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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I read this as an e-book and am honestly debating whether the whole book was on there — because this is the worst ending ever. The first 90% of the book felt like an intro to the story, and when it finally got somewhere, it ended? I mean, what the heck. Was this supposed to be a series or something? This is my first one star review.. which I find quite sad honestly. Altogether, the book was not even that bad, but an introduction to a story is and will never be a real story. The author missed some key elements for a good book, in my opinion.
All I can say is that I made it to the end. So much potential here and it just let me down every step of the way. A blind heroine who has such amazing senses that she might as well not be blind -- what is the point of that other than making the descriptions odd and basically everything unbelievable. And I literally do not understand how it took her so long to realize the king was killing all the girls to get to her. I mean...really. I couldn't get over it. And every scene was like they had learned nothing emotionally from the scene before. No way can I continue with this. The best part was Digger and he showed up at the very end and then disappeared.
I can’t wait to start the next one. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I like insta love, it doesn’t bother me. I had guessed something at one point and normally I am completely wrong, but I was so happy when I turned out to be right. I will definitely be buying a hard copy of this.
This book started off super strong! The plot line and love story might not be for everyone but I liked it pretty well.
I hated hated hated how our heroine converted into a puddle of useless in the presence of her love interest.
She had so much potential, she was described as so courageous at first and it sucked how she would "whimper away while Fowler fought" and "doubted whether I could fight them" and "hid behind Fowler when the BAD BAD guy looked at me" I mean, WHAT THE FUCK.
It just didn't make sense, I was so excited on the first chapters and then all went to shit.
I think the only good thing maintained all though this book was the fact that she was blind and then stop, remember and go back thinking: "No, no, no she SAW this,she described it!" only to realize I was wrong and Jordan is a good writer damn it.
But then MAYBE NOT. Because, it was too good, with which I mean that I would never realize she was being so self-sufficient that it was unrealistic, and I get it, she had been outside of her tower but at the same time, never more than a stone-throw away, which means that all that forest was new and she should at least stumble a few times, maybe? or have Fowler raise his hand to stop her and she wouldn't see it and she would stumble into him? I don't know, I feel that maybe Jordan wrote the blind-character thing just to make Luna more special, which PUH-LEAZE, she's a lost princess in a world with an eternal eclipse, you don't need to make her MORE special.
Also if she's doing things by touch or she has never been in a house before fucking please don't have her roam around like she fucking owns the place, make her stumble or get lost on her way back, because fuck it why would she be so perfect? She should have flaws, she should be more frustrated that she's blind, don't bullshit me telling me that at some point of the book it is the first time she "REALIZES SHE WOULD LIKE TO SEE".
Yo, she's blind, of course she would like to see, that doesn't mean she's less of a person or that she doesn't love herself if she wants to see, it just means her life would be X1000000 times easier if she saw.
But then, the story made little sense most of the time, because Luna was the lost princess, right? but then she would say "OOOHHH WHY IS HE KILLING ALL GIRLS BETWEEN 15 and 20??? MAKES NO SENSE, SO CRUEL! WHYYYY??!" I mean, dude, you're between that age bracket and he discovered your house a couple of days ago, of course he knows you're alive, c'mon!
And also how the Dwellers were such weird creatures that were never explained, they were always described the same way, but no one wondered where they came from or what they were. Not like the giant bats where we get this huge explanation and symptoms if you eat one and all that.
All in all, the book was disappointing, heavy-on-the-insta-love theme, and I also skipped some shit about Fowler's flowery thoughts towards Luna because that shit ain't realistic and all her lovey-dovey thoughts about him.
She had so much potential, she was described as so courageous at first and it sucked how she would "whimper away while Fowler fought" and "doubted whether I could fight them" and "hid behind Fowler when the BAD BAD guy looked at me" I mean, WHAT THE FUCK.
It just didn't make sense, I was so excited on the first chapters and then all went to shit.
I think the only good thing maintained all though this book was the fact that she was blind and then stop, remember and go back thinking: "No, no, no she SAW this,she described it!" only to realize I was wrong and Jordan is a good writer damn it.
But then MAYBE NOT. Because, it was too good, with which I mean that I would never realize she was being so self-sufficient that it was unrealistic, and I get it, she had been outside of her tower but at the same time, never more than a stone-throw away, which means that all that forest was new and she should at least stumble a few times, maybe? or have Fowler raise his hand to stop her and she wouldn't see it and she would stumble into him? I don't know, I feel that maybe Jordan wrote the blind-character thing just to make Luna more special, which PUH-LEAZE, she's a lost princess in a world with an eternal eclipse, you don't need to make her MORE special.
