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annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review against another edition
4.0
Ik hou van deze verhalen, donker en duister, toch romantisch...eigenlijk alles en niks! Ik moet wel zeggen, mijn hoofd was niet helemaal meer op de hoogte van alle personages in Voilet en dat begon me op het einde wat op te breken en de landschapsbeschrijvingen heb ik bij vlagen ook maar een beetje overgeslagen, maar al met al: heerlijk verhaal over een herkenbare heldin, een herkenbare liefde en hele grote uitdagingen met interessante en gewaagde slotstukken! Ik ben benieuwd naar de volgende 5 delen :D
patchworkbunny's review against another edition
3.0
The last sage let a human die. Autumn Rose is now sage and protector at her school, which doesn’t make her popular. When another sage turns up, she is dragged back into a world she would much rather leave behind.
I was a little confused when I started Autumn Rose as I was expecting a follow on from The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Instead, this runs concurrently with the previous story, introducing new characters whose timelines slowly start to merge. Abigail’s writing is becoming a lot more consistent, but overall I felt it lost some of the appeal of Violet’s story. Maybe she made Fallon a bit too nice and respectable in response to Kaspar.
I liked Edmund as a sort of father figure to Autumn. I think he puts her age into perspective sometimes. If she acts like a spoilt child at times, well it probably because she is. She’s only supposed to be 15 at the start of the book. There’s less sex this time round but it still touches on teen sex, and decisions to take the extra step.
Autumn’s depression wasn’t entirely convincing. I don’t think you should need to be explicitly told that a character is depressed to be aware of it. It didn’t come across in her narrative and if Fallon hadn’t had that conversation about suicidal thoughts, I don’t think I would have thought of her as suffering depression. Yes, she’s been bullied at school, but the way it was introduced was that she had no one. Yet, later on we find she has plenty of people behind her and she had also stuck up for another, younger, girl and become firm friends. She seemed to be coping with life pretty well considering her unusual circumstances.
It needed a bit more world-building for my liking. The multiple dimensions weren’t all that clear. They had shared history and culture, so are people meant to exist in all or one? Autumn’s news covered Violet’s kidnaping but she’s in another dimension. I couldn’t get my head around it and was unsure of the purpose of making Autumn’s world nearly the same as the vampire’s dimension (which I also think is ours). Why did she have to go to a school? When really the author’s fondness for manor houses comes through eventually.
I was really looking forward to read more about the heroines. Because it’s running concurrently rather than a true sequel, it only gets picked up again near the end. I’m not sure if I’d continue with this series. I would probably want to see the next instalment pick up with both Violet and Autumn, rather than investing and getting to know yet another main character. We’ll see…
Review copy provided by publisher.
I was a little confused when I started Autumn Rose as I was expecting a follow on from The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Instead, this runs concurrently with the previous story, introducing new characters whose timelines slowly start to merge. Abigail’s writing is becoming a lot more consistent, but overall I felt it lost some of the appeal of Violet’s story. Maybe she made Fallon a bit too nice and respectable in response to Kaspar.
I liked Edmund as a sort of father figure to Autumn. I think he puts her age into perspective sometimes. If she acts like a spoilt child at times, well it probably because she is. She’s only supposed to be 15 at the start of the book. There’s less sex this time round but it still touches on teen sex, and decisions to take the extra step.
Autumn’s depression wasn’t entirely convincing. I don’t think you should need to be explicitly told that a character is depressed to be aware of it. It didn’t come across in her narrative and if Fallon hadn’t had that conversation about suicidal thoughts, I don’t think I would have thought of her as suffering depression. Yes, she’s been bullied at school, but the way it was introduced was that she had no one. Yet, later on we find she has plenty of people behind her and she had also stuck up for another, younger, girl and become firm friends. She seemed to be coping with life pretty well considering her unusual circumstances.
