How could a book with such a promising premise fall so flat? (This is a stupid question and by now, having been a Goodreads member for seven years, I ought to know better.) 
 The thing is, right, that the first chapter was absolutely mesmerizing. In fact, Katharine remained the only character I was even mildly interested in for the rest of the book. But sometimes I like to look at it this way: if I were a literary agent, and this book came into my query inbox, and the author had attached the first five pages, then I would have requested the full manuscript. That's how good the first chapter was. 
 Everything after the first chapter was punishing. Absolutely nothing about Arsinoe, or the limp, anticlimactic backstory of Jules and Joseph, is in any way interesting. Mirabella is just another special girl who can control the elements, the same as the 95,000 other YA heroines who can "command fire" or "command water". Elemental power is so fucking tired at this point, while I know that any overused trope can be reinvented to be fresh, this book doesn't manage it. It's dry as fuck. 
 Whatever, dude. I'm bored of even writing this review. I'm bored just thinking about this book. But the thing is, right, I was promised a story about a deathly showdown between three sisters (remarkably relatable for me) and what I got was bland shite romance and nonsensical world building and overused tropes that feel overused. Just a giant meh from me, I think. 
 FIN