Book Review: The Grey Wolf Throne

Title: The Grey Wolf Throne
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: Seven Realms (Book 3)

I'm not going to lie, this book seriously disappointed me. The pacing problems that irritated me at the end of The Exiled Queen were prevalent and kind of ruined the story for me. I felt like there was way too much action crammed into this tiny stretch of time, and all the twists and turns were way too much for me. I felt like if the book had progressed at half the speed it actually did that it would have been much better. My hope is that in the next book these pacing issues are resolved and that it slows down to a safer speed.

I also really didn't like the fact that, despite all the action, nothing seemed to really happen in the book. People debated one action for 20 chapters, then made a certain decision. Then they debated another issue for 17 chapters and just kind of left it there to be addressed in the next book. I didn't feel nearly as drawn into the story as I did with the previous two installments. All in all, it felt like the pacing was too fast with not a lot of actual change or content.

LIKES:
+ Despite all the issues I had with it, I still felt attracted to the story. I still cared about what happened to the characters, and I still want to finish the series. Most of the time when I have similar issues with books I want to abandon the series altogether, but not with this one.
+ I liked Raisa's chapters a lot more in this book! I felt like I got to know her better as a character and got to see her develop more, and, besides the last couple of chapters, there was more emphasis on her feelings towards things other than guys.
+ I just liked Raisa more in this book in general. A lot more. I actually like her as a character now, versus being unsure about it earlier in the series. She seemed stronger, and more sure of herself and the actions she wanted to take. I also really liked her actions in the very end of the book.
+ The epilogue. Because it redeemed at least part of the book because in those very short 4 pages the writing seemed more like the first book (which, so far, has been my favorite). I also hated the ending of the book (it was super anticlimactic) but then the epilogue came and everything was kind of okay again.

DISLIKES:
- Han's chapters. After the "big reveal" that Rebecca is Raisa (which was kind of spoiled in the blurb?) he puts his blinders on and wallows in his anger/other negative emotions and it made me not like him as much. Hence why I preferred Raisa's chapters to his.
- The pacing of the book. I already touched on this, but I felt like it was much too fast, but not a lot actually happened in the action-packed chapters.
- The last 12 chapters of the book. Because this is when Raisa being obsessed with all the boys and Han being (kinda?) obsessed with all the girls comes back in full force and I wilted a little inside because I'm really not a fan.
- The cliffhanger because WHY. (I don't know if this is a valid dislike or not because it was part of the epilogue that I loved but...)

So, despite being seriously disappointed, I'm going to continue with the series and really hope that it returns to the awesomeness level of the first and second books. Because I checked out books 1-3 of The Heir Chronicles with my precious limited checkouts from Hoopla so...

See this review on Goodreads.