Lizzie is going to
Greece to have a holiday with her Gryphon boyfriend in his ancestral home -
while Dimitri can finally look to a future with his family and clan now the
curse has been lifted
But peace is quickly
menaced by an ominous prediction of Lizzie’s death. Oh and Dimitri’ ex who
raises some disturbing questions about where Lizzie actually fits in his world.
This is one of this
books that surprises me. The first two books of this series have… not been my
favourite series, been often quite simplistic and sidelining just about
everything that made this book so fascinating - like the biker witches
And a fair bit of that continues - the biker witches are still just a vague background group who don’t serve a great deal of purpose except to be the world’s worst house guests just so Lizzie can feel super super worried.
But it does equally
feed quite interestingly into Lizzie’s conflict over just how much Dimitri has
done for her, sacrificed for her et al. Which is an interesting element of
self-reflection especially from a character who has spent most of her story so
far being understandably self-absorbed. I mean this isn’t a character flaw on
Lizzie’s part because she’s obviously gone through a lot, being a little
self-focused makes sense. I don’t begrudge her a second of this because that’s
natural, nor do I think her resisting further revelations or her objecting to
anything stopping her having a break, just a brief break. This is a reasonable,
human reaction. And it’s equally reasonable for her to, when she has a bit of
break, to reflect on that and think that maybe the people around her have done
a lot for her. I kind of think that the Witches deserve more of this reflection
and realisation than Dimitri. But the whole conflict and internal debate is
really well done.
I think that the book
kind of misses what Lizzie did for them - saving the witches and releasing
Dmitri’s family from a curse that was killing his sisters and destroying his
family and future. I mean this whole narrative kind of misses that every side
character would actually be dead if it weren’t for Lizzie. The balance isn’t
all one way- and I think that this is pushed at least in part because they
wanted Lizzie to have break up angst with Dmitri. Which I don’t get the need
for, we don’t need a relationship drama as well as everything else and I think
the relationship was already super shaky because of how very very.
But I did like the
interaction between Lizzie and Dmitri’s sisters - the instant connection, the
support, Lizzie backing them without trying to overrule them. And I liked
Amara. I’m skating round spoiler territory here - but I liked her developed
story and the revelations that came with her especially since she began as such
a “AAARGH EVIL LOVE RIVAL! RAWR!”
Really, Lizzie’s
interactions with other women in this book were excellent - even when it looked
like something stereotypical or dubious was raising it’s ugly head it was
subverted. I also liked the crafty biplay of Dimitri and the Biker witches.
While Lizzie is, frankly, being ultra snobby and generally thinking that her
low class family is going to embarrass her in front of her super classy
boyfriend, Dmitri himself is fully respectful of the witches skills and willing
to let them have free reign. It’s a nice touch and a gentle subversion of
Lizzie’s own, well, shame at her biker family.
I also really liked
her instructor - quirky, not aggressive, forms a good rapport: there’s no
unnecessary antagonism at all. On top of that we have an interesting plot with
some nice forboding and hefty stakes and some really powerful hooks for future
books
I didn’t like Dmitri
and Lizzie’s relationship - not just because the break up tension but because I
think he is super super super condescending towards her. And yes, maybe he has
“confidence” in her by not being bothered by the death omens, but still being
indifferent to something mystically predicting your beloved’s death is a bit of
a dick move. Treating her own consternation as silly is doubly so
I think the world
building is still lacking - even as more plot is unfolding, demon slayers
basically having a whole “I believe it and it’s so” approach to powers is
annoying. And I don’t even know why they chose Greek gryphons for Dmitri et al
since neither Greece not, really, Gryphon-ness touch what they are and why even
if we did have some development of the Gryphon clans
And while I’m not against fun talking animals, with every passing book I want something to eat Pirate.
It is also really
lacking in any kind of minority characters. Like, at all, ever.
