This is one of those books I should have DNF’ed. The premise and start of the book was so interesting to me that I kept pushing though, hoping for a payoff. That did not happen. I had three issues with this book that prevented my enjoyment. 

1- The perceived age of the characters. This is your classic centuries old and and modern young MCs. But they really read their ages, if not more extreme. Arcady feels really young, like YA young, and Everen felt like a crotchety old guy, which really weirded me out when the romance and sexual tension started. I know their age and appearances were mentioned, but their age from how I perceived them through their actions and dialogue was stronger than what I was told about them. 

2- Switching narrative writing POV. I appreciate the risk the author took trying to make the unfolding of the story more interesting, but honestly it just added confusion and jarred me out of the story every time there was a POV change. First, second, third person… I don’t mind or prefer any which one, but I do prefer the *same* one throughout a story. 

3- Super deep minor details, shallow plot. The author would go into extreme detail explaining something like wood grain on a window sill, or why dragons call something mundane by a particular name. But I found major elements of the world building and plot to be shallow or withheld for too long. Don’t get me wrong, you can withhold some info for a narrative plot twist, but it was painfully obvious that some points/facts were “hinted” at (more like deliberately dangled in front us of) just to not be mentioned again for 100 pages. Just didn’t flow well. 

I won’t be continuing this series