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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-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
Super cute! Sometimes felt it was dragging a little bit but a very enjoyable read!
Longer than it needed to be ..... much too long, filled to the brim with triviality and fluff.
The socially awkward Aila was fine initially but then just got irritating.
This one was not for me, very much YA.
The Zoo was written really well and was the enjoyable part of the book, the friendships and relationships were not.
The socially awkward Aila was fine initially but then just got irritating.
This one was not for me, very much YA.
The Zoo was written really well and was the enjoyable part of the book, the friendships and relationships were not.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-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
This was a really sweet story! Low-stakes fantasy with a very cozy vibe. This has been heavily marketed as a sapphic novel, so the first half, where she's swooning over Connor, had me absolutely confused and questioning if I remembered correctly. The enemies-to-lovers aspect made sense a little over mid-way through, though, where we FINALLY got to the correct romance. It was fun to see the characters grow and change, which I felt like most of the ones we care about did. Very adorable!!
1 Star
Wow, I'm so happy to have finally finished this book lol I think I actually hated this book... Aila is the most annoying MC ever, I just cannot stand how blatantly ignorant and self absorbed she is - she's the worst friend, she thinks everything is literally about her, her anxiety is so bad she can barely function (but she won't go to regular therapy or take meds for it or even try anything to help it), and she barely takes any accountability for her mistakes and she just fully sucks (she has no redeeming qualities and only had any character growth in the last chapter). I saw the "bad guy" from the start, it was stupidly obvious and if Aila wasn't so obsessed with herself she would've seen it too and I honestly would love to never hear "skies and seas" again.
Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio/Orbit for the ARC!
Wow, I'm so happy to have finally finished this book lol I think I actually hated this book... Aila is the most annoying MC ever, I just cannot stand how blatantly ignorant and self absorbed she is - she's the worst friend, she thinks everything is literally about her, her anxiety is so bad she can barely function (but she won't go to regular therapy or take meds for it or even try anything to help it), and she barely takes any accountability for her mistakes and she just fully sucks (she has no redeeming qualities and only had any character growth in the last chapter). I saw the "bad guy" from the start, it was stupidly obvious and if Aila wasn't so obsessed with herself she would've seen it too and I honestly would love to never hear "skies and seas" again.
Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio/Orbit for the ARC!
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i need have a word with the ELEVEN percent of people who have rated this fast-paced. FAST-PACED? seriously????
the first half was dragging
okay but as someone who has social anxiety and is sooo socially awkward i felt so seen. aila's development was great and heart-warming, and i LOVED luciana.
and it was a bit cringy at times. it felt like an adult writing young-adult dialogue forgetting that their characters are in their late twenties
(fuck you connor we say in unison)
the first half was dragging
okay but as someone who has social anxiety and is sooo socially awkward i felt so seen. aila's development was great and heart-warming, and i LOVED luciana.
and it was a bit cringy at times. it felt like an adult writing young-adult dialogue forgetting that their characters are in their late twenties
(fuck you connor we say in unison)
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
Quick very high level summary.
Aila is a zookeeper at a magical zoo filled with creatures like dragons, unicorns, and griffins. She specializing in phoenixes, particularly the critically endangered Silimalo phoenixes. She is tasked with proving her zoo's facilities are suitable to house the male phoenixes so she teams up with Luciana, to prepare the zoo's facilities. Luciana is a griffin keeper and Aila’s former academic rival.
My Take.
Themes of conservation, social anxiety, grief, and the complexities of relationships all made this an enjoyable and relatable read for me. This story made me wish that a magical book truly existed. I need to work there. I also enjoyed that this story actually gives people a view into what zoo’s actually do for conservation of a species. This my second book by this author and I seem to truly enjoy her writing. I actually decided to read this because of the ARC of Voidwalker I read and enjoyed. This was defiantly more crazy then Voidwalker but still enjoyable.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. It has such a cool concept, a zoo, but filled with fantasy animals. I really love magical realism especially when the plot is very mundane. However, aside from the concept itself the plot was kind of boring. Every single plot element I was able to figure out in the first 50 pages. Normally I’m not against this if the ride to the plot points I fun, but it played out in possibly the most standard having to get their way possible. None of the characters were incredibly interesting, or compelling. I didn’t even really find any of the character dynamics that compelling. I found Alia to be lacking as a protagonist. She goes through a decent enough arc about her anxiety, stage fright, and general imposter syndrome that kept me interested. Other than that she just came off as never striking a proper balance as a character. With her even coming off as slightly unlikable at times, when I felt like some of her mistakes were meant to and should have come off as more endearing and sympathetic. Plus I got crazy bad second hand embarrassment from some of the character dialogue. It just felt off constantly.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-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:
Complicated
i don’t tend to like modern fantasies as much but this defo worked for me.
at first i really enjoyed the cosy fantasy aspects of this book but it ended up getting a bit tedious - i think the pacing just didn’t work for me.
i really liked the romance in this and the found the character growth was both decent and enjoyable to read.
also loved all the queer rep and that the side characters had their own thing going on - although they didn’t feel as developed as i tend to like.
I called the “plot twist” pretty much from the beginning & found it quite frustrating how transparent the villain’s motivations werealthough as an autistic person who’s very gullible and is rather susceptible to manipulation i think that was quite a good representation of that even if the MC’s autistic traits are labelled as anxiety
this book has one of my most hated aspects which is having very obviously autistic traits being labelled as anxiety. not only is it extremely frustrating to read but i think it’s really harmful especially considering how many autistic people (especially afabs) don’t get diagnosed until they’re adults because of this misconception that it’s “just” social anxiety. that being said i try not to let that affect my rating too much because i want to give the authors the benefit of the doubt in case they themselves turn out to have been undiagnosed autistic ppl.
at first i really enjoyed the cosy fantasy aspects of this book but it ended up getting a bit tedious - i think the pacing just didn’t work for me.
i really liked the romance in this and the found the character growth was both decent and enjoyable to read.
also loved all the queer rep and that the side characters had their own thing going on - although they didn’t feel as developed as i tend to like.
I called the “plot twist” pretty much from the beginning & found it quite frustrating how transparent the villain’s motivations were
this book has one of my most hated aspects which is having very obviously autistic traits being labelled as anxiety. not only is it extremely frustrating to read but i think it’s really harmful especially considering how many autistic people (especially afabs) don’t get diagnosed until they’re adults because of this misconception that it’s “just” social anxiety. that being said i try not to let that affect my rating too much because i want to give the authors the benefit of the doubt in case they themselves turn out to have been undiagnosed autistic ppl.