Book: Because the Gods Left: An Epic Romantic Fantasy by Madeline James
Reviewed by Karolina Books
Rating: 4/5
I can’t believe this duology is over. Like… who gave Madeline James permission to just finish it and leave me here with all these feelings? I’m sitting here trying to process the fact that Iryana and Pyetar’s story is DONE and honestly, I’m not accepting it. This book picks up with Iryana carrying way more than one person should have to carry. She’s trying to figure out what kind of leader she wants to be while dealing with her clan, the growing danger around them and everything happening on a much bigger scale. She is strong but she isn’t magically confident just because everyone suddenly expects things from her. She second guesses herself, makes frustrating choices, gets overwhelmed and sometimes I wanted to gently grab her by the shoulders and be like, BABE. PLEASE. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO WANT THINGS TOO.
Then we have Pyetar… The devotion. The patience. The yearning. The way he continues to show up for Iryana even when things between them get complicated had me sitting there like an idiot with a giant grin on my face. Their relationship isn’t perfectly smooth and there were definitely moments when I wanted Iryana to stop pushing him away and communicate like a functioning adult but I actually appreciated that their relationship had messy, painful moments instead of everything perfectly working because they love each other. I also have to talk about Hadima because their relationship remains one of my favorite parts of this world. There’s something so genuine about the way they love and protect each other. Their sisterhood gives the story this emotional little heartbeat underneath all the battles, politics, monsters, gods and general WHY IS EVERYONE TRYING TO KILL THEM chaos.
The world itself also gets SO much bigger here. We get more of the gods, monsters, clans, politics and the consequences of everything that happened before. The larger conflict gave the story a different feeling than the first book.
Now, like always… let me talk about why this wasn’t a full 5 stars for me. There were parts in the middle where I felt the pacing slow down, especially with some of the repeated conflict within the clan. I understood why that tension was there and I could see how it connected to our FMC character growth but there were definitely moments when my inner reader was like, WE HAVE DISCUSSED THIS. CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON NOW? I also wanted Iryana to find her backbone a little sooner in certain situations. Her struggle made sense but I was impatient watching her wrestle with the same doubts when I desperately wanted her to realize what I could already see in her.
But the payoff? Worth it.
The battles were intense, the stakes felt huge and I really appreciated that the story didn’t just stop once the fighting was over. We actually get to see what comes after, the consequences, the rebuilding and the emotional aftermath. That made the ending feel much more complete for me.. now I’m sitting here staring into the void because my main couple is done being my problem.
This was an emotional, messy, sometimes frustrating, beautifully expansive conclusion to their story. I laughed, I stressed, I got annoyed, I swooned and I absolutely had moments where I wanted to personally intervene in clan politics despite having zero qualifications for the job.
Final Thoughts: A big, emotional romantasy finale with complicated characters, sisterhood, yearning, monsters, gods, battles and enough family drama to make me grateful I can close a book and walk away.
Thank you so much to Madeline James for allowing me to read this eARC before its release. It was such a privilege to return to this world and experience Iryana, Pyetar and everyone’s journey through to the end.