Review: Destroy The Day ~ Brigid Kemmerer

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Format I Used: Ebook
Pages: 448
Running Time: 17h:47m
My Rating: 5 stars
Publication Date: January 23, 2024

TL;DR This book was good, it felt a lot like a filler story with more focus on side characters than the main characters. It had an acceptable ending that made me BAWL. Rocco and Quint are the BEST, and I will take no arguments about it.

There ARE spoilers. And some of them come out of nowhere, so PLEASE don't read any further unless you want #AllTheSpoilers.

So the story by itself gets 3 stars, but because of Quint, Rocco, and all the other {side} characters I'm rounding it allllll the way up to 5 stars.

This was a #BookBanditsBuddyRead to keep up with the tradition of reading the first two books together!

For a long time, this felt like it should have been book 2.5 instead of book 3. There was a lot of focus on developing side characters, and every single one of them wormed their way into my heart, which made me absolutely a nervous WRECK

There are 3 POVs that we cycle through in this book, which WOULD be fine except for the fact that it didn't change every chapter. You go two or three or four chapters with the same person and all of a sudden it switches. And by the time we cycle all the way back around, I've forgotten everything that's happened to those chacracters. But that's more of a personal beef than there actually being anything wrong with the book itself.

Corrick: If you remember, at the end of book 2, they're all on a ship and there's a cannon and Corrick gets blown up and into the water with Lochlan and they get unalived... except they're not. Other bad people fish them out of the water, and Corrick dawns the moniker Weston Lark once again. In book 3 Lochlan and Corrick find themselves unlikely allies as they try to figure out how to get out of the hands of the bad guys. If I'm being completely honest, this was the POV I cared about the least... although I was here for the back and forth between Lochlan and Corrick. Like, I thought the biggest plot twist of the book was going to be that it was going to be a BL love story and Corrick/Lochlan would forget about Tessa/Karri (which is ridiculous, because they both talked and worried about the two girls nonstop) and end up with each other instead. BECAUSE there was so much tension and flirty banter, and blushing and the ONE BED TROPE, and honestly? I was here for it.

Harristan: It was interesting to see Harristan get a little more character development. He spends a lot of time learning more about his kingdom, and trying to win over the rebels, and figuring out what exactly is happening. He's learning who to trust and getting betrayed, and it's heart wrenching if I'm being honest. But he also has Quint by his side, as steady and sure as ever. Quint is still so precious to meeeee, and his little book with those dates, and I cried when he talked about when he was younger and WHY he writes everything down. And this was the new love story. And it made me so happy that they were together and figured out their feelings for each other. I swooned a lot anytime these two were together. I'm getting cold chills just thinking about it. I also really liked the rest of Harristan's guards who stayed loyal to him. 

 

Tessa: is still mourning what she thinks is the loss of Corrick. She's in Ostriary, in a house that Rian has provided to her, and isn't doing too well. Luckily, she has Erik Rocco with her still, who is guarding her and doing his best to keep her safe. What ends up snapping her out of (mostly) her doom spiral is meeting Olive and Ellmo. She decides to put her apothecary knowledge to good work and starts helping people on the island. My boy Rocco sure stepped up his game. I love him SO MUCH. He ties with Quint for favorite. Watching him with Tessa was so endearing, and then his little flirtations with Olive were adorable. AND how much he and Ellmo antagonized each other was hilarious. It did, however, make me immediately think of Elmo and Rocco from Sesame Street, so in my head Ellmo looked like Elmo....

I was trying to figure out how things were going to all come back around and get fixed. Because there were a heck of a lot of things that I wasn't sure COULD be fixed. But it all ended up working out in the end I'm glad that Olive was around to step into place and work things out with Corrick and get everything set up for a good future. It kept me guessing to the very end and I'm glad that I read it! I really would like to see spin offs for some of the other guards (specifically Rocco, but actually any of them would be good) and also I want to know more about Lochlan and Karri, because they also didn't get to spend any time together.

Did It Make Me Cry? 

 

Yes. But probably not when you think it would have. Because it WAS NOT when Quint and Harristan blew themselves up. It was right before that when Harristan was trying to leave Quint and then convince him that he should stay because Corrick needed him, and Quint was like, no, YOU need me. And then again when Sullivan and Miller appear. Big Ugly tears were streaming down my face in the middle of the night.

Favorite Notes & Highlights:

 

Ellmo picks up a handful of pebbles and chucks them at the guardsman. To my absolute shock, Rocco picks up a small handful of his own and lightly flings them right back. Ellmo yelps in surprise and skitters away, which makes Olive glare at them both—but the boy bursts out laughing. “Are you five?” I say to Rocco. “He started it.” “So the answer is yes then?”

 

But before the door falls closed, I notice Quint flip open the little book, just turning back the cover to that list of dates. At the bottom, he adds one more. (Iykyk) 

 

 Erik isn’t done. “It’s well past nightfall. How could the two of you even see on the road? What if you’d encountered thieves? I knew I should have gone with—” He stops short as Olive steps in front of him and takes hold of his shirt. She rises up on her toes and kisses him on the cheek. “Thank you for your concern. We won’t worry you again.”

 

“Your determination and tenacity are rather inspiring.” “Well now.” He blushes, though he seems pleased. “I shall add that to my treasure trove along with the knowledge that I am ‘very pleasing to look at.’ ”