I’ve been sitting with my thoughts on Brimstone because I did enjoy it, and I also have some honest thoughts. This isn’t a hate post.

The Quicksilver series is good. I’m continuing the series for a reason. I just think it could’ve been stronger if it trusted itself more instead of rushing.

The banter works. The chemistry works, especially at the beginning. The found family feels real, not forced. I liked the political drama, and I honestly think the audiobook helps a lot. The voices and timing made things feel smoother and easier to enjoy.

The romance pulled me in even with the uneven pacing, but once the couple got comfortable and secure, the story didn’t really shift. Once the tension was gone, it felt like the book didn’t replace it with something else. Like I expected a different POV where we could get another couple coming to life to keep to the romantasy and tension/yearning alive. Instead we got a calm, healthy relationship, which is nice, but it can’t carry the whole story by itself.

My biggest issue was pacing. There are a lot of big ideas here, gods, rot, vampires, alchemy, politics, and they come one after another very fast. The tone gives, it wants us as readers to take this book very serious but the pacing gives, this is for a good time not a long time. It wants to feel like a big, serious fantasy story, but it moves too quickly for that. Big moments happen before we really get time to sit with the characters or fully feel what’s happening.

I liked the FMC. She’s strong, powerful, and always growing, even when she annoyed me. Where I struggled more was with some side characters, especially Dania. I get what the author might have been trying to do, but without enough background, her anger often felt random instead of understandable. Her character fell into the misogynic trope of a woman who is overly emotional and not a good decision maker. In a story that usually handles emotions well, that part felt off to me, why have a badass FMC and foil her with a woman who isn't fleshed out. Like I know Dania is the way she is because of her trauma that isn't explored in a way that would make her a understandable or likeable character (Think Johanna from Hunger Game).

The whole time, I kept thinking: what if this book had slowed down? What if the romance took longer? What if the story spread things out instead of piling them on so fast?

Even with all of that, I’m still interested. The world is cool, the story has potential, and I’ll keep reading with more realistic expectations. This book reminded me that you can enjoy something and still wish it had been handled differently.

Both can be true.