frankly had a lot of mixed feelings about this book, not in the best ways either. Mafi said in an minterview before this book's release that after the considerable four year release dates following Ignite Me, she had to go back and read all of the books to familiar herself with the characters again. I think that this really shows in this book in the way she handles character growth and development. 

 

For one, this was just a huge back step in the growth that Juliette had made throughout the 3 prior books. In Ignite Me, my personal favorite in the series, it ends with her finally accepting who she is, and embracing her powers as an amazing part of her. She emerges as a powerful, unstoppable, self assured woman who will bend a knee to no one and lead her people. Sadly all of that came crumbling down in Restore Me, leaving Juliette back to her whiny and complaining self. She is insecure about her looks, her friendships, and her powers. Even the developments of Kenji, Warner, and Adam are thrown down a peg in this story. 

 

This book relied so heavily on plot twists that it just became kind of annoying. Like it felt like in every other chapter some big thing was being revealed that the reader was supposed to freak out about, but because of this they all just fell flat. It was paced weirdly and the rush of information just made me more confused than shocked. On top of that it was pretty predictable. I will have to say though, I did really like the twist at the very end and it might be the only reason I will pick this series back up again. 

 

Holy miscommunication trope Batman! No seriously, if you think other books have it bad, the miscommunication in this is probably the worst I have ever seen. Nothing, absolutely nothing, even the simplest stuff is shared with Juliette or with anyone else. Their first priority is supposed to be dealing with the other Reestablishment leaders, yet nothing is done about it nor information shared with Juliette to help her approach is. Warner, dear sweet Warner, I love you but really? You couldn't have told Juliette about the massive meeting between Reestablishment leaders that was happening in two days? On top of that, Castle isn't telling her anything at all to help her, and just because he doesn't think she should be leader, he just lets her drown in it all? Does he not care at all? 

 

I was so excited to see Adam and Warners relationship grow, and see Warner interact with James. It was an interesting dynamic in the first book and I feel like they could have done so much with it. However, other than that chapter-long conversation in the beginning of the book, Adam and James are barely mentioned again. 

 

Kenji is still the adorable, sympathetic, funny guy that he has always been, which I was very happy with, but he didn't show any of the badass Kenji we got to know in Ignite Me. 

Nazeera was probably the most interesting part of this book, I just wish we would have learned more about her. I am assuming that she will become a big character in the next book. 

 

The story felt rushed in the end, it wasn't well explained but I guess that's the point of a cliff hanger. But all in all the story just seemed kind of disconnecting. I loved hearing from Warner's point of view and I genuinely felt very bad for him. I understand why Juliette is angry with him and she has the right to be, but at the same thing his “lies” only revolved around something from her childhood that would have done her no good knowing in the first place, she should have directed her anger at Castle, but she just doesn't for some reason. 

 

All in all this was kind of a tiring book to read and made me question if I wanted to go forward with the series. I think the only reason I would is because I will admit that cliffhanger was very solid, but we will see. This book definitely should have come out closer to Ignite Me, and I think the gap in releases hurt it a lot, but I still think it could get better moving on.