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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
I loved this retelling with magic and much less tragedy. The world building was incredible and the characters were complex. I think everyone should read this book.
This has to be my absolute favorite stand-alone I’ve read this year, if not ever. I was immediately drawn into the magic of Lark’s Rusya. While it may be seen as ‘historical’ I did not read it that way at all. This was a fantastical retelling of the Romanov’s in a world very different from our own. I fell in love with the magic system and how possible it felt. What if we were all born with magic gifts in a land once ruled by monsters. I wanted to be a part of that world. I fell in love with characters and the growth I felt from each part of this book. This wasn’t just a romance. This was so much more. This was a human realizing what it means to love in the first place. And not just a fated love. The love of family, of your people, of yourself. Anya’s journey will stay with me for a very long time.
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
A prime example of quantity does not mean quality.
An episode of SpongeBob is written with more nuance. How do books with half the page count of this have so much more plot, romance, character development, etc? Hell, the Silmarillion has several wars and the creation of a universe in almost half the pages.
Not a single thing happened in this book for more than half the book. It was all a giant prologue that was not even slightly needed. Then a whole lot more of nothing happened. You could erase 70% of the book and actually not miss out on anything. Lark seriously needs to learn how to write efficiently. The dialogue is a cringe equal only to that which you'd find on Tumblr fanfics. Character connection is somehow hard to develop with all the useless time skips.
Just don't read this. Don't do it. Lark managed to actually surpass my expectations in how bad a book can be, and for this I fully blame the author.
Also, quick pause for us all to take a moment and consider how inappropriate and distasteful it is to write sex scenes for a character based on a real life girl that died at 17. Seriously, Lark?
An episode of SpongeBob is written with more nuance. How do books with half the page count of this have so much more plot, romance, character development, etc? Hell, the Silmarillion has several wars and the creation of a universe in almost half the pages.
Not a single thing happened in this book for more than half the book. It was all a giant prologue that was not even slightly needed. Then a whole lot more of nothing happened. You could erase 70% of the book and actually not miss out on anything. Lark seriously needs to learn how to write efficiently. The dialogue is a cringe equal only to that which you'd find on Tumblr fanfics. Character connection is somehow hard to develop with all the useless time skips.
Just don't read this. Don't do it. Lark managed to actually surpass my expectations in how bad a book can be, and for this I fully blame the author.
Also, quick pause for us all to take a moment and consider how inappropriate and distasteful it is to write sex scenes for a character based on a real life girl that died at 17. Seriously, Lark?
Wow. If I could give it 6 ⭐ I would. I just finished it and yet I want to read it all over again. The journey. The characters. The emotion. This book was so beautifully written and magical and probably the best thing I've ever read.
3.5 stars, rounded up because I *loved* the last ~200 pages. Up until THE WEDDING, I was really forcing myself to chug along. I understand why the beginning had to happen and how we needed to be inspired to love the characters, but I do feel like there was too much of it. The first 500+ pages could’ve been consolidated down to 100-200 and I think it would’ve had the same effect in the end. Sophie is a beautiful writer and she really honored the people who inspired this tale, I just think it could’ve been more impactful if it was more concise.
This was such a fun, detailed, epic read! My only critique is when suddenly songs were mentioned randomly parts of the book. I just wish those were put at the beginning instead of right smack dab as it drew me out of the tale
I really enjoyed this book at the beginning, but the romance made me cringe a little.
A fun fantastical rewrite of Anastasia’s story. Felt more like the animated movie with magic rather than a historical remix, but that isn’t a complaint. I struggled with the last 25% of this, it seemed to drag and felt repetitive at times, even though it was a great story. I think the dragging feeling was more my own fault since I had a break in reading due to a work trip, if I’d been able to read this in a shorter amount of time it would have felt like a better flow.