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A review by eliseofsoleanna
Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater
3.0
Settling on a 3 again because that ending was REALLY good and had me floored.
I know there's a lot of people who swear by these two books but they're just okay. Once again, I thought a lot of the beginning and middle of the book dragged significantly, and Maggie's method of keeping the wool over our eyes in a lot of places hindered the story more than it helped (why did I have to read all of Dee's stupid unsent text messages). Though I will admit, I am now slightly more on Team James than I was when I read Lament (let's not forget how I was actively rooting for Dee to let him die in the ending and then Maggie made me do the same thing here but reversed which is actually pretty cool). However, I cannot and will not get behind his pretentious asshole-ness. I will happily choose Soft James any day of the week.
Dee is...so stupid. So stupid. Genuinely hated her and kinda wished she just disappeared off the face of the earth. If we ever get book three (I doubt we will, I think Maggie's moved on at this point from Requiem but who knows maybe she'll surprise us), it's gonna take a miracle worker to make me like her again.
The enemies-to-friends-to-lovers slowburn romance between Nuala and James is peak. The sexual tension was drawn out just long enough to make me want to keep reading and I think both Nuala and James had significant growth over the course of the story. I liked Nuala as the story went on, and I'm glad that we finally got a happy ending in one of these books after the bittersweet ending in Lament.
Shout out to Cernunnos. He wins the Best Dad of the Year award for all time.
I know there's a lot of people who swear by these two books but they're just okay. Once again, I thought a lot of the beginning and middle of the book dragged significantly, and Maggie's method of keeping the wool over our eyes in a lot of places hindered the story more than it helped (why did I have to read all of Dee's stupid unsent text messages). Though I will admit, I am now slightly more on Team James than I was when I read Lament (let's not forget how I was actively rooting for Dee to let him die in the ending and then Maggie made me do the same thing here but reversed which is actually pretty cool). However, I cannot and will not get behind his pretentious asshole-ness. I will happily choose Soft James any day of the week.
Dee is...so stupid. So stupid. Genuinely hated her and kinda wished she just disappeared off the face of the earth. If we ever get book three (I doubt we will, I think Maggie's moved on at this point from Requiem but who knows maybe she'll surprise us), it's gonna take a miracle worker to make me like her again.
The enemies-to-friends-to-lovers slowburn romance between Nuala and James is peak. The sexual tension was drawn out just long enough to make me want to keep reading and I think both Nuala and James had significant growth over the course of the story. I liked Nuala as the story went on, and I'm glad that we finally got a happy ending in one of these books after the bittersweet ending in Lament.
Shout out to Cernunnos. He wins the Best Dad of the Year award for all time.