothly while all the characters basically have to go on a crash course to forgive him so we can fast-track this finale. Kemmerer even tries her damnedest to turn Grey back into Scary Grey, even going so far as to repeat it a handful of times, but there is just some damage that cannot be undone.
It's all incredibly ham-fisted and it only further proves the same thing A Heart So Fierce and Broken did: A Curse So Dark and Lonely should have been a standalone novel. Kemmerer only dug her grave deeper, taking her so far away from what made A Curse So Dark and Lonely special that she can't get back to it. She's terrible at consistent characterization, mistaking character development for constant heel turns and personality transplants. It's dizzying, disappointing, and leaves me longing for the good old days when these characters actually behaved like themselves.
This sucked. I wish I could say I'm heartbroken, but I really didn't expect so much from it because my heart was already broken by A Heart So Fierce and Broken. Good riddance.
general_riegan's review
slow-paced
2.75
I legitimately hated Harper and Ren by the end of the book— I don’t even remember the plot of this one, just that I didn’t like any of the characters (even Grey, who’d be my favorite nearly the entire time) by the time I finished.
Maybe you’ll have a different experience, but I kind of wish I’d stopped at the first book.
Maybe you’ll have a different experience, but I kind of wish I’d stopped at the first book.