It’s the kind of kiss that inspires stars to climb into the sky and light up the world. The kind that takes forever and no time at all.
Juliette Ferrars
Welcome friends, thank you for taking the time to read my review today. I have no idea what to feel, write, or think about this book. Well, I do have a lot to talk about and since this is the third book in the series, you may expect spoilers from the first two books and this one also. It is impossible to explain how I feel without telling you about what happened in the book. Just so you know, reader discretion is advised.
The third book started where we exactly left in the previous book. Juliette is shot, right through the chest, by the infamous Anderson. Oh, Anderson, I feel like you could be a great villain if we got some insight from you, but right now? You are literally just a figure, a vase in the story for these X-Men kids to destroy. I was incredibly hyped for the third book when I finished the second one, and overall, it did not disappoint. Not at all! However, after being THAT excited to see what would happen, this book just threw a solid punch right in my guts and sat me down. This book broke my heart into million pieces and glued them back again. I still love this series because of Warner and Kenji, nobody else, nothing else, just for Warner and Kenji.
We see the process of Aaron trying to save her after his father shot her in the chest, him panicking like nothing else, going crazy to persuade the girls to touch him so that he can heal her, and he does. He somehow persuades the two and heals Juliette, bringing her back from almost dead. Everything goes from south after the incident though. He takes her to the sector building, hides her, protects her and does everything in his abilities to keep her safe. But what does our girl do? Oh yeah. OH YEAH. She doesn’t believe that they have lost the battle, lost all of the good people and wants to see the ruins. Now, I understand and I am aware that her being this indecisive towards Aaron is completely normal since he had done many “bad” things to her. She learns that everybody except the X-Men is dead and she is the one who is supposed to be the leader of the movement. You heard me, right friends. She knew deep down that she needed to be the leader of the movement for it to succeed and just like that, she takes her friends to the government-ruled building and hides them there, planning that they would destroy Anderson and takes over Sector 45.
The weirdest thing is that, at this point, I feel like the author tried a bit too much to fix her up after literally portraying her as a confused teenager for two books. In a matter of seconds, Castle decided to give the role to her, everyone looked up to her, Warner is proud of her (he always was) and Adam hates her for leaving him. Well here are the issues that made me cringe while reading this book: first of all, the fact that Warner’s past unravelled in only a few pages and she somehow started “seeing” him in a different way bothered the fuck out of me. The fact that Mafi used Adam, a character who was so well-written and kind and caring to change the romantic interest bothered the fuck out of me. We didn’t need to hate Adam for Juliette to finally realize the love she had for Aaron. We were already done with Adam by the end of the second book, so why, PLEASE explain to me why you have made a such drastic change to portray Adam in this manner? We all knew that Juliette and Aaron had something from the beginning, so why?
In my opinion, this book was way too rushed regarding romance. It was rushed and poorly thought as if magical moments and unravelling things happen in life. I was expecting a better slow burn from Mafi, something that would make Aaron break his walls piece by piece, something that would bring the good in his heart and finally, MAYBE, he would accept himself as the person he is and his suffering would end. But what I read basically felt like: “OKAY PALS, this is your new romance interest and trust me he is actually not that bad but Adam is abusive as fuck and completely rude so forget about his kindness and character in a second and fall for Aaron -motherfucking- Warner.” There are still three more books to read, so I know that things will get better between Juliette and Aaron but the fact that everything happened in a matter of seconds? It just made me sad. They had so much potential.
Aside from the romance, the general story is actually still good. Now the survivors of the war are preparing themselves again, Kenji being one of the most amazing supportive characters in written history, James being the sweetest little curious kid and everyone else being amazing at what they do. I loved when Juliette realized that she can control her powers, not only control but also turn them off. I loved the little moment of realization between Kenji and her, and everyone else. She is now able to live I thought to myself. Without being in constant fear of harming others, she is capable to live, to hug, to kiss, to feel the intimacy of touch with her loved ones. ANOTHER great thing was in one sentence: “Lift your hips for me, love.”
My body was burning with an expectation of this sentence ever since I saw it on Instagram and I was at work while reading it, I wheezed, made a fucking death sound, scared my chief and he turned me to say: “Porn books again?” I didn’t bother myself to explain to him that it is not porn -yet- BUT HOLY FUCK THAT SENTENCE HIT ME HARD IN EVERY RIGHT PLACE. You would think that I would be all mad that everything was off for the first few hundred pages. Nope. Everything got better and better right after this sentence and I am not apologizing to anyone for being weak to Aaron -lift your hips for me, love- Warner. Not only the romance part but also the plan got better as well. It got better and stronger and for a brief moment, I forgot that these characters were teenagers. I saw a genuine fight for the life of this planet. A genuine care for the future of the children. Each and every one did their best and I was so proud of them. Kenji, especially Kenji. My Kenji boy. The kindest heart with a snake tongue. I was so proud Juliette, even though she managed to bother me a lot.
The end? The end was phenomenal. The climax. The catharsis. I felt like my heart opened up and my chest expanded as it grew bigger and bigger inside me. It was phenomenal. I somehow managed to find the perfect song for the scene too, please listen to it while reading the war scene Ursine Vulpine – Lovers Death. I am so glad that I read this book. I want to give it a five-star rating but the first 200 pages weren’t worth it. Unfortunately. But 4⭐s as it is!
Thank you for visiting my blog again, and I shall see you in my next post! 💘
Luster of Books 