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4.39 AVERAGE
4.39 AVERAGE
I loved this!
The worldbuilding was great, with enough details about every realm to paint a full picture of the world. The fantasy aspects were intriguing and original. It's a fantasy that doesn't question fully question the divine right to rule (yet?) but I didn't quite mind cause you could still see through some subplots that the powerful were questioned and challenged, so that was cool.
I loved the plot. I loved how it took a lot of fantasy tropes and did something slightly different with them. I loved how it literally never dragged, and how we got so much story in those almost 500 pages without feeling rushed either. We follow Tarisai over years in this, and the timeskips are fully comprehensible and don't feel like the story's being rushed.
I enjoyed the main characters as well. Tarisai is a great main character to follow, and I loved Dayo. Sanjeet and Kirah were great as well. I wasn't fully sold on the romance but I'm aro I'm used to following romance subplots even if they don't fully grasp me. I also really liked Woo In's character, and I hope we'll get more of him in Redemptor.
My main qualm with this book was the lack of development of the Eleven members of Dayo's council. We get development for Kirah, Sanjeet, Dayo and Tarisai and the others get named dropped when needed, with a few personality adjectives mentioned, but it never feels like they have a full intimate relationship with the MC. It wouldn't be a problem if we weren't perpetually reminded that they're a tight-knit family that can't live without each other. When Tarisai went "I miss them" or "I hope they'll forgive me" it didn't really feel fully authentic because we basically never saw interactions (even short) that made me believe that they had a close relationship. A few lines of banter here and there, or short scenes where we got a sense of each relationship would have made a difference for me.
I fully understand that when you have 11 characters it's hard to all give them the same page time, but some never had a single line of dialog, so I was a little bit disappointed in the found family/magic family aspect of this book. I'm a very character-driven kind of reader, so I missed this aspect, but it wasn't anything big enough to make me enjoy the book less overall.
The worldbuilding was great, with enough details about every realm to paint a full picture of the world. The fantasy aspects were intriguing and original. It's a fantasy that doesn't question fully question the divine right to rule (yet?) but I didn't quite mind cause you could still see through some subplots that the powerful were questioned and challenged, so that was cool.
I loved the plot. I loved how it took a lot of fantasy tropes and did something slightly different with them. I loved how it literally never dragged, and how we got so much story in those almost 500 pages without feeling rushed either. We follow Tarisai over years in this, and the timeskips are fully comprehensible and don't feel like the story's being rushed.
I enjoyed the main characters as well. Tarisai is a great main character to follow, and I loved Dayo. Sanjeet and Kirah were great as well. I wasn't fully sold on the romance but I'm aro I'm used to following romance subplots even if they don't fully grasp me. I also really liked Woo In's character, and I hope we'll get more of him in Redemptor.
My main qualm with this book was the lack of development of the Eleven members of Dayo's council. We get development for Kirah, Sanjeet, Dayo and Tarisai and the others get named dropped when needed, with a few personality adjectives mentioned, but it never feels like they have a full intimate relationship with the MC. It wouldn't be a problem if we weren't perpetually reminded that they're a tight-knit family that can't live without each other. When Tarisai went "I miss them" or "I hope they'll forgive me" it didn't really feel fully authentic because we basically never saw interactions (even short) that made me believe that they had a close relationship. A few lines of banter here and there, or short scenes where we got a sense of each relationship would have made a difference for me.
I fully understand that when you have 11 characters it's hard to all give them the same page time, but some never had a single line of dialog, so I was a little bit disappointed in the found family/magic family aspect of this book. I'm a very character-driven kind of reader, so I missed this aspect, but it wasn't anything big enough to make me enjoy the book less overall.
I’m speechless it is everything I wanted and more!!
The narrator for this was excellent, different accents, pacing, intonations for different characters. And usually songs in books irritate me to no end but coming from this narrator they were so comforting and beautiful. 5 stars for the narrator's work.
I was so invested the first half of this book and was ready for a 5 star book, and it was still really good the last half, but didn’t have as consistent pacing. There were several spots where I found myself confused about what was happening, and at times, it felt like the author was forcing a plot twist unnecessarily. Since it was the FMC being deceptive through her own thoughts about her actions, it seemed especially unnecessary. The world building is lush and immersive, beautiful to be in and like a breath of fresh air.
The ending had so much potential but missed the mark for me unfortunately. There were too many things that went unanswered or didn’t make sense to me. Too many factors, but I think I would've loved this book when I was a young adult.
Holy sh*t this book is amazing.
I cant even begin to write a comprehensive review as I am so... Just blown away by the book. The world is so alive and interesting, and the characters were all so well developed that even I remembered most of their names (something I rarely ever manage to do). I need to get the second book as soon as possible.
I cant even begin to write a comprehensive review as I am so... Just blown away by the book. The world is so alive and interesting, and the characters were all so well developed that even I remembered most of their names (something I rarely ever manage to do). I need to get the second book as soon as possible.
if you love found family, this is the book for you.
every time i opened this book, it pulled me in and wouldn't let me go. every single character in this book is worth it, though they all need therapy.
sending my love to woo in. he had my heart the moment he was introduced even if he's kind of a jerk
every time i opened this book, it pulled me in and wouldn't let me go. every single character in this book is worth it, though they all need therapy.
sending my love to woo in. he had my heart the moment he was introduced even if he's kind of a jerk
I’m Absolutely obsessed with this book. The world building is lush and immersive. The characters are complex but lovable. The plot reminds me of Ella enchanted (and that’s one of my favorite books/movies) but it’s still fresh and kept me on the edge of my seat.
adventurous
hopeful
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
This is a standout - the world building is rich, the characters are developed & fully realized, the plot is grand and spans a large scale really well. There are a handful of weird formatting things in my kindle edition (one too many words italicized, random misplaced caps case, etc) and that's always a little jarring for me, but this story feels fresh and beautiful. I can't wait to read the sequel!
I didn't refresh what the book was about before I started reading, just jumped in. Glad I listened to the audio, because of the musical elements. This was really excellent and interesting, every character was complex and did things that were a little surprising, and I loved that.