It needed a bit more world-building for my liking. The multiple dimensions weren’t all that clear. They had shared history and culture, so are people meant to exist in all or one? Autumn’s news covered Violet’s kidnaping but she’s in another dimension. I couldn’t get my head around it and was unsure of the purpose of making Autumn’s world nearly the same as the vampire’s dimension (which I also think is ours). Why did she have to go to a school? When really the author’s fondness for manor houses comes through eventually.
I was really looking forward to read more about the heroines. Because it’s running concurrently rather than a true sequel, it only gets picked up again near the end. I’m not sure if I’d continue with this series. I would probably want to see the next instalment pick up with both Violet and Autumn, rather than investing and getting to know yet another main character. We’ll see…
Review copy provided by publisher.
laertes's review against another edition
3.0
Autumn Rose is the second book in Abigail Gibbs’ The Dark Heroine series. I read the first book – The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire – last year, and enjoyed it for the most part, so I was interested to see how the series progressed. Initially, it defied my expectations. I was expecting it to pick up more or less where the previous book left off, given that we met Autumn Rose at the end, but it doesn’t. Instead, it moves back in time to the moment of Violet Lee’s kidnapping, and relates Autumn Rose’s story from this point.
Given that we’ve already met Autumn, some aspects of her story don’t come as a surprise. We know she’s the first heroine, Sagean and a seer, but it was interesting to see the development of events we’re already familiar with from her perspective. It’s not completely devoid of revelations, though. We learn a lot more about the Extermino and the relationship between them, the Pierre clan of slayers, and Violet’s father. We also discover that Autumn’s own life isn’t as charmed as it might first appear – her school days are troubled, her relationship with her parents strained and somewhat cold, she suffers from depression and is borderline suicidal. Against this backdrop, the arrival of Prince Fallon and her developing relationship with him, and the ultimate revelation of her purpose in the Prophecy of the Heroines, stand out as bright sparks in the darkness. Autumn at the end of this book isn’t the Autumn we meet at the beginning, and I enjoyed seeing how she became the character we meet at the end of The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. We see Violet Lee’s progression from human to heroine up close and personal, and now we experience the same thing with Autumn. By the end of Autumn Rose, we’re up to date with both Autumn and Violet, and ready for the third heroine.
Another thing I particularly enjoyed was that Autumn Rose takes events to a place just beyond the conclusion of The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. We reunite with Violet soon after she has become a vampire, and it appears that things aren’t going too well – seemingly uncomfortable in her new life, she is refusing to drink blood. Kaspar also seems to have reverted to a personality akin to that he possessed before he fell in love, which seems at odds with where we left him.
My biggest problem with this book is the grammar, and I hate being a pedant so it truly pains me to say that. It’s actually testament to how much of an issue it becomes that I’ve brought it up at all. At one point, we find Eaglen “sat at” a table in the library, rather than sitting, and that grated on me. Abigail Gibbs is, or was at the time, a student of English at the University of Oxford, so you’d think she might be able to do a better job. People spin a lot, too, or rather “span”. I span, he span, it span, we span. I think maybe “spun” would be more elegant, not to mention grammatically correct. Or “turned” even. It’s used so often that it becomes intensely irritating – almost as irritating as “cummerband” from The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire (it was actually hard to type that, because Word wanted to auto-correct to “cummerbund” more times than I care to count). I can only assume, based on what I’ve read, that everyone’s spinning pretty much all of the time, and that’s a visual I could have done without. There are other words, Abigail! Most distracting of all, though, is the emphasis on how exactly people are sitting. It actually gets to the point where it takes away from the plot, because your brain’s trying to work out the latest bit of contortionism (not all of them make sense, in terms of elbow, hand, knee and thigh positions), which Gibbs has taken the trouble to describe at length and in far more detail than is really necessary. It’s odd to contrast the often clumsy writing with the decent story hiding underneath it. I do wonder how it ever got to publication in its current state – and I’m reading the finished version, not an ARC.
