Synopsis:
As the winter solstice approaches in Myrtlewood, the Yuletide festivities are underway, but the cheer is overshadowed by mysterious winter deaths.
Athena and Rosemary must embark on a perilous journey to the Underworld. Along the way, they uncover clues about a prophecy and encounter allies and adversaries in the dreamrealm. But as they get closer to their goal, they face unexpected challenges and true motives are revealed.
Can they unravel the mysteries of the past before it’s too late? The fate of the future hangs in the balance in this magical tale of fae, gods, and ancient prophecies.
Review:
After reading Unspeakable Magic I’m really not sure if I should continue the series or not. I only have one book left until I’m caught up but the quality has been so up and down that I don’t know what to do. The plot seems to finally be going somewhere but I’m finding it hard to really care about what’s going on.
The previous book had a lot of potential. The plot was getting a little dark and it felt like a real story was starting to form, which feels crazy to say about book eight in a series, but Unspeakable Magic fell really flat for me. I really struggled to get through this book. To the point that I put it down because I wanted to read absolutely anything else. I did push myself to finish it in the end, but at what cost? I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it.
I feel like I’m the only person that feels this way about this series. Every single book, other than the first, has an average rating of over four stars. I don’t know if I’ve rated a single book four stars. It looks like my mind is made up about whether or not I continue, doesn’t it? I’m feeling a bit stubborn though and because there’s only one book left, I’ll probably read it soon (but only because I currently have Kindle Unlimited).
Oftentimes these books are a bit ridiculous and then other times they’ll say something profound like “Evil is a funny concept, don’t you think? The dark is the unknown. The dark is what we suppress, our shadow, the things we hide from, the things we are frightened of in our lives. The dark is the absence of light, but it is not evil. It is necessary, it is powerful.”
Then you get something like “I’m still feeling ripped off about the white light thing,” Rosemary muttered. “Isn’t that what everyone always says about death?” “Oh, Mum, I don’t think this is the normal path to the Underworld. We’ve entered through the back door. They must reserve the light show for the official entrance”. Which I have to admit is pretty funny but it’s said out of nowhere. Most of the conversations in this book (and series) feel so out of context.
Something else that was pretty funny was having a literal god walk into Rosemary’s party and not a single person reacts as if this is a wonder to behold. They’ve encountered a few gods now, but that’s been at big events when something bad is happening. I feel like a god crashing your birthday party deserves something bigger than just “oh hi, you’re here”.
Rosemary spent at least three books struggling to even commit to going on a date with Burk and in Unspeakable Magic he didn’t think twice about going to the Underworld to save her. She really doesn’t deserve him. Again, we got absolutely no relationship progression from them. The relationship and character development feels really stale.
Overall, Unspeakable Magic was ok. Not the worst in the series but definitely not the best either.
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