Book: Allegiant by Cora Rose
Reviewed by Emily
Rating: 3.5/5
I’ll be honest, I struggled with what rating to give this book. I haven’t read the previous 3 books, but I don’t feel like that impacted my enjoyment of the story. I didn’t feel like I was missing any major details. I will probably go back and read the first three at some point to add to the experience when I reread this book (because I will).
There were a bunch of sweet moments between Rowan and Samson like Samson buying the dance studio for Rowan and Rowan teaching the entire ensemble how to dance (or attempt to dance). I really felt Rowan’s grief over losing Adam and blaming himself for something that was very clearly not his fault. Survivor’s guilt is a hell of a drug. The smut was on point and if you’re someone who is into set dynamics, this book will give you that. Should you use sex as a coping mechanism? Probably not. Did it get Samson his man? It sure did.
I would’ve liked to have seen more of Samson’s POV. I felt like it was heavily skewed toward Rowan. But I got my dual POV and I’m happy with that because I’m nosy and have to be in everyone’s head. My biggest sticking point was men don’t wear pointe shoes. I was a dancer for most of my life and while most of the dance aspects of the story were correct or close enough, I had to take a moment to center myself when Rowan mentioned wearing pointe shoes. Yes, I realize this is petty of me. I never like a Third Act Breakup (sue me) but unlike some other books this one didn’t rush the ending. I felt like it was timed well enough in the narrative that I wasn’t getting whiplash when the story ended.
I settled on 3.5 stars because while I got everything I expected based on the blurb and tropes, the moments between Rowan and Samson bumped it up a half star.