There’s a good series in the making here, if you can overlook the clunky grammar and distractingly detailed posture descriptions. Autumn and Violet are well drawn and mostly convincing, and the world-building is strong. According to Abigail Gibbs’ website, the third in the series was supposed to appear in 2015. It hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, so perhaps it’s stalled for the moment. I’ll give the third book a try, if and when it appears, because it seems like it’s at an interesting point now. I hope, if it does, that Gibbs gets back to the point of the series because I’ve actually more or less forgotten what that was supposed to be – the significance of the Prophecy of the Heroines plays much less a part in Autumn Rose than it did in The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Something about an interdimensional war? It’d be nice to tie that back in, because without it the whole thing becomes pretty pointless. I hope, as well, that the writing might have become more assured. I’m intrigued to see what the future holds for this series.
Visit my blog for more reviews: http://scheherazadereads.blogspot.co.uk/
Given that we’ve already met Autumn, some aspects of her story don’t come as a surprise. We know she’s the first heroine, Sagean and a seer, but it was interesting to see the development of events we’re already familiar with from her perspective. It’s not completely devoid of revelations, though. We learn a lot more about the Extermino and the relationship between them, the Pierre clan of slayers, and Violet’s father. We also discover that Autumn’s own life isn’t as charmed as it might first appear – her school days are troubled, her relationship with her parents strained and somewhat cold, she suffers from depression and is borderline suicidal. Against this backdrop, the arrival of Prince Fallon and her developing relationship with him, and the ultimate revelation of her purpose in the Prophecy of the Heroines, stand out as bright sparks in the darkness. Autumn at the end of this book isn’t the Autumn we meet at the beginning, and I enjoyed seeing how she became the character we meet at the end of The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. We see Violet Lee’s progression from human to heroine up close and personal, and now we experience the same thing with Autumn. By the end of Autumn Rose, we’re up to date with both Autumn and Violet, and ready for the third heroine.
Another thing I particularly enjoyed was that Autumn Rose takes events to a place just beyond the conclusion of The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. We reunite with Violet soon after she has become a vampire, and it appears that things aren’t going too well – seemingly uncomfortable in her new life, she is refusing to drink blood. Kaspar also seems to have reverted to a personality akin to that he possessed before he fell in love, which seems at odds with where we left him.
My biggest problem with this book is the grammar, and I hate being a pedant so it truly pains me to say that. It’s actually testament to how much of an issue it becomes that I’ve brought it up at all. At one point, we find Eaglen “sat at” a table in the library, rather than sitting, and that grated on me. Abigail Gibbs is, or was at the time, a student of English at the University of Oxford, so you’d think she might be able to do a better job. People spin a lot, too, or rather “span”. I span, he span, it span, we span. I think maybe “spun” would be more elegant, not to mention grammatically correct. Or “turned” even. It’s used so often that it becomes intensely irritating – almost as irritating as “cummerband” from The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire (it was actually hard to type that, because Word wanted to auto-correct to “cummerbund” more times than I care to count). I can only assume, based on what I’ve read, that everyone’s spinning pretty much all of the time, and that’s a visual I could have done without. There are other words, Abigail! Most distracting of all, though, is the emphasis on how exactly people are sitting. It actually gets to the point where it takes away from the plot, because your brain’s trying to work out the latest bit of contortionism (not all of them make sense, in terms of elbow, hand, knee and thigh positions), which Gibbs has taken the trouble to describe at length and in far more detail than is really necessary. It’s odd to contrast the often clumsy writing with the decent story hiding underneath it. I do wonder how it ever got to publication in its current state – and I’m reading the finished version, not an ARC.
