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✅✅ Last 15%
✅✅ Slade avenging Auren
�� Characters
�� Expansion of the world-building
�� Multiple POVs
��(🆗) Plot (felt like a filler at times)
��(🆗) Pace
��(🆗) MCs apart from each other
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❗️❗️Trigger warnings: torture and deaths

3.5 stars

It saddens me to only give this book 3.5 stars, but here we are��

This book picks up right where Glow ended. Slade created a rip to save Auren, and she is now stranded in Annwyn, while Slade and the Wrath remain in Orea, with no way to reach her. Slade is slowly losing his mind as he tries, and fails, to get back to Auren, and Auren is holding on the best she can in Annwyn, where she is thrown in the middle of fae politics and power games.On the other side of the continent, Malina realized just how badly she fucked up, and is now desperate to find a way to atone and save Orea from the incoming fae army.

Sadly, I struggled to get into this book. While a lot of things happened, it felt like a filler at the same time. I kept putting it down in favor of reading other books, and I had to force myself to pick it up after a while and finish it.

Seeing Slade on the warpath and avenging Auren was everything. He was unhinged in this book. All those times he told Auren that he would be the villain for her, well he definitely delivered on those promises, and it was a sight to behold. It was so satisfying to see the monarchs from the other kingdoms get destroyed by him for the sham of a trial they put Auren through�� It might make me a villain too, but I was happy to see them suffer. 😈

We also get to see more of Slade’s morally grey side, because he would do anything for Auren, even if it puts Orea in danger. She is more important to him than all of Orea, and he makes no secret of it. He is willing to kill, maim, and sacrifice his kingdom for Auren, without any regrets.

I was happy to see Annwyn, and to meet new characters in this fifth book, but while I liked the new characters, they didn’t grow on me like the Wrath did. They are not bad characters, but I wanted to see more of the Wrath instead of spending so much time with these new additions. Also, the few chapters with the Wrath felt pointless, so it was even more frustrating. Osrik’s chapters felt useless in the plot, (view spoiler)[especially since his problem is resolved in a matter of minutes in the end, so he just raged and had inner monologues about how he couldn’t possibly live without Rissa for her to be magically healed in the end and then we don’t hear from them again. (hide spoiler)]

Annwyn felt magical an beautiful though, and Auren’s description of it, and of her feelings at realizing that she was “back home�� was heartwarming.

Auren’s journey towards healing and learning to trust her abilities and rely on no one but herself continues in this book, especially since she is away from everyone she knows, and needs to survive on her own until she finds a way to get back to Slade. That being said, while I loved seeing Auren stand on her own, gain confidence, and grow even more into her power, the fact that she is separated from Slade for the whole book killed me. While I don’t mind love interest being separated, especially if it adds tension and angst to the plot, I struggle to enjoy a book where they are apart for the entirety of it. It felt unsatisfying that they didn’t even reunite in the end. I loved the book and I don’t regret reading it, but a part of me feels like I wasted my time reading this whole book because they are still not reunited after 600 pages!

For the first time in this series, I enjoyed Malina’s chapters�� I even dare say that I liked her. She went through a lot in the last few books, but in this one, we finally see her stop, reflect upon herself and her choices, and change for the better. Her character growth/redeeming arc was very well done and it feels weird to say this, but I think I enjoyed her chapters even more than Auren’s. (view spoiler)[I have to say though that the smutty scene between Dommik and her was just weird. The city is in the middle of an invasion and people are dying all around them, yet they find time to hide and have a go at it. It blew my mind that they would be turned on and have sex in the middle of this carnage. I get that there was sexual tension between them, but not to the point of forgetting the people being slaughtered outside of their hiding spot. (hide spoiler)]

I am not sure how I feel about the ending of this book. On one hand, it promises a lot of drama and angst in the final book, but on the other hand, I feel that there is already so much to overcome, with the faes invading Orea, Slade, and Auren still needing to find each other. Adding this extra obstacle has me a little worried that there will be too much going on in the last book and things might get rushed in the end.

Overall, I liked this book, but I struggled with it too. The internal monologues from Auren and Slade felt repetitive after a while, and the fact that they are apart for the whole book did not help with my motivation to push through and continue reading it. There is a lot of action, and the pace is good, but at the same time, it felt like a filler book, and I didn’t really connect with Auren’s new friends, meaning that her chapters felt tedious to read at times, because I didn’t care. I’m sad that I was not able to enjoy this book more, but I will still definitely read the final one, because I need to see Auren and Slade reunited and happy together.



1. Gild ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
2. Glint ⭐⭐⭐⭐��
3. Gleam ⭐⭐⭐⭐��
4. Glow ⭐⭐⭐⭐


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