Review: Midnight of Ashes by Tessa Hale

Midnight of Ashes by Tessa Hale

Series: Dragons of Ember Hollow #2

Publication date: April 19th, 2024

Pages: 252
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

One moment changed everything. A split-second decision to try to save one of my five dragon mates nearly cost my life. And now nothing is the same.

Knox, Cáel, and Cillian treat me like I'll break at any moment, while Maddox keeps a careful distance. And Easton won't look at me at all.

We're supposed to be fated by the stars, but we're falling apart. Enemies still lurk around every corner, but the guys vow we'll be ready when they come.

But evil has a way of striking when you least expect it. And none of us are ready for who might be pulling the strings...

Available at:

Review:

When I read the first book I was less than impressed the structure of the story. However, there was enough in the cliffhanger that made me want to know what happened next. So, as soon as I finished my review I delved into the second book and I was pleased to see that the second book was a little better than the first but there was still a few things I got a little burnt out on.

The resistance of Easton and Maddox is good for a little bit of antagonistic play within the protagonists. The choice made it so that the bond was not sunshine and rainbows from the start. However, over time it started to become a little redundant. Easton resists Hayden because he saw how his brother reacted after losing his mate and didn't want to risk losing his mind the say way if anything should happened to Hayden. That can be understandable to an extent. I do feel that being in a bond with 4 other men that he could possibly find some solace in the fact that where he may fail to protect her, they could possibly take up the mantle and ease some of his worry. But, Maddox's issues kind of flip flop around to make them inconsistent. At first, Maddox was all for the bond, except that he knew he couldn't touch her until she had graduated since he was a professor. He seemed open to the bond except for that simple reasoning. Then somewhere along the way it feels like the author realized that would not be able to be maintained so suddenly Maddox had this traumatic past of him losing his girlfriend and not wanting the same to befall Hayden. Similar to Easton but to the point where he was becoming a hindrance to the rest of the bonds. That started to be feel very forced and disingenuous. It brought about a feeling that the author was desperate to keep the resistance in place and knew that him simply not wanting to mess around with a student would not be a strong foundation to stand on. Maddox went from my favorite character to my absolute least since he suddenly just seemed like a jerk for jerk's sake.

I did enjoy seeing the author push past whatever awkwardness she may have felt in writing sex scenes to give a little more detail of what was happening. There were still a few details that made it hard to figure out what was going on. Who was doing what? What position were they in? All that with so little foreplay and zero pain? It still felt a little lacking but perhaps that is my own high standards after reading books from the likes of H.D. Carlton, Leigh Rivers, and Tate James who are heavy on the details. I wouldn't say it was a complete negative because I could see the improvement, but more a personal standard I had hoped would be utilized.

I will say that the fact that Hayden is constantly getting injured and needing rescuing is getting very old. She offers little to no resistance and continues to constantly be the victim. I would like to see her have a little more fight in her. There was an instance where she wasn't even fighting off a supernatural being and she still couldn't seem to hold her own well enough to not need saving. She's a supernatural creature, how many times is she going to almost die? I assume it is an attempt to show how fragile she is to make Easton and Maddox's resistance more believable but in those situations I would think those two would be more apt to pull her closer because she almost kicked off rather than intensify their distance. I can see the reasoning for it, but can the woman please not be mortally wounded almost every other chapter?

I saw the improvement of the book. I recognized the effort the author made to try to expand on the first book and make it better for her readers. For that, I have to improve my rating. But there are still areas where I would have liked to see more (or less) to make the book something that I would proudly display on my shelf and suggest to fellow readers while waxing on and on about how amazing it is. It remains middle of the road, but I will reserve harsher judgement for when I reach the end of the series.