I finished this and my first thought was that sometimes side characters should just be side characters. 

I really enjoyed Mische in the first two books as a dedicated friend and overall sweet person, but I really didn’t enjoy being inside her head. I knew she punished herself and still struggled with the whole sun god thing and I honestly didn’t need to know just how deep her issues really went. I didn’t need to spend an entire book adventure watching her struggle to see what I all already did… that the gods really don’t care about you. We already saw Oraya learn that lesson and saw how immature and ridiculous they are. 

It was hard to go from Oraya and Raihn to Mische’s POV as a result. 

Still, I enjoyed Asar as a character and his dog. I would have preferred to have the book be entirely from his POV instead of Mische, but I know we’ll get it next book. 

I didn’t love the romance in this one… it felt like they respected each other and were building on that, but her inability to let herself find basic pleasure in anything as a vampire made it hard to root for anything. I was frustrated by her thought process anytime she realized maybe she liked Asar. There was so much happening with the underworld and the wraiths that Mische didn’t have the time or energy to fully unpack her own issues with the trauma she endured with the sun god and her life as a vampire.  

I really wish that Mische remained a side character and had some time before entering into her own romance era of books to fully work through what happened to her, learn to live and love without the religious guilt. 

Overall, I kind of hated this one, but I was intrigued by the Shadowborn and I will read book two just to see how the conflict plays out.