Reviews

As always, I’m in awe before Blake’s writing style. It’s poetic and beautiful.

Story wise, I realised 3/4 into it that I didn’t really know where the plot was going, what was the plot even, kinda how I felt when I read masters of death. But it was enjoyable nonetheless, cool characters and gripping enough story.

All witches and sorority and magic and mystery, dark academia vibes.

bkmason's review

Go to review page

medium-paced

3.25

gg_reads41189's review

Go to review page

I don’t like love triangles and I felt this was going to be the main plot.

everyone/Prosperous falling in love with Aurora and treating Ariadne like garbage just annoyed me

saveourskinship's review

Go to review page

emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

3.75

Great characters. Needed more fleshing out in places. Ending was... it was. Fascinating magic.

adamm's review

Go to review page

1.5

Short review: most of this book felt like it was written by a man

-> huge dumb bitch energy from basically all characters

-> they all felt incredibly flat, we didn’t get to really know or understand any of them

-> the whole story hinges on women being desperate for the validation and love of an really awful man

-> please stop writing story’s about sisters (& friends) that are only about betrayal (mostly happening, again, for the „love“ of a man) and not actually about any kind of bond between said sisters oder friends

-> this also felt like every other book by Olivie Blake, in a bad way (and I am just generally getting tired with her seeming obsession with romantic love and her absolut disregard for anything else (again, specifically female friendships and bonds that aren’t romantic)

Would like to add that I still am generally a fan of the author (Masters of death, AWYITE and the atlas six are great)

allie19's review

Go to review page

5.0

I love this book so much I don’t think it’s possible for me to ever run out of good things to say about it.

Aurora and Ariadne’s relationship had me hooked from the very beginning, and then Prospero, Duke of Swindlery, turned up and stole my heart forever. He is quite possibly my favorite of Olivie’s male characters, which is a thing that I hate to say because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings (looking at you Thomas Edward Parker IV).

And then on top of all this you have Celeste, an OBJECTIVELY amazing villain who will fill you with rage so effectively you’ll be obsessing over her for days. NOT TO MENTION reluctant and incapable witch hunters, vengeful spirits, and sassy coven council members (just putting it here for the record that I would die for a book about Maude Sparling).

But (and it’s taken me so long to get to my point, but here we are) the most important part about this book is its portrayal of relationships between women. At a time when women are afraid to come forward and tell their stories, when women’s rights are up for grabs, this book is a reminder to support each other, to BELIEVE each other, and to keep fighting.

trengsin's review

Go to review page

3.0

need olivie to write more books about witches because she writes them so well. i think my main “issue” is how her books about witches more or less are structured the same way and plots flow in similar ways. i read one for my enemy, masters of death, and lovely tangled vices pretty spread out (about a 6 month difference between each) but still when i read this book it did end up feeling repetitive.

More...