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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
i do think my biggest gripe is with alyce, though. i found her to be quite capricious. she is surprisingly quick to trust new people considering how often she’s been hurt in the past, but constantly doubts their intentions, and then very easily switches back to trusting them. she says she’s not going to kill anyone because aurora would be upset and then she razes the entire village to the ground 10 pages later. i did appreciate that she was an angry and morally gray protagonist, but i think her naivite grated at me a bit.
throughout the novel she’s constantly reckoning with whether she is destined to be evil because of her magic/blood, and it feels like kind of a cop-out that she only goes full remorseless villain when she has literally taken on the soul and magic of the most evil person in her history.
i came in only knowing this was a sapphic sleeping beauty retelling from maleficent’s point of view, and i wish we had actually gotten to spend more time with aurora. it felt like half the time they were together they were disagreeing or trying to win back each other’s trust. i would find it interesting to explore alyce becoming obsessed with aurora as one of the only people to ever be nice to/interested in her, but i feel they’re most likely going for an actual romance. i suppose ill find out in the second half of the duology.
i expect to enjoy the second book more as i’m hoping it will explore etheria and malterre in depth and expand on her relationship with aurora.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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
I have mixed feelings about this book. I really like Walter’s take on magic and her world building but I found it lost structure as it went on. Alyce’s motivations seemed clear at the beginning but her character became hard to follow by the end. Although I don’t care much for the characters, I am intrigued enough by the world and politics between the human, Fae, and Vila kingdoms to check the sequel out when it is available. 2/5.
I like how magic runs through the blood and that people can tap into it. I guess this is why Alyce felt such a strong connection to her Vila heritage when she wasn’t brought up knowing anything about it but slander. Given Alyce’s nature though, I found it difficult to get behind how eager she was to accept her heritage near the end. She is encouraged to embrace herself but is it good to embrace the part of yourself that is bad? The way Vila are described by Kal makes it seem that the only good thing about them is their power, their freedom to practice their magic, and being unlike the Fae. Their magic is that of destruction. I never liked Kal and found my interest in the book declining once he was introduced. He seemed like an annoying Kilgharrah figure (from BBC Merlin) so it wasn’t really that surprising that he lied to her and used her to free himself.
The book took quite a turn from what I was expecting and I’m not sure how I feel about it. There was actually a strong Cinderella vibe going for a bit with a likeable, caring nature despite the forces against her then BAM! Alyce goes complete Malificent with a drastic change in personality and motivations right up to shifting into a dragon and attacking everyone. All in the last bit of the book too…wowzers. She seemed close to a Mary-Sue at the beginning (except for the people liking her part) so at least that didn’t stay…
Mortania didn’t seem like much of an influence once her essence went into Alyce but then suddenly she was. I don’t think that story arc was entirely necessary. I thought it was just a big power boost with some additional counsel and then suddenly Alyce is kidnapping the princess, creates a barrier of thorns, vows to destroy Briar, and morphs into a dragon and attacks everyone! Where did that come from? I suppose it COULD have been expected that Alyce would turn to into a Malificent-like character given this is a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty…except it was NOT expected because her character wasn’t keen on violence or revenge against Briar for the majority of the book! I wish something could have been addressed about the politics of Briar and the Briar King but I guess that is what book two is for.
Okay this is a pretty petty comment to end with…but ugh. I strongly dislike the word “wriggle” and the amount of them I found in this book was ridiculous and annoying enough that I just HAD to mention it!
Hmmm this is a pretty roughly written review… This is the result of sitting on my review notes for two weeks. I wasn’t feeling much enthusiasm for this book after finishing it.
I like how magic runs through the blood and that people can tap into it. I guess this is why Alyce felt such a strong connection to her Vila heritage when she wasn’t brought up knowing anything about it but slander. Given Alyce’s nature though, I found it difficult to get behind how eager she was to accept her heritage near the end. She is encouraged to embrace herself but is it good to embrace the part of yourself that is bad? The way Vila are described by Kal makes it seem that the only good thing about them is their power, their freedom to practice their magic, and being unlike the Fae. Their magic is that of destruction. I never liked Kal and found my interest in the book declining once he was introduced. He seemed like an annoying Kilgharrah figure (from BBC Merlin) so it wasn’t really that surprising that he lied to her and used her to free himself.
