Year of Descendants (The Clockwork God Chronicles #3)

Amazing and fast paced. Even though this is number three in a series, it was still easy to follow and not feel totally lost. The characters and storyline were well written and easy to follow.

This book was absolutely action packed. It's been a little while since I've read the last book in the series, but I was able to get back into this world with ease.

Janet has come a long way since the start of book one. She is starting to come to terms with the power she has from her father but still struggles with the idea of using that power. Her relationship with Itazura is developing more, and he is helping her with controlling that power.

There were some time jumps, to keep things from feeling stagnant, and I find it odd that Janet was seemed not worried about it being too late to save Sylvia considering it had been nearly a year since her soul was stolen. And in book one, it seemed more like a time crunch than anything else going on. It was an urgent matter to her, and while she still wants to save her, it seems that it might be too late at this point? I don't know maybe I missed something, it has been a few years since I read that first book.



I really liked the new characters added, Neil and his crew are an interesting new aspect to what is going on. I liked meeting Winter, even though she wasn't really in much of the book.

The dreams Janet has been having were interesting, but I do wish that they had been a larger part of this book, especially considering how the book ended, maybe it was more set up for the next book, I do want to know how many books this series will have. Three books in and it still only feels like the beginning of what is to come. They may have defeated Autumn, but there are still so many unanswered questions.

I really wish I didn't have to wait for the next book, the odd twist/reveal at the end has me very intrigued.

Year of Descendants is the fast-paced third book of the similarly action-filled the Clockwork God series, which I had thought was going to be the last installment of. Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise.

First off, my favourite part was, again, the characterisation. On top of the characters we already knew and love, we met a whole new compelling cast, which was the highlight of the series for me; that we got diverse characters out of it was yet another bonus. (There aren't nearly enough asexual characters out there, if you ask me.)

Apart from that, what I really loved about having new characters was being able to see the different points of view. For all that Janet has her life thrown apart more times than she can count, we hadn't really seen a multiple-sided conflict before. We have this in Year of Descendants, with people of seemingly same or at least similar enough walks of life choosing entirely different sides for their own reasons. The characters, old and new, gained a refreshing sort of agency in this book and I loved it.

As for the plot, I'll say that plot twist. As much as I want to talk about all the action and the big plot points, that twist at the end got me too bad. Send help.

All that said, though, I'm still having trouble with the romance aspect of the book, it seems. As a strictly personal detail, I found the writing style too dry to carry the emotional tension, which also means that I still can't see the feelings and the attraction between Itazura and Janet. That in and of itself wasn't a book-ruining detail, but I have to admit that it was one of the reasons it took me as long as it did to get through the story.

Overall, I think Year of Descendants was a fitting ending (at least, it seems like an ending at the moment) to the elder gods story line, with more adventure to come in the future. Good luck to all characters on the next book(s).

Rating: 3.5/5 rounded up to 4/5.