Joann Chang

This was more like 2.5 stars. I loved the first 2 books as it had good pacing between the action, development of the story with its mysteries, and the relationship of Xaden and Violet. This 3rd installment was disappointing. I listened to the audiobook (close to 24 hours) and this book dragged. There was a lot of repetitive angst, failures, and lack of resolution to so many things that got brought into this book. I feel that this book lost its way with the storyline and there were so many negative/tragic events that there weren’t enough good things (recovery) to move the storyline forward. I sure hope RY paces herself with how many riders and flyers she keeps picking off because if this is really a 5 part series, she’s not going to have anyone left to fight at the end given that we’re not recruiting anymore cohorts of riders for the school. Xaden and Violet’s relationship didn’t grow in this book, but stalled in this repetitive argument cycle and literally this cliffhanger was just an iteration of this issue but with a different color of lipstick. There were a few additive points to the mystery, but not enough to warrant the length of this book. If anything, there are more questions now and little answers. I actually did not care for the other POV’s at the end of the book and none of them really added to the storyline other than to get you depressed even more and in the audiobook, confusing because they were put in at the most chaotic part of the book with all the different riders, dragons, flyers and gryphons which made it hard to keep track of. It added more than an hour of audio and I could have done without. I saw another reviewer say that this book was not a filler. I have to disagree as many of their missions and trainings didn’t amount to anything for the main storyline nor help Xaden and Violet’s relationship. I’d say the author could have stuck that cliffhanger at the middle and we’d be in the same spot with the storyline and it would have saved the readers or audio listeners half their time.