He destroys everything and everyone in his vicinity without glance or thought, and through the chaos, through the massacre, I revel in it. This moment is so jarring, so far beyond the realm of Slade's personality, that I can't stop coming back to it.

Focusing on strong character development rather than in depth plot helped take us on an emotional journey with these characters. The last quarter of the book though is where the story shines because now it’s all coming together for a finale that leaves us begging for the next book. I get everything done as soon as I can,so in my downtime I finally get to sit in my outside lounge room and read this series,for the second time! Seeing her struggle with mental health issues after a lifetime of emotional and physical abuse was tough, but helped build her up to be a strong FMC.She's never been given a voice before and it just feels so wrong to me that neither she nor Slade nor ANYONE ELSE in their inner circle will even acknowledge this fact! You knew coming off of the end of Gleam that this was not going to be a light and breezy book, even on top of Auren still working through a decade of grooming and abuse. The quote I led with is a prime example of issues; depicting a tender, heartwarming moment, on the one hand these glimpses into Rip and Auren's daily life are sweet and rewarding, but they do very little to advance the greater storyline. Regret and revenge war inside of me, and I need to figure out a plan fast before I get tangled up in the schemes of kings and queens. At the end of the day, if you already LOVE this series and this Ship, then you will probably love this book as well.

Raven Kennedy is a California girl born and raised, whose love for books pushed her into creating her own worlds. I pause, ears straining, but all I hear are faint sounds from the city below and the constant draw of the waterfall at the base of the mountain. They’re marching to battle, and I’m the bargaining chip that will either douse the fire or spark a war. But if you truly love AURIP, have wanted to know every last detail about these chars and honestly just crave basking in the moments of their glory, then this book is immensely satisfying. Now I don’t usually mind a long book, but I felt like this was a tad bit to long for the information and action that happened.If you think Rhysand from ACOTAR series deserves a bad name for his "morally grey" moves, this scene that Raven has written completely shatters any moral high ground Slade previously stood upon. This may or may not be a complete list of triggers for this book, I do my best to make sure I mark anything that could be a potential trigger but I may accidentally miss triggers. The spice is OFF the charts, we gain far more POV chapters (some of which are VERY exciting), we get WAY more Wrath interaction, we get a new budding couple who I absolutely adore, we finally connect the dots to all of the questions we have about Auren’s past after her time with Zakir, we get the true fleshing out of a relationship between Auren and Slade, we get 110% more brother content between Slade and Fake Rip (his brother, Ryatt), we get 210% more emotions, we travel to the very ends of Orea (literally), and encounter far more…interesting characters, there is just SO much MORE in this book.

So I will fight for him and he will kill for me, and if we need to become the villains, then so be it.But I found the romance to be creative yet still realistic and never overly gratuitous- the 2 MC's spend 90% of the book together, so the opportunity is there, but Raven has the sensibility to hold back. There just are no words for how much I love this series, and how solidly Auren has gilded herself and Slade into my heart. This is where the lack of Queen Kaila's POV becomes a real travesty; I would have loved to see the correspondence between her bother Manu and herself, to see how 6th Kingdom responds to her and to get a closer peek into the inner workings of her mind.

I will say it didn’t entirely break me like the end of Gleam did, but it had my heart in my throat and screaming and I had to remind myself to breathe WAY more times than once. Please note: There is explicit language and romance in this book, not suitable for those under the age of 18.

You knew her recovery was going to be painful and that this combined with everything else would take time. DISCLOSURE:This post may contain affiliate links where we receive a small commission - at no extra cost to you - when you make purchases through the links. Because my wings may have been clipped, but I am not in a cage, and I'm finally free to fly from the frozen kingdoms I've been kept in. I’m invested in this series, but I haven’t read a lot of fantasy romance or been in the mood to read fantasy romance for a while. The Cupidity omnibus includes “Signs of Cupidity,” “Bonds of Cupidity,” “Crimes of Cupidity,” and “For the Love of Cupidity.