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A review by lunelis
Crystal Crowned by Elise Kova
4.0
Copying over my July 2016 review from amazon
As the final book of a series five installments long, writing this review is both a relief and a satisfaction, but there is also a note of melancholy at knowing this story has concluded and that the author may not return to this literary universe for some time if ever again. Still, by the fact that I made it this far after only having started reading the series five days ago, it should be obvious that I, overall, liked this series quite a bit, and by my rating, it should be apparent I found this book to be a pleasure as well.
To get it out of the way, as with the other four books, the writing and character development and storytelling and world building are all wonderful and there is no doubt that Elise Kova is a talented author who, by some insane magic of willpower and talent, managed to write five books all between 300 and 400 pages each and have them published within a few months of each other with such amazing cover art and editing work. There is no inherent flaw to the series that ever repulsed me even if I wasn't gripped the whole time and this book follows that. I finished it off in a single setting over the course of about seven hours and overall feel content and satisfied with the turn of events.
Though, like with the last one, my rating dropped a star because I felt like the series began to drag a little bit and a lot of it was slow and dedicated to build-up with only the last 60 pages or so being dedicated to battles and what not. The rating also dropped a little because there were enough scenes where the author did wrote Vhalla as being very reckless and obdurate for the sake of trying to drive home how strong she is as a character (note: strong character =/= physically powerful) that I rolled my eyes a bit and felt my liking of the book sour a little. Like, there's one scene where she has no magic and is in no shape to fight yet she's all "Get me a sword I don't need any protection" as if accepting help when she's not at her best would make her into a helpless weakling. It was weird, but at least we have more moments where she's behaving fine than moments where she's like a child going "No! I'm independent! I do what I want! No help from anyone!" Though outside of this there was no other real point of complaint from me.
Overall, a good finale to the tale. We wrap up all the goals that we as readers identified as we went along and the ending allows the readers to look towards the future of the character's with hope. I was expecting this book to be a bit different, I think I was a little disappointed at how quickly some matters were resolved and how some things dragged on a little, but not enough for me to dissuade anyone from trying the series, though I think the kindle versions are the best option for buying. I bought physical copies in spite of the steep prices to show my support for a fledgling author who I saw had skill and good taste in artists, but if you just want to read the story without this in mind just go for the e-book version.
I'm both happy I'm finished and wrapped up with the series, but sad to see if end. I don't think I have any regrets in regards to reading this series even though some things weren't as I expected. My final thoughts are that this was a very good romantic-fantasy series for an older YA audience (16+) and definitely something that ample time, thought, talent, and effort went into.
As the final book of a series five installments long, writing this review is both a relief and a satisfaction, but there is also a note of melancholy at knowing this story has concluded and that the author may not return to this literary universe for some time if ever again. Still, by the fact that I made it this far after only having started reading the series five days ago, it should be obvious that I, overall, liked this series quite a bit, and by my rating, it should be apparent I found this book to be a pleasure as well.
To get it out of the way, as with the other four books, the writing and character development and storytelling and world building are all wonderful and there is no doubt that Elise Kova is a talented author who, by some insane magic of willpower and talent, managed to write five books all between 300 and 400 pages each and have them published within a few months of each other with such amazing cover art and editing work. There is no inherent flaw to the series that ever repulsed me even if I wasn't gripped the whole time and this book follows that. I finished it off in a single setting over the course of about seven hours and overall feel content and satisfied with the turn of events.
Though, like with the last one, my rating dropped a star because I felt like the series began to drag a little bit and a lot of it was slow and dedicated to build-up with only the last 60 pages or so being dedicated to battles and what not. The rating also dropped a little because there were enough scenes where the author did wrote Vhalla as being very reckless and obdurate for the sake of trying to drive home how strong she is as a character (note: strong character =/= physically powerful) that I rolled my eyes a bit and felt my liking of the book sour a little. Like, there's one scene where she has no magic and is in no shape to fight yet she's all "Get me a sword I don't need any protection" as if accepting help when she's not at her best would make her into a helpless weakling. It was weird, but at least we have more moments where she's behaving fine than moments where she's like a child going "No! I'm independent! I do what I want! No help from anyone!" Though outside of this there was no other real point of complaint from me.
Overall, a good finale to the tale. We wrap up all the goals that we as readers identified as we went along and the ending allows the readers to look towards the future of the character's with hope. I was expecting this book to be a bit different, I think I was a little disappointed at how quickly some matters were resolved and how some things dragged on a little, but not enough for me to dissuade anyone from trying the series, though I think the kindle versions are the best option for buying. I bought physical copies in spite of the steep prices to show my support for a fledgling author who I saw had skill and good taste in artists, but if you just want to read the story without this in mind just go for the e-book version.
I'm both happy I'm finished and wrapped up with the series, but sad to see if end. I don't think I have any regrets in regards to reading this series even though some things weren't as I expected. My final thoughts are that this was a very good romantic-fantasy series for an older YA audience (16+) and definitely something that ample time, thought, talent, and effort went into.