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jacemchale's review
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I'll start by saying the book was very cute. I like the forbidden love story being told between a human and a fae, and it's set against a backdrop of college life that's often humorous.
The climax was anticlimactic and fell a bit flat for my tastes.
Overall, the romance between the characters is cute, and there's a decent bit of college humor towards roommates and being friends with an ex.
The climax was anticlimactic and fell a bit flat for my tastes.
Overall, the romance between the characters is cute, and there's a decent bit of college humor towards roommates and being friends with an ex.
buzzingbee's review
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!
Take Pan's Labyrinth, make it Secret Garden, then add lesbians, and you get The Fae Tale. Childhood friends to lovers, international setting, interspecies relationship... pretty much everything one could possibly want from a story like this.
The relationships between each of the characters were nuanced and varied. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives and the look into Vana and Roze's lives - especially with their specific situation. This book occupied every thought I had between reading. My only complaint was the pacing felt a little weird at times, which could absolutely be chocked up to personal preference. Overall, absolutely would suggest this book to a friend.
Take Pan's Labyrinth, make it Secret Garden, then add lesbians, and you get The Fae Tale. Childhood friends to lovers, international setting, interspecies relationship... pretty much everything one could possibly want from a story like this.
The relationships between each of the characters were nuanced and varied. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives and the look into Vana and Roze's lives - especially with their specific situation. This book occupied every thought I had between reading. My only complaint was the pacing felt a little weird at times, which could absolutely be chocked up to personal preference. Overall, absolutely would suggest this book to a friend.
queien's review
5.0
This book was adorable. I think I might be a bit of a sucker for "fated romance" or something, but this book was really well done and very endearing. I loved how the author used monsters I'd never heard of before, and reading it makes me more interested in Lithuanian mythology.
I hope there's a sequel! I feel like there are a lot of interesting new places the author could take these characters.
I hope there's a sequel! I feel like there are a lot of interesting new places the author could take these characters.
eyrinreads's review
adventurous
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
4.75
alloveragain's review
3.0
5/10
I, honestly, don't know much about Lithuania but I loved reading about it. Well it was probably some pretty rural place outside of Vilnius here, as I gathered, therefore there's not much you can actually learn about the country or culture. But you can learn about the mythology and that's probably Genevive McCluer's dominant thought when writing this book.
The only thing I really don't like in this book is gira. Lol. How could anyone willingly drink gira/kvass is beyond me. Even the sight of it in stores disgusts me. Slavs really be wildin'.
I really liked Taya. Myself being a Slav as well, I thought it was cute having some good Slavic representation for once. I think this is the first time, in my 22 year old life, something like that happened. We are definitely more than just mafia and war criminals, than you very much. Though, kind of, that turned out to be a double-edged sword since (because of all the media) I caught myself reading almost everything in stereotypical broken English. Oh, well.
Vana and Roze are cute, I can't deny that. I like how they've been pen friends for so long and how they liked each other even with all the distance. I like Vana's friendship with Taya and Caroline. I like those two characters as well. The MCs met when I was about halfway through the book and since then had a tiny bit of very expected push-and-pull moment which later lead to a pretty sweet ending.
This is a very light and fast YA read and I would probably recommend it to some young teenager who's into fantasy. And lesbians, i guess.
Admittedly, I couldn't grasp the concept where e.g.Roze easily travelled from Lithuania to Toronto in just one step but the there seemed to be no time change. The night the trio was looking for Vana's bff, said bff, Roze, was with her mum while she was cleaning some house. It was 9pm Toronto time which means it was 4am back in Lithuania. Is someone really not at home at 4am or is peacefully sleeping while a stranger is taking out their trash and loudly singing?? Or are time zones just nonexistent? I was confused a couple of times because of that and this overlooked fact stopped me from fully getting into the story.
