Cherie's Reviews > Glow of the Everflame

Oh boy. This book started off so strong! I read for the characters, and I seriously struggled with this one about 30% in.

Diem has long straddled the line of unsympathetic MC for me and this cinched it because she made many unwise, really illogical decisions, which I get were part of her character arc, but I think what the book needed were moments of the reader actually liking her once or twice between 35% to 80%. Because it's first person and she's completely unlikable as she treats her friends and family in petulant, rude ways, it was very hard to stay engaged. Her treatment of Luther was bizarre and cruel, which made it very hard to buy her "empathetic queen of the people" persona. I found myself yelling at my Kindle and threatening to throw it out my window multiple times because of how frustratingly unbelievable her actions were.

The "I'm going to save everyone" bit, especially for the ball and the Guardians - that really just ruined my suspension of disbelief. It's completely fine if Diem thinks up an asinine idea to give away her entire country's state secrets to save 200 terrorists. What I couldn't believe is that LUTHER, who this entire time was being set up as the guy who was raised to be a smart king, thought of that brilliant idea. His blind need to agree with Diem on every turn and do whatever she needs without question pushed him into simping territory for me sadly, as he seemed to completely lose his spine around her.

I won't even get started on Henri, Aemonn, and the very confusing love square (?) that was going on.

I think my greatest issue, though, was the lack of setup and payoff. Diem's father dying one scene after we see him for the first time in a while held no emotional impact for me because there was no foreshadowing that that was about to happen. I would have loved a few more scenes with him. We see so little of him throughout both books, and most of his lines are remembrance lines that Diem remembers, so his death felt hollow and I couldn't relate to Diem and Teller's grief. There were moments when I felt things were just happening to the characters because it needed to move the plot, which really pulled me out of the novel.

I don't usually write long scathing reviews but it's clear that Penn Cole has put in a lot of effort for it to be at the level of Maas and Broadbent, and I think it's absolutely doable. Just at a macro level, I think the characterizations need major work to stay engaging.