The book took quite a turn from what I was expecting and I’m not sure how I feel about it. There was actually a strong Cinderella vibe going for a bit with a likeable, caring nature despite the forces against her then BAM! Alyce goes complete Malificent with a drastic change in personality and motivations right up to shifting into a dragon and attacking everyone. All in the last bit of the book too…wowzers. She seemed close to a Mary-Sue at the beginning (except for the people liking her part) so at least that didn’t stay…
Mortania didn’t seem like much of an influence once her essence went into Alyce but then suddenly she was. I don’t think that story arc was entirely necessary. I thought it was just a big power boost with some additional counsel and then suddenly Alyce is kidnapping the princess, creates a barrier of thorns, vows to destroy Briar, and morphs into a dragon and attacks everyone! Where did that come from? I suppose it COULD have been expected that Alyce would turn to into a Malificent-like character given this is a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty…except it was NOT expected because her character wasn’t keen on violence or revenge against Briar for the majority of the book! I wish something could have been addressed about the politics of Briar and the Briar King but I guess that is what book two is for.
Okay this is a pretty petty comment to end with…but ugh. I strongly dislike the word “wriggle” and the amount of them I found in this book was ridiculous and annoying enough that I just HAD to mention it!
Hmmm this is a pretty roughly written review… This is the result of sitting on my review notes for two weeks. I wasn’t feeling much enthusiasm for this book after finishing it.
adventurous
slow-paced
dark
emotional
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
I wanted so badly to like this book. Maybe I’d have liked it more if I had read instead of listened, because the narrator really didn’t do it for me. It felt rather tedious and slow
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
THIS BOOK WAS COOL! Okay so I’ll admit, fantasy is not really for me. So starting this book I was so confused, like what the fuck are graces and what am I getting into. But after the first 3-4 chapters everything set into place and I was more understanding and I absolutely freaking loved it. LOVED!
Alyce is such a relatable character, to anyone who felt like they didn’t fit in, who felt misunderstood and often unseen. Mistreated for being different but still used as it benefited others. Her character resonates heavily with me. Beneath the story this story told a deeper one that I wasn’t expecting.
Aurora was refreshing! I didn’t expect her to be so outwardly spoken and almost rebellious in her own way. She wanted to take whatever moments she had left in her life back in her own hands.
Both Aurora and Alyce were captives in life in different ways, and I love that they found each other and accepted each other as they were.
BUT THAT PLOT THOUGH, okay I saw some of it coming with the plot twist at the end. I cackled towards the end because I had forgotten it was a sleeping beauty retelling and then it got to the sleep part and I was shocked then was like internally “you’re an idiot” hahaha. But my god did I wanna scream. HOLY HELL my heart ached for Alyce. I am so excited for book two!!
✨
Alyce is such a relatable character, to anyone who felt like they didn’t fit in, who felt misunderstood and often unseen. Mistreated for being different but still used as it benefited others. Her character resonates heavily with me. Beneath the story this story told a deeper one that I wasn’t expecting.
Aurora was refreshing! I didn’t expect her to be so outwardly spoken and almost rebellious in her own way. She wanted to take whatever moments she had left in her life back in her own hands.
Both Aurora and Alyce were captives in life in different ways, and I love that they found each other and accepted each other as they were.
BUT THAT PLOT THOUGH, okay I saw some of it coming with the plot twist at the end. I cackled towards the end because I had forgotten it was a sleeping beauty retelling and then it got to the sleep part and I was shocked then was like internally “you’re an idiot” hahaha. But my god did I wanna scream. HOLY HELL my heart ached for Alyce. I am so excited for book two!!
✨