One–Sentence Summary:
In the sequel to Striking Distance, Kings Row goes to France to train at a prestigious fencing camp alongside rivals.
My Review:
Oh. My. Gosh.
I’ve been waiting for Disarmed for months and it did not disappoint.
First of all, characters!!! They were all arguably my favorite part of the book, which is fun since I wasn’t a big Nicholas fan to start with and usually I don’t like new characters. In Disarmed there were a million new people, like Melodie, Bastien, Marcel, and more, and I loved all of them! Additionally, there was more of Jesse, Bobby, and Dante, which I’m always up for.
There was also more character development! To be slightly vague, Seiji started to take social cues a bit (and his dad does NOT know what’s going on), Nicholas learned more, Harvard became more assertive, and Aiden cared for people other than Harvard!!! I was honestly so proud of all of the boys, this book was so adorable.
Now, for the opposite of adorable, ANGST. Y’all. We got PLENTY in Disarmed. People who get too many texts from me know that one of my many wishes for Disarmed (most of which came true) was for Aiden to be mean to Harvard and for Harvard to reciprocate. I felt like it was really important that they realized the other was far from perfect and that there was some new element to a twelve-year friendship. I’m really glad we got to see at least a bit of that, but I can’t say too much since the book literally came out yesterday.
There were only a couple negatives in my opinion and they were just that I had a couple wishes that weren’t fulfilled. I really wanted to see more of Aiden interacting with his almost-stepmother Rosina, but that didn’t happen. I also wanted an Aiden/Harvard match ending in a very angry confession of feelings, but that also didn’t happen. Lastly, I just wanted some Kally and Tanner content. They weren’t terribly important in the comics, but I really would’ve liked to see them at some point in the traditional book series.
Overall, I loved Disarmed!!! I’m so proud of all of the characters in their development and loved every second of their journeys at Camp Menton. Fans of Striking Distance and the comics will love Disarmed if they read it!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Fiction Feature 