Accomplice to the Villain

Evie & Trystan are still trying to fulfill the prophecy, save the magic, and finally get together (Evie is here for it, Trystan is trying nobly to stay away). I liked that we got more of Kingsley's story. I have found the traitors in these books to be heartbreaking - we always want them to be strangers but in these stories they are people who are loved and who should love back. It makes the trauma of our main characters more real and gives complexity to their emotional struggles.

Almost all the parents are awful! I got whiplash from going back and forth about whether someone was a bad guy or good guy. There are some unexplained things like why certain people seem to be bespelled in their actions and how the main characters are so forgiving/blase of several assassination attempts. They are so trusting of folks when there are people spying and infiltrating their manor. The chaos and action and witty responses were very entertaining and humorous but frustrating that they always seem several steps behind. I did like the ending but am frustrated I can't find the next in the series to binge it.

This series is my guilty pleasure - it's pure entertainment. Now that we're into book #3 of a 4-book series, the plot revelations are coming at a mad pace, seemingly involving every character in the book. LOL The consistent flaw I find with this series is that seemingly intensely dangerous situations that arise always turn out to be rather harmless things, and that can be rather disappointing to the reader. I wouldn't mind a little more real drama.

Regardless, though, I have been enjoying this series. It's not so light as to be considered fluff, but it's definitely easy reading. The slow burn romance between The Villain and his now-Accomplice finally makes some progress, which is very satisfying. I also like learning more about people show more from Trystan/Clare/Malcolm's family circle. The way this book ended, though, leaves me a little leery of the upcoming final book in the series. I don't like how the roles of The Villain and his Accomplice end up at the end of book #3. I'm fully expecting book #4 to resolve everything to a satisfactory ending, but we'll see how author Hannah Nicole Maehrer manages to get there. show less

I loved the first 2 books in this series. Just pure delight. And while there were sections in this one that felt that way, the plot felt too scattered. It was trying to follow so many different character threads and kept jumping around at the worst moments. I loved the different twists in this book, but I just kept finding myself not wanting to pick it up. I’ll definitely finish the series if there’s another one, but my expectations will be lower.

audiobook fiction - part 3 (of 4?) in series (15hr24m)
The many various wrinkles and turns of plot are fine, but as I'm reasonably confident that the good Villains will eventually prevail and the bad enemies will be tossed off a cliff, I mostly just listen to these for the funny character interactions--Tristan employing what I imagine to be the silliest, bestest manga facial expressions: storming mad, red-faced embarrassed, stupified and completely lovestruck all at once.

This series is one of my favorites. I really like how the characters are developing and the 'found family' at Massacre Manor. We learn a lot of secrets this time around, but there are still some major ones left for the next book.

I loved and was unbelievably annoyed by it, this whole series could’ve been two books, THREE at max. Why make a fourth when you could just cut the clanky filler and horrible millennial style jokes. I loved the first one, kind of liked the second, I enjoyed this book more than the last one by a lot but still why all this random shit, you definitely had no plot at first and discovered it half way through writing. Let’s go back in time and cut the stupid filler from the first 2 so the plot can even out here and be done. 3.75 truly , i’ll read the last one begrudgingly but if there somehow becomes a fifth i’m dropping all books to one star and possibly burning them!