Well, it's over. This was probably my most anticipated book to ever wait for, and I'm underwhelmed. I will say that before I started TBW, I had just finished Wheel of Time, so that may have affected my views of how everything panned out. Sorry if this comes across as rambling, but here are my main issues with book.

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• The first 40%ish of the book seemed like it belonged in Blood Mirror, particularly Kip and Co. I didn't necessarily mind those POVs, but to me it felt like a different book.
• In general, the writing seemed to have a lot more gratuitous sexual references which threw me for a loop. I know most of the characters are still teenagers, but it was honestly jarring at times.
• The stakes never seemed that high. I never thought the Jaspers were actually at risk for being destroyed or overtaken. As a finale battle, it fell flat for me.
• I wasn't satisfied with many of the character and plot resolutions. Ironfist didn't seem to matter, besides fighting Crux. Karris and the Guiles got a nice little pretty bow on their family. Liv's general plot just confused me. The amount of convenience for some of the characters was a turn off.
• In general, the last 1/4 of the book had a ton of lore dump that felt cheap.
• We were beat with the Orholam stick. I expected some kind of reveal, but certainly not a flippant almighty deity and a rambling Dazen having revelation after revelation.

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Some points I thought were done well:

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• I didn't mind the anti-resolution of the Lightbringer. Prophecies are always sketchy. I also wouldn't have minded us being given an unexpected Lightbringer (Karris, for example) as long as it didn't seem out of nowhere.
• MOST of Teia's chapters were good, and I loved her ending.
• Karris Andross were a great pairing. I always looked forward to their interactions, although I got tired of the Andross one-upping.

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We peaked in books 2 and 3, 4 had a lot of set-up, and 5 had a disappointing finish. Maybe it'll grow on me.