Reviews with content warning for Blood - Any Way the Wind Blows

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Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

42 reviews

em_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny slow-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

4.5

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thataudaciouslady's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

4.75

A return to form after the okay-but-not-great Wayward Son. Simon and Baz’s relationship is so beautiful - intimate and delicate and aching. From my lay perspective, Simon’s PTSD was explored thoroughly, but gently and with love.

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quasinaut's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

I love a book where so much happens and yet things get pretty tidily wrapped up. Baz and Simon and Penelope and Shepard and Agatha finally get some things figured out -- both interpersonally and within their larger magical world. I was ambivalent about the new Chosen One arc, yet I appreciated how it brought closure to Simon's story, shed light on power differences, and allowed for some good ol' fighting. A beautiful conclusion to the trilogy.

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shaylee_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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

3.0

Ratings:

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Romance:⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Diversity:⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Sadness: 💧/5

Spice:🌶️ /5

The Simon Snow Trilogy has come to end and honestly I'm quite sad about it. Honestly I didn't really have that high of hopes for this book because of how disappointing Wayward Son was but I was pleasantly surprised with this book. This book took me about a day and a half to read, honestly I had expected it to take me a bit to get into the story but I was wrong it had hooked me from page one and I did not want to stop reading it.

Not only do we get to see more of the love story between Simon and Baz but we also get two more love stories in this book. Yep that's right both Penny and Agatha get a love interest in this book and I absolutely adored that. Actually one of my favorite aspects of this book was the love story between Penny and Shepard who I completely loved since the moment they interacted in Wayward Son.

All those people who kept saying Agatha was a lesbian must be so happy right now because they where in fact right. Honestly Agatha liking women makes so much sense to me because in the first book I never felt like she truly wanted to be with Simon and was just with him because everyone wanted her to be and I felt like her interest with Baz was just because she liked the chase and wanted him to want her. Because of this I absolutely loved that we got to see Agatha find someone that she can truly love.

There is one thing I have to say about Agatha's relationship was that I wish it was more developed. It felt very instalovie and I wish we had got to see their feelings for each other grow and a little bit more.

Speaking of Agatha, I absolutely despised Agatha in the other books. I thought she was mean, selfish, and only truly cared about herself but this book actually made me like her more. We got to see what it was like for her being Simon's girlfriend and the difficulties that came with it that we didn't get to see.

Now let's talk about the romance that we are all reading this book for… Simon and Baz. I went into this book convinced that either they were going to break up or one of them was gonna die and I'm so happy that did not happen. I loved seeing them start fresh with their relationship and work on their communication and heal together. Though I do have to say them breaking up for like 20 pages was kinda pointless, I get that it was supposed to bring up the fact that Simon didn't feel like he really gave their relationship a shot in the first place but I feel like their separation should have been longer and Simon should have taken the time to be by himself and work on himself and the mental problems he was going through. Ultimately I feel if she was going to have them break up it should have been for a longer time and have more of an impact on the story and the characters personal growth.

I did love seeing them rebuild their relationship with a more stable base and seeing them grow as people together. I also loved the fact that Simon went with Baz to hunt and was trying to show Baz that he doesn't have to hide that side of him because someone loves every aspect of him and wants to be a part of every part of his life. I loved how both of them helped each other come to terms with a part of themselves that they didn't like. Baz helped Simon except the fact that he no longer had magic and Simon helped Baz except that a part of him was a vampire but that doesn't make him a terrible person. I also loved the conversation about sex and exploring it that was in this book. I could really relate to Simon and his struggle with sexual intimacy due to trauma because I myself struggle with that and it was nice to see Simon deal with that and find a safe place to explore these desires that he feels with someone who truly cares about him.

Another aspect that I loved was the fact that we got to see Simon find his family. It broke my heart that Lucy mom thought that she was alive and got away from the mage when we knew the whole time that she wasn't and I was waiting this whole book waiting for her to realize that Simon is her grandson and when she did it made me so happy. I was so happy that not only had Simon found the family he so desperately longed for but that his grandmother had found a piece of her daughter again.

One of the weakest aspects of this book is the plot. This book is very much a romance and character driven book which normally isn't a problem for me because I'm someone who will absolutely love a book if it has amazing characters that I love and has alot of romance in it but Carry On I feel like did so well combining a very interesting and addicting plot with amazing characters and romance that I absolutely loved and I just feel like Any Way The Wind Blows was missing that.

One of my biggest problems with Wayward Son was that I felt like we lost the magical aspect that we saw in Carry On but I felt like we got some of that back in this book. This book definitely had a lot more of the magical elements that I loved from the first book.

All together I enjoyed this book way more than I did Wayward Son and I'm extremely sad to have to say goodbye to Simon and Baz but I really enjoyed my time reading their story.

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eirenvonmir's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

This book makes me soft :"" loved the development of all the characters, didn't expect to like Shepard so much, but he's so nice and his plot felt really funny <3 Baz and Simon are so cute together... Maybe I'd have liked a little bit more of ✨spicyness✨, but only because this is the last book so know I will never get more spice :"" I actually loved the growth of their relationship.

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nipsnpiss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-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? No

5.0

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bookswithlauren's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I am wavering between 3.5* and 4* for the last instalment of the Simon Snow universe.

Initially, I adored this world. Carry On was an incredible book with well thought out characters and plot. I was left on my seat, constantly want to read more. So much so, that I read the book in one sitting. Wayward Son was a completely different ball game and I felt it was quite a step down from Carry On. At times there was a plot and at times there was not, the characters behaviours and personalities were completely different from those built up and introduced to us in the first book. The 'main' plot was hyped up to then all come to an end within a few pages and the relationship between characters was just not good.

Because of this, I thought all of this would be resolved in Any Way the Wind Blows. For the most part, everything I disliked about Wayward Son was fixed in Any Way the Wind Blows and I really did enjoy reading the book. I found it easy to read and the characters were more themselves again. One of my favourite things about this series is the multiple character perspectives but in this book, it felt as if I we had three completely different main plot lines going on and I was reading three separate prequels instead of one book. I didn't hate this aspect but with the main characters being such a strong team, it was a bit strange. I absolutely adored each pairing of Baz and Simon, Penelope and Shephard (what a guy, I love him) and surprisingly, Niamh and Agatha. Agatha didn't make me eyeroll in this book! I do wish her friendship with Niamh was not rushed as much because it made her small plot line seem so out of the blue.

Another thing I just don't understand with the last two books in this series is the main plot being built up so much to then end over a few pages and never to be addressed again. If I have read over 400 pages building up this main plot line, I want more than 20 pages of it all unravelling and when we are given a prologue set 1 year later, I want more than just one paragraph that completely opens the world for more stories.

Overall, I really did enjoy Any Way the Wind Blows and it was incredibly easy to read, I just wish some things were thatched out a bit more and other things not so much.

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