Three Duologies in the Can!*

I recently went through a spell of trying to finish at least some of the duologies I’ve been reading and managed to get these three done to very different results in all honesty. I try to keep it spoiler free below but beware of allusions to the ending for Our Dark Duet in particular.

Starfall

By: Melissa Landers

Grade: D+/C-

I enjoyed Starflight enough to buy the sequel obviously but this one just… eh. Actually it would have been eh if I didn’t hate the romance so much. Cassia and Kane were fine in the first book and the story of the run away Princess is intriguing but man they did not belong together. And it wasn’t like one of those things where the romance simply annoys me.

All I could think was, “You two don’t belong together.” That kind of winds up coloring everything else and a lot of the characters from the first book are completely pushed aside. Though I did still appreciate the space pirate stuff.

Recommend: First one. Not so much this one.

The Crown’s Fate

By: Evelyn Skye

Grade: C

It’s a little bit harder to talk about this one without spoiling the first book. I will say this is the one where I read on Goodreads that the author is thinking about a third book. I probably won’t be continuing. While I did like two out of three of the characters and the end battle was interesting and well done it took too long to draw me in. Missed a lot of the magic from the first book, where Vika and Nikolai dueled with magic at the will of the Czar. I thought the main tension and obstacle was set up in such a way that you knew how it was going to end.

A little disappointing too because once some intriguing mystical Russian folklore elements started to come in they just went nowhere. I suppose that could be the crux of the third book but really this should stay a duology.

Recommend: Eh. I was disappointed but it’s still not an unreasonable conclusion if you really love the characters from the first.

Our Dark Duet

By: Victoria Schwab

Grade: B

This Savage Song was definitely an interesting idea about monsters born from acts of violence and a city overrun by them. I liked that book but I wasn’t overly big on jumping back into this one and the story of Kate and August.

Again, I don’t want to give too much away but for most of the book it as pretty much exactly what I expected. Schwab didn’t flinch on that ending however. Points for that considering I’ve read a lot of YA series with great huge stakes that pull fairy tales out of their butts at the end. (Okay, mostly still smarting over ACOWAR.) So I appreciated that even though I’m also a little uncomfortable with it.

Recommend: Yes. If your a fan of Schwab or like monsters both good and bad.