A review by abby_gail_noel
Legendary by Stephanie Garber

4.0

Mmmm… idk about this one guys. It was good but it wasn’t Caraval good. For some reason this just didn’t feel like Caraval at all. I feel like the setting change wasn’t necessarily for the best. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and I think these books are good, but I just couldn’t get behind this one like I could with Caraval.

Also, I don’t know what it was but after reading all of the Once Upon a Broken Heart series and Caraval, the writing style has started to get on my nerves just a little teensy tiny bit. It’s just the metaphors and over the top details really. i.e. …

“[…] like candied butterfly wings caught in sugared spiderwebs.”

“[…] like drops of star blood.”

“He smelled like ink and other seductive things.”

I’m sorry but what? Candied butterfly wings? Sugared spiderwebs? Star blood? Like I said, idk about this one.

Anyways, I was digging Donatella and Dante a lot. I also liked Jacks in this book, even after reading the other series. I thought he was interesting and I like reading about his character. On the other hand, I didn’t like that Donatella was sixteen. Caraval felt age appropriate but I feel like with some of the romantic content this is just not okay. Not that it was super spicy but I feel like once we’re fully making out and getting handsy and innuendos are being made we need to age the characters up. Just a small little ick. It makes me feel a little uncomfy.

Besides that, I thought the plot was strong. Y’all know I hate a book with no plot. I liked that we got to know Donatella more and take a deep dive into everything with her mom. I liked that Scarlett was sneaky and had a little side plot. There was some political intrigue and action. Overall, very entertaining and well written but it needed a bit of work.