Warrior Fae by Susanne Valenti & Caroline Peckham

“This is partly for the frogs, but mostly for my girl.” A whole vibe. 

My boy Eugene is obviously in his bad bitch era and I am SO here for it!! I’ve loved his slow character development over the series but taking on Bryce was just *chefs kiss* icing on the cake. He deserves every bit of his luck back now that he’s free. 

Yay… Ryder, Dante, and Gabriel somehow completely circumvented this world’s magic system so they could also be Elise’s mates… Why? I don’t care about the reverse harem aspect, but why couldn’t it be possible within the world’s magic system already? Why did it have to be something that was so completely impossible but they… did it anyway? 

I completely loved Francesca for Gabriel, oh my god. She was so cute and precious. Unfortunately, I was right about the orgy mate situation, so, it is what it is. 

So, let me get this straight… we have a fifteen page chapter from Leon about absolutely everything but plot development, but the second the plot finally starts developing, we’re getting whiplash bouncing between POV’s? Character agency who?

I think Ethan may have been the most interesting character in this entire book outside of Ryder and Gabriel and I’m super bummed he didn’t come in until the last book and more wasn’t done with him. 

Repeat after me: THERE ARE NO STAKES IF EVERYONE WHO MATTERS NEVER ACTUALLY DIES OR THEY COME BACK TO LIFE IF THEY DO DIE. Through the series, we’ve seen the mains die numerous times through Gabriel’s visions and that’s fine for the most part because it’s done in a narratively compelling-ish way. Leon dying in book whatever is different. Him coming back not only cheapened his sacrifice but eliminated the stakes. Ryder supposedly getting his head cut off but wait no not really, he’s actually okay was also different. It reaffirmed that there’s no real stakes because no one is in any true danger. After Gabriel’s entire existence being reduced down to “I saw so and so die in this specific way, gotta change course” for the entire book, there doesn’t feel like any real risk involved with anything they’re doing. 

One shining thing I can really get behind? Ryder giving up the Lunar Brotherhood for his new family was a beautiful bit of character growth I genuinely loved. 

I really had no investment in Titan being King. The authors all but abandoned any relationship they had been building between Titan and Elise once she started boning Leon, to the point where I actually had to mentally check and remind myself who Titan was at one point. He became inconsequential. If the authors had kept up with the emotional depth they had originally been cultivating in these sessions between Titan and Elise and showed us as the reader Elise relying more and more on him emotionally/seeing him as more of a father figure or even someone she could trust and be friends with, the reveal would have been infinitely more impactful. 

My final questions as the book came to a close: So, are we ignoring Elise’s boundary crossing aunt and the father who lost 20 years of his life along with his daughter’s entire childhood or did I miss something? Why was the gratuitous smut more important than healing that 20 year old traumatic wound? Why are we cool with aunt c-u-next-Tuesday getting Ryder killed with her blatant disrespect of Elise’s boundaries? Are we not dealing with the fact that publicly, Elise supposedly lost one of her Elysian mates and now suddenly has this new mate, randomly, out of nowhere? 

Overall, I’m glad Gareth was truly dead because it would have essentially made the entire Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series completely unnecessary. I’m also glad Elise wasn’t able to bring him back. It would have been jumping the shark, in my opinion. Anyway, in the end, I had little to no emotional attachment to these characters and couldn’t give a shit less about the fifty prologues the authors shoved into the end to “wrap it up”. I’m glad this series is over and I’m praying with my whole soul that Zodiac Academy is as good as the hype train claims because after this, I don’t think I can handle being let down.