Also if she's doing things by touch or she has never been in a house before fucking please don't have her roam around like she fucking owns the place, make her stumble or get lost on her way back, because fuck it why would she be so perfect? She should have flaws, she should be more frustrated that she's blind, don't bullshit me telling me that at some point of the book it is the first time she "REALIZES SHE WOULD LIKE TO SEE".
Yo, she's blind, of course she would like to see, that doesn't mean she's less of a person or that she doesn't love herself if she wants to see, it just means her life would be X1000000 times easier if she saw.
But then, the story made little sense most of the time, because Luna was the lost princess, right? but then she would say "OOOHHH WHY IS HE KILLING ALL GIRLS BETWEEN 15 and 20??? MAKES NO SENSE, SO CRUEL! WHYYYY??!" I mean, dude, you're between that age bracket and he discovered your house a couple of days ago, of course he knows you're alive, c'mon!
And also how the Dwellers were such weird creatures that were never explained, they were always described the same way, but no one wondered where they came from or what they were. Not like the giant bats where we get this huge explanation and symptoms if you eat one and all that.
All in all, the book was disappointing, heavy-on-the-insta-love theme, and I also skipped some shit about Fowler's flowery thoughts towards Luna because that shit ain't realistic and all her lovey-dovey thoughts about him.
I wish the book was as captivating as the cover art. Luna is a princess trapped in a tower, she longs for adventure, and she is blind (not that it stops her from doing anything) . The whole world lives in darkness because of an eclipse, monsters rise from the ground each day, and an evil chancellor killed her parents. Fowler is a loner who keeps getting saddled with the burden of other people, he wants to get to a land where there are no monsters, and his dad killed his last girlfriend. This was formulaic dystopian YA to a tee. Normally, that is right up my wheelhouse, but I just couldn't get into this one. There were definitely moments where I was intrigued, but everything resolved itself too quickly to be interesting. The writing wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.
Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.
Reign of Shadows blew me away. I highly enjoyed this book! It was such an interesting concept, the main character being blind in a world full of danger. It was thrilling and exciting.
The Concept
When I went into Reign of Shadows I had no idea how Jordan was going to pull off a character as blind. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this story because I couldn't yet understand how the reader would be able to see the world if the main character couldn't actually see it herself. I was really going to need to rely on the author's writing ability for this one. And then on top of that, this story is a fantasy set in a world where daylight is sparse, and monsters rule the darkness. It sounded so intriguing.
Luna & her blindness
The way Jordan writes the world as how Luna sees was interesting, how Luna could hear far away and could tell what the sound was whether it was a person walking through the woods, or the dark dwellers rising from the ground. I thought that was so cool, a little unbelievable, but I decided to let me suspense of belief stretch that far.
Luna can fight, she can defend herself, even though she can't see. She uses her hearing and also the feel of air pressure. As of course when something moves the air around it also moves. I loved this idea and understood how Luna could see so much without actually seeing. The way Jordan described the world filled my mind with images I could understand, I loved that, although there were moments when I would think 'How can Luna describe something like that when she hasn't seen it before?'.
Luna was able to walk the terrain with no problem. Now this would have been fine if Luna had actually been outside of her tower more often. But Luna was confined to her tower for most of her life with only a few times having left it. Personally, I found this unbelievable that she was then able to walk the terrain fine with Fowler. Even if she could hear him in front of her and hear the way he moved, it felt a little impossible for her to perfectly be able to do that.
Her sense's were heightened because of her blindness, but at times I felt like I had to really stretch my suspense of belief to believe her sense were just that good. It was as if she had superpower sense's, and who knows, maybe that's exactly what she has. Maybe when she was born she was given the gift of super sense and her sight was taken away.
The Romance
Fowler is a moody, bad boy character. He has a sad past and refuses to let anyone in. The way he treats Luna at the beginning is really frustrating, Luna tries to befriend him by talking non-stop since he refuses to answer her questions. Luna starts to like Fowler a little too early for my liking, it felt a bit like she fell for him simply because he was the first person she had met other than her family. The connection was Luna's pure wanting to have interaction with other people and he was the first one.
By the end though I was shipping it, I was enjoying their scenes together.
The Inconsistencies
I did notice throughout the book that I felt like there were a few inconsistencies. Luna would be intelligent and strong and brave at the start but then during the middle she was acting like a terrified little girl. I remember wondering where had the strong woman from the beginning of the book gone? She suddenly forgot how to fight and so all she did was flee. It was rather jarring.
