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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
I received this book from its publisher Sourcebooks Fire via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
🌟🌟🌟🌟.5
I absolutely loved this book! I had heard very mixed views previously but I absolutely adored it, the world building, the narrative, all of it. This is kind of like Throne of Glass meets The Fallen meets Song of Blood and Stone. You know what it means when you have to use three different series to try and cover everything in a book? It means it’s a new and original idea and you’re grasping at straws trying to adequately explain it.
The story is told from the varying perspectives of two awesome, powerful and strong heroines, each fully rounded with fears, flaws and wit and both were great. The varying perspectives also take place in different time periods that would ordinarily confuse me because YA Fantasy novels never seem to strike the balance right but this was more in the way of how Scott Lynch writes his Gentleman Bastard Sequence, each is relevant to the other but makes intriguing and exciting narratives alone too. At the end of every chapter I was itching to continue with that narrative and see what happened but just a few lines into the other and that had me hooked too, it was most conflicting – but in a good way.
I don’t think the two stories separately would have been as interesting but together they were spectacular.
As you probably know I try to be balanced in my reviews so in the spirit if being fair my only issues were Ludivine’s dialogue and the propensity of the majority of the lead characters to try and fix all their problems with sex. Like everything, trauma, adversity, war, depression, guilt – when confronted with anything it felt like Rielle and Eliana’s first port of call to fix it was to get their leg over with whoever they were with. Luckily the men and women in their lives knew them well enough to make them actually face their problems but this response doesn’t alter even at the end and I think it would have been good character development for it to have stopped at the 75% mark.
What was my problem with Ludivine’s dialogue? She’s a question-talker. What’s a question-talker? Well, it’s someone who makes every point by first posing a question to themselves and them answering themselves, often in trains of three. Do I have a problem with this? Yes, because it’s freaking annoying!
It’s something writers usually use to make you find a character annoying, but we were supposed to like Ludivine but every time she spoke I was just like please, shut up.
That aside, this was such a great read and I can’t wait for the rest of the series.
If you have a minute, check out this review on my blog and tell me what you thought.
🌟🌟🌟🌟.5
I absolutely loved this book! I had heard very mixed views previously but I absolutely adored it, the world building, the narrative, all of it. This is kind of like Throne of Glass meets The Fallen meets Song of Blood and Stone. You know what it means when you have to use three different series to try and cover everything in a book? It means it’s a new and original idea and you’re grasping at straws trying to adequately explain it.
The story is told from the varying perspectives of two awesome, powerful and strong heroines, each fully rounded with fears, flaws and wit and both were great. The varying perspectives also take place in different time periods that would ordinarily confuse me because YA Fantasy novels never seem to strike the balance right but this was more in the way of how Scott Lynch writes his Gentleman Bastard Sequence, each is relevant to the other but makes intriguing and exciting narratives alone too. At the end of every chapter I was itching to continue with that narrative and see what happened but just a few lines into the other and that had me hooked too, it was most conflicting – but in a good way.
I don’t think the two stories separately would have been as interesting but together they were spectacular.
As you probably know I try to be balanced in my reviews so in the spirit if being fair my only issues were Ludivine’s dialogue and the propensity of the majority of the lead characters to try and fix all their problems with sex. Like everything, trauma, adversity, war, depression, guilt – when confronted with anything it felt like Rielle and Eliana’s first port of call to fix it was to get their leg over with whoever they were with. Luckily the men and women in their lives knew them well enough to make them actually face their problems but this response doesn’t alter even at the end and I think it would have been good character development for it to have stopped at the 75% mark.
What was my problem with Ludivine’s dialogue? She’s a question-talker. What’s a question-talker? Well, it’s someone who makes every point by first posing a question to themselves and them answering themselves, often in trains of three. Do I have a problem with this? Yes, because it’s freaking annoying!
It’s something writers usually use to make you find a character annoying, but we were supposed to like Ludivine but every time she spoke I was just like please, shut up.
That aside, this was such a great read and I can’t wait for the rest of the series.
If you have a minute, check out this review on my blog and tell me what you thought.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The more I read this year the more I unfortunately realize that this book was rather forgettable. I have had no desire to read the sequel even though I bought it. It wasn't bad, just didn't hit for me.
Kept me engaged throughout and kind of lost me at the end. Left me with no desire to read rest of series despite enjoying most of this book. Would be a three start if I wanted to read the rest of the series. Probably at a 2.5
Not sure how to feel, but I’m still going to read the sequel.
3.5 Stars!
Had fun reading this, loved the two different timelines and having two messy, kick ass female protagonists. I would have liked some more twists and a stronger end. However, I really liked the characters, thought the world was interesting, and also really want to know what's going to happen next. Will continue on with the series.
Had fun reading this, loved the two different timelines and having two messy, kick ass female protagonists. I would have liked some more twists and a stronger end. However, I really liked the characters, thought the world was interesting, and also really want to know what's going to happen next. Will continue on with the series.
marked as a DNF for now as I wasn't feeling the connection and felt confused by this book but I will be coming back to it at a later time
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
nobody could've separated me from this book because I was so hooked
I really don’t know why it took me this long to read this book, but better late than never, right?
When I first started, I wasn’t very interested and it aggravated me that the POV bounced around. I pushed through and made myself keep reading, and god, I’m so glad I did.
I love the characters, they’re (in my opinion) the best parts of this book. Yes, they get on my nerves some times, but the best written characters will do that.
The world mechanisms could have been explained a bit better towards the beginning, and the dates threw me off (is this Earth centuries from now, is this a made up world?), but eventually things start making more sense.
The story also ends pretty abruptly, I was expecting it to continue on a bit more (but that could be because I read it on a Kindle and had no physical measure of how many pages were left).
All in all, I hungrily await Kingsbane and see what these amazing characters do.
When I first started, I wasn’t very interested and it aggravated me that the POV bounced around. I pushed through and made myself keep reading, and god, I’m so glad I did.
I love the characters, they’re (in my opinion) the best parts of this book. Yes, they get on my nerves some times, but the best written characters will do that.
The world mechanisms could have been explained a bit better towards the beginning, and the dates threw me off (is this Earth centuries from now, is this a made up world?), but eventually things start making more sense.
The story also ends pretty abruptly, I was expecting it to continue on a bit more (but that could be because I read it on a Kindle and had no physical measure of how many pages were left).
All in all, I hungrily await Kingsbane and see what these amazing characters do.