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A review by bea_sb
Gravebriar by Casey L. Bond
3.0
Once again I finished a book while “working” and couldn't wait to write a review. So here I am, explaining why the f**ork I gave 2.5 (rounded up to 3) stars, whilst everyone else is enamored by it.
I should confess though, my rating's probably biased. I've read this story right after an awesome epic fantasy book with an extremely slow burn romance fogged by massive political intrigues. My poor brain' subconsciously comparing the two of them, hence the unfairness evaluation.
most of them I can't even remember the name and had no relevance whatsoever to the plot.
Castor Gravebriar, our heroine, was born with an unique power, poison. For most of her life her ability's been concealed by her parents. Only when a member of her own group is poisoned, she is left with no choice but to save him and expose her power to everyone. Well, it doesn't work, the council accuses Castor of harming her coven mate and the only way to prove her innocence is by finding a gravebriar, plant with healing potential, that apparently grows in the outskirts of Cauldron. Forge Silverthorn, the hero, is selected to accompany Castor in her mission, and secretly assigned with a task of killing her.
He obviously refuses and joins the girl in a two-days journey to find the healing thingy. She doesn't fully trust him, instead she listen to a circus freak , who she only just met. The truth is revealed, her true power' set free, she fights the grandcrazy, wins and become the new leader of the coven. The end.
What kept me going? I was really curious to see how everything would play out, especially how the lies would untangle. The worldbuilding was alluring and probably what attracted me the most.
What didn't work for me: It could have been a fascinating fantasy-romance-political schemes story, but ended up being a bit too short. I just couldn't get over the mess of information thrown all over the place with no in-depth explanation.
The first 20 pages are merely random description of stores and the decoration for a ballroom. Don't get me wrong, I'm all up for a good-long description, but for a 270ish book, that's roughly 8% of the story that doesn't add any relevant info to the whole plot.
Most houses/covens had nearly zero interaction to the main conflict whatsoever. They just filled the pages with irrelevant facts I could have easily lived without it. Even now I've got no clue what those groups can actually do in terms of magic or how it works.
The two main characters were pretty flat and their relationship was so rushed (Seriously! It was a two day trip and by the end of their first night they were doing puppy eyes to each other) the connection didn't have time to develop. It went like: she was wary of him for a full on 5 minutes and sleeping together the second after. Darling, he was sent to kill you, can't you be a little more skeptical? For the first half she kept saying how heart couldn't be easily won, and she hardly trusted anyone, but yeah...guess what? There were so many contradictions I nearly DNF a couple of times. I honestly felt more for the frog, Bog than the whole romance.
Overall the book was alright.
I should confess though, my rating's probably biased. I've read this story right after an awesome epic fantasy book with an extremely slow burn romance fogged by massive political intrigues. My poor brain' subconsciously comparing the two of them, hence the unfairness evaluation.
Spoiler
To the story we go. Gravebriar revolves around some political conflicts in Cauldron, a witch town governed by nine coven (council/houses/group)Castor Gravebriar, our heroine, was born with an unique power, poison. For most of her life her ability's been concealed by her parents. Only when a member of her own group is poisoned, she is left with no choice but to save him and expose her power to everyone. Well, it doesn't work, the council accuses Castor of harming her coven mate and the only way to prove her innocence is by finding a gravebriar, plant with healing potential, that apparently grows in the outskirts of Cauldron. Forge Silverthorn, the hero, is selected to accompany Castor in her mission, and secretly assigned with a task of killing her.
He obviously refuses and joins the girl in a two-days journey to find the healing thingy. She doesn't fully trust him, instead she listen to a circus freak
What kept me going? I was really curious to see how everything would play out, especially how the lies would untangle. The worldbuilding was alluring and probably what attracted me the most.
What didn't work for me: It could have been a fascinating fantasy-romance-political schemes story, but ended up being a bit too short. I just couldn't get over the mess of information thrown all over the place with no in-depth explanation.
The first 20 pages are merely random description of stores and the decoration for a ballroom. Don't get me wrong, I'm all up for a good-long description, but for a 270ish book, that's roughly 8% of the story that doesn't add any relevant info to the whole plot.
Most houses/covens had nearly zero interaction to the main conflict whatsoever. They just filled the pages with irrelevant facts I could have easily lived without it. Even now I've got no clue what those groups can actually do in terms of magic or how it works.
The two main characters were pretty flat and their relationship was so rushed (Seriously! It was a two day trip and by the end of their first night they were doing puppy eyes to each other) the connection didn't have time to develop. It went like: she was wary of him for a full on 5 minutes and sleeping together the second after. Darling, he was sent to kill you, can't you be a little more skeptical? For the first half she kept saying how heart couldn't be easily won, and she hardly trusted anyone, but yeah...guess what? There were so many contradictions I nearly DNF a couple of times. I honestly felt more for the frog, Bog than the whole romance.
Overall the book was alright.