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bloomsbookshelf 's review for:
Gleam
by Raven Kennedy
I don’t know how to even begin to explain how I feel about this book... 🥴😬
I want to start off by saying, I love Raven Kennedys writing, and I love the storyline and where she was trying to go with these books. She definitely deserves praise and seeing as so many people love this series, I’m obviously in the minority of people who weren’t a fan unfortunately.
I loved the start of it, after not liking the first 2 and finding them both to just DRAG ON, I thought the pace of this one was so much better (at the beginning at least.)
Plus again, after not having ANY likeable characters the first 2 books and the MC just getting shit on the entire time by EVERYONE, it was nice to actually have some characters that were likeable and had a bit of personality.
I liked the start of the book how Auren came into her own and was starting to heal from her trauma and see what a horrific person Midus was, but after a while it felt like it just dragged on.
She has to stay because of other people that didn’t even like her (eg. Rissa, Polly, Mist ect?) and then you find out her old guard, Digby, who she never really spoke fondly of in the first book and who NEVER spoke kindly to her, is alive and well, and now she feels the need to save him? She think said 3 sentences about liking him, but that was it in the first book…. I distinctively remember her taking his death hard to be SO odd when it happened in the 1st book, because that relationship wasn’t built up at all in that book. So I’d understand if Digby and Auren had a relationship but I really don’t remember that ever happening….
Plus the thoughts this girl has. Oh. My. God. If you thought Poppy from “From Blood and Ash” thought a lot about the same issues over and over… I introduce you to Auren, who thinks about escaping over and over, and thinks about her guards, over and over…
The chapters from the Queens perspective too were just unnecessary and horrible…. So unlikable… which is a credit to Raven Kennedy because she wrote such a god awful women I couldn’t stand to read the chapters…
Then the relationship with Slade… Listen, I love Slade, I think he’s character was written really well and I genuinely would love a book just from his POV, but where was that personality in the first and second book?
Something I did like and I feel like was done well was their relationship. I was invested in that. But it just went from hot tension to “hi we’re fucking” SUPPPER quickly.
All in all I genuinely think these 3 books could of been put in a 45 chapters book instead of dragging it out over 3 books. Especially the 3rd where it felt like it was 700 pages for the sake of being 700 pages.
I think it’s an awesome idea for a duology and I’m just sad that it’s been dragged out into 4 books…
I want to start off by saying, I love Raven Kennedys writing, and I love the storyline and where she was trying to go with these books. She definitely deserves praise and seeing as so many people love this series, I’m obviously in the minority of people who weren’t a fan unfortunately.
I loved the start of it, after not liking the first 2 and finding them both to just DRAG ON, I thought the pace of this one was so much better (at the beginning at least.)
Plus again, after not having ANY likeable characters the first 2 books and the MC just getting shit on the entire time by EVERYONE, it was nice to actually have some characters that were likeable and had a bit of personality.
I liked the start of the book how Auren came into her own and was starting to heal from her trauma and see what a horrific person Midus was, but after a while it felt like it just dragged on.
She has to stay because of other people that didn’t even like her (eg. Rissa, Polly, Mist ect?) and then you find out her old guard, Digby, who she never really spoke fondly of in the first book and who NEVER spoke kindly to her, is alive and well, and now she feels the need to save him? She think said 3 sentences about liking him, but that was it in the first book…. I distinctively remember her taking his death hard to be SO odd when it happened in the 1st book, because that relationship wasn’t built up at all in that book. So I’d understand if Digby and Auren had a relationship but I really don’t remember that ever happening….
Plus the thoughts this girl has. Oh. My. God. If you thought Poppy from “From Blood and Ash” thought a lot about the same issues over and over… I introduce you to Auren, who thinks about escaping over and over, and thinks about her guards, over and over…
The chapters from the Queens perspective too were just unnecessary and horrible…. So unlikable… which is a credit to Raven Kennedy because she wrote such a god awful women I couldn’t stand to read the chapters…
Then the relationship with Slade… Listen, I love Slade, I think he’s character was written really well and I genuinely would love a book just from his POV, but where was that personality in the first and second book?
Something I did like and I feel like was done well was their relationship. I was invested in that. But it just went from hot tension to “hi we’re fucking” SUPPPER quickly.
All in all I genuinely think these 3 books could of been put in a 45 chapters book instead of dragging it out over 3 books. Especially the 3rd where it felt like it was 700 pages for the sake of being 700 pages.
I think it’s an awesome idea for a duology and I’m just sad that it’s been dragged out into 4 books…