*SPOILERS*
4.5 stars
Ok I really liked this book. And it's interesting because I rarely like flashback books, I'm usually like ok let's get on with the story. But I really enjoyed reading about how Violet and The Shadow Prince met.
My favourite part of this book (aside from seeing the prince and Violet interact) was the lack of Elijah. The man was not mentioned a single time except for a little annotation at the end. I have a lot of questions about Elijah though, but I will talk about that later.
In the first chapter we get a flashback to Violet when she was eight and we see that she is very close to an orphaned boy named Zagan. Immediately you probably assume that this Zagan boy is going to become the Shadow Prince because he was never mentioned by anyone in the first book.
(I got a small heart attack when Zagan called Adriel "aunt" because like hello? I was full-on ready to ship him and Violet as adults. But false alarm, they're not actually related at all)
We learn that Zagan leaves at the age of eight and Violet never sees him again. (Well for a couple of years at least)
Over a decade later, a proposal is made to the Radiant court on behalf of the Shadow Prince, to establish peace between the two courts through a marriage. So basically Violet and the prince are to get married. Violet goes to this creepy mansion where the prince supposedly resides but she doesn't find anyone there other than an old lady called "the crone" (how charming)
For quite a while, the only people Violet talks to are Killian (a little at the start) and the master of arms (I think?) Of the the Shadow court named Maxim.
We get a little backstory for Killian and Violet's relationship and it is very clear that Killian is fully in love with Violet. She, on the other hand, doesn't feel the same way and even reveals to him that she never has felt any attraction to anyone or has never been turned on by anyone. She therefore thinks that she cannot experience these types of feelings.
This felt very strange to me because, from what we saw in the last book, she definitely had plenty of sexual attraction to Elijah. And I thought that they would've already met at this point. But then again, since she never mentions him perhaps not.
Maxim is entertaining, I really liked his presence and it compensated for the lack of G content that we received. Again, from the impression I got from the last book, I thought that G and Violet had a much deeper relationship than the one that was explained in this book. It felt like G was just this archangel that worked for her mother and occasionally saw Violet. Really not much more than that.
Regarding Maxim though, I feel like he's hiding something? Violet keeps referencing these revolution posters throughout the book and when she asks Maxim about the court and the revolution, he tells her a story about the Shadow King who allegedly abandoned everyone and just left because he was sick of his job? (That's the impression I got anyway) He also has these two lackies, Stefan and some other dude who's name I forgot.
And when Violet stumbles across a group of revolutionaries chanting "welcome to the new age" over and over again like they're in some kind of maddened cult, the lackies stop Violet and tell her that she shouldn't go get any closer to the cult members. (Seems like a reasonable thing for them to do)
Violet asks the lackies whether or not Maxim knows about this and they just share a look and boom we just move on.
Hold up? Can we just back up for a sec? That was super suspicious.
Violet: "Hey does your friend know about this cult?"
The lackies:👀👀
Is that a yes? Because to me it sounds like Maxim could potentially be the leader of said cult.
Also another really strange thing is when Violet asks Maxim to invite the Court to a dinner at the creepy mansion. He literally tells her "yep they accepted the invite, they'll be here tonight" and then a random dude glamoured to look like Killian shows up and gets in a fight with the Shadow Prince. Then it's revealed that the court were never even coming in the first place? Like what? Maxim my dear, are you secretly evil? Are you working with the new villain?
Which brings me to villain. The Contessa I think she's called? Basically she is said to have raised the Prince and completely messed him up. It's revealed that she's the one who issued the marriage proposal because she wanted Violet and The prince to get together so she manipulated their dreams to get them to be attracted to each other. I mean you and me both bestie, I'm rooting for them too but why do you want them to be together? I don't understand.
And now let's talk about the Shadow Prince. So at first, he seemed like he wasn't even there but he was, he was just watching her from the shadows (creepy much?)
And then whenever Violet would try to get close to him or talk to him he would just tell her to leave.
Throughout the whole book, it is very apparent that the two of them have this undeniable attraction to each other (which is a first for Violet and probably for him too)
Violet seems ready to jump in bed with him and get to know him but he keeps trying to push her away.
She asks him questions like "what's you name?" "Where is your family?" And he just goes "I don't have a name or a family"
Ok so clearly he doesn't want to have anything to do with her.
They keep having this back and forth where he tells her to leave and she doesn't listen. We eventually find out that the reason he doesn't want her to stay is because he feels like he won't be able to control his feelings for much longer and he doesn't want his dark side to ruin her. Basically he sees himself as a monster and she's all like "no you're beautiful" (yk all those touchy feelings)
Then out of nowhere she tells him "there's is good and light in you, I know it, I've seen it, I saw it a long time ago" and then she just calls him "Zagan"
Like I'm not surprised that he's Zagan but since when does she know it's him? It's never explained how she found out or when but I guess she just does? I don't know.
They end up sleeping together, although the only reason it happens is because Zagan thought he was dying (from his fight with fake Killian) and that he would never see her again and therefore, wouldn't ruin her. But shortly after, he tells Violet to leave (I swear that's the only thing that man can do)
As Violet prepares to finally listen to him and leave, the crone stops her and tells her she must stay and "help the dying Halfling find the Light again"
This is when we find out that Zagan is both a child of Shadow and light (which would make sense considering Violet thought Zagan was a Radiant when they were children)
This is also why The Contessa wants him, because as a Halfling, Zagan is the most powerful being. (Why she wants Zagan and Violet together though, I still don't know)
A few minutes after this revelation, Violet gets attacked by the Contessa and Zagan tries to save her. The Contessa reveals that Zagan and Violet are connected through the Vinculum and are the next millennium's fated mates pair. This is why they only felt attracted to each other. Now this is where I got really confused and where all my questions about Elijah come in.
I thought Elijah and Violet were fated mates and linked together. If Violet can only feel an attraction to her linked partner, Zagan, why does she feel so attracted to Elijah? (I'm assuming her real partner is Zagan because they were born on the same day and Elijah revealed in the first book that his original fated mate had been killed)
So why does she feel equally attracted to the both of them when clearly, Zagan was made for her? Why does she even have a connection to Elijah if he was the previous millennium's prism? And most importantly, what even is Elijah's purpose to the story?? Like I'm sorry that your partner got killed off as a baby but Violet is already paired off, go find someone else.
At the end of the book we join back to the moment in the timeline that began the first book, Violet lost her memory and ended up in Elijah's cabin. That means that Violet and Elijah had never even met??? Why did it feel like they had had a previous relationship in the first book?
And one last thing that confuses me about the first book are the flashbacks. (Yk the ones she got in her dreams)
When I first read them I thought they were flashbacks, right? You know the one where she was running through the halls searching for HIM and when she found him he told her she shouldn't have come and that he wouldn't be able to control himself. Or the one where she says that she loves him and he still thinks he's unworthy of her love. Or the one where she knows he's watching her and she pretends she doesn't know he's watching and all she's thinking is how she wants him.
Those flashbacks are obviously about Zagan right? But we've seen the extent of their relationship from their introduction at the start of the marriage to when Violet finally gets her memories back. None of those things ever happened.
And even if these were somehow about Elijah and not Zagan, we've seen the extent of their relationship too, which only began when Violet knew nothing about her previous self. Again NONE of those things ever happened.
And now I'm scared because am I gonna have to go through a book full of Elijah and Violet? Because at the end of this book, Violet subconsciously left Zagan to go to Elijah. And I know we've already read what happens after but maybe it's some sort of foreshadowing?
I hope not because I can't go through that.