Reviews

It was a fun read. The plot was fun and easy to follow, the main character was a little annoying at times but it overall the characters were interesting. There are a couple of times she says the word “clout” that threw me out of the story for a minute. Overall a fun time.

bookwyrms_shelf's review

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3.0

The first half of this was a little bit slow, but once it picked up it was so exciting I couldn't out it down. MJ has had to come back to assume the position of heir to the throne after her father's death. But it seems that something bigger is going on, and she's able to investigate what really happened with her friend Nix, and Logan, who she thinks she may really like. I felt like things were wrapped up really quickly in the end, but thats just me. It was a perfect blend of teen super sleuthing and royal shenanigans!

shelvedthoughts's review

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adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Reader’s Notes:

– this is the first in a duology; though the main plot line is completed in this story, the romance has a snag come up

– this is told from MJ’s point of view

– there are mentions of past deaths that MJ thinks could have been murders; there is also a murder (no blood or gore, but frozen in a horrified scream) during the events of this story

– there are multiple sightings of beetles throughout the story; a few mention a room or a body full of beetles

Review:

From my reading, I’d actually rate this more like a 4.5 star read as the beginning of the book dragged for me and it was difficult for me to remember the meanings of the Filipino words/names for things throughout the story. That being said, I rounded up instead of down because I’m thinking it might have dragged because I had put the book down multiple times in the beginning to do other things. If I had the chance to read straight through, I believe that I would have enjoyed the it more and had less of an issue remembering the different meanings.

I really enjoyed getting to learn about the encanto (faery) world that MJ was getting ready to rule. I loved that though MJ kept in contact with her dad before he passed & learned about the encantos both through him & her mother, there was still a lot that fascinated her when she saw it and there was still a lot she didn’t know. She was clearly still learning and on top of that had a lot of adversity coming against her. Between being considered less than by the full encantos and still being a teenager thrown into the spotlight/power, MJ had a lot to process. And then she makes the decision to investigate her father’s death an find out what really happened, placing her in higher danger that just as the heir. I’m very curious what will happen with the bomb of a development that came up at the end of the book and how it will affect MJ’s relationships moving forward.

Summary:

MJ has always known that she was the lone heir to the Sirena Court throne, it’s why she and her mother have had to constantly move and MJ’s had so many first days of school. But when her father passes away suddenly, MJ is thrown into her duties. Duties that she will be trained in on the job while also fulfilling school obligations.

It doesn’t help that her coronation has to happen by the end of the month. She’ll need to prove her heritage and strength during the coronation by displaying her magic for all to see. Only problem is, she doesn’t seem to have any magic. And she worries that her human side has overpowered the magical encanto heritage she needs to rule. If it has, the encantos will all be thrown further into chaos in a bid for the throne. And everything she and her family has done will be for nothing…

emilyhiggins's review

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3.5

The best way I would describe this book is a Filipino inspired fantasy of the princess diaries. The main character MJ is aware that she is encanto royalty, but she grew up in the human world and was not really expecting to ever be queen. Overall the book does seem like it is geared toward young readers. It was really fast paced and it was pretty short, right around 300 pages. The main romance between Lucas and MJ is cute, but is a little bit rushed. They go from seemingly hating each other to having a crush on each other within what seems like no time at all. It technically wasn’t Insta love, but it definitely did seem like it a little bit. The plot overall is pretty simple; there’s a mystery that Lucas and MJ have to solve to find the villain. This book was definitely not anything crazy, but if you’re looking for a cute, fun read inspired by Filipino mythology, this is the book for you.

fragilelunar's review

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This was, very unfortunately, a DNF for me. This may be a book I come back to in the future but, as of right now, it just really wasn’t holding my attention. I didn’t feel any sort of investment in the storyline or the characters and found myself only picking up the book to read 5-10 pages and then stopping. It wasn’t catching my interest at all.

I’ve enjoyed other books by the author so it may be a wrong timing situation and I’m just not in the mood for it. I can’t really pick out anything that I genuinely found wrong with the book at all. It was just a case of my attention isn’t being held at all.

jebecky's review

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The writing style was really rough for me :/

residual_sizzle's review against another edition

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3.0

The Encanto’s Daughter is one of the few books I’ve read with Filipino roots, and the only one I have read based on its mythology. That was one of the major draws for me when starting to read this book. I also remember reading Blue Bloods when the books first came out when I was younger, so I was drawn to this because of the familiar author.

I will say right off that this book gave me whiplash. It starts out with this intense action, like a thriller. Then swiftly becomes a high school drama – but only briefly. We establish this odd rivalry in school, that kind of tracks though the book, but honestly feels like an abandoned thread for most of the story. It didn’t feel genre blended, but genre jumping. Very much “okay we’re doing this now.”

I did enjoy the story, but I felt it was predictable and clunky at times. It seemed to me like a bunch of big ideas, set side by side, and pieced together. I had a lot of questions, that while they were answered – I didn’t find those answers satisfying. Overall, I think it was a fun read, but it isn’t one that I will be thinking about much later.

Maybe it was too young for me, maybe it was something deeper.

Thanks so much to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the free e-arc of this book so that I was able to provide my honest opinion.

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