Reviews

The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis

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dmoony's review against another edition

3.5

The first half focused wayyy too much on conversations and casual outtings that had almost nothing to do woth the plot, and did little to further the romance. Literally every conversation at some point devolved into nagging the leads about how single they are, which I absolutely hate. Like, I don't mind stories portraying this kind of conversation, because people really talk like that, but does it have to be in every scene? The story also rewarded it by making it a romance and having the side characters be completely right about everything, ultimately sending a message that you can't be happy when you're single. The romance became serious a little too fast for my taste as well.

Anyway, after the half-way point things picked up, and it was pretty good after that. I also liked that the woman in this relationship was higher status and more powerful than the man, which I've like never seen before?? So yea a decent books, but the first half could really have been tidied up a lot.

justgothenough's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

masonmarie's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

heabooknerd's review against another edition

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3.0

THE LIGHTS OF PRAGUE is a bit out of my usual reading genre but I'm glad I picked it up because I liked this interesting historical fantasy. The descriptions of a gas lamp era Prague were lush and beautiful and I really felt like I was there. I also enjoyed both main characters, our lamplighter and monster hunter, Domek, and our beautiful and aloof pijavice (vampire), Ora. I expected this to be mostly fantasy but there is a little bit of a romance that does end with Domek and Ora together and that fed my romance reading soul. Of course it was very angsty since Domek doesn't realize at first that Ora is his "enemy" and this leads to some heartbreaking moments.

A large part of THE LIGHTS OF PRAGUE focuses on mysterious rumors of a cure for the pijavice that leaves them able to go out in the sun but still maintain their other powers. In addition there's another fairly important character, Kaja the wisp who gets tangled up in the plot in a variety of ways. This also leads Ora and Domek (and the reader by extension) into exploring the various classes of pijavice and brings up some interesting points about what truly makes someone a monster.

While I enjoyed most of the book I do have to say that the pacing felt super lopsided. The first half of the book is very slow going and then the second half is action packed and literally everything happens. There's a lot of twists and turns and surprising betrayals and alliances. And while I really liked the second half of the book, I think it would have been better if some of it was spaced out a little bit more.

Content Warning: references to antisemitism, racism, classism, and slavery; references to grieving the death of a loved one