So Much Pain

     

    This book continues right where the previous book left off, almost without a hitch. I will admit that there were some people that were brought up that I had completely forgotten about. I wish that books had like a glossary or somewhere where they give a synopsis of what happened in the previous book. I was able to remember some things and things started to click. I do feel like this book was definitely more jambled than the previous book. In the first book you had the feeling that there was a definite destination and that the author had things planned out for how she was going to get us there and the reveals were happening at just the right time. However in this one, I felt adrift and like there was not a clear destination for this book. Clearly there was still the big bad that was Ravena and then the two Noblesse who left at the end of the previous book and the trauma that Isolde was dealing with when her father tried to murder her. Of course there were other smaller things that were issues as well that came into play with this book but it was just wild and crazy. There was definitely a lot more smut in this one than there was in the second one and I definitely enjoyed that. You can feel the love between Isolde and Adrian despite the issues that they are having in this book. I strongly dislike it when things start to feel hopeless when I'm reading a book and there was quite a few things in this one that started to feel hopeless for poor Isolde. I just wanted to wrap her in a blanket and give her some wins because the blows just kept on coming. There is a lot of death in this book. I mean of people that we know and some that we don't. Overall by the end of the book, I still felt pretty lost at sea. I was not sure where things were headed. I feel like by the last chapter we kind of had an idea of where things were going but it definitely was not as solid as the first book. 

    This is the beginning of the spoiler portion of this review because this book definitely deserved it. So if you don't want to be spoiled then you can skip this portion and go onto the conclusion and rating that I give it. Now, I was very hurt by all the betrayal in this book. We realized by the end of the first book that someone in the inner circle had betrayed the gang and of course I'm sure many of us was leaning towards it being Daroc. Well....it was Sorin and I was kinda hurt by the revelation and how he attempted to take out Isolde. I can tell that it really affected her too but she hasn't really had time to focus on all the random bouts of trauma that have been thrown at her. Prior to almost being murdered by Sorin she was beat almost to death by a group of Witch haters. They managed to kill Violeta and hurt Ana (Ravena?) very badly. It was just so much trauma that I just really felt bad for her. Then on top of that things seemed to be coming between her and Adrian, worst than in the first book! They have finally been reunited after being apart for so long only for people and situations to come between them. Watching them argue with each other while simultaneously seeing the memories that are beginning to open up for Isolde from her life as Yesenia are just...painful. Then for it to be revealed that the Book of Dis was written by Yesenia to use AGAINST Adrian...I was flabbergasted. I see why by the end of the book but it just feels like everyone holds the cards and Isolde is just there bouncing around trying to make sense of things. Also let me not forget the mini bomb I dropped by saying Ana/Ravena. I'm still not sure what the heck to think about that situation. Like is Ana really Ravena and she was just parading around in a spell to hide from her while she gathered info and watched Isolde? Or is Ana another betrayer who is on Ravena's side. I was just SO lost by that. I wish there was more explanation on what the heck was going on but the book ended and I just....kept clicking hoping for more. There is a nice little blurb at the back by Scarlett which I absolutely loved!! She kinda gave us an insight into what her thought process was with this book and it sounded like she was just along for the ride. Which I can definitely tell because there was no distinct direction. This book felt like the calm before the storm, where we were getting a lot of information but also nothing at all. Revekka is at war by the end of this book and the King is close to being taken over by the Goddess Dis. The Queen has been turned into not only a vampire but also a Aufhocker. Things have gone into overdrive on pretty much every front and I'm not sure that there will be a happy ending by the time we get to the end. 

    Overall, I felt like this book was very confused on what it wanted to accomplish. There was so much going on yet nothing at all. There was a lot of information being dumped and events happening but I felt like there was no down time inbetween. The reader had no time to breath from the events and the characters definitely had no time to deal with the traumatic events that kept happening back to back. I want to throw a therapist at Isolde so badly because man does she need one at this point!! This book had a lot of sexy time in it. I thought that some of the moments were spicy and went along with the characters and felt right. While other times it felt like it was place holder because there was nothing else that the author could think to do. So for that I'd give this book a 3 out of 5 for spice. Overall I'd give it a 3 as well since there were moments where I felt so lost and confused by what was happening. I know that if I a bystander feels that way then there is no way that the character in the story wouldn't feel that way either. This is very much a take your power back type of book. I enjoy that and while I'm on the fence about recommending this one in the series, I am going to continue with the next one. I really want to know what is going to happen between Adrian and Isolde!!