The Golden Enclaves

spoilers

god i dont like orion at all in any of these books but especially not this one and a lot on the last one (first was kinda fun with him tbh). on the reread of the last graduate i just found him super annoying and unlikable. not to say that characters should all be likable but it was really annoying for the first half of this book to be about him and how important it was to save him but it was such a drag. The series and this book really shine where its about El and her dealing with her anger and her morality when it comes to people who choose the lesser evil. All of the sequences regarding that were very fun to read as they were in last graduate as well. but man the ending and the politicking and the twists just fell short for me. sure they made sense but the buildup was never there and it never felt completely like a puzzle falling together. like why is the big bad mom lady so uninteresting as a villain

all in all a great series but the first book is by far the best because orion feels like a character and not a plot device and El has so much growth without the meandering confusing mess of the amount of characters and a clear goal.