Having my birth mother back in my life? To say it’s a big transition is an understatement. Especially when she’s basically a stranger to me, and I’m not sure yet whether I can trust her to be any more maternal than the average fearmancer parent (which, spoiler, isn’t much).

Unfortunately, the other barons aren’t giving me time to ease into the situation. They’ve turned their sights on my fellow scions and newfound lovers, putting them under fire from far too close to home.

As if that wasn’t enough, an unsettling plan is unfolding that threatens every student on campus. I’m starting to think there’s more at stake here at Villain Academy than I ever suspected.

While I’m facing uncomfortable revelations at every turn, can I find the strength to protect everyone I care about?

I’ve made it my mission to finish this book series, it has spend way too long sitting in my kindle library. I keep coming and going from it and while that approach works with some series, it really doesn’t for this.

This is book 6 in an 8-book series, and I have some thoughts. Firstly, I found myself thinking that it was dragging on a little. Towards the final section of the book, I found myself loosing focus and slipping out of engagement.

The characters have changed again. The majority sit on the ‘grey’ character scale. But we have new interlopers.

As usual, Rory is leading the team with her bizarre level of strength, determination, and resilience that can only come together on the page of a book. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy book heroines so much, because they can survive more than a realistic human can. I’ll say this for Rory, she has ups and downs, she has moments that have the ability to shatter her, but she handles it gracefully. She handles it with a level head and she’s starting to understand the benefits of playing the long game.

Connar, who you could argue was the first to make Rory smile goes through a challenging time in this book. Whisked away by his mother, he comes back with a different personality. A personality that is particularly aggressive when it comes to Rory. It’s a lot for her to handle. Luckily for Connar, he has Rory and the other scions on his side, and they work together to help him ‘see the light’ again, if you will.

Jude also goes through a lot but in a more subtle way – until he spills all at least. Jude has been carrying a secret upon his shoulders that has severely weighed down his shoulders. Rory (and the reader) have known this secret for quite a time, but the other scions were in the dark. I always wondered when this secret would be revealed and how the other scions would react to it – I was not disappointed.

Declan takes a sort of back seat in this book, I think at lot of what he has gone through and overcome was smaller in comparison to the other characters, so in this book especially, while they are trying to overcome their difficulties, his character takes a backseat. We do see some interaction between him and his younger brother Noah who has finally arrived at Blood U, but this mostly just cements what we already knew of Declan as a character.

Malcom, who I have hated, and now grudgingly accept is now a morally grey character. Something I never thought I would be able to say about him. His complete 180-character shift has at times, felt forced and not character canon. I definitely feel like there could have been more depth involved in his character shift to make it feel less sudden than it was. I also think Rory could have explored more of her depth and twisted feelings for him as the shift occurred – but clearly Eva Chase had other plans – which is fine also.

Althea. Now, she’s new. SPOILERS (skip the next 2 paragraphs if you don’t want to know).

Althea is Rory’s birth mother, found alive at the end of book 5. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from this character but with a Malcom shaped hate hole in my heart, I now have a new target to fill it. I’m not even sure why I was surprised, knowing that in the past her mother and Baron Nightwing got on like a house on fire. I suppose I expected more emotion from a family reunion who has spent the last eighteen years apart. I do not like Althea one bit. She is designed that way. She is written that way. But as a reader I don’t know what her deal is. I don’t know what her opinions are. I don’t know what she champions and what she detests. Other than falling in with the views of the other villainous Barons, I have no clue as to her personality. Her interactions with Rory put nothing at ease. There is a particular moment in this book where her actions directly impact Rory in a negative manner and there have been very few times when I’ve read a book where I want to yank a character through the pages of a book and flail them alive! I DON’T LIKE HER.

Rory’s expectations of her mother’s return were as curious as the readers but quickly snuffed out like a burning flame. The addition of her birth mother has added a level of complexity to Rory’s character that I didn’t know was required to set the plot up for some big (final) crescendo ending. What that final ending will be – I haven’t the foggiest idea – but her presence has at least urged Rory’s character to adapt and evolve into a new era of self. I think it will take all of Rory’s training thus far, to be able to play the long game and come out on top.

No more spoilers now.

I feel like we’re on the home stretch now with the series, but everything is geared up to create havoc rather than calmed down to make a peaceful ending. I don’t want to say that ‘anything is possible’ but I do envision several possible ways in which the series to work towards before making a final descent. My hope, of course, is for a HEA but at what cost? I’m not so sure.