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sparkerzillich's review against another edition
3.0
I'd honestly give this book at least 4 stars but the cruel and completely unnecessary animal violence towards the beginning of the story nearly ruined the entire story for me and I almost didn't finish it. It was such a clever story with a beautiful ending, it's too bad for that one major flaw. If I'd read the content warnings for this book before starting it, I probably wouldn't have ever read it.
lmshilling14's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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
3.5
cyberclaude's review against another edition
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
A cozy adventure/fantasy. Took a while to get going and while there was a lot of beauty in the story and the writing was quite good, there was just something missing. I liked it but I wanted to LOVE it even though it became a real page turner in the second half of the book. Recommended for the genre, for sure.
A cozy adventure/fantasy. Took a while to get going and while there was a lot of beauty in the story and the writing was quite good, there was just something missing. I liked it but I wanted to LOVE it even though it became a real page turner in the second half of the book. Recommended for the genre, for sure.
jessinthelib's review against another edition
4.0
A perfect vacation read, so engaging and enticing with adventure, love, fantasy...Quite enjoyable.
jvar's review against another edition
5.0
What a lovely tale. It made me eager to keep coming back to read it. It’s a book that you have to let go of figuring out where it’s taking you and just go along for the ride. I admit that as the story ended, I felt it was a 4 star book. Then it went just a little further in the epilogue and earned five stars from me.
kristenafionis's review against another edition
2.0
After reading 2/3 of this book I finally abandoned it. To be honest, I only made it that far because I was desperately trying to finish it for a book club discussion. One of my reading goals this year is to put down books that are not for me - this just happens to be one of them.
This book had so much potential but did not live up to what it was sold as - a book of portals and other worlds. It was boring - the story wasn’t interesting and the characters did not come alive for me.
This book had so much potential but did not live up to what it was sold as - a book of portals and other worlds. It was boring - the story wasn’t interesting and the characters did not come alive for me.
writegeist's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderfully effective fantasy with an interesting structure. I was emotionally overcome by some of the scenes. That doesn't happen to me very often with books.
alongapath's review against another edition
3.0
The idea of a young girl left to wander an old mansion filled with strange artifacts while her guardian researched further additions to his collections was intriguing. The premise of her discovering portals to other lands also piqued my interest. And I especially liked the layering of a book within the book.
But everything went sideways somewhere in the middle. After being brought into the tale, I found my interest waning as the story began its herky jerky meanderings with unknown purpose and unseen villains who want to violently hurt this girl and her dog.
So I paused to read a few reviews which helped to explain why. This book is often tagged as Young Adult fiction. That explained so much. Suddenly the scenes of mad rushing, interspersed with dull explanations of what had just happened, made sense. January's fearfulness of everyone and everything fits the YA genre, as well as her know-it-all attitude.
And so I continued on, watching the stars drop off my rating as the chapters went by. It started out high and plummeted.
But everything went sideways somewhere in the middle. After being brought into the tale, I found my interest waning as the story began its herky jerky meanderings with unknown purpose and unseen villains who want to violently hurt this girl and her dog.
So I paused to read a few reviews which helped to explain why. This book is often tagged as Young Adult fiction. That explained so much. Suddenly the scenes of mad rushing, interspersed with dull explanations of what had just happened, made sense. January's fearfulness of everyone and everything fits the YA genre, as well as her know-it-all attitude.
And so I continued on, watching the stars drop off my rating as the chapters went by. It started out high and plummeted.