DNF @ 25%

This was not good. I can't go on. I keep trying to force myself to at least finish the first book, but I don't care about anyone. The story is boring. The fucking love triangle situation is ultra creepy. At one point, the 200-year-old quasi-angel dude, described as looking younger than his age because of his attire, was like "Every time I remind myself that you're so young, you surprise me by acting ten times your age." This was the second time to my recollection that something along these lines was said. She acts like a fucking teenager, and an oblivious idiot teenager at that. How many times has that one dude used the same "damn Giboram (sp?)" line as his alter ego, and she gets the same feeling from him that she does the demons, but she's like oh no I will ignore my internal feelings of fear and weirdness and have emotions for you for no reason even though you are a cocky asshole and really creepy. I don't understand this obsession with pairing teenage girls with dudes who are hundreds/thousands of years old. Don't try and justify it with the whole 'oh gee you act so much older than your age' swill. That is fucking grooming-style gross.

Anyways, the gross age gap situation is the least of the problems with this book. It's boring and meandering. I don't care what happens to any of the main characters. They have no redeeming qualities. They aren't interesting or multifaceted. Also, the font in this e-book keeps alternating between some normal font at a normal size to like giant comic sans or something.

I should have done my due diligence and looked at some of these reviews more closely. I originally thought I would be reading the first book, and the reviews for that one are quite positive, but almost all of the glowing reviews are from other indie authors who apparently don't care about anyone respecting them or their opinions. I'm starting a shitlist. If you are an indie author who is trading positive reviews with other indie authors, I'm never reading your shit. I know you don't think this is an amazing book, because it isn't an amazing book. It's not a 5-star read. Don't be fucking disingenuous. Don't gush over it with a clearly scripted review. It's insulting.

This contains the whole trilogy and the novella. I love the books about Angels and Demons, and this one had me entertained for a while, it's a great pace, with lots of characters you will love, action to keep you rooted reading, and very well researched and written, definitely would recommend it to anyone that loves this trope and type of characters. Hope it turns into one audiobook.

“I will try. I’ll always try to get to you, Emma. Through life, through death, through whatever afterlife awaits us both, I’ll never stop fighting to get to you”

When I started this series I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m glad I read it. I truly enjoyed the multiple points of view of the characters and the universe the books are set in, although I wish there had been more descriptions about how all of it worked. Sometimes the events were too rushed.
I found quite interesting how all the different protagonists developed throughout the story. They all grew and became better human beings, still with their flaws, but also with the knowledge of who they wanted to be.
The book I enjoyed the most was the one about Adrianna and Tlahaz. In fact, there were some traits of the young girl that reminded me of myself: all her doubts and desires to do what was best for the people she loved.
I liked this series, although I would have preferred a different ending; it is not how I had pictured it, but at least it was unexpected.

I read this with the oldest of my grandchildren (who is the demographic the book is aimed at). She said that it was ok but not a book that she would give to friends. I thought it was entertaining enough to read on a holiday.

I, unfortunately, DNF'd this book. It's a great premise (and a fantastic cover!) but it started off slow and I had a super difficult time getting into it. The writing is decent and I do look forward to seeing more from the author but this one wasn't for me.

TW: child and domestic abuse

This series was compelling and gripping, but the writing style was a bit young for me. Overall an enjoyable reading experience.

Oh my goodness this was the best book I’ve read all month so far! It was so compelling I found it very hard to put down! I can’t wait to add a physical copy to my collection hopefully in the near future!

This is actually an omnibus of 4 books. It's fairly well written, has an interesting concept and magic system.

The writing style was a little young for me/not as mature as I was hoping but I could see how this wouldn't be a problem for other readers and they would enjoy it

I'm going to be honest, I couldn't finish all of these books. I wasn't even able to get through much of the first book without stopping. I found myself drifting from the story as it started quite slow and as I progressed through the first book I felt like nothing was happening. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for this book. I did push through and finish the first book but I felt it was much too long and had no interest in continuing the series. Thus, my rating is more for the first book in this series than the compilation of all the books. Maybe I will pick up this series at a later time but as of right now, it just wasn't what I was expecting or willing to commit to reading.

• The Mark of Fallen Flame:
Admittedly, this book is an interesting opening to a complex world filled with fallen angels, demons and in the middle of their battle for dominance over earth there is our heroine,Emma and the rest of humankind.

However, even though this book is a great prologue to a promising fantasy story, I found that it was unnecessarily long and that affected the plot, which I found that it was lacking in terms of action and excitement. Yes, the love triangle between Emma, Levaroth and Blaze and the romantic interest and tension was very exciting at first, however this was not enough to keep the reader's interest when there was little else action involved except when nearing the end.

Furthermore, I did not find Emma particularly interesting as the main female character. Her powers weren't explored enough throughout the book and she had little characterdevelopment despite the fact that her world changed when she discovered the truth about herself, her powers and the two opposing forces of demons and fallen angels.

All in all,these was a solid three star read for me, however I hope that the plot and the action will pick-up in the next book and the author will divert her focus from the love-triangle more towards giving as more action and battles.

• The Spellcaster’s Weapon:

This was a solid 3,5 stars read for me and I found the story of Andrianna a lot more interesting compared to Emma's in the first book of the series.

To be more specific, I felt that Andrianna as a character was better written than Emma and it allowed us readers to sympathize with her family struggles while, at the same time, be excited to see her grow into and conquer her magic powers. Tlahaz was also a happy surprise for me because his character and his actions, despite his evil and barbaric nature, were better balanced and he wasn't on the verge of being psychotic and even abusive like Levathor was.

