em_patt 's review for:

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

2.5

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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The premise was interesting and I was looking forward to reading/learning a bit more about the folklore but was left feeling disappointed. I wanted more from the story, and while I understand the reasons why it ended as it did, I felt like once you took the romance ending out (which honestly I wasn't entirely convinced why they even liked each other) there wasn't actually much story left. Just a girl deciding to move into the next stage of life and adventure, which is fine and all but the main story wasn't impactful enough for it to be left that open-ended and unsatisfying. The climax of her and her cousins "race" on the black road was also a let down to what I felt they could have built up the conflict between the brothers to be. It was a pleasant read though, was quick to get through, the writing wasn't bad just simple and more straightforward.