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scjsasha's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
firefox's review against another edition
5.0
(Arc)
'Cruel Illusions' is a story that combines magicians and vampires in a beautiful yet strange way. When I began reading this story I never thought I'd love it as much as I did, it was slow paced at first but getting into Ava and her story was quickly becoming interesting and I was highly invested in this book.
I loved this book so so much and I would definitely love to own my own copy of this book.
'Cruel Illusions' is a story that combines magicians and vampires in a beautiful yet strange way. When I began reading this story I never thought I'd love it as much as I did, it was slow paced at first but getting into Ava and her story was quickly becoming interesting and I was highly invested in this book.
I loved this book so so much and I would definitely love to own my own copy of this book.
goldkat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jasmine_elizabeth's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the magic and the illusions, the vampires and magicians were interesting. The romance was great, i always was rooting for Roman rather than Xander. I didn’t care much for the rest of the troupe either.
ttfluffy0's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
0 🌶️
Ava is a grungy girl that hates vampires because surprise surprise, they took her mother away
Ava has a little brother and they are both orphans. Father died when they were really young and mom died from a vampire and now Ava has a vendetta against them and wants them all dead… if she could find any to kill.
Ava seems a bit like a brat with her vendetta and only knows what her mom tells her but she is very protective of her little brother and making sure that her hate for vampires doesn’t bleed (pun not intended) into her brother. She wants him to be happy and grow in her adoptive family.
Ava meets a group of magicians and finds out that these magicians are vampire slayers and hate them as much as Ava does too, why? Because they went through the same pain that Ava went.
This group of magician go out a scout new magician apprentices and there is many groups that do this too but with all these many apprentices only one can win this competition.
This book has so much potential and i can see how it can be like Caraval (even though i havent read that series) but this book really drops the ball with Ava’s character and also the competition. She makes it hard to like her sometimes and also it seems like the ending of the book was a bit predictable on the ending about Ava’s past and her mom’s death.
I’m surprised I actually finished this book but i really wanted to finish this book and just get to the end because of how pretty the special edition from Fairyloot is. I feel like the book could of been so much better and not so predictable but what can you do.
If you are questioning if there is romance… hardly. A lot of tension and maybe 2-3 kisses but im not going to lie this book was such a drag and hard to care about. Dont get me wrong it does have its good moments but it does die quickly after like a chapter or so
Ava is a grungy girl that hates vampires because surprise surprise, they took her mother away
Ava has a little brother and they are both orphans. Father died when they were really young and mom died from a vampire and now Ava has a vendetta against them and wants them all dead… if she could find any to kill.
Ava seems a bit like a brat with her vendetta and only knows what her mom tells her but she is very protective of her little brother and making sure that her hate for vampires doesn’t bleed (pun not intended) into her brother. She wants him to be happy and grow in her adoptive family.
Ava meets a group of magicians and finds out that these magicians are vampire slayers and hate them as much as Ava does too, why? Because they went through the same pain that Ava went.
This group of magician go out a scout new magician apprentices and there is many groups that do this too but with all these many apprentices only one can win this competition.
This book has so much potential and i can see how it can be like Caraval (even though i havent read that series) but this book really drops the ball with Ava’s character and also the competition. She makes it hard to like her sometimes and also it seems like the ending of the book was a bit predictable on the ending about Ava’s past and her mom’s death.
I’m surprised I actually finished this book but i really wanted to finish this book and just get to the end because of how pretty the special edition from Fairyloot is. I feel like the book could of been so much better and not so predictable but what can you do.
If you are questioning if there is romance… hardly. A lot of tension and maybe 2-3 kisses but im not going to lie this book was such a drag and hard to care about. Dont get me wrong it does have its good moments but it does die quickly after like a chapter or so
khardan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Death of parent, and Torture
Moderate: Abandonment
alorajade's review
3.0
I am giving Cruel Illusions by Fuston 3.5 stars. Firstly, it reminded me somewhat of The Hunger Games, merging with Harry Potter and Twilight (without the weird sparkling aspect). The beginning of the book felt slow, but I found myself wanting to know more. Somethings I liked about the book was the way Fuston merges vampires with magicians. I liked the family aspect between Ava and her little brother Parker too, however, I disliked the attitude she gave Deb when all she was trying to do was to make her feel as comfortable as possible in a new situation. Furthermore, the whole evil-antagonist-is-Ava's-father thing was a little too cliche for my taste. Finally, the elephant in the room we've all probably been thinking about: the weird love-triangle between Xander, Ava, and Roman, rather in this case, Xander-using-Ava-for-her-power; which I thought was rather dense. Though I did not see it coming, the way the betrayal is written I found to be dry. It was over before it really started. Yes, there were subtle hints, like Aristelle getting jealous and Ava seeing it, however, it didn't have that "holy shit" factor. Furthermore, the way that Ava just suddenly asks for their help in the end during the final battle scene with numerius and Lucius...I found it to be anticlimactic. I had initially picked up this book because it sounded so interesting, I mean come on! Vampires, and Magicians? There hasn't been anything like it in years. I just feel disappointment.
the_book_snek's review against another edition
4.0
Massive nods to Buffy, like MASSIVE, almost gratuitously so. Lucky for me, I'm a gratuitous Buffy fan. Plots turns a little on the predictable side for the savvy reader. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the writer got me on side with all the core characters so I was heavily invested within the first 100 pages. Would happily place this as a comfort read as it stands alone well!
booksumed's review against another edition
4.0
Mixing magicians and vampires? - Strange, but I loved it!
Cruel Illusions fascinatingly mixes Vampires and Magicians. While the book at its core has the typical YA formula, Fuston put enough of her spin on it to make it feel fresh and a fun reading experience.
Fueling your magic by performing in front of an audience is such a cool concept, and I loved the connection between Magicians and Vampires.
I LOATH love triangles, and while this technically has one, it didn’t bother me?
Cruel Illusions fascinatingly mixes Vampires and Magicians. While the book at its core has the typical YA formula, Fuston put enough of her spin on it to make it feel fresh and a fun reading experience.
Fueling your magic by performing in front of an audience is such a cool concept, and I loved the connection between Magicians and Vampires.
I LOATH love triangles, and while this technically has one, it didn’t bother me?