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A review by toastyghosty13
Charm by Tracy Wolff
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I was so excited to read this book because I love both of the main characters in it from the rest of the series, especially because this shows time that was missed while trapped in Grace's head. This shows How Grace and Hudson get to know each other before she forgets everything, and so I was ecstatic to read this and see the parts that have been missing from the plot. I was pretty disappointed.
I said this about the previous book in the series and I will say it again: this book could have been cut to be about 50%-60% shorter. So much of it is inner monologuing that is repetitive and all about the realization that something is so great and awe inspiring, but that something tends to be the same thing each time. It becomes boring and cumbersome because you start to speed read to get through reading the same 5 paragraphs of these monologues since they are pretty much the same thing just thrown into a thesaurus. I had such high hopes that the monologuing would improve based on the praise I have heard about this book, but there are only so many times I can bare to read through Grace coming to the realization that Hudson is great or vice versa.
I wanted to like this book so badly, but it is also a farcry from what this series started as. This series started as a more fun (imo) version of a twilight fan fic, and now it has spiraled to include worlds and events that seemingly come out of nowhere for the sake of having something happen. This time, the story took place in the shadow realm. This setting had so much potential for cool new characters and mythological creature types, but ended up just being purple people. This felt like a slice of life episode that was 800 pages long where Grace and Hudson are on the run, yet have the time to stop at cute farms and cosplay as a cottage core family for a few weeks, before moving to a village and doing basically the same thing there but as small town folk. There is nothing inherently wrong with this type of story, except for the fact that no one needs to read 800 pages of it. I am not reading this story to read about Grace trying to work at a bakery; I would read Legends and Lattes if I wanted that. I am reading this story to learn more about how they try to stop the end of the world from whatever threat there is.
We do learn a bit about the threat in the shadow realm, the shadow queen, but not nearly enough for how much other fluff there is. From what I can tell, the shadow queen is the main villain in the next and final book of this series, so it was super annoying when we barely got anything about her.
I probably will read the last book of this series since I have come so far, but I need to take a break for a while before I do.
I said this about the previous book in the series and I will say it again: this book could have been cut to be about 50%-60% shorter. So much of it is inner monologuing that is repetitive and all about the realization that something is so great and awe inspiring, but that something tends to be the same thing each time. It becomes boring and cumbersome because you start to speed read to get through reading the same 5 paragraphs of these monologues since they are pretty much the same thing just thrown into a thesaurus. I had such high hopes that the monologuing would improve based on the praise I have heard about this book, but there are only so many times I can bare to read through Grace coming to the realization that Hudson is great or vice versa.
I wanted to like this book so badly, but it is also a farcry from what this series started as. This series started as a more fun (imo) version of a twilight fan fic, and now it has spiraled to include worlds and events that seemingly come out of nowhere for the sake of having something happen. This time, the story took place in the shadow realm. This setting had so much potential for cool new characters and mythological creature types, but ended up just being purple people. This felt like a slice of life episode that was 800 pages long where Grace and Hudson are on the run, yet have the time to stop at cute farms and cosplay as a cottage core family for a few weeks, before moving to a village and doing basically the same thing there but as small town folk. There is nothing inherently wrong with this type of story, except for the fact that no one needs to read 800 pages of it. I am not reading this story to read about Grace trying to work at a bakery; I would read Legends and Lattes if I wanted that. I am reading this story to learn more about how they try to stop the end of the world from whatever threat there is.
We do learn a bit about the threat in the shadow realm,
I probably will read the last book of this series since I have come so far, but I need to take a break for a while before I do.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Murder