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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
What power can bruise the sky?
Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.
When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.
But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?
It’s immediately after DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT. Jael has led his Dominion troops into the human world where he hopes to get hold of their weaponary to crush the chimaera once and for all and start a new war against the Stelians. The only hope is for Karou and Akiva to find a way for the remaining chimaera and Misbegotten to work together but given the millennia of enmity between the two that’s no easy task.
The conclusion to the SMOKE & BONE TRILOGY is an overblown, crowded affair left bloated by the romance elements. If you’re a fan of epic romances filled with a lot of blockages before an eventual happy resolution, then you’ll enjoy this as there are a lot of breathless descriptions of how Akiva and Karou feel about each other coupled with a whole lot of roadblocks to them being together, which really irritated me. Coupled with this is that there are so many strings to the overall story that at times the book felt overcrowded, especially when Taylor introduces a new plot around human scientist Eliza who has secrets that will impact on Karou and Arkiva’s struggle. For me Eliza’s introduction simply came too late in the trilogy for me to care about her situation. I was also disappointed with the resolution to the Jael plot line, which felt very anti-climatic, mainly because so little time was devoted to it, even though the whole book is structured around it. I did enjoy the scenes with Mik and Zuzana, which brought some much-needed levity and a less complicated love story and I admire the scope of Taylor’s imagination and the vividness of her descriptions. Ultimately, although this book wasn’t the conclusion I’d been hoping for, I would definitely check out Taylor’s other books.
I think that the main reason this book didn’t work for me is because the love story between Akiva and Karou is so samey – the whole will they/won’t they, misunderstandings and obstacles to true love become repetitive (especially given the events in the previous books) and the breathy descriptions of how they feel about each other really began to irritate me. I’m not a romance fan anyway, which is probably why I reacted so strongly to it, but when it came at the expense of the wider plot, it did annoy me.
The Verdict:
The conclusion to the SMOKE & BONE TRILOGY is an overblown, crowded affair left bloated by the romance elements. If you’re a fan of epic romances filled with a lot of blockages before an eventual happy resolution, then you’ll enjoy this as there are a lot of breathless descriptions of how Akiva and Karou feel about each other coupled with a whole lot of roadblocks to them being together, which really irritated me. Coupled with this is that there are so many strings to the overall story that at times the book felt overcrowded, especially when Taylor introduces a new plot around human scientist Eliza who has secrets that will impact on Karou and Arkiva’s struggle. For me Eliza’s introduction simply came too late in the trilogy for me to care about her situation. I was also disappointed with the resolution to the Jael plot line, which felt very anti-climatic, mainly because so little time was devoted to it, even though the whole book is structured around it. I did enjoy the scenes with Mik and Zuzana, which brought some much-needed levity and a less complicated love story and I admire the scope of Taylor’s imagination and the vividness of her descriptions. Ultimately, although this book wasn’t the conclusion I’d been hoping for, I would definitely check out Taylor’s other books.
Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.
When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.
But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?
It’s immediately after DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT. Jael has led his Dominion troops into the human world where he hopes to get hold of their weaponary to crush the chimaera once and for all and start a new war against the Stelians. The only hope is for Karou and Akiva to find a way for the remaining chimaera and Misbegotten to work together but given the millennia of enmity between the two that’s no easy task.
The conclusion to the SMOKE & BONE TRILOGY is an overblown, crowded affair left bloated by the romance elements. If you’re a fan of epic romances filled with a lot of blockages before an eventual happy resolution, then you’ll enjoy this as there are a lot of breathless descriptions of how Akiva and Karou feel about each other coupled with a whole lot of roadblocks to them being together, which really irritated me. Coupled with this is that there are so many strings to the overall story that at times the book felt overcrowded, especially when Taylor introduces a new plot around human scientist Eliza who has secrets that will impact on Karou and Arkiva’s struggle. For me Eliza’s introduction simply came too late in the trilogy for me to care about her situation. I was also disappointed with the resolution to the Jael plot line, which felt very anti-climatic, mainly because so little time was devoted to it, even though the whole book is structured around it. I did enjoy the scenes with Mik and Zuzana, which brought some much-needed levity and a less complicated love story and I admire the scope of Taylor’s imagination and the vividness of her descriptions. Ultimately, although this book wasn’t the conclusion I’d been hoping for, I would definitely check out Taylor’s other books.
I think that the main reason this book didn’t work for me is because the love story between Akiva and Karou is so samey – the whole will they/won’t they, misunderstandings and obstacles to true love become repetitive (especially given the events in the previous books) and the breathy descriptions of how they feel about each other really began to irritate me. I’m not a romance fan anyway, which is probably why I reacted so strongly to it, but when it came at the expense of the wider plot, it did annoy me.
The Verdict:
The conclusion to the SMOKE & BONE TRILOGY is an overblown, crowded affair left bloated by the romance elements. If you’re a fan of epic romances filled with a lot of blockages before an eventual happy resolution, then you’ll enjoy this as there are a lot of breathless descriptions of how Akiva and Karou feel about each other coupled with a whole lot of roadblocks to them being together, which really irritated me. Coupled with this is that there are so many strings to the overall story that at times the book felt overcrowded, especially when Taylor introduces a new plot around human scientist Eliza who has secrets that will impact on Karou and Arkiva’s struggle. For me Eliza’s introduction simply came too late in the trilogy for me to care about her situation. I was also disappointed with the resolution to the Jael plot line, which felt very anti-climatic, mainly because so little time was devoted to it, even though the whole book is structured around it. I did enjoy the scenes with Mik and Zuzana, which brought some much-needed levity and a less complicated love story and I admire the scope of Taylor’s imagination and the vividness of her descriptions. Ultimately, although this book wasn’t the conclusion I’d been hoping for, I would definitely check out Taylor’s other books.
