Kristine's Reviews > Shadow & Storms

4.25 Stars ⭐️

This has been one of those series that - at least to me - has been an up and down ride. I thoroughly LOVED the first book but then had some real problems with the second book. The third book definitely redeemed itself, so when it came to this book - the 4th and final book - I wasn't sure what to expect.

I'm happy to say that this last book did a good job of bringing this series to a close. There was a lot to tie up and Ms. Scheuerer did a great job of bringing ALL of the previous secondary characters back in a way that just worked. We even got to see Talemir and Drue reunite with Wilder and with them that included their young addition to their family.

This was a really great book of found family - even if it took everyone a little bit of time to realize that. The sisters were reunited - which was important and through each sister, they brought more people into the group. I especially loved seeing a future for Wren along with Thea and Wilder's conclusion.

Again, the biggest issue that I had with this book was the level of...well.....I guess you would call it smut. As I mentioned before in the review of book 2, there is nothing wrong with smut and I usually have absolutely no issues with it. In fact, some of my favorite books would probably live under that category. The issues came with the amount, and the sometimes crazy and inopportune timing. It got to the point where you lost the intimacy between Thea and Wilder and it just became an act. The story was truly solid enough on its own and that amount of s*x was NOT necessary. With that being said - thank goodness this book was not as bad as the second book (seriously....on the outside balcony over the thousand troop tents before the big battle....now, THAT was too over the top)

So all in all the series as a whole was a good series. There were some really GREAT things about it, but to me, I would probably say the character relationships are what pulled it from an okay series to a really good series. Thea, Wren, Kip, Cal, Wilder, the other War Swords and all of the other secondary characters made for a wonderful and fun group.