Ais (1)

Well... this was depressing. Though I didn't walk around crying my eyes out (I saved that for Fade), there was always a general feel of listlessness around me. I didn't really want to do anything else aside from reading THIS. PARTICULAR. BOOK. I tried to resist, believe me, but nothing held my attention: no manga, no fanfiction, no TV series, and not even life in general.

The fragile truce from the end of Evenfall, which allowed our protagonists a bit of respite, is swiftly coming to an end. show more Sin's hallucinations are getting steadily worse, causing him to distance himself more and more from Boyd. Not that the latter suspects much, what with the unexpected offer to try out for a promotion.

Even though a 3-month isolation seems perfect for Boyd's 'safety', Sin is not entirely convinced that he can defeat his daemons on his own. Add to that, Kassian's rather close friendship with Boyd, and our resident super-assassin is not a happy camper. As far as he's concerned, Kassian should just restrict his advice to other level 10 trainees.

If only Boyd weren't so dismissive. Then maybe our two protagonists could talk things through, and Sin's mental health would stop its descent into utter despair. Maybe...

For all that I love Sin in all his gloriously murderous and prickly package, I could always relate much more to Boyd. Every single one of Boyd's decisions from this book felt completely understandable to me.

They weren't necessarily kind, and often times utterly painful to witness, seeing as I, the reader, was also privy to Sin's side of things. Still, those two didn't communicate in any way, so from that point of view I could totally see myself making the exact same decisions. And I say all this while having my heart broken all over again over Sin's declining mental health.

Score: 4.7/5 stars

This book was long! I mean truly enormous, with a lot of passages I could've done without. At one point I even started picturing the ridiculousness of Boyd's innumerable inner musings. It felt as if replying to even the simplest question would first cause him go through a half-hour mope fest. It's a wonder no one picked up-- oh wait, never mind.

This book was addictive enough to not let me be able to concentrate on anything else. I wanted to put my entire life on pause, and just immerse myself in the books. And that ending: just plain brilliant. It made me feel equal parts excited, angry, elated, annoyed as well as hopeful.
This level of obsession alone warrants a 5-star rating. Dia darling, you've ruined me for anything outside this series *wails*

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Review of vol1 book 1: Evenfall: Volume 1: Director's Cut
Review of vol2 book 1: Evenfall: Volume 2: Director's Cut
Review of book 3: The Interludes
Review of book 4: Fade show less

After the jarring roller-coaster ride that the previous book put me through, I was in urgent need of a break. Something lighter that wouldn't try to shred my feelings every step of the way. I almost managed the switch to Netflix... for about a minute, or two... until I decided to sneak juuuuuuuuust a small peek into the third book. And the rest is history.

I was expecting to be hit with yet another bout of depression, but somehow ended up laughing hysterically right from the first few pages. show more No one can resist Emilio Vega's charms. He can waltz in on Carhart having sex, nonchalantly wait for the guy to finish, then brazenly demand to move in... and I'd just nod, and point out the be-- er couch. Definitely the couch.
Logically, I knew I should've been appalled on the woman's behalf, but all I could manage was some baffled gaping, followed by manic laughter. *swoons*

The Interludes were juuuust the thing to get me out of the post-Afterimage blues: they were funny, bitter-sweet, cute, occasionally heart-wrenchingly painful, but most of all simply... perfect. It was like my favorite feel-good fanfiction, that gives a brief glimpse into the characters' more domestic activities. It even let me indulge in "forbidden" fantasies, but most importantly: it provides irrefutable proof that the authors always know best.

In other words: for all that I may find Boyd and Kass totally sizzling together, nothing compares to the perfection that is Boyd and Hsin as an OTP.

I wish I had stopped to savor this book more, instead of jumping head-first into the sequel.

Score: 5/5 stars

This was hands down my favorite of the four (or was it five?) ICoS books. For all that it took me 4 days to get through, by the end of it I felt like not even a day has passed.
I honestly have no idea what else I was up to during the reading process... I mean, my time sheet is proof that I must've gone to work at some point, so that's a good thing. Hopefully. *cringes*

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Review of vol1 of book 1: Evenfall: Volume 1: Director's Cut
Review of vol2 of book 1: Evenfall: Volume 2: Director's Cut
Review of book 2: Afterimage
Review of book 4: Fade show less

After the rather ominous ending of the prequel, I felt ready to jump into Boyd's lengthy undercover mission, and yearn alongside him for the much anticipated reunion with Hsin... but the authors had a completely different idea about that. They skipped right through those particular horrors, and straight into the utter despair of a changed home life.

