Carefully crafted worldbuilding and character arcs that build well from the previous novels make for an intriguing, pulse-pounding, and expansive third installment in what will surely be a series not worth missing!

I am going to preface this review by acknowledging the fact that this book is not out until December and I will be mentioning some things about what happens in this book so if you are sensitive to any types of "spoilers", maybe wait until this book comes out to read this.

With that being said, this was a pretty good installment. In the beginning, I was really really enjoying this and it was shaping up to be a 4 or 4.25 star book. However, the muddling middle did kind of drag down my rating a bit.

The plot, like both previous books in the series, is very slow. I would say there are maybe 5 plot points in this entire 370-page book. Usually, I don't mind character-driven/slow-paced stories but this one seemed to drag on for a really long time at points. I think with a little more editing, some of the superfluous information and scenes and chapters could have been cut down or eliminated completely, making this book more concise and succinct. The first 70 pages were so quick to get through, but then things slowed down A LOT before picking back up in like the last 20 pages.

Pippa and Arjun were interesting to follow. Still, it's kind of weird where each book in this series followed one or two main characters primarily and then shoves all the others into the background. While Pippa and Arjun were fine people to read about, it was kind of frustrating that we barely got to see Celine or Bastien or Odette or anyone else. Book one did such a good job introducing this huge cast, but since The Damned, things have become so much more narrow-focused. I will also say that the few scenes we did get from Bastien and Celine were low-key super cringey. I don't want to go into any further detail for fear of spoiling, but...I was confusion.

The writing in this book slapped. Renée Ahdieh can definitely string a beautiful sentence together, and while kind of...much at some points, was very enjoyable to read.

Also...the ending! Let's just say that some stuff is about to go down in book 4. Also, fans of The Wrath and the Dawn will be very pleased about something that happens in the chapter before the epilogue.

Also, thank you so much to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book did so much. There wasn't a lot of content for the characters that I care the most about, but that was fine. The end of the last chapter of this book made me gasp so loud, and I'm just. Yeah. Wow.