The plot in this book was more fast-paced and exciting and it held my interest a lot more that the first book so I'm hopeful that the next books in this series will only improve as well.

• The Throne of Broken Bones.

In this book, we’re back to Emma’s point of view. Again, my main complaint with this book was that it was unnecessarily long and there were many scenes, especially in the first half of the book that could be edited out.
To be more specific, through the first part of the book, Emma against her will is forced to be a spy by her father, Hell’s prince of Wrath, and exploits her close relationship with Blaze and infiltrates their camp in order to collect as much information against them for the imminent war between Giborim and Shediem. At the same time, Levaroth, who didn’t make a single move to protect Emma during her time in Seol, suddenly decides to attack his master –her father- the moment Emma is enslaved and is send back to earth. And for this, he is imprisoned and tortured. Despite the fact that I found Levaroth’s timing totally off, all these set the stage for a very exciting plot development. However, apart from Levaroth’s chapter, I found the rest of the first half of the book rather boring and repetitive and especially Blaze’s chapters were constantly focused on why Emma was shutting him out and trying to defend Emma from the suspicions of his kind. Furthermore, I found that it was rather anti-climactic how the seal of the curse was suddenly broken off.
As far as the second half of the book goes, the plot picked up a little and there was more action, more battle scenes and confrontations with the princes of Hell. Again however, I found that the ending was rather rushed both in the case of Emma’s confrontation with Levaroth and her father as well as the final “battle” between her and the King of Hell. I mean, we spent a whole book reading about Emma falling in love with Blaze in order to have a brief scene where she fights with Levaroth and kisses him in order to restore his memories of her and somehow this means that she chooses him over Blaze?? Don’t get me wrong, I wanted her to choose Levaroth but we spent an entire book reading about Blaze and her and the author overturns everything just with this scene? That’s what I call anti-climactic.
Finally, the whole mystery with Blaze’s brother Axel and the deterioration of his health and the change in his attitude was a plot device that, I believe, aimed to raise the book’s suspense and attract the reader’s curiosity, however it didn’t work in my opinion and it only dragged out the plot.
All in all, this was a three star read for me.

• The Crown Of Shattered Souls:

By this point, I feel that the author has given up on this story as much as I have. By finishing this book and thus, the series, I was left with a sense of inconsistency.
Focusing on this book for starts, I was taken aback with the whole Blaze-Taryn development. In my opinion, it was a forced development, because two characters who were almost completely ignorant of each other, suddenly are shoved in a situation of forced proximity and this leads to romantic feelings. But why did it have to be romantic? I believe that it would make better sense if all this grew into a deep friendship which overcomes the prejudices between the two kinds, Giborim and Spellcasters. Additionally, I felt that all this was forced and an unexpected plot development because in the previous book Blaze was supposedly deeply in love with Emma and was ready to commit to her in a mate level. The fact that he discarded his feelings so fast only makes him superficial and cold-hearted in my eyes.Furthermore , Taryn’s POV was totally superfluous in my opinion, and the only reason it was added was in order for the readers to experience both characters’ perspectives in this newly developed romantic relationship, however it actually highlighted how there was no actual chemistry between the two. Finally, the whole “water dragon” development was another unnecessary and incoherent addition because it didn’t serve to enhance the development of the bigger story, it was just used to further solidify Taryn’s and Blaze’s necessity to end up together in the end, by ending up being her familiar.
As far as Emma is concerned, the whole inner mental fight with the princes was promising and it would allow Emma to evolve as a character and prove her newfound strength and establish her dominance as the queen of the underworld, however this was another subplot that somehow got lost and overlooked in the grander scheme of the story, which appears to be a reoccurring theme in this series, where many subplots where hastily closed or were left with an open-ended resolution.
All in all, this was a three-star read for me.

The series as a whole, had many potential and I was left with the impression that the author had so many ideas about the story and its unraveling, however she got overwhelmed and consequently, the books were incoherent at points and there were subplots that didn’t serve the greater purpose of the whole story. Furthermore, I believe that including different POVs is a great addition to a story, however it is extremely difficult to successfully create interesting characters and at the same time narrate the story through their different perspectives without getting lost and compromising the smooth development of the plot, which happened in a lot of instances in this series. That, for me, is proven by the fact that “The Spellcaster’s Weapon” was the best book in the series, because there was only two perspectives and there was a good balance between character and book development.

It took me a little while to get into the book but after a while I was racing through it. The amount of detail and the development of the characters was unreal, I found myself glued to my kindle needing to know what was going to happen next.
The book was a good length in my opinion and it is a good example of what a ya/fantasy book should be. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

It took me a while to get into this book as i took a while to warm up to the authors writing style but when I did I really liked it. well written, a imaginative and compelling plot and well developed characters that I liked. I will definitely look for more from this author.

Wow, just wow! This series is what a YA /NA fantasy should be! I received this book as an arc reader in return for my honest review. Emma is a bada** and I’m here for it! Watching her come into and hone her powers across this series was like watching a close friend grow up. The romantic side was written really well and you were honestly cheering for all the love interests (Emma’s and Adrianna’s) overall I throughly enjoyed this series and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone. It’s fast paced right from the start and really pulls you in.

I got this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I did like this book, I actually read it fairly fast, although it was a little long. The cover is really pretty, and the writing style took some getting used to, as it is YA. It kept me hooked until the end, and Emma was a badass heroine. Thanks for the ARC!