Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
Every once in a while, within the Goodreads/Book blogger/BookTube community a book receives so much buzz and hype that I almost actively avoid it for fear that it will not measure up.
This was almost that book. I likely would not have spent my own hard-earned money on this book, but I received a gift card [thankfully] and decided to take the plunge.
I am SO GLAD that I read this book.
I won't say that it was full of unexpected twists and turns. I won't say that it is a completely original idea with plot points that you have never read before. Neither one of those statements would be true.
At it's most basic, this is a high fantasy novel about a suppressed group of people rising up to defeat and free themselves from their oppressors - or the 'evil'. Have we seen this idea before? Absolutely.
There is a love-triangle brewing. Have we seen this idea before? Obviously.
There are some magical abilities, some impressive family lineages, a Romeo-and-Juliet type relationship being teased .... All elements in basically every YA fantasy novel ever.
But the delivery of this story is what impressed me so much. Despite the ever-present typical YA themes, despite the fact that I could see the plot twists coming long before they arrived, I was super impressed with Sabaa's story-telling.
I cared about each and every character in this book. I loved the characters she wanted me to love; I hated the characters she wanted me to hate; I was suspicious of the characters that she wanted me to be suspicious of. I believed in the world and the story she spun.
And it was awesome.
I cannot wait for the second installment in this series. Can't wait!
This was almost that book. I likely would not have spent my own hard-earned money on this book, but I received a gift card [thankfully] and decided to take the plunge.
I am SO GLAD that I read this book.
I won't say that it was full of unexpected twists and turns. I won't say that it is a completely original idea with plot points that you have never read before. Neither one of those statements would be true.
At it's most basic, this is a high fantasy novel about a suppressed group of people rising up to defeat and free themselves from their oppressors - or the 'evil'. Have we seen this idea before? Absolutely.
There is a love-triangle brewing. Have we seen this idea before? Obviously.
There are some magical abilities, some impressive family lineages, a Romeo-and-Juliet type relationship being teased .... All elements in basically every YA fantasy novel ever.
But the delivery of this story is what impressed me so much. Despite the ever-present typical YA themes, despite the fact that I could see the plot twists coming long before they arrived, I was super impressed with Sabaa's story-telling.
I cared about each and every character in this book. I loved the characters she wanted me to love; I hated the characters she wanted me to hate; I was suspicious of the characters that she wanted me to be suspicious of. I believed in the world and the story she spun.
And it was awesome.
I cannot wait for the second installment in this series. Can't wait!
For the first book in a fantasy series, I was a little confused by this book.
Firstly, there’s barely any magic at all. There’s some ghouls and mention of a Night Shadow enemy, but otherwise very little actual magic happening. I would have liked to see more to really get me hooked into this world.
Secondly, the pacing of this book was really slow for me. I felt like this book could have been condensed by 60% and been the exposition for the next book. There are trials, which seems to have become the new favorite fantasy trope recently, and they felt really, really long.
Thirdly, our FMC had a decent arc in this book but I wouldn’t like to see more of it and not just at the end. She starts of scared, cowardly, untrained, etc. Very unlike the typical fantasy FMC, but I thought oh maybe this is refreshing to see this evolution. But she spent the first 90% of the book still being insecure and scared and now enslaved so being beaten and SA-ed…it’s at the very very end she finally comes into her own and pulls off a badass stunt. It would have been more enjoyable and felt like a faster pace for that evolution to start earlier and be more gradual throughout the book.
Lastly, there wasn’t enough interaction between our FMC and MMC for me. There’s clearly something going on between them even though they both have other love interests and the fact that they end up in a situation where they should be together for the entire next book is definitely the biggest draw for me to keep reading.
While I did find this book to be really slow pretty much throughout, there are enough elements that have potential to make a good series that I’m still interested to read the next one.
Firstly, there’s barely any magic at all. There’s some ghouls and mention of a Night Shadow enemy, but otherwise very little actual magic happening. I would have liked to see more to really get me hooked into this world.
Secondly, the pacing of this book was really slow for me. I felt like this book could have been condensed by 60% and been the exposition for the next book. There are trials, which seems to have become the new favorite fantasy trope recently, and they felt really, really long.
Thirdly, our FMC had a decent arc in this book but I wouldn’t like to see more of it and not just at the end. She starts of scared, cowardly, untrained, etc. Very unlike the typical fantasy FMC, but I thought oh maybe this is refreshing to see this evolution. But she spent the first 90% of the book still being insecure and scared and now enslaved so being beaten and SA-ed…it’s at the very very end she finally comes into her own and pulls off a badass stunt. It would have been more enjoyable and felt like a faster pace for that evolution to start earlier and be more gradual throughout the book.
Lastly, there wasn’t enough interaction between our FMC and MMC for me. There’s clearly something going on between them even though they both have other love interests and the fact that they end up in a situation where they should be together for the entire next book is definitely the biggest draw for me to keep reading.
While I did find this book to be really slow pretty much throughout, there are enough elements that have potential to make a good series that I’m still interested to read the next one.
Cute young adult fantasy I like it better than the first series.
Oh my gosh. This was AMAZING. Where do I even start? The world, the characters, the plot, all executed PERFECTLY. The amount of passion and feeling this book got out of me was amazing. I LOVED Laia and Elias and HATED Marcus and the Commandant. I also thought the romance was really well handled (although I wish a bit more focus was on Laia’s side) and it ADDED to the story really well. I don’t know how to describe how amazing this book is, you simply have to read it.
I can see how some compare this to Legend. I enjoyed the read and am excited to see where the story goes.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No