Overall
Overall, I actually really, really enjoyed Reign of Shadows. I did have to stretch my suspense of belief rather far at points, and there were moments that annoyed me with how Luna was acting or her personality had changed. And there were small things that I didn't like. But overall, I really fell in love with the story as it was. A story about a journey and survival.
The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger so I really want to know what happens next!
Always,
Jordon
This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift
Reign of Shadows blew me away. I highly enjoyed this book! It was such an interesting concept, the main character being blind in a world full of danger. It was thrilling and exciting.
The Concept
When I went into Reign of Shadows I had no idea how Jordan was going to pull off a character as blind. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this story because I couldn't yet understand how the reader would be able to see the world if the main character couldn't actually see it herself. I was really going to need to rely on the author's writing ability for this one. And then on top of that, this story is a fantasy set in a world where daylight is sparse, and monsters rule the darkness. It sounded so intriguing.
Luna & her blindness
The way Jordan writes the world as how Luna sees was interesting, how Luna could hear far away and could tell what the sound was whether it was a person walking through the woods, or the dark dwellers rising from the ground. I thought that was so cool, a little unbelievable, but I decided to let me suspense of belief stretch that far.
Luna can fight, she can defend herself, even though she can't see. She uses her hearing and also the feel of air pressure. As of course when something moves the air around it also moves. I loved this idea and understood how Luna could see so much without actually seeing. The way Jordan described the world filled my mind with images I could understand, I loved that, although there were moments when I would think 'How can Luna describe something like that when she hasn't seen it before?'.
Luna was able to walk the terrain with no problem. Now this would have been fine if Luna had actually been outside of her tower more often. But Luna was confined to her tower for most of her life with only a few times having left it. Personally, I found this unbelievable that she was then able to walk the terrain fine with Fowler. Even if she could hear him in front of her and hear the way he moved, it felt a little impossible for her to perfectly be able to do that.
Her sense's were heightened because of her blindness, but at times I felt like I had to really stretch my suspense of belief to believe her sense were just that good. It was as if she had superpower sense's, and who knows, maybe that's exactly what she has. Maybe when she was born she was given the gift of super sense and her sight was taken away.
The Romance
Fowler is a moody, bad boy character. He has a sad past and refuses to let anyone in. The way he treats Luna at the beginning is really frustrating, Luna tries to befriend him by talking non-stop since he refuses to answer her questions. Luna starts to like Fowler a little too early for my liking, it felt a bit like she fell for him simply because he was the first person she had met other than her family. The connection was Luna's pure wanting to have interaction with other people and he was the first one.
By the end though I was shipping it, I was enjoying their scenes together.
The Inconsistencies
I did notice throughout the book that I felt like there were a few inconsistencies. Luna would be intelligent and strong and brave at the start but then during the middle she was acting like a terrified little girl. I remember wondering where had the strong woman from the beginning of the book gone? She suddenly forgot how to fight and so all she did was flee. It was rather jarring.
Overall
Overall, I actually really, really enjoyed Reign of Shadows. I did have to stretch my suspense of belief rather far at points, and there were moments that annoyed me with how Luna was acting or her personality had changed. And there were small things that I didn't like. But overall, I really fell in love with the story as it was. A story about a journey and survival.
The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger so I really want to know what happens next!
Always,
Jordon
This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift
A decent book. The characters, while they didn't grab me, weren't awful. The romance was average, like many YA books tend to be, but it was at least over a believable period of time (rather than 20 minutes, like so many books seem to do now).
It was interesting having a blind and capable protagonist. However on the whole it left more questions than answers, and not in a good way, and the plot takes us away from any action only to reverse all courses taken in the end. Would I recommend this to a friend? Depends on the friend, I think.
It was interesting having a blind and capable protagonist. However on the whole it left more questions than answers, and not in a good way, and the plot takes us away from any action only to reverse all courses taken in the end. Would I recommend this to a friend? Depends on the friend, I think.
A darkness has descended on the kingdom and the last princess of royal blood Luna, is hiding in a tower. Luna's secret is discovered and she must flee along with a young man named Fowler who must help her survive the world of darkness and the gross creatures that hunt humans. The story line is unique and has a great lead character in Luna with a nice blend of strengths and weaknesses. There is action and romance (PG-13 rated) and a lot of fantasy fans will love this series. I can see many of my middle school girls squealing with joy at Fowler and Luna's story. There is a heck of a cliffhanger too. Boo on that! 6th grade and up.