I love mythology and, when you know a lot about Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Slavic, Norse and Mesopotamian one, it's fun to see how everything is so similar and almost intertwining. So learining a small bit about Baltic mythology here was fun. Maybe that's my biggest problem with this book as well. There's only a tiny little piece of everything. A bit of mythology, a bit of Dovana and Roze's relationship (the one where you could actually see some connection between them because everything feels too flat and meh), a bit of Dovana's past relationship and her friendship with Caroline and Taya, a bit of her family, etc. But it didn't mix too well. Like when you mix too many colours and the colour you end up getting is some kind of brown. Brown is nice, it's calming but it's too plain. In my humble, visual artist's, opinion it's best to pick only one or two most important things you want to go with and make it stand out. You need indisputable accents. Otherwise you can see when artist's thoughts aren't clear enough for them, it starts to suffocate them, and you could see that they got lost while making the final product. Maybe it would've been better if the story was mostly about the mythology and adventure and then their relationship took much lesser portion of the story. Or the book was really about their relationship as the blurb states (I wasn't convinced) and then you really get in depth about that. Doesn't matter how much you want to, some good ideas, sadly, just won't make the final cut. But, then again - I'm not a writer. Maybe writing's different than other forms of art.
To be honest, I found myself shipping Taya and Caroline way more than the MCs. If McCleur, at some point, desides to write a book about those two (doesn't even have to be a romantic story - maybe it's more of an adventure where two bickering friends are managing through the very real world of Baltic mythology) I wouldn't hasitate to get my hands on it. At least those two had some chemistry. Dovana and Roze's relationship felt weird and not really believable from start to finish. It felt too forced and it makes me sad because I really wanted to like this book a lot.
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
I, honestly, don't know much about Lithuania but I loved reading about it. Well it was probably some pretty rural place outside of Vilnius here, as I gathered, therefore there's not much you can actually learn about the country or culture. But you can learn about the mythology and that's probably Genevive McCluer's dominant thought when writing this book.
The only thing I really don't like in this book is gira. Lol. How could anyone willingly drink gira/kvass is beyond me. Even the sight of it in stores disgusts me. Slavs really be wildin'.
I really liked Taya. Myself being a Slav as well, I thought it was cute having some good Slavic representation for once. I think this is the first time, in my 22 year old life, something like that happened. We are definitely more than just mafia and war criminals, than you very much. Though, kind of, that turned out to be a double-edged sword since (because of all the media) I caught myself reading almost everything in stereotypical broken English. Oh, well.
Vana and Roze are cute, I can't deny that. I like how they've been pen friends for so long and how they liked each other even with all the distance. I like Vana's friendship with Taya and Caroline. I like those two characters as well. The MCs met when I was about halfway through the book and since then had a tiny bit of very expected push-and-pull moment which later lead to a pretty sweet ending.
This is a very light and fast YA read and I would probably recommend it to some young teenager who's into fantasy. And lesbians, i guess.
Admittedly, I couldn't grasp the concept where e.g.
I love mythology and, when you know a lot about Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Slavic, Norse and Mesopotamian one, it's fun to see how everything is so similar and almost intertwining. So learining a small bit about Baltic mythology here was fun. Maybe that's my biggest problem with this book as well. There's only a tiny little piece of everything. A bit of mythology, a bit of Dovana and Roze's relationship (the one where you could actually see some connection between them because everything feels too flat and meh), a bit of Dovana's past relationship and her friendship with Caroline and Taya, a bit of her family, etc. But it didn't mix too well. Like when you mix too many colours and the colour you end up getting is some kind of brown. Brown is nice, it's calming but it's too plain. In my humble, visual artist's, opinion it's best to pick only one or two most important things you want to go with and make it stand out. You need indisputable accents. Otherwise you can see when artist's thoughts aren't clear enough for them, it starts to suffocate them, and you could see that they got lost while making the final product. Maybe it would've been better if the story was mostly about the mythology and adventure and then their relationship took much lesser portion of the story. Or the book was really about their relationship as the blurb states (I wasn't convinced) and then you really get in depth about that. Doesn't matter how much you want to, some good ideas, sadly, just won't make the final cut. But, then again - I'm not a writer. Maybe writing's different than other forms of art.
To be honest, I found myself shipping Taya and Caroline way more than the MCs. If McCleur, at some point, desides to write a book about those two (doesn't even have to be a romantic story - maybe it's more of an adventure where two bickering friends are managing through the very real world of Baltic mythology) I wouldn't hasitate to get my hands on it. At least those two had some chemistry. Dovana and Roze's relationship felt weird and not really believable from start to finish. It felt too forced and it makes me sad because I really wanted to like this book a lot.
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
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