I don't think anybook that I can name over 20 different  content warnings for could be recommended. Also, weird to have condemnation arc for main characters. 

I have very mixed feelings about this book. For most of the book it felt like the characters had regressed and I was basically reading book 2 all over again. All the gaslighting and falling for the gaslighting was getting quite tedious. I had decided to take a break from the series after this book. But these books also keep throwing me some curveballs and just when I think I know what’s coming, I am pleasantly surprised. The ending sucked me right back in.

The ending had me in a chokehold…I can’t wait to read the next book. 
I love the twins but in this book I had a little love hate for Tory. 

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!! 

So these books are enormous. They are all 500+ pages, and for the most part, we are focusing on Tory and Darcy's story. We also have the same cast for most of these books as well. I'm finally grasping who is who when the POV changes, but this one, we are starting to pull away from the school some. We're starting to focus more on the world. I was obsessed with it because these twins were born into a family that's supposed to rule over this world that we have no knowledge of outside of school. Plus, we got to spend more time with the guys. However, things are starting to get stale with them. Literally, the whole time, it is like 3 steps forward and then instantly a million steps backward, and it's been really rough getting through all of this. I wish we started wrapping things up since these books are so ginormous, but it's like always waiting on the next foot to drop. 

So the fae celebrates Christmas?🤨 

I now understand the heavy criticism of this book series. This book is the best example to prove all of the points. And I'm too annoyed to write a polite review.  But one thing tho, Why the author did the twins so dirty? Even the prostitutes in dark romances have better sense of judgement and a spine but these twins.. Hah!