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starrymynx's review against another edition
3.0
This was my second time reading this book since I'm rereading the series in order since it's been a few years. It works as a standalone book (all of the ones in this series do) but I'm finding I didn't enjoy it as much on a second read through. The war descriptions bored me and I felt like the plot of this one was fractured at times because it followed too many different subjects (a crazy dad, a war, a love triangle, necromancy which was a new plot point in the series, Robin Goodfellow, a character from a previous book...) it just felt like too much and like maybe some of it could have been left off for an overall better story.
tyrshand's review
3.0
I was thoroughly disappointed by the end of this book. There was so much repetition, the heroine had this weird stalkerish attraction to a character (despite the fact that she's supposed to have her head screwed on very straight -- and she does most of the time), the resolution of the crush was a real left turn (not as far as the "triangle" but because he and his family suddenly went from warm to nasty with a nasty fiancee to boot), and the whole denouement hinged on an object she spent like two chapters deciding to destroy and DID destroy -- only to tell us later on that she would NEVER have destroyed it that way because she knew ALL ALONG that you couldn't do that. What?!
maggpiebymoonlight's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
raemelle's review
3.0
It took a little while for me to get into this book, so overall I’m giving it three stars. This is also because it still bugs me when the characters insist on going on and on about how down-to-earth or good they are. And how they manage to talk about “simple” things as if they are grateful for them - but then phrasing their so-called praise as if from the perspective of someone looking down on those things. (Such as Susanne and her way of both insulting and praising her small room after returning from the Front.) I think that’s what doesn’t work. If these characters truly didn’t care about status or class or having nice things, I don’t think they’d start describing things by first talking about what they lack before saying it’s better than what they’re used to. I think they’d just compare things to what they are used to. It’s written from the perspective of someone with privilege.
felinity's review
3.0
It's now getting to the stage where if you've read 3+ of the Elemental Masters books, you've essentially read them all. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it - I did - but I was very aware that the formula was now too familiar for full immersion.
eak1013's review against another edition
3.0
Susanne Whitestone is no Harriet Vane. That could really be the sum and whole of a rather disgruntled review. (Even as I fairly well enjoyed tearing through this in one sitting.)
Lackey trudges into some weird class territory here, and Susanne spends all but the last THREE PAGES mooning after some dude who will never see past the class barrier, even though she's gentry but not the right kind and I don't even, and at least she has some spine and grows a bit, but ugh. Again with Lackey doing better with the World War One stuff than she does with much of the socio-political commentary, but seriously? Seriously? You're going to write off your WIMSEY HOMAGE with someone he doesn't quite see as an equal for most of the book, someone who only slightly agrees that he's not terrible to have around by the end of the book. At least there wasn't a total romantic turnaround by the end.
Well. I just goes to show that even the homage falls apart. Wimsey wouldn't uproot his life for someone he didn't respect enough to make her own decisions, and Harriet never would have put up with most of this bullshit, much less got into a passive-aggressive catfight over someone else's fiance.
(Though props to Lackey for making characters eager to see the backside of the heroine (not like that). Just because she's the heroine doesn't mean she didn't deeply, deeply inconvenience the family who took her in briefly, as well as almost get their son killed, and Lackey made their response to that entirely reasonable, if a titch narrowsighted.)
Also the Donkeyskin fairy tale is creepy as fuck. I'm not sure I ever quite realized that before.
Lackey trudges into some weird class territory here, and Susanne spends all but the last THREE PAGES mooning after some dude who will never see past the class barrier, even though she's gentry but not the right kind and I don't even, and at least she has some spine and grows a bit, but ugh. Again with Lackey doing better with the World War One stuff than she does with much of the socio-political commentary, but seriously? Seriously? You're going to write off your WIMSEY HOMAGE with someone he doesn't quite see as an equal for most of the book, someone who only slightly agrees that he's not terrible to have around by the end of the book. At least there wasn't a total romantic turnaround by the end.
Well. I just goes to show that even the homage falls apart. Wimsey wouldn't uproot his life for someone he didn't respect enough to make her own decisions, and Harriet never would have put up with most of this bullshit, much less got into a passive-aggressive catfight over someone else's fiance.
(Though props to Lackey for making characters eager to see the backside of the heroine (not like that). Just because she's the heroine doesn't mean she didn't deeply, deeply inconvenience the family who took her in briefly, as well as almost get their son killed, and Lackey made their response to that entirely reasonable, if a titch narrowsighted.)
Also the Donkeyskin fairy tale is creepy as fuck. I'm not sure I ever quite realized that before.
bellatora's review against another edition
2.0
Bah! Bah, I say! Another Elemental Masters book in which nothing happens.
In a book where a father is trying to put his dead wife’s soul into his daughter’s body and slaughters his loyal household servants so they can join his zombie army it still feels slow.
This is basically a book that is ALL tell and no show and I WAS BORED. The romance was bah, too, mostly because it was so dull I didn’t care about anything.
In a book where a father is trying to put his dead wife’s soul into his daughter’s body and slaughters his loyal household servants so they can join his zombie army it still feels slow.
This is basically a book that is ALL tell and no show and I WAS BORED. The romance was bah, too, mostly because it was so dull I didn’t care about anything.
hollylynna's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoy the elemental masters series and this was no exception. The wwII details about trench warfaree and nurses were reLly interesting to.