This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, Stars of Fortune and Bay of Sighs, or don't mind knowing spoilers for them.
SPOILER ALERT
As the hunt for the Star of Ice leads the six guardians to Ireland, Doyle, the immortal, must face his tragic past. Three centuries ago, he closed off his heart, yet his warrior spirit is still drawn to the wild. And there’s no one more familiar with the wild than Riley—and the wolf within her…
An archaeologist, Riley is no stranger to the coast of Clare, but now she finds herself on unsure footing, targeted by the dark goddess who wants more than the stars, more than the blood of the guardians. While searching through Irish history for clues that will lead them to the final star and the mysterious Island of Glass, Riley must fight her practical nature and admit her sudden attraction to Doyle is more than just a fling. For it is his strength that will sustain her and give her the power to run towards love—and save them all…
It's finally come down to this. This was the story I was waiting for. I know, I know, a romance between a werewolf and an immortal sounds pretty darn steamy, right? Add their hot and cold chemistry to big climactic battles and a fairytale ending, and this book was certain to be my favorite. Right?
Honestly, I found this book—and the series overall—a bit disappointing. I think it came down mostly to the lack of teeth I felt the story had. I mean, yeah, some characters got bullied, battered, and bruised, but since previous books never left any lasting damage—even when "risks" were foretold—I was never really worried about anything lasting more than a couple days' healing time. And the same rang true here.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a happy ending, and I'm usually not one for overly dark stories getting a smile plastered on the end and calling it "happy" either, but I really could have used some tension, some real danger. Even if I knew things would work out, I wanted more drama (or even melodrama) regarding the characters' physical or mental issues. Have Riley be injured as a wolf, or injured in a way she's not sure will heal, or something that makes her less sure of herself leading up to the final battle. Have Doyle's flashback with his brother actually cause some unrest in the group, or have him questioning his motivation or guilt or something that lasts past one conversation. Give me tension—give me stakes—give me anything to hold on to to keep me invested.
As it was, a bunch of "problems" always seemed to be resolved in a page or so. A character would be sulking over something, then have one conversation that made them better. A character was badly injured, but wakes up well on their way to magically mended (instead of, you know, switching to another character during that time). A character is rewarded with the option to solve a problem that we never even knew existed?
Which is what we get with Riley's lycanthropy. Slight spoilers I guess, but yeah, at the end of the book when the quest is completed, the Guardians are all getting wishes granted and Riley is offered to stop being a werewolf. But...this was never ever brought up as an issue in the books. Granted, it wasn't ever really a boon either, but you'd think that it'd come up in the narrative if it was a problem, right? Riley would have a conversation about it with someone—one of the girls or Doyle—and she'd complain about it holding them back, but they'd reassure her, and she'd agree out loud but also silently call herself cursed, or resent it? Or have her lycanthropy introduce complications into her love-life somehow, something that Doyle says he's fine with, but Riley stews over? I mean, there are a few different ways to introduce it, but suddenly bringing it up at the very end of the book just didn't work.
Yeah, I know, big werewolf nerd, but considering that was the thing I was most looking forward to in this book, in this series, and it's just glossed over until the very end, I felt the whole thing was just wasted. Sure, the options I offered for working in Riley's lycanthropy into the story are kinda cliché, but they're a whole lot better than the nothing we got.
And I didn't even have Riley's romance to fall back on! Okay, so I liked the grown-up take on it, with both parties opting into a friends-with-benefits situation, wanting just the sex with no strings attached, and then realizing that their strings were attached all along. But I wasn't really into the dynamic they had with their sex. A bit too much "plundering" and "taking" and...you get the idea. Yes, it was always consensual, but just not my personal preference.
I also wasn't too enamored of the writing at times. This was a thing throughout the trilogy, but I finally found a good example of what irked me:
“So you’re back. You worried Sasha and Annika. You understand me perfectly well,” he added when the wolf made no move. “If you’re interested, Sawyer’s healing up, and resting. Sasha was hurt more seriously than we knew. Ah, that got your attention,” he said, when the wolf trotted forward. “She’s resting, too, and Bran took care of them. She’s fine,” he added. “One of the bastards gouged her leg, and some infection set in before Bran got to it. But she’s fine now.”[pg 19]The random spacing added after the fact, instead of breaking the paragraphs when actions actually happen, was hard to read at times. And here it's twice in one paragraph. I also felt completely underwhelmed by action scenes as they either ended too quickly, with far too little detail, or merely suffered from the previous books' failure to pay off any real stakes. There were three major battles in this book, and none of them gave me any anxiety or adrenaline. I actually thought I'd somehow skipped a page when one kicked off with absolutely no lead-in whatsoever.
So as my first experience of a Nora Roberts series, I'm sorry to say I'm disappointed. I was given three separate romances, and I only really liked one. I felt like most of the characters were capable of far more complexity than they were given, especially the werewolf and the shifter (Sawyer). And I was horribly let down by the action scenes, the villains, and the lack of any real threat coming across. I've heard that even die-hard fans of Roberts aren't wholly enamored of this series either, so I'm willing to give her another chance, but if her Dragon Heart series isn't an improvement I'm afraid I'm dropping her.
Overall, this was a fluffy conclusion to a fluff trilogy. Unfortunately the series isn't pitched as fluff whatsoever, which made an epic-sounding fantasy adventure series come out a bit sour. Maybe if you're big into romance but very new to fantasy it will land better, but for me (who is coming from the opposite perspective) it was disappointing to see some of my favorite types of characters given a bare-bones exploration in a story with no teeth. I'd put the spice level as a healthy medium, as some acts are depicted on-page though visuals are left to the imagination. An interesting foray into romance-fantasy, I'm glad to have visited but equally glad I can move on to something else.
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