Bookish Mumma

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Katee Roberts’ books. I’m a big fan of the Neon Gods series and follow her on her social platform that I’m on. That being said, this book is one I struggled with. The introduction of Wolf and Rylan made the story a little more complex, but without substantial character growth, there just wasn’t much to it. I was also irritated by Mina’s lack of a backbone. I thought that a woman who had come from – and by all accounts, fought against it every step of the way – a compound run by her father and filled with other vampires and dhampirs, she would have had more bite to her. Instead, she was resigned and let everyone else fight for her and that just didn’t sit particularly well with me.

The twist of finding out whatever else Mina was mixed with was interesting, but no unexpected honestly. The abilities had promise, but without actual exploration, it fell a bit flat. I think that she could have and should have explored her power a lot more and instead fell into a victim mentality for a lot of this book, especially in Act 3. On the mention of Act 3, it really pulled me out of the story, making it really hard for me to finish the book. It felt like it wasn’t supposed to be a part of the book, but rather the start of a second book. The pace, the adding of asterism, the honest lack of anything happening for a good chunk of it and Mina feeling sorry for herself… I just couldn’t do it.

Story: 2/5
Lore/background history: 3/5
Rylan 10/5