Rating: 5 out of 10

Everyone loves Assassin's backstories, and I'm no exception. When I saw this Winglets short was centered around Deathbringer, I immediately put it on my to-read list.

However... after getting to read it, let's just say I was quite disappointed by how it turned out.

Don't get me wrong, I liked it. The story was entertaining and gave Deathbringer an interesting background, but... I feel like it lacked something. I wish the book had followed Deathbringer during more time than it did (maybe months or even years instead of a few days) and showed more of his opinions and thoughts than it did.

Prisoners, the first book from Winglets, was told using a unique letter-based narrative and a first-person POV which made it so special. This book, on the other hand, was exactly like any other Wings of Fire book, losing the charm this Winglets series promised. You probably can guess I'm not very happy about it.

I've always been a huge fan of Deathbringer, so I was quite mad when he was made a background character after the third or fourth book, acting solely as Glory's boyfriend. This book could've been a great opportunity to expand on him, but I feel like it just wasn't done. Deathbringer's cocky but caring personality wasn't there at all (his voice sounded dull and generic, something very uncharacteristic of him), and his inner monologue wasn't present enough.

In conclusion, Assassin pretty much let me down. Despite it being such a short book (only 60 pages!) I had to put it down quite a few times, which is anything but a compliment. I know the author can do better than this, though, and I have hopes for the next installments on this short book series!