Skip to main content

War Storm by Victoria Aveyard - 2 Stars (Red Queen #4)

Holly Mother of Pearl... this was LONG! This book is a beast, my wrists hurt from holding this massive thing. 
There were a few good things about it but sadly the book felt short, specially the ending. I loved The Red Queen and King's Cage , but Glass Sword and War Storm let the series down big time.

The Story picks up where it left off. Mare and Cal are at odds, she chose her cause and Cal chose the crown. Neither is willing to change for the other. There is an alliance between Reds and the Crown but it is only temporary, while Maven still the enemy to both of them. Cal and Mare know that, they know soon there will come a time they will be enemies again.

There was one saving grace in War Storm and that was Evangeline. Her character grew a lot in the last book and continued to be an interesting addition here. She is clever and the only character to in the end have her priorities in order. While most characters are running around acting like idiots this princess is being logical, straightforward, clever, and most importantly honest with herself (something the other characters really needed to be). She is the sole reason I kept on reading once I realized Maven would be forgotten. 

This book has almost 700 pages and yet it can be told in half that amount, and that is my first problem with it. You would expect, since there is war in all fronts an action packed book but it is not. Most of it is spent inside Mare's head. Mare did grow on me in King's Cage... and now she lost all my respect again. She was a total brat for the most part. There was also far too much 'want you but wont touch you' going on. In how may ways and how many times does the author need to tell us they love each other but picked cause and crown instead of love? It got real boring. 

The second thing that annoyed me -and a lot- is that we don't get to see a lot of Maven. There is less than a handful of chapters on him. Maven is the most in-depth and complex character in the whole series and I needed a lot more of him to enjoy this. There is also his ending... although I believe it should end as it did for him, it could have been better written. She built a lot of climax to that scene and than it was just over, it was rushed and boring. I also wanted more of a glimpse at whom he used to be and I think the whole fandom deserved that. 

Cal... spineless pathetic Cal. He is another character that earned some respect from me in King's Cage and than lost all of it in War Storm. If Maven haven't had his mother mess him up these two brothers would be exactly the same because they both want the crown above all else and anyone else. Although I hated Cal chose the crown over Mare I respected him for it, he thought he was doing the right thing. But the way he proceeded to act afterwards was ridiculous. He wanted the best of both worlds and was pinning and winning the whole time. Give me break and stand by your choices for crying out loud. 

And last but not least the actual ending... that was terrible. I enjoy open endings, I think it makes it all more realistic, but this was just bad. It made Mare come across as a childish little girl. She finally gets all she wants and .... grgrgrgr (sorry, I wont give you guys spoilers. Message me if you want to know more). 

All in all this was not a terrible series, but it was not good either. There were many flaws and I could be a lot more forgiving on them if the books were shorter. Prolonging a plot that has that many flaws makes it all a lot worse. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Radiant Sin (Dark olympus) by Katee Robert [arc review]

This is sadly, not going to be a very popular review. I adore Katee Robert. But this one just wasn't for me. It wasn't a terrible book or anything like that, it just left me wanting more and very puzzled. Every one of the books in this series follows a certain trope and/or subplot genre. Neon Gods is very much a Greek Mythology retelling;  Electric Idol  has the plus size influencer and the sweet bad boy, it is a very modern contemporary romance;  Wicked Beauty , and my favorite so far has that hunger games/dystopian vibe. Radiant Sin  is a murder mystery. The 'one house'/'one train' style that has always been so popular. Here lies problem number one for me, because I don't like murder mysteries at all. Even on my teen years when I read a lot of mystery it was never those. Problem two- there were way too many characters in that house, and they all got their time on the page making it one very confusing mess. It was very hard to follow at times. I think this

The Book Hater's Book Club by Gretchen Anthony

The Book Hater's Book Club  at first appears to be about a struggling bookstore and its imminent sale. Elliot, the co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookstore, started  The Book Hater's Book Club , a newsletter of reading recommendations for the self-proclaimed non-readers of the world, because he believed there was a book out there for everyone. Something I wholeheartedly agree with! For years he and Irma have kept the store going and always had a recommendation in hand. When you finish this book, you will have yet another list of books to read.  However, this book is about more than just books and a struggling bookstore. It is also about grief, the price of secrets, and a little more grief.  You see, Elliot is gone, and his grief-ridden business partner has agreed to sell the store to developers. Problem is, she didn't tell that to anyone until the deal was almost done. Which is making her daughters ask questions. Why is she selling? Is it grief alone? Is there something else

Promises and Pomegranates (Monsters & Muses #1) by Sav R. Miller

I was very excited about this read. The reviews are good, the people recommending it were people whose recommendations I have liked in the past. And in the end, at did like this one. But I will confess from the start that Promises and Pomegranates  did not blow me away. Blurb: Elena To most, Kal Anderson is a villain. Harbinger of death, keeper of souls, frequenter of nightmares. Doctor Death. Hades incarnate. They say he stole me. Usurped my fiancĂ© and filled the cracks in my heart with empty promises. Imprinted his crimson fingerprints on my psyche and tried to set me free. They’re not wrong, per se. Except it was my choice to stay. Kal To most, Elena Ricci is an innocent. Goddess of springtime, lover of poetry, angel of my nightmares. Little one. Persephone personified. They say I ruined her. Shattered her virtue and devoured her soul like a succulent pomegranate. Embedded my evil as deep as I could possibly get and tried to set her free. They’re not wrong, per se. Except it was she