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A review by the_cover_contessa
Firebird by Juliette Cross
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
DNF at 60%
Thank you to NetGalley and Bramble for supplying me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Let me start by saying I have been a Juliette Cross fan for a very long time. Before anyone really knew who she was. I love her writing and her stories. This one had such promise with it's setting in the Roman empire to the fact that dragons were included as the new history. I was excited to see how the world was built and how Cross would bring the dragons into that time period.
Unfortunately, this one was just not for me despite the excitement I had to read it.
What I did like:
The prologue and what it could potentially mean.
The idea of the book and it's setting. This time period is very intriguing to me as I haven't studied as much as others. I was looking forward to learning more.
Dual point of view is always something that I adore. It helps me to understand the characters so much more when I get to be in their heads.
Men who become dragons. Yes, please! I love the idea of this transformation. And in the setting of war it's that much more fascinating.
What I was not fond of:
I'm totally and completely surprised there were no trigger warnings at the beginning of this book. I do not have any TW myself, but the contents of this book and quite a few of it's themes will definitely trigger some people. I know this is an ARC but at this point in the publishing phase, when they know exactly what the book contains, TW should be offered.
The world building just was not there. I didn't understand how the dragons were part of the world. Seeing as in history there were no dragons during this time period, I needed to truly see how things fit. The prologue did give us some understanding of it but the world building stopped there. Then the book became a journey of the romance. Don't get me wrong, I love romance and especially romantasy, but there has to be a story line to go with it. At over halfway through the book, I was still struggling to figure out just exactly what that storyline was. And when we were given any snippets of what the war was about, the information was told to us rather than shown. I was also confused by the magic in the book. I have no idea what it is about or how the system works.
I needed more character development. Same as with the world building, the characters were never shown to us but rather we are told about them over and over again from the FMC or MMC's point of view. While the dual point of view usually works for me, the characters didn't seem all that different when they were narrating, Their voices were practically the same.
The romance was also just not there for me. I needed chemistry between these two characters and by the time we had our first spicy romantic scene, I still didn't feel it. The FMC kept saying she was attracted to him, but it was never shown. Same with the MMC.
Finally, the pacing was just slow. I felt like nothing was happening. I found myself skimming paragraphs of narrative so I could get to the dialogue in the hopes of getting some information.
Overall I just felt like this book needed so much more tightening and fleshing out. I'm sad I didn't like it but I do see it's gotten many good reviews and I'm sure others will enjoy the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bramble for supplying me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Let me start by saying I have been a Juliette Cross fan for a very long time. Before anyone really knew who she was. I love her writing and her stories. This one had such promise with it's setting in the Roman empire to the fact that dragons were included as the new history. I was excited to see how the world was built and how Cross would bring the dragons into that time period.
Unfortunately, this one was just not for me despite the excitement I had to read it.
What I did like:
The prologue and what it could potentially mean.
The idea of the book and it's setting. This time period is very intriguing to me as I haven't studied as much as others. I was looking forward to learning more.
Dual point of view is always something that I adore. It helps me to understand the characters so much more when I get to be in their heads.
Men who become dragons. Yes, please! I love the idea of this transformation. And in the setting of war it's that much more fascinating.
What I was not fond of:
I'm totally and completely surprised there were no trigger warnings at the beginning of this book. I do not have any TW myself, but the contents of this book and quite a few of it's themes will definitely trigger some people. I know this is an ARC but at this point in the publishing phase, when they know exactly what the book contains, TW should be offered.
The world building just was not there. I didn't understand how the dragons were part of the world. Seeing as in history there were no dragons during this time period, I needed to truly see how things fit. The prologue did give us some understanding of it but the world building stopped there. Then the book became a journey of the romance. Don't get me wrong, I love romance and especially romantasy, but there has to be a story line to go with it. At over halfway through the book, I was still struggling to figure out just exactly what that storyline was. And when we were given any snippets of what the war was about, the information was told to us rather than shown. I was also confused by the magic in the book. I have no idea what it is about or how the system works.
I needed more character development. Same as with the world building, the characters were never shown to us but rather we are told about them over and over again from the FMC or MMC's point of view. While the dual point of view usually works for me, the characters didn't seem all that different when they were narrating, Their voices were practically the same.
The romance was also just not there for me. I needed chemistry between these two characters and by the time we had our first spicy romantic scene, I still didn't feel it. The FMC kept saying she was attracted to him, but it was never shown. Same with the MMC.
Finally, the pacing was just slow. I felt like nothing was happening. I found myself skimming paragraphs of narrative so I could get to the dialogue in the hopes of getting some information.
Overall I just felt like this book needed so much more tightening and fleshing out. I'm sad I didn't like it but I do see it's gotten many good reviews and I'm sure others will enjoy the story.