I knew that in this book Roth returns to the world of the series that made her famous just in an alternate storyline. I thought that meant new characters. I did not realize that that meant the same characters just with a very different choice from Triss. I probably would have been a little bit more nervous if I had known that to be the case, since the choice that Roth made at the end of Allegiant kept me off continuing series for many years. Roth’s writing skills are phenomenal and I really appreciate how she changed the narrative in this story. It kept it true to the world that she already created. I have no idea how she did that. Will I trust her to not turn me off continuing series with the conclusion? Crossing my fingers.
This book engaged me with an intriguing premise and a desire to understand how the title applied to the narrative within. Ultimately, however, I never found that connection. The author created an interesting magic system that makes a little bit of sense, but ultimately left me with more questions than answers, something a world building element should not do. I also struggled with the chronology of various events within the story because at times certain events would be referred to as having taken place centuries before while also having connections to characters in the present day. I will admit that I may have missed something while reading, but I do not think that is the root problem to this element. I wish that the reveal, which did make some sense, had fit better with the previous revelations that the author established in the narrative. While not a bad book, it left me unsatisfied at the ending.
I really need to dig into Sarah Beth Durst’s backlist. So many of her recent publications have been quite enjoyable reads for me, including this one and her other 2026 release. I love the balance that she struck between the real world setting of the main character and the fantastical portals that she discovers in the bed and breakfast of her great aunt. While I do not think that this book needed a love interest, I think that Durst crafted this aspect of the storyline well and gave more importance to the love interest character than simply being the love interest. I would definitely read more in this world should Durst choose to publish it.
I far prefer this release from Gray than Hawk and Sparrow. After reading, I discovered that this book was supposedly marketed as an adult work, but it reads distinctly YA like all the other books from her that I have read. Since I did not have that misconception going into my read, it did not affect my experience. I also did not mind the Greek mythology retelling aspect to the story. This has been done so many times before and has become a little overdone yet that thought did not even cross my mind while I read. Gray did an excellent job re-imagining Medusa‘s life and setting it in a world that felt real and unique.
This was far more of an intellectual study of the time period than I expected. This book would likely make for excellent use as a textbook for courses studying the Soviet Union and related topics. It does not make for a good audiobook when the listener has the potential to be distracted for moments here and there because the author stuffs the narrative full of facts and insights. I did find many portions and enlightening, although I will choose my.ALCs from Libro.fm more carefully in the future.
I did not realize when I requested the arc of the third book in the series that I had missed the publication of this, the second book. Before I can read the conclusion to the trilogy and write a review, I need to read the second book. Hendrix has engaging writing, which stuck out to me clearly because of how much I retained from the first book, even though it has been a few years and many books in between. I really enjoyed how she continues to develop the main character and had her face the choice of going down the same path as the antagonist and how she overcame that. Thankfully, I will get to the third book in the trilogy a lot sooner than the gap between the first two.
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