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lyakimov's review against another edition
2.0
This was another book I’ve had for a long time on my bookshelf and never read.
What did I even read??? I was so confused about every single aspect of this book. Like I have no idea what was going on AT ALL. I don’t understand the plot, the magic system, the character’s relationships, the relevance of some characters. WHAT???? Intense rant incoming.
Plot: what plot, girl????? Where the fuck is the plot??? Please someone enlighten me on what was even going on. It seemed like the focus of the book was going to be the Blood Game or whatever it was, basically like the hunger games where Katerina’s bestie was fighting in it. It is a fight to the death, but there was a bunch of people in the fight that lived??????? Like what even were the rules of this knockoff Hunger Games? And I saw the twist that Alex and Katerina were siblings like 1092920291919 miles away. Kat needed to hurry up and figure it out already because I was sick of her dumb ass. I have no idea what Jacob’s importance was. I did not understand the whole Aesrian Lord crap at all. The world building was so confusing and I felt like the plot was being pulled from all different directions and spreading the book too thin from too many POVs and random ass plot points.
Magic system: oh my gosh. I don’t even have words for how little I understand what was going on with the magic system. So one girl can walk through fire(??), one girl can talk to animals (??), one basically is besties with a bunch of snakes (??), Alex can read minds (??????????????????). And there is “smoke blood” and “snake blood” BITCH IM LAUGHING I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON THIS WHOLE BOOK!!!
Romantic relationships: oh, I’m so worked up about this. In the first TWO PAGES, the foundation for Kat and Jacob’s entire relationship is set. Ummm so you really think that I am convinced they like each other from literally two damn pages where then they suddenly start to believe they are in love with each other???? The amount of instalove in this book was out of this world. So, Alex and Heph never trust Cynane because she is crazy and hell and weird, and suddenly Heph starts to only listen to her for no reason and starts to doubt Alex?? Like dude it’s so obvious she is just messing with you, you literally never trust her because of all the crazy shit she has done. And then Heph is romantically interested in her?? Whatever. This plot made absolutely no sense. What was the reason for their little mini “relationship” that lasted like 100 pages?? And also, there clearly is a setup for Katerina and Heph’s romantic relationship. He’s just suddenly in love with Katerina for some reason(???), and my question is: where did this come from???????????????? Out of the blue, random as fuck. So damn confused about what the hell was going on with the relationships.
I need a whole separate paragraph to complain about the horniness of these characters. Every other paragraph is a super long horny description about how they want to have sex with a certain character. Shut the fuck up about it please. I don’t care. Like it’s fine, put that in once or twice. But it happened 100000 times, like every other page I be hearing some horny ass description that is exactly the same as all the other ones. We get it, she is hot. We get it, he is sexy. Shut up about it for one second. Get back to the plot please - actually never mind, I don’t even know what the plot is. Just stop the book at this point. It was just soooooo repetitive.
Friend relationships: okay so I feel like it was so much of telling us, not showing us. These AMAZING friendships we are constantly dealing with throughout the book. Between Alex and Heph, and between Alex and Kat. Did I understand it at all? No, ma’am. Okay so I’m hearing constantly “we are besties we understand each other so much blah blah blah” but what was there in the story that proved it at all?? Everything felt so superficial.
Character relevance: okay, so Jacob did absolutely nothing for the story. His relationship with Kat makes no sense to me and is super random and shallow. Why does he even exist?? What did he even DO that really propelled the story along?? Same with Zofia. That girl had the most random appearances, I was skimming her chapters so much. Obviously her story was supposed to be a setup for the rest of the books but I don’t understand at all how she connects and I thought it pulled me out of the story so fast. I was so damn bored. And I didn’t really understand her motivations for her actions. She really made the dumbest decisions EVER. I am so confused why she did anything she did in this story. Whatever, I’m just so annoyed about the random useless shit in this book.
My rant is finally over. I’m going to forget about this book now.
What did I even read??? I was so confused about every single aspect of this book. Like I have no idea what was going on AT ALL. I don’t understand the plot, the magic system, the character’s relationships, the relevance of some characters. WHAT???? Intense rant incoming.
Plot: what plot, girl????? Where the fuck is the plot??? Please someone enlighten me on what was even going on. It seemed like the focus of the book was going to be the Blood Game or whatever it was, basically like the hunger games where Katerina’s bestie was fighting in it. It is a fight to the death, but there was a bunch of people in the fight that lived??????? Like what even were the rules of this knockoff Hunger Games? And I saw the twist that Alex and Katerina were siblings like 1092920291919 miles away. Kat needed to hurry up and figure it out already because I was sick of her dumb ass. I have no idea what Jacob’s importance was. I did not understand the whole Aesrian Lord crap at all. The world building was so confusing and I felt like the plot was being pulled from all different directions and spreading the book too thin from too many POVs and random ass plot points.
Magic system: oh my gosh. I don’t even have words for how little I understand what was going on with the magic system. So one girl can walk through fire(??), one girl can talk to animals (??), one basically is besties with a bunch of snakes (??), Alex can read minds (??????????????????). And there is “smoke blood” and “snake blood” BITCH IM LAUGHING I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON THIS WHOLE BOOK!!!
