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neeneeharalson's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
4.0
emumfy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
honeywolf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It's a pretty long book for the protagonist to have learned almost nothing the whole time.
gracelh's review against another edition
Writing didn’t keep me invested, felt like a plot I had read before, and the dynamics between the characters wasn’t something I wanted to keep reading.
pokeikon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
nordiccowgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
booksbydann's review
2.0
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the E-Arc of this book
"Freedom and pride are worth fighting for, but only peace is worth dying for"
This book is the antithesis of anti-colonialism.
First of all what the hell with de romance colonizer and the stockholm syndrome???
I understand that our female main character is a morally gray character and all that, but I have read about a lot of morally gray characters in my life, and none of them were as DUMB as Ruying. I hate to talk (write in this case) about a female character in this way, but I'm impressed by how stupid this character is. She's not morally gray; she's just very easy to manipulate.
Let's go with my first problem in this book: Toxic romance glorifying the colonizer. Both the author and the publisher are saying that this book is "enemies to lovers" IT IS NOT. NO. NO, NO. This is a toxic and abusive relationship with a huge power imbalance. In the introduction, the author tells us about unit 731 (I recommend looking for information about it), which is a crime against humanity in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war, and at one point in the book Antony tells Ruying that he IS DOING EXPERIMENTS ON HER PEOPLE, and she doesn't even think about what that means. When Bahiu tells her, "do you know what happens to the people who aren't selected?" she reacts like "I don't care". How could you write that introduction and then give us this approach to human experimentation?
Look, I do think that this book has a lot of potential, but the execution is very poorly done, and honestly, it needs a couple of rounds of edits more. The world-building is vague, the writing style is beautiful, but it is very repetitive. I get it, heroes die, cowards live. You don't have to repeat that every single time. You don't have to give me a lot of scenes where the FMC tries to justify herself and thinks of her sister as the martyr and her as the coward. I GET IT. Instead of wasting so much time in these kinds of scenes where Ruying spirals for pages about her situation, why don't you give me scenes where Ruying is being trained to be an assassin? She starts working for Antony, murdering her own people without any prior training, but suddenly she's very skilled in what she does.
This book is a constant repetitive monologue where we are constantly being told instead of shown. I don't normally have a problem with the "tell and don't show" if it's done properly, like Olivie Blake does. But this book could have been amazing if we actually saw training scenes for Ruying, the murder scenes, I don't know, ANYTHING instead of pages upon pages of Ruying doing a monologue about survival, cowards, her long-suffering life, or Ruying talking with Antony and getting lost in his pretty green eyes.
Also, for me, it was obvious from the beginning that Antony was a psychopath. Apart from the constant personality changes, it was clear that he was a manipulator and a liar. I don't know how Ruying couldn't see it.
I feel very bad talking like this about a book by a debut author, but this book promises things that it DOES NOT fulfill. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars is that I really liked the first 50%, and with that ending, I really think that the author could take this trilogy to an incredible place, and a lot of what I hated in this book could change. I do think that this book could be more enjoyable if many things were presented differently and if the publisher stopped selling it as an enemies-to-lovers story, because it is not. If I had known that instead of an epic fantasy rooted in history (as the publisher presents it), I was going to find a romance with a very abusive and toxic relationship with a "love interest" that is the villain, I would have opened this book expecting another thing."
"Freedom and pride are worth fighting for, but only peace is worth dying for"
This book is the antithesis of anti-colonialism.
First of all what the hell with de romance colonizer and the stockholm syndrome???
I understand that our female main character is a morally gray character and all that, but I have read about a lot of morally gray characters in my life, and none of them were as DUMB as Ruying. I hate to talk (write in this case) about a female character in this way, but I'm impressed by how stupid this character is. She's not morally gray; she's just very easy to manipulate.
Let's go with my first problem in this book: Toxic romance glorifying the colonizer. Both the author and the publisher are saying that this book is "enemies to lovers" IT IS NOT. NO. NO, NO. This is a toxic and abusive relationship with a huge power imbalance. In the introduction, the author tells us about unit 731 (I recommend looking for information about it), which is a crime against humanity in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war, and at one point in the book Antony tells Ruying that he IS DOING EXPERIMENTS ON HER PEOPLE, and she doesn't even think about what that means. When Bahiu tells her, "do you know what happens to the people who aren't selected?" she reacts like "I don't care". How could you write that introduction and then give us this approach to human experimentation?
Look, I do think that this book has a lot of potential, but the execution is very poorly done, and honestly, it needs a couple of rounds of edits more. The world-building is vague, the writing style is beautiful, but it is very repetitive. I get it, heroes die, cowards live. You don't have to repeat that every single time. You don't have to give me a lot of scenes where the FMC tries to justify herself and thinks of her sister as the martyr and her as the coward. I GET IT. Instead of wasting so much time in these kinds of scenes where Ruying spirals for pages about her situation, why don't you give me scenes where Ruying is being trained to be an assassin? She starts working for Antony, murdering her own people without any prior training, but suddenly she's very skilled in what she does.
This book is a constant repetitive monologue where we are constantly being told instead of shown. I don't normally have a problem with the "tell and don't show" if it's done properly, like Olivie Blake does. But this book could have been amazing if we actually saw training scenes for Ruying, the murder scenes, I don't know, ANYTHING instead of pages upon pages of Ruying doing a monologue about survival, cowards, her long-suffering life, or Ruying talking with Antony and getting lost in his pretty green eyes.
Also, for me, it was obvious from the beginning that Antony was a psychopath. Apart from the constant personality changes, it was clear that he was a manipulator and a liar. I don't know how Ruying couldn't see it.
I feel very bad talking like this about a book by a debut author, but this book promises things that it DOES NOT fulfill. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars is that I really liked the first 50%, and with that ending, I really think that the author could take this trilogy to an incredible place, and a lot of what I hated in this book could change. I do think that this book could be more enjoyable if many things were presented differently and if the publisher stopped selling it as an enemies-to-lovers story, because it is not. If I had known that instead of an epic fantasy rooted in history (as the publisher presents it), I was going to find a romance with a very abusive and toxic relationship with a "love interest" that is the villain, I would have opened this book expecting another thing."
aspiringspaceship's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
I’ve never read a book this entirely unremarkable before.
techno's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5