This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my reviews of God of Malice, God of Pain, God of Wrath, God of Ruin, and God of Fury on my blog, now!
This is what happens when you give side characters a book when they maybe only needed a 200 page novella to satisfy their tension. I do not understand how we went from God of Fury to this - I spent the majority of this book wishing Ava would shut up and hoping that Eli would fall off a cliff. I had absolutely no attachment to Ava during her appearances throughout the first five installments, and I felt as though Eli only ever made a rare appearance - I literally did not think he was an important member until maybe two books ago. The whole marriage of convenience trope is normally something I would eat up like nobody's business, but it literally felt like such a weird situation in this book compared to what I have read before - Ava was basically a hostage in my eyes. And yes, I completely understand why Eli did what he did, but I absolutely hated the way he went about it - when it is revealed on how everything went down, I wanted to smack the guy.
Saying the girl you are married to has "the emotional IQ of a plastic flower" is certainly a choice! I understand that everything Eli did was his attempt to protect Ava from herself, but he went about it in such an insane way that I literally could not wrap my head around it. She is so naive and far too trusting of everyone, so when the one person that is supposed to be honest with her is literally keeping her in a glass cage and controlling every aspect of her life, I can see why she kept trying to act out. "Because I got to own you, officially" genuinely made my ears start ringing - I hated everything about that scene, but that line really made me an Eli hater until maybe the last chapter of the book. I wanted him jailed immediately.
Ava Nash is the president of the I hate my husband club and honestly I do not blame her one bit. Maybe if Eli was not so dead set on keeping every piece of her pasta secret from her, she would actually be able to have some form of organic relationship with him. Instead, he lurks around without any sleep in order to make sure she does not remember certain things she went through - sure, he was making sure she did not get triggered, but good grief she already knows she has been through a lot, just tell her! Ava's characterization as a whole was boring and one-dimensional - there was never a point where I felt drawn to reading her story, but rather begging for it to be over. That being said, there were some plot points that did intrigue me, but they all came in the last one hundred pages which made the story telling feel cheap.
"Be my dinner" is crazy work and I have to give Eli credit where credit is due. The things that came out of this man's mouth were not nearly as insane as the things that Nikolai said in God of Fury or Jeremy in God of Wrath, but my word I was left speechless. To be quite honest, the smut in this book felt like borderline harassment, considering Ava literally was wondering around with no memories of how her and Eli ended up together. He was pouncing on her like nobody's business and the girl could barely remember what day it was. Considering she was basically in a fugue state for 90% of this book, I literally could not enjoy any of those scenes because it felt like she was being taken advantage of.
Eli King... there was so much potential for his character to be better than what Kent gave us. He felt like a prison warden for 90% of the book and while I can see where he was coming from, I fear his efforts were in vain. He should have been upfront with Ava about everything from the start - sure, it could have triggered her, but I think she should have been the one to make those decisions for herself. However... and this is a big hear me out... he did it for her and did it knowing that the time he gave her was the time she may never be able to experience in the future.
Concluding the Legacy of Gods series like this feels like a let down compared to some of its preceding installments. But will I be reading more of Kent's work? Yes, she's got me hooked. Moving onto the Villains series will be my next adventure, and hopefully her story-telling and writing will take on some improvements to keep me locked into her catalogue.
You can add God of War on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment