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khakipantsofsex's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death of parent and Child abuse
joeyl22's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
4.5
I loved it. Jamison is my favorite. I need more!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Death of parent
meganmsmart's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I feel like if Jamison had been left out entirely and the story was reworked into a psychological horror/thriller novel, it would have made the book so much more interesting. I didn't feel any chemistry between Luxe and Jamison and he had very little impact on the overall plot.
I thought the magic system was very interesting, with the different ideas and checks and balances. However I felt the book was a letdown on the 1920s prohibition era atmosphere. The prohibition was just a plot device, and other than very occasional slang, the way people spoke didn't sound out of place with modern day. While I love sapphic characters and rep, one of the side characters openly entering a wlw relationship I doubt would just be laughed off and thought of as cute? Inserting 2020s considerably more open acceptance into a novel set a century ago just makes it feel like the time period was picked for aesthetics and as a plot initiator, without any actual care for the ideals and perspectives prevalent at the time.
I kept going and finished because it was vaguely enjoyable, but overall just feel let down by the wasted concept. With Jamison removed and the genre tweaked, I think it could be a much stronger story and cut out at least 100 unneeded pages.
I thought the magic system was very interesting, with the different ideas and checks and balances. However I felt the book was a letdown on the 1920s prohibition era atmosphere. The prohibition was just a plot device, and other than very occasional slang, the way people spoke didn't sound out of place with modern day. While I love sapphic characters and rep, one of the side characters openly entering a wlw relationship I doubt would just be laughed off and thought of as cute? Inserting 2020s considerably more open acceptance into a novel set a century ago just makes it feel like the time period was picked for aesthetics and as a plot initiator, without any actual care for the ideals and perspectives prevalent at the time.
I kept going and finished because it was vaguely enjoyable, but overall just feel let down by the wasted concept. With Jamison removed and the genre tweaked, I think it could be a much stronger story and cut out at least 100 unneeded pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content, Child abuse, Racism, Child death, and Death of parent
dragonwriter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Revelle” by Lyssa Mia Smith is a Moulin Rouge-esque book who’s theme song is “Surface Pressure” from Encanto.
Charmant is an island of magic during the prohibition, the magic families split between day life and nightlife. The Chronoses are time travelers, politicians who rule the day, while the Revelles are charmers who woo the night, but each type of magic has its price. For however far a Chronos travels back in time, they agree 100x that, and they’re not able to travel forward. A Revelle needs to be given a jewel to be able to charm their customer, and the jewel crumbles under the use of their magic. The star of the Revelle show is Luxe, a charmer who can sidestep the usual cost of her magic and can charm anyone with the price of a migraine instead. Because of this ability, her family relies on her to keep their business afloat, a trick increasingly more difficult with the prohibition. Luxe has to charm a bootlegger, a Chronos, to provide the liquor her family desperately needs, but when she mistakenly charms a visiting mainlander instead, a star crossed love is born, leaving Luxe to choose between her family’s safety and her own life.
This book was a bit slow to catch my interest, but when it did, it had me by the throat! Revelle was one of those books where I switched between the audio and the physical, because the audio was too slow and I NEEDED TO KNOW. I easily spent half the book stressed, remembering 2/3 through that this was essentially a Moulin Rouge retelling. I was so worried! And I felt so hard for Luxe and what she was going through. The resolution was brilliant, and it made me very happy. This is a book I would reread to catch the easter eggs scattered through the story; I think it would double my enjoyment.
Charmant is an island of magic during the prohibition, the magic families split between day life and nightlife. The Chronoses are time travelers, politicians who rule the day, while the Revelles are charmers who woo the night, but each type of magic has its price. For however far a Chronos travels back in time, they agree 100x that, and they’re not able to travel forward. A Revelle needs to be given a jewel to be able to charm their customer, and the jewel crumbles under the use of their magic. The star of the Revelle show is Luxe, a charmer who can sidestep the usual cost of her magic and can charm anyone with the price of a migraine instead. Because of this ability, her family relies on her to keep their business afloat, a trick increasingly more difficult with the prohibition. Luxe has to charm a bootlegger, a Chronos, to provide the liquor her family desperately needs, but when she mistakenly charms a visiting mainlander instead, a star crossed love is born, leaving Luxe to choose between her family’s safety and her own life.
This book was a bit slow to catch my interest, but when it did, it had me by the throat! Revelle was one of those books where I switched between the audio and the physical, because the audio was too slow and I NEEDED TO KNOW. I easily spent half the book stressed, remembering 2/3 through that this was essentially a Moulin Rouge retelling. I was so worried! And I felt so hard for Luxe and what she was going through. The resolution was brilliant, and it made me very happy. This is a book I would reread to catch the easter eggs scattered through the story; I think it would double my enjoyment.
Content Warnings
Minor: Gun violence, Child death, Stalking, and Emotional abuse
thelittlestmermaid's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Revelle was truly an enjoyable book with one of the most intricate magic systems I've seen in a YA fantasy. It draws inspiration from Moulin Rouge, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
This book is a split POV novel, following the main characters Luxe Revelle and Jamison Port. Luxe comes from one of five magical families on the island of Charmant, across the harbor from New York. The Revelle family has the power to charm people into believing or feeling certain ways, using precious gems. Jamison is an orphan whose only desire in life is to find out what happened to his parents, that is, until he meets Luxe.