When I say that a book made me cry, I normally think of a few sniffles I let loose at the end, generally at the expense of children or animals show more suffering. In here, I was in full on sob-fest for the duration of the first 200+ pages, and still felt the need for the occasional encore later on. Since I read an average of about 50 pages/hour, I'm sure you can appreciate the lovely Sunday I've been having. Yes, I'm that slow... moreso when things get depressing.

So I resorted to reading reviews, to try and assure myself that things couldn't possibly be at their worst... only to quickly move back to reading the actual book, for fear of spoilers. When the oppressive depression got too bad, I considered mixing things up with some feel-good fanfiction of what-if scenarios from Vermont, but my mind kept being pulled back into Boyd's inevitably bleak, if surprisingly determined, present mindset.

In essence, this book felt like one big package of a never ending list of unfairness, starting with the new Marshall, ending with Vivian Beaulieu's raison d'être, and interspersed with every single one of Boyd's anguished screams.

... so I totally had to come back later, to reread all those shmexy and fluffy scenes I was too stressed to properly appreciate before.

Score: 4.7/5 stars

ICoS was such a contradictory series for me. On the one hand it has all the writing pet-peeves that I ran away from in M/F stories, and it's depressing enough to be perpetually illustrated by wind-swept, and rain-soaked greyscale GIFs.

But at the same time, it's also a love story between two wonderful, broken and incredibly twisted men, that has kept me obsessed for a month a half now. Despite the insane amount of pain, suffering and overall unfair situations that Boyd and Hsin are constantly thrown into, I could weather through them all, knowing that there would be a final scene, with them riding off into the sunset. What can I say: I'm such a sucker for the happily-ever-after.

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Review of vol1 of book 1: Evenfall: Volume 1: Director's Cut
Review of vol2 of book 1: Evenfall: Volume 2: Director's Cut
Review of book 2: Afterimage
Review of book 3: The Interludes show less

Mexico: the place to let loose, indulge in life's forbidden pleasures, and reward the loyal reader who suffered through an inordinate amount of UST in volume 1.
Far enough from the Agency's threatening reach, yet close enough to other, much more dangerous, entities' claws, Sin and Boyd can finally relax. As soon as they're done complaining about Monterrey's sweltering July heat.

Old city of Monterrey

Luckily (for the frustrated reader) our two protagonists don't waste too much time to grant show more us a very explicit glimpse into their more heated encounters. And it's a testament to the authors' writing prowess, that despite looking forward to it the minute they set foot on Mexican soil, I was just as invested in all of Boyd's inner musings, with all his self doubt, self blaming, and random angry outbursts. If it hadn't been for other characters pointing out his lack of professionalism, I would have been ready to storm the Agency's HQ alongside him.

From the secondary characters, I very much enjoyed Kassian Trovosky's scenes, the Agency's only other level 10 agent. I sincerely adore every single snide comment that Sin may deign to throw at us, but Kassian's completely different approach to missions was a joy to get through. I'm sooo looking forward to meeting him again in Afterimage. Heck, I haven't been so keen to pair up a character, since my Harry Potter fanfiction craze.

Score: 4.8/5 stars

For about a week after finishing I couldn't concentrate on anything else. I felt so emotionally drained, that I just wanted to lose myself in Sin and Boyd-shaped fantasies. Their relationship brought to mind all those brilliantly written Harry/Draco fanfiction, that had me forget to live, if it meant I could read another chapter.

While it's not quite perfect, with plenty of boring scenes of Boyd casing out his surroundings, or the inexplicable fast-forward of the protagonists' post-mission meet up, not to mention all that Mexican slang that should've been linked as footnotes, it's been a long time since I got so excited about a series and its characters. Yay for my first 5-star read of the year!

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Review of vol1 of book 1: Evenfall: Volume 1: Director's Cut
Review of book 2: Afterimage
Review of book 3:The Interludes
Review of book 4: Fade show less