I had a lot of emotions reading this book. But overall it was nice to see how the characters have developed whether that be good or bad. Some great spicy scenes and great non-spicy impactful scenes as well. THAT CLIFFHANGER THOUGH

i feel like the writing has improved a tiny bit in this book but i'm not sure if it's just that i've gotten so accustomed to it so i don't know if any judgement i make in this review will be accurate. i know a lot of people hated tory in this book but as much as she was frustrating i understood her and i don't think i ever really disliked her. what's crazy is darcy was overwhelmingly my fav twin in the first couple books but i think that's now shifted to tory somehow. i'm probably biased because i too am prideful, stubborn, and constantly self sabotage so who am i to judge? i don't want to spoil anything outside of what is already known from the first 3 books so i'll just say almost all of the characters seemed to make progress only to backtrack or revert to their book 1 antics and it made me want to throw my phone at the wall.

also i have probably already said this a bajillion times but whilst i love darcy + (somewhat like) orion individually i hate their relationship. it's not even that it's forbidden or that it's a student/teacher relationship necessarily (because they are both adults technically) it's the dynamics: in a fantasy world there is definitely the opportunity to make it feel less gross (like how underage drinking in solaria is completely normalised) and that just wasn't the case imo so most of their scenes ick me out so bad. i know he cares about her a lot and does a lot for her but i don't like the way he goes about covering up his favouritism to save face sometimes because he just takes it too far imo. darcy is better than me for sure because i would not have tolerated that even once. the only time she's actually seemed to have a backbone was when she was pissed on tory's behalf, which is pretty in character for her but it's still hard to read. this book would've been rated higher if there was less darcyorion but alas!

i'm interested to see how tory and darius' relationship develops because they're both so similar in the worst ways (for a romantic relationship) and i can't see either of them actually compromising for each other as it stands. i know promises get made and words get said but that's an entirely different issue from either one of them delivering on that. they both have deep rooted trust issues, lack communication, and god knows what else + i have yet to see either of them making significant progress on that but i'm hoping it'll slowly happen over the next books and i am very excited because they have potential. tbh i find it hard to hate either of them because despite their very irritating behaviour i understand them (most of the time) and i feel like they have understandable reasons for their twisted logic.

the plot outside of the relationships was insane in the best way pretty much every time i had to put this down i was anxious to pick it back up. i was probably being overly paranoid because there was a lot of long slice of life type of scenes but i just felt the vague feeling of imminent threat the whole time and it was making me super anxious. i feel like the authors kinda make a lot of this stuff as they go along when it comes to the worldbuilding but that's part of what makes it so fun for me to read cause a lot of it feels very balls-to-the-wall crazy and unhinged. even the twins being mary sues is really fun for me cause it just feels really self indulgent whenever they're not fighting for their lives i love it! also yes this book was unnecessarily long but i love these characters and this world so idc!! 

No book has ever made me as angry as this one, I wanted to punch the screen multiple times. I grew to hate all of the main characters because of their stupidity and refusal to learn from mistakes we've seen them make over and over throughout the series, and I'm still not convinced it was worth finishing it. I persevered this far based on reviews saying the series improved in books four and five but this was the most infuriating one yet. Rather than having character development they actually got worse; for a bunch of characters who are meant to be at least 18 they were unbelievably immature and really haven't had much real character development. Perhaps that is down to the bizarre pacing of this series because while we have slogged through four increasingly, unnecessarily long books, only about one semester has passed in the plot, with most of the books being filled out with constant repetitive bullying. Not to mention this book was filled with my two least favourite lazy tropes: miscommunication and the dreaded betraying body trope. I wanted to shake the characters and scream at them so many times. Take tory for example,

rejecting Darius and becoming star crossed

was the most sensible decision she made when it came to him. 
I'm torn over whether or not I want to continue reading this series. I'm a sucker for magical academy settings and I'm desperate to see the Vega's grow into their powers and earn their place on the throne but it feels like these authors refuse to let them catch a break. Any time there is hope for them the Heirs or Lionel do something even more horrific to them (and then no doubt a vega will "get back at them" by immediately screwing them *cough* toxic Torius *cough* and make me want to throw my phone at a wall), so I don't know if I could put up with more of the inevitable bullying and abuse.

What the fuck was that ending for? Do the writers ENJOY inflicting that kind of heartbreak?!
Honestly this book had me along the entire spectrum of emotion, turning my love for some characters into hatred and my hatred for other characters into love. 
There wasn’t a great character development for the main and side characters, whilst one characters development crashed and burned entirely.

if Orion is dead I’ll scream. 
I can’t believe Tory and Darius and Elysian Mates, it doesn’t really make sense. Yes their desire is deep but their hatred CLEARLY ran deeper. It makes me question whether Darcy and Orion are mates because his love outweighed any other feeling and responsibility he had.
I wouldn’t mind if Tory died, sacrificing herself for Darcy as she keeps foreshadowing. Soon, ideally.
I get the reason she had for rejecting the bond, but did she really HAVE to reject it anyway? She saw that her mother loved her evil father despite his flaws, why couldn’t she follow suit?!
Diego is 100% evil, I’m calling it.
If book 5 doesn’t mend my heartbreak then idk what I’m going to do

Xavier is the best character. Nobody else will compare. If he dies I’ll scream.