One-Sentence Summary:
In the finale to the Crown of Feathers Trilogy, Veronyka must face off against some of her only remaining family in order to bring peace to the empire and safety for animages and Phoenix Riders.
My Review:
This book completely blew me away and my standards were already sky-high!
First, I want to talk about Veronyka, the main protagonist, and consequently Tristan too. In the past, I haven’t always loved her for reasons I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but in my rereads of the first two books and in reading Wings of Shadow, she really grew as a character to me. Veronyka is criticized throughout the series for occasionally being naïve or entitled (because of her relationship with Tristan), but no one can insult her abilities in WoS. In standing up to her sister and trying to take her place as heir, Veronyka becomes so much more powerful, especially once she sheds any self-loathing remaining from her abilities with shadow magic. While I love Avalkyra as well, Veronyka showed her love for her companions and care for their well-being in so many ways that made me want her to win. Tristan was also amazing, and one of the things I never get over is how in his relationship with Veronyka, he doesn’t question anything. Nothing about her could make him draw back and the two of them complement each other so well, a quality I wish I saw more of in the young adult genre. He and Veronyka contributed so much to each other’s personalities in so many positive ways, and his confidence grew so much in tandem with hers.
Secondly, MORE ABOUT AVALKYRA. She’s so amazing. Throughout most of the book, I was thinking, “Oh, she’s cool but she’s horrifying!” and that didn’t change much. 😂 Val’s point of view is so incredible and insightful to the story because it shows her complete disregard for others. Val is power hungry and driven, a deadly combination that both impressed and scared me. She doesn’t hesitate to go for what she wants, which is a quality I actually wish I could see in more PROtagonists.
Next, Sev!!! He frustrated me SO MUCH. Sev has always been my favorite, but in WoS he was different from before. Knowing what he does about what Kade has after Heart of Flames, he’s so scared that he’s irrelevant to Kade and the Phoenix Rider cause, which both made so much sense and bothered me so much. I wanted to go into the book and give him a hug and tell him he’s amazing! His mind was another one that I loved seeing into because of how much he had changed. It was so clear to me that he became so much more confident and heroic from Crown of Feathers to here, even if he didn’t think so. Especially in the last hundred pages of the book, I was just so excited to see his journey. My only critique for his point of view was that I wanted so much more!
Lastly for characters, Sparrow and Elliot. My brain labeled them as unnecessary for a while because they weren’t the “core three” point of view characters, but these two have so much. For one thing, I thought it was so amazing that Sparrow was the one to connect so much to [REDACTED] as opposed to the others. Sparrow understands animal magic in a much more powerful way than most of the cast, which is so cool to explore. Her relationship with Elliot is also amazing, especially because it’s so ambiguous. They care for each other a lot, but there isn’t a word that could describe the two besides “loyalty”. I don’t have too much to say about these characters without spoilers, but I wish I could tell Past Lydia not to disregard them in Heart of Flames.
I also just want to talk about the world and plot. I finished this book, which is about 600 pages, in three hours. I’ve seen people complain about pacing issues in book one, but this doesn’t have any of those. 😂 Secondly, Pau Preto is just so talented in writing the world around the characters! Usually I’m horrible at keeping track of politics, countries, and more, but she makes use of the elder characters and interstitials between chapters to give the most information possible to truly show the extent to which she’s familiar with the world she created. One of my last points is still about the characters, but more about the writing of them. There are so many parallels to the first two books in Wings of Shadow, which I love because of how much my favorites have grown! Between Veronyka growing into her title and Sev being selfless without a second thought, my attachment to these characters and pride in them only grows with every word Nicki Pau Preto writes. She’s clearly grown as a writer, and so to have her characters grown as people in the best ways possible. I cried a lot with the end to this story, but I can’t wait to see what she does next!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Fiction Feature 