Intense. That's the first word that comes to mind when I sit down to try to put my thoughts together to review Exodus by Kate Stewart. After reading the first book in this duet, Flock, I knew that I was in for another wild ride, but I had no idea just how wild, how intense that ride would be.
Exodus picks up exactly where Flock left off. Cecilia has lost her boys of summer and has come face-to-face with The Frenchman. The story quickly goes into a direction that I wasn't quite expecting, and I can't say that was really happy about it. My feelings were quite torn in the beginning of this book, only because it wasn't working out the way that I wanted, the way that I'd hoped. Then there was one moment where I thought "Oh! OK, here we go!"
After that, all bets were off and this story became one of the most emotional, gut wrenching, heartbreaking stories that I've read in a very long time. Kate Stewart is a MASTER storyteller. She doesn't just tell you the story. You LIVE the story. You feel every emotion right along with every character, and sometimes, it's almost too much. There were so many times throughout this book that I thought I knew where the story was headed and then BAM! A twist, a turn, a bombshell would be dropped and it would take off in another direction, taking my heart right along with it.
The Ravenhood Duet is by far one of my top reads of 2020. You don't just read it, live it...you survive it. My heart feels like it's been put through the wringer. I both wanted to get to the end to see how it played out, but at the same time, the ending left me with a heavy heart because I didn't want the story to be over. I am going to have the biggest book hangover from this one, and I'm not sure how long it will last!