Following the plot of Moulin Rouge, of course there is a mixed identity situation, and Luxe mistakes Jamison for a different person - Dewey Chronos, the eldest son from the Chronos family. The Chronos family is another one of the magical families on Charmant with the power to travel back in time.
Once the identity situation is resolved, Luxe agrees to a fake dating situation with Dewey in order to secure liquor for her family, as this story takes place in the 1920s during the Prohibition. Magic, forbidden romances, and tragic family backstories ensue.
I have to say, this story really took me by surprise. I was always expecting one thing to be the truth, only to find out I was horribly wrong. I can't say this is the first time this has happened to me, which makes me wonder if perhaps I'm not critical enough when looking for clues. Regardless, this story was fast-paced, and I constantly wanted to sit down and find out what happened next. I adored (almost) every character. The side characters were just as, if not more, interesting than the lead characters.
For the first few chapters I felt horribly confused, but the world was explained pretty quickly, thankfully. I worried that maybe there was just too much going on, and while trying to explain the synopsis to a friend, they claimed that it sounded like too much was happening in the book. (I do think that was due to my poor explanation skills, I'm not good at being concise.) The author did a good job at balancing relationship building, magic explaining, and the mystery happening on the island without it feeling overwhelming.
To me, there were only two flaws with the book- the time setting wasn't clear enough, and the romance was too insta-love. I know that the relationship being an insta-love relationship is true to the inspiration behind the story, as Christian and Satine do have an instant romance, however I think that Jamison should have had a little more reason to love Luxe so much (other than “awooga pretty lady lemme jump off this balcony.”) As for the time era the story was set in, it never really felt like the 1920s to me. Other than a throwaway mention of flappers or a few “Cats pajamas” thrown around during dialogue, the characters felt very modern, and the setting felt ambiguous. This isn't a huge deal to me, I was more interested in the side characters (Trevor heart eyes) and the magic.
I can forgive authors for many things, but I will not forgive her for what she did to Trevor.
I would probably not recommend this book to a reader that is new to the fantasy genre, but I will be recommending it to everyone who enjoys fantasy and enjoys musical theatre. I would gladly read another story set on this island about a different set of characters. I think that the Edwardian family was so intriguing and would love to learn more about them.
Rating this 4.5 stars, rounding up to 5.
This book is a split POV novel, following the main characters Luxe Revelle and Jamison Port. Luxe comes from one of five magical families on the island of Charmant, across the harbor from New York. The Revelle family has the power to charm people into believing or feeling certain ways, using precious gems. Jamison is an orphan whose only desire in life is to find out what happened to his parents, that is, until he meets Luxe.
Following the plot of Moulin Rouge, of course there is a mixed identity situation, and Luxe mistakes Jamison for a different person - Dewey Chronos, the eldest son from the Chronos family. The Chronos family is another one of the magical families on Charmant with the power to travel back in time.
Once the identity situation is resolved, Luxe agrees to a fake dating situation with Dewey in order to secure liquor for her family, as this story takes place in the 1920s during the Prohibition. Magic, forbidden romances, and tragic family backstories ensue.
I have to say, this story really took me by surprise. I was always expecting one thing to be the truth, only to find out I was horribly wrong. I can't say this is the first time this has happened to me, which makes me wonder if perhaps I'm not critical enough when looking for clues. Regardless, this story was fast-paced, and I constantly wanted to sit down and find out what happened next. I adored (almost) every character. The side characters were just as, if not more, interesting than the lead characters.
For the first few chapters I felt horribly confused, but the world was explained pretty quickly, thankfully. I worried that maybe there was just too much going on, and while trying to explain the synopsis to a friend, they claimed that it sounded like too much was happening in the book. (I do think that was due to my poor explanation skills, I'm not good at being concise.) The author did a good job at balancing relationship building, magic explaining, and the mystery happening on the island without it feeling overwhelming.
To me, there were only two flaws with the book- the time setting wasn't clear enough, and the romance was too insta-love. I know that the relationship being an insta-love relationship is true to the inspiration behind the story, as Christian and Satine do have an instant romance, however I think that Jamison should have had a little more reason to love Luxe so much (other than “awooga pretty lady lemme jump off this balcony.”) As for the time era the story was set in, it never really felt like the 1920s to me. Other than a throwaway mention of flappers or a few “Cats pajamas” thrown around during dialogue, the characters felt very modern, and the setting felt ambiguous. This isn't a huge deal to me, I was more interested in the side characters (Trevor heart eyes) and the magic.
I would probably not recommend this book to a reader that is new to the fantasy genre, but I will be recommending it to everyone who enjoys fantasy and enjoys musical theatre. I would gladly read another story set on this island about a different set of characters. I think that the Edwardian family was so intriguing and would love to learn more about them.
Rating this 4.5 stars, rounding up to 5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Racism
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