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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
I had very mixed feelings about this sequel until the last few chapters. I think overall it's a straight 4/5 but I'd go 4.5 max
First off, I think this book was longer than it needed to be and that's a tough thing for a book to come back from (at least for my opinion of it).
I didn't read the description so I wasn't anticipating as morally grey as we got but it was well done once I got used to it lol.
I'm excited for the third book, the ending was wild.
Edit to add: the last few chapters made me forget how freaking annoying Tif is. Oh my god she’s the worst side character/comedic relief EVER. I would have had more fun reading this without her
Edit to add: the last few chapters made me forget how freaking annoying Tif is. Oh my god she’s the worst side character/comedic relief EVER. I would have had more fun reading this without her
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pacing was weird and the reveal should’ve been longer and more detailed, but great plot.
Okay. This book. Look, I tried. I really did. I pushed onward to 65%, but I just couldn't take anymore of it. I really enjoyed the first book, so when BookishBox had their sale for the sequel, I ordered it. Since book 1 was still mostly fresh in my mind, I decided to read book 2 before too much time passed. REGRET. I REGRET ALL OF IT.
Where do I even start? First of all, the book needs about 3 more rounds of editing. So many grammatical mistakes. I don't know what happened to the characters in this book, but they didn't feel the same at all. The dialogue was some of the most cringe-worthy nonsense I've ever read. It was so painful. I think it was supposed to come off as fun banter, but it was just cringy. All kinds of "humping" and weird insults and also berry/fruit euphemisms that made me want to throw my kindle. Tifapine is...to be honest, I don't really understand why she's still in the book. It's a constant repetition with her saying stupid shit and being dramatic. It's cute the first few times; 500 pages later, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
I also felt like nothing really important happened in the 65% I read beyond Layala and Thane reuniting. And then....It's just traveling from one place to another. The whole sirens at the lake thing felt super misplaced. I don't know. Was there a point to it beyond an opportunity to kill a bunch of creatures? I've read some other reviews and ultimately decided that I just don't care enough to know what happens. Maybe I'll ask a friend lmao.
Oh, and one more thing. The author's word choices and phrasing throughout the book was either super painful (in the cringy sense) or almost offensive. She called Fella (the captain on the lake) "deranged" just because she lived to a different tune than others and had her crew of women. Mmmmkay. There were some other poorly used phrases to indicate unstable mental health or quirky characters, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.
I'm really bummed I wasted all this time reading a book that I ultimately decided to DNF. But y'all. I couldn't do it.
Where do I even start? First of all, the book needs about 3 more rounds of editing. So many grammatical mistakes. I don't know what happened to the characters in this book, but they didn't feel the same at all. The dialogue was some of the most cringe-worthy nonsense I've ever read. It was so painful. I think it was supposed to come off as fun banter, but it was just cringy. All kinds of "humping" and weird insults and also berry/fruit euphemisms that made me want to throw my kindle. Tifapine is...to be honest, I don't really understand why she's still in the book. It's a constant repetition with her saying stupid shit and being dramatic. It's cute the first few times; 500 pages later, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
I also felt like nothing really important happened in the 65% I read beyond Layala and Thane reuniting. And then....It's just traveling from one place to another. The whole sirens at the lake thing felt super misplaced. I don't know. Was there a point to it beyond an opportunity to kill a bunch of creatures? I've read some other reviews and ultimately decided that I just don't care enough to know what happens. Maybe I'll ask a friend lmao.
Oh, and one more thing. The author's word choices and phrasing throughout the book was either super painful (in the cringy sense) or almost offensive. She called Fella (the captain on the lake) "deranged" just because she lived to a different tune than others and had her crew of women. Mmmmkay. There were some other poorly used phrases to indicate unstable mental health or quirky characters, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.
I'm really bummed I wasted all this time reading a book that I ultimately decided to DNF. But y'all. I couldn't do it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
I am more in love with this book than should be allowed. I'm literally shaking with excitement to start the third book. The characters are phenomenal. The story is fantastic. Kearl is my new favorite author
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really don’t know how this has such good ratings on here. Terrible compared to the first book.
The characters were flat. Layala went from a strong FMC with a personality to a love sick puppy with no sense.
Soooo many cheesy filler conversations. Every 7 pages is a whole page about tif eating berries and saying stupid things. The author keeps repeating the same lines about tif being afraid, she likes snacks and annoys thane like ok we get it.
In the first book layala was devastated about killing her lover and in the second book she says he wasn’t that hot and was a terrible lover and then they laughed about it which made no sense.
Random action scenes without a purpose. The sirens and a raven dying then thane is suddenly fine and rolling around with layala and is like oh my bad they must be taking longer than 29 minutes to get over this?? And why didn’t they ask a single question about the lake they were just like haha ok let’s go!
Couldn’t connect with any character. The author does a lot of telling vs showing. All just fell very flat which is sad because the first book was so good.
The characters were flat. Layala went from a strong FMC with a personality to a love sick puppy with no sense.
Soooo many cheesy filler conversations. Every 7 pages is a whole page about tif eating berries and saying stupid things. The author keeps repeating the same lines about tif being afraid, she likes snacks and annoys thane like ok we get it.
In the first book layala was devastated about killing her lover and in the second book she says he wasn’t that hot and was a terrible lover and then they laughed about it which made no sense.
Random action scenes without a purpose. The sirens and a raven dying then thane is suddenly fine and rolling around with layala and is like oh my bad they must be taking longer than 29 minutes to get over this?? And why didn’t they ask a single question about the lake they were just like haha ok let’s go!
Couldn’t connect with any character. The author does a lot of telling vs showing. All just fell very flat which is sad because the first book was so good.
I liked the first book well enough, but this one felt different. This is the book that made me understand how people can stand to read more than one book at a time. It took me weeks to finish because I kept getting bored and moving to other books. I had to force myself to finally power through the last half so I could return it to the library. It just felt so slow. I agree with what a few other readers said about Layala, her development in this book wasn't great. It has a good cliffhanger, but I feel like the journey to get there was much longer than it had to be. I'll probably read the next book, mainly because I can't leave things unfinished, not really out of a desire to keep going, besides seeing how the cliffhanger pans out.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was so long for it to just leave me at a clip hanger with no indication of another book. I am
Obsessed with Layala & Thain though & very intrigued to see where the story goes with the black mage. Overall though, until the last 30%, I feel like everything that happened before was semi pointless. Enjoyed it none the less & the spice increase was also a plus.
Obsessed with Layala & Thain though & very intrigued to see where the story goes with the black mage. Overall though, until the last 30%, I feel like everything that happened before was semi pointless. Enjoyed it none the less & the spice increase was also a plus.