Dylan

Tall, musclebound man with “tawny” skin, dark eyes, and is covered in scars. Oh, and he has a huge, nay, absolutely massive pe——rsonality. Paired with a pale, very, very small (so tiny, so itsy bitsy), badass/snarky woman with unnaturally pretty eyes (and/or unique hair). And what do you get? A modern romantasy novel. Woo! Yay...

The only reason I even finished this book is for the worldbuilding.Which is amazing! A tidally-locked world, unique time cycle involving auroras, the dragons and most of the other little creatures. I loved the descriptors of the locales, the idea of the unique languages (for the most part), etc. I could nitpick a few things I didn't like, but they're so minor and I'm so happy to see a romantasy with actual worldbuilding that I'll let it slide (the bar is in hell).

I didn't like some of the linguistic choices. The usage of male/female made me cringe every time. But it's expected at this point, so whatever. Some words were just minor changes from normal words (dae - day, mahmi/pahpi - mom/dad, for example), which was kinda goofy.

There was a lot of cringe millennial dialogue. A. Lot. Of. Staccato. Writing. To. Convey. Aggression. A lot of fucks/fucking from all the characters. A lot of growling and snarling from the men. And yes, the MMC does roar when he cums, which made me laugh out loud because of course he does. No avalanches here though, so that's a plus (maybe they'll save that for book 2).

The FMC is whiny and insufferable. It got to the point where I debated if it was worth it to even continue. She's so “woe is me, I'm so damaged” and “I can't love, loving me is a death sentence” when she CLEARLY HAS PEOPLE THAT LOVE HER (Essi deserved so much goddamn better, RIP). She snarks after being tortured, for goodness sake.

The MMC is insta-love (you find out why later but it was still annoying) and even gifted her an unasked-for nickname (which is gross tbh). If there wasn't an actual plot-related reason to be so head-over-heels for her, I would have absolutely zero reason to believe he would try so hard for her. She is so aggravating and just pissed me off. The whiplash between reading Elluin and Raeve's perspectives hurt because I genuinely liked Elluin and hated who she has become. He is a consent king (mostly), so props for that over so many other MMCs out there. 

TL;DR - middling book with interesting worldbuilding and annoying characters. I'll maybe check out the sequel, so long as it doesn't turn into smutty garbage and actually continues the world building.

Hoo boy, this book.

Hated the first half. I don't like academy/school fiction. This book had most of the tropes (plain girl good at everything, abusive curriculum, shitty teachers, goofy guy best friend, and two gorgeous boys (a rich Malfoy and a dark stranger)—thank goodness there was no romance, etc). It was a slog and I nearly DNFd it, if not for the supposed promise of the significantly better second half...

Which. My goodness, the whiplash. 

The beginning of the second half is not for the faint of heart, from the (TW) Rape of Nanjing sequence to the descriptions of actual rape to full-on genocide. 

The supposedly elite military college got steamrolled. and everything following the infamous Nanjing sequence is a corny shonen anime, right down to obnoxious super powers and “power of friendship” escapades.

It's an... okay book, but Rin is so damn unlikeable. The surrounding cast are decent at their best, but Rin is so detestable that she drags them all down with her. The ending feels like she's gonna start a revolution or something, but I don't see anybody rallying behind her for any reason other than maybe fear.
I'll get to the sequel eventually. Maybe.

Started off a little sluggish, but in typical SJM fashion it picked up and accelerated into oblivion after the halfway point. 

Aelin is noticably less dumb, but still just as arrogant. Her biggest flaw in this book is needing to communicate her intentions and plans to her allies, but I see that happening going forward. 

Once again, Manon is my favorite character. I really liked her development especially when dealing with Elide and the Thirteen (especially that conversation with Asterin about the matrons and the branding) and I can't wait to see her experience the world with the information she gained.
The King of Adarlan still fascinates me (revealing that he's been fighting a demon the whole time was an interesting—if expected—twist, and I'm a little disappointed that he's dead) but I am excited to see what all his plans spanning the last four books coalesce into.

I get why people don't like Chaol, but he is 110% the most human character (aka the Boromir of this setting), which is a valuable perspective to have when surrounded by super powered people. Dorian is a gem, and I loved that he was fighting the demon the whole time (and him being so horny for Manon that he broke through) was entertaining.

Nice to see the pieces coming together for the inevitable nightmare. It will be interesting to see how it all ends up. 

Yeah, this is a good book. It's a short, easy read that never left me feeling bored or asking “wtf?” the whole time.

I liked the sparse worldbuilding (it was enough to pique my interest, but I would've liked more details), and I liked the description of all the farmland surrounding the castle. 

The monsters were cool, and I kinda wished the fight with the Kalkara at the end lasted a little longer. Same thing with earlier fight with the boars.

I liked that the relationships with his long-time friends wasn't obnoxious. I was worried when Will and Horace had their little spat (I know why it happened and the amount of stress they were under makes it make sense), I was worried it was gonna turn into some Harry-Draco-esque rivalry. It didn't and I can't wait to see how that turns out. 

The girls are kind of there, but I imagine they'll be fleshed out later since they didn't really get POV sections in this book.

Grouchy Halt smiling at the end of the book was cathartic—the following scene when he developed Will's backstory and strengthenes their bond was great. If (when?) they kill this man I'm gonna riot.

All-in-all, good book, I'll definitely read the sequels.