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hippie13's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-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
3.0
Not as good as Scatter
lezreadalot's review against another edition
3.0
“Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid. Being brave means you’re afraid and you do it anyway.”
A really good sci-fi/superhero romance, but it definitely had its issues, and is sadly overall less successful then the first book in the series. I love everything that the book is going for, but there's a lot to be desired about the pace and execution. Naomi takes part in a new clinical trial for her gender confirmation surgery, and it leaves her with all the results she wanted, plus a few she didn't expect. When Anika, her next door neighbour whom she's had a crush on for three years, finds herself in trouble, Naomi swoops in to help, and soon they're on the run and on a dangerous adventure.
This includes a lot of bulletproof themes and tropes for me (self discovery and angels and AI, three things I particularly love) but the way the story was formulated just wasn't... good? Like, 1 pound of plot in a 5 pound bag, and a gallon of character interaction in development in a single cup. Way out of proportion. In books, characters are eternally and always way more important to me than plot, but even I got frustrated with how little was actually happening in the plot? They would go some place, hide out, get attacked, go some place else, rinse and repeat. Anika narrated her backstory a bajillion times. We got cameos from characters I loved in the first book, but nothing super substantial? I really liked all the angels, their very distinct personalities and relationships, and the mythos in the world (especially the Book and Enoch, and Anika being and Ethiopian Jew), but it still felt like we didn't DO anything with it. It seems pretty obvious to me what action the characters would/should take, but they only decided upon it around 90% in, and until then, it really felt like we were in perpetual limbo. A lot of the science stuff... like, it was SO COOL, but it also felt so disjointed? Like, the characters would be faced with a problem, and suddenly Cool New Thing Ex Machina would be thrown out by another character to save the day, with no little rhyme of reason. So much was happening to Naomi and around Naomi, and it's pretty unreal, how well she adjusted.
Lots of character stuff happened within that time period, but it was almost... too much? Everything that happened between Naomi and Anika and Chance, the directions that things go and the conclusion they come to: all wonderful. I loved it. But it was SO much to happen in a little 330 page book. The arc that they go on, that's something that needs time and care and development and at least two books imo. The fact that it all happens in a week in, once again, an average length book? It felt to weird. I really liked the romance and the mutual pining that Anika and Naomi have going on, and all the other spoilery revelations are cute (came a liiiiittle bit out of left field to me, but I like what I like in fiction, so it was still cute to me). But it still felt like it just HAPPENED, at the snap of a finger, because the author wanted it to happen. I felt no real and organic development. And that was such a bummer, because the romance was the best part of the first book. In addition, the writing didn't appeal to me as much here. Lots of fun bits, fandom references, tongue in cheek quips, snarkiness... but some of it went over the top, and became a little cringey. A lot of cute stuff, but some of it verged on cutesy which is a very different vibe. Idk. I really liked the characters, but I wanted more out of this story.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Jennifer Pickens, which I loved. A lot of different voices and accents, and I enjoyed them all. The book started off so so well, and I really expected to enjoy it more than this? But sadly, in spite of the great characters, I'm a little underwhelmed.
Content warnings:
Spoiler
discussion of parental rejection, transphobia, hate crimesSpoiler
talutha's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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? Yes
3.75
banrions's review against another edition
3.0
Unfortunately, I wanted to like this one a little bit more than I did. I don’t think it’s bad by any means, but it didn’t feel totally up to par with the first one. If we’re going on actual enjoyment level, this is probably a 2.5, for me.
I liked Naomi as a character, but I felt like we didn’t really know Anika all that well. We open with Naomi having been pining for her for three years, and see their first date, and then they go on a road trip adventure and fall in love over the course of a week. I think, “adventure” romances where it’s travel and a shorter span of time are really hard to pull off, and this one didn’t quite do it for me personally. It was a lot of action, which is fine, but it felt like (despite having a decent amount of dynamics and characters talking) it didn’t feel fleshed out enough for me. But that could absolutely be a personal preference thing, I’m more of a slow burner girl and less of an action one unless I’m really in the mood for it. I was also sort of confused as to why Naomi was becoming Anika’s protector in the first place? Like, Anika is a former army person, had powers of her own, why isn’t she fighting her own battles? Idk. It didn’t totally make sense to me, but I just rolled with it.
Some of it felt a bit repetitive—every new person we met had to have Anika’s “story” rehashed in ways that the reader already knows, which led to me skipping whole paragraphs more than once. A few of the interactions felt a little cringy for me, but I can’t totally put my finger on WHY. I think I also had to slightly readjust what I thought this world and series was going to be—I realized that part way through the first book too. I came in expecting superheroes and sci-fi, and there is a lot of other magic and fantasy stuff (the dragons, actual magic, and now literal angels and demons) and it took me a bit to switch my brain there.
I DID enjoy elements of this, Naomi is a great character and I like the world building that’s being drawn out and many of the side characters. I’m eager to read the next one in the series, but I’m bummed that I didn’t connect with this one as much as I was excited to, because it felt like it had a lot of potential going into it.
(I hope we get Eurion’s love story at some point!)
I liked Naomi as a character, but I felt like we didn’t really know Anika all that well. We open with Naomi having been pining for her for three years, and see their first date, and then they go on a road trip adventure and fall in love over the course of a week. I think, “adventure” romances where it’s travel and a shorter span of time are really hard to pull off, and this one didn’t quite do it for me personally. It was a lot of action, which is fine, but it felt like (despite having a decent amount of dynamics and characters talking) it didn’t feel fleshed out enough for me. But that could absolutely be a personal preference thing, I’m more of a slow burner girl and less of an action one unless I’m really in the mood for it. I was also sort of confused as to why Naomi was becoming Anika’s protector in the first place? Like, Anika is a former army person, had powers of her own, why isn’t she fighting her own battles? Idk. It didn’t totally make sense to me, but I just rolled with it.
Some of it felt a bit repetitive—every new person we met had to have Anika’s “story” rehashed in ways that the reader already knows, which led to me skipping whole paragraphs more than once. A few of the interactions felt a little cringy for me, but I can’t totally put my finger on WHY. I think I also had to slightly readjust what I thought this world and series was going to be—I realized that part way through the first book too. I came in expecting superheroes and sci-fi, and there is a lot of other magic and fantasy stuff (the dragons, actual magic, and now literal angels and demons) and it took me a bit to switch my brain there.
I DID enjoy elements of this, Naomi is a great character and I like the world building that’s being drawn out and many of the side characters. I’m eager to read the next one in the series, but I’m bummed that I didn’t connect with this one as much as I was excited to, because it felt like it had a lot of potential going into it.
(I hope we get Eurion’s love story at some point!)
books_withcats's review against another edition
4.0
I love so much the idea behind this book and I think Molly J. Bragg, will deliver masterpieces in the future. These series could have been so much more, and I am sad she rushed to print these books, but the story, the idea, the characters, the world building was chef's kiss!
Her writing needs some work, the dialogues were dull, it was like "lalalala" Naomi said "Lalalala" Anika said, "lalalala" Naomi said and so on! And a lot of things were repeated again and again, but truly, I do recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a sci-fi, fantasy story, utterly enjoyed it!
Her writing needs some work, the dialogues were dull, it was like "lalalala" Naomi said "Lalalala" Anika said, "lalalala" Naomi said and so on! And a lot of things were repeated again and again, but truly, I do recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a sci-fi, fantasy story, utterly enjoyed it!
rebelrose's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-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? Yes
4.75
katiebean's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
kassogtha's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25