I liked the first few delver’s LLC books but they kinda went off the rails. I introduced one of my friends to it and he pointed out how a lot of stuff didn’t make sense and didn’t agree with some character choices. all in all didn’t think it was amazing but thoroughly enjoyed it enough to recommend at least. but then he wrote a separate tangential series to delvers and put it on hiatus with the nora hazard books. honestly didn’t feel like getting Into a new series in universe so I just waited till he released the 4th book. well apparently the author decided that this offshoot series needed to intersect with delvers in major ways so coming back there’s all sorts of context I just missed. I finished it and thought it was ok and just picked up this one to try it. I’m about halfway through and it really seems like a whole bunch of contrived setup and the author making things happen because he says so. the way the groups split up with additional characters added makes them all less memorable and seem flat by trying to squeeze in so many. this series really feels like it’s gotten to where the plot isn’t character driven at all and they’re sorta just riding along the tides of fate. I think it’s a cool universe and I enjoy the personality of the main group but don’t think I’ll be finishing this addition. halfway through the book almost everything has been setup for something to happen and given the last two of these I read I have a feeling the starts will align to make this a chaotic plot driven forced climax with a lack of depth. as always Jeff hayes is beautiful and the new voice actor threw me for a loop but wasn’t bad by any means. honestly wish they’d released another ELLC arc rather than this. I finished ELLC on RR but pick up their releases just for soundbooths wonderful performance. check out their app or website. they have some cool free and exclusive content on there including sometimes getting to listen to Jeff cold read a book prerelease. it’s surprisingly fun hearing Jeff say “NEW ACHEIVEMENT” multiple times in a row to get the perfect excited (or sometimes breathy) tone.