catearphanatic
SPOILER ALERT!!! I absolutely ADORED the first book (I still do) and I had high expectations of this book, that were partially met. Now, don't get me wrong I really, really liked this book and it was just so wonderful to dive back into Noemi and Abel's world and find myself back among the characters that grew so close to my heart and I am absolutely looking forward to reading the next installment. However, there were a few things that made the book not quite as good as its predecessor. My main problem with the book, I think, was the ending. It just felt like the author ran out of air and patience. Admittedly, I read the whole book in one sitting which might have influenced my perception but I did the same thing with the first book, staying up until even 6am because I couldn't put it down, and I didn't have the same problems there. To me it felt like the final climax was the scene were Abel and Noemi blow up Simon and then Virginia comes to save their asses. Before that we have just tension, hardly anything happens where we're allowed to breathe and relax. However after Simon is put out of commission there aren't any dangers left and we have a significant fall in tension. The story seems to have ended. Which it has not. After the final confrontation with Simon Noemi and Abel leave Haven and meet up with their allies in order to save Genesis, which would have been totally fine, if Gray hadn't decided to put in another climatic plot point. At this point I was ready for the story to end but it kept dragging on and on. The end of the story is Akide shooting Noemi and it just felt so rushed. There was no build-up to the last plot point and it was resolved way too fast. Abel witnesses Noemi's life almost literally slipping out of his arms and we hardly get any emotional response from him. Yes, of course he's desperate and we wipes tears away that he didn't even know he had shared but in the end everything felt a little bit dull and as just a set up for the next book. Hell, we got more emotions from Abel when Noemi was sick with Cobweb. In my opinion the ending should have been postponed to the beginning of the third book. I guess, I can understand why it was put at the end of Book 2 in order to get more people to buy Book 3. But I feel like the better Cliffhanger would have been Earth attacking Genesis and then BOOM: The end. It would have been totally sufficient and held everyone's attention. It would have let the plot point of Akide's betrayal a lot more room to breathe. Abel could have not been able to control all Mechs or any of them at all and Akide could have been motivated by the desperation of a fight they didn't know they could win. It would have made everything a lot more intense and suspenseful and would have given Akide's action a much more better background and it wouldn't have felt rushed or half-assed. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I wish this were canon. We would have started the third book with an awesome battle and Noemi almost dying at the beginning of the book. It would have had more shock value and it would have prevented Book 3 to start exactly where Book 2 had. We're back at that point where Noemi is in trouble and Abel has to give himself up to save her. It just feels like nothing that happened in Book 2 matters at all, now that we've come full circle again. So practically, I really liked the book up to the end, especially because the pacing was just so much better in Book 1. I hope Book 3 will deal with this issue better and that the beginning won't be as disappointing as I fear it might be.