Romantic relationships: oh, I’m so worked up about this. In the first TWO PAGES, the foundation for Kat and Jacob’s entire relationship is set. Ummm so you really think that I am convinced they like each other from literally two damn pages where then they suddenly start to believe they are in love with each other???? The amount of instalove in this book was out of this world. So, Alex and Heph never trust Cynane because she is crazy and hell and weird, and suddenly Heph starts to only listen to her for no reason and starts to doubt Alex?? Like dude it’s so obvious she is just messing with you, you literally never trust her because of all the crazy shit she has done. And then Heph is romantically interested in her?? Whatever. This plot made absolutely no sense. What was the reason for their little mini “relationship” that lasted like 100 pages?? And also, there clearly is a setup for Katerina and Heph’s romantic relationship. He’s just suddenly in love with Katerina for some reason(???), and my question is: where did this come from???????????????? Out of the blue, random as fuck. So damn confused about what the hell was going on with the relationships.
I need a whole separate paragraph to complain about the horniness of these characters. Every other paragraph is a super long horny description about how they want to have sex with a certain character. Shut the fuck up about it please. I don’t care. Like it’s fine, put that in once or twice. But it happened 100000 times, like every other page I be hearing some horny ass description that is exactly the same as all the other ones. We get it, she is hot. We get it, he is sexy. Shut up about it for one second. Get back to the plot please - actually never mind, I don’t even know what the plot is. Just stop the book at this point. It was just soooooo repetitive.
Friend relationships: okay so I feel like it was so much of telling us, not showing us. These AMAZING friendships we are constantly dealing with throughout the book. Between Alex and Heph, and between Alex and Kat. Did I understand it at all? No, ma’am. Okay so I’m hearing constantly “we are besties we understand each other so much blah blah blah” but what was there in the story that proved it at all?? Everything felt so superficial.
Character relevance: okay, so Jacob did absolutely nothing for the story. His relationship with Kat makes no sense to me and is super random and shallow. Why does he even exist?? What did he even DO that really propelled the story along?? Same with Zofia. That girl had the most random appearances, I was skimming her chapters so much. Obviously her story was supposed to be a setup for the rest of the books but I don’t understand at all how she connects and I thought it pulled me out of the story so fast. I was so damn bored. And I didn’t really understand her motivations for her actions. She really made the dumbest decisions EVER. I am so confused why she did anything she did in this story. Whatever, I’m just so annoyed about the random useless shit in this book.
My rant is finally over. I’m going to forget about this book now.
sirius_bookaddict's review against another edition
I wasn't a fan of any of the characters, and the direction it took made me uncomfortable in a bad way. Some of the cliches weren't my cup of tea, either.
thexgrayxlady's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
capgambit's review against another edition
4.0
I actually stumbled across this book looking for available audiobooks through Libby while I wait for my 20 other holds to come through. I knew nothing about it. The cover looked cool, so I thought wth why not. Wow was I pleasantly surprised! It was a little slow to start, but so are most 1st installments. I did have a little trouble keeping track of characters due to it being an audiobook. This is definitely a series I would enjoy reading the physical book if I had the time.
Imagine my disappointment when I learned that Libby does not have the rest of the series available on audiobooks. I may just have to find some time to grab the physicals!
Imagine my disappointment when I learned that Libby does not have the rest of the series available on audiobooks. I may just have to find some time to grab the physicals!
harleyrae's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5 Stars
This book wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. It just felt very average. I personally feel like there were too many POVs. Many times I would finished myself confused about who we were actually following in that chapter. I read the entire book but there are parts that even after just finishing the book I don’t remember.
This is a series that if in the near future I find the next books I might decide to continue on, but this is not a series I will finish if it’s years from now before I pick up the second book. It just wasn’t the most memorable story in my opinion.
This book wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. It just felt very average. I personally feel like there were too many POVs. Many times I would finished myself confused about who we were actually following in that chapter. I read the entire book but there are parts that even after just finishing the book I don’t remember.
This is a series that if in the near future I find the next books I might decide to continue on, but this is not a series I will finish if it’s years from now before I pick up the second book. It just wasn’t the most memorable story in my opinion.
brendalovesbooks's review against another edition
2.0
I really didn't care for this one. The way the story was told in third person, present tense is not a style I like at all. And then it kept shifting to different characters, and by the time I got back with a character I had forgotten what was going on with them. It seemed like there was just way too much going on altogether. This is not something I'd recommend.
marieintheraw's review against another edition
4.0
So, I finally picked this up as a challenge to myself to read the oldest book that I owned that I hadn't read. I think the type of week I have been having kept me from fully loving this as much as it deserved.
brianne_k's review against another edition
3.0
*3.25/5*
pretty solid start to a trilogy. it did have its problems, and I guessed the twist very early on, but I still enjoyed the story and I'm excited to see where it goes, especially with the magic.
pretty solid start to a trilogy. it did have its problems, and I guessed the twist very early on, but I still enjoyed the story and I'm excited to see where it goes, especially with the magic.
bibliophilicwitch's review against another edition
Kicking off the story immediately with romantic tension and the love interest commenting that he had "loved her since they were 6 and 5" is just not great imo. Passingly interested in Alexander which is why I was interested in this book to begin with, but the power-hungry sister seemed flat. And underlying that was constant comments on beauty and girl hate that just rubbed me the wrong way.
alannar2422's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked the action and romance that mix in this book, and also the medieval background.