There’s a good series in the making here, if you can overlook the clunky grammar and distractingly detailed posture descriptions. Autumn and Violet are well drawn and mostly convincing, and the world-building is strong. According to Abigail Gibbs’ website, the third in the series was supposed to appear in 2015. It hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, so perhaps it’s stalled for the moment. I’ll give the third book a try, if and when it appears, because it seems like it’s at an interesting point now. I hope, if it does, that Gibbs gets back to the point of the series because I’ve actually more or less forgotten what that was supposed to be – the significance of the Prophecy of the Heroines plays much less a part in Autumn Rose than it did in The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Something about an interdimensional war? It’d be nice to tie that back in, because without it the whole thing becomes pretty pointless. I hope, as well, that the writing might have become more assured. I’m intrigued to see what the future holds for this series.
Visit my blog for more reviews: http://scheherazadereads.blogspot.co.uk/
cunningempress's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this really much but Violet and Kaspar had so small role in it. It was a bit difficult to read and sometimes I wasn't sure was it Autumn's or Fallon's POV
starryworlds's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't like this book, so I'm going to make this quick. I give this book 2.5 stars because I felt that the book didn't pass the average mark. Also at the beginning of this book, it made me angry because the story wasn't progressing quick enough. Basically, no suspense at all. But I thought the story got a little better when it reached 200 pages. I feel like there should have been more Violet Lee within the storyline. However, I liked the way she ventured into fantasy more with this book in the series.
reginasage's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely liked it better than the first, but I don't know why this was not the first book in the series.
aotora's review
challenging
dark
emotional
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? Yes
1.0
I didn't really care about the first book, didn't really care about this book. I didn't care about any of the characters and there were just too many to properly follow and get attached to.
It also retells half of the first book but through the eyes of another character so I didn't really care for that.
The ending makes an ok job of setting up the third sequel though, though I doubt that we will get that any time soon.
It also retells half of the first book but through the eyes of another character so I didn't really care for that.
The ending makes an ok job of setting up the third sequel though, though I doubt that we will get that any time soon.
marleer's review
4.0
This book kind of felt like the beginning of a new series because Autumn Rose lives in a completely different world from the one Violet lives in. So, there was a lot of world building, but I didn't mind that. One thing I did mind was that we had to wait a long time to see Violet back. And when she finally appears, she's not as important as I expected. She just seems like a side character and that was a pity, because I found her a really interesting character in the first book.
nata_sa_b's review against another edition
4.0
3,5*
Toto som trochu teraz dopinkala, keďže jednotku som ešte nečítala, ale to je "nepodstatný" detail :D Síce som na začiatku bola v šoku, hlavne z tých schopností, takže keď letela som si vždy predstavila Supermana :D Nuž zvykla som si :D Síce hlavný pár boli Autumn a Fallon, oveľa radšej by som si prečítala jednotku, už len kvôli Kasparovi :3 Sorry Fallon, ale Kaspar je arogantný a zaláskovaný zlý chlapec ;3 Jediné, čo ma hnevá, tak možno nie jediné, je to, že dej sa niekedy ťahal a akokeby sa nič neriešilo -_- A naozaj som nevedela, že tá postava zomrie! (Cítite tú iróniu) Veď to bolo jasné už od stredu knihy :D Nebolo to zlé, ale ani Wauuuu, ako som čakala. Čo je škoda :(
Toto som trochu teraz dopinkala, keďže jednotku som ešte nečítala, ale to je "nepodstatný" detail :D Síce som na začiatku bola v šoku, hlavne z tých schopností, takže keď letela som si vždy predstavila Supermana :D Nuž zvykla som si :D Síce hlavný pár boli Autumn a Fallon, oveľa radšej by som si prečítala jednotku, už len kvôli Kasparovi :3 Sorry Fallon, ale Kaspar je arogantný a zaláskovaný zlý chlapec ;3 Jediné, čo ma hnevá, tak možno nie jediné, je to, že dej sa niekedy ťahal a akokeby sa nič neriešilo -_- A naozaj som nevedela, že tá postava zomrie! (Cítite tú iróniu) Veď to bolo jasné už od stredu knihy :D Nebolo to zlé, ale ani Wauuuu, ako som čakala. Čo je škoda :(