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A review by dbguide2
In the Wake of Wicked by V.B. Lacey
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It took me a while (15 days) to read and finish this book, which for me is long time. Now I know it’s a long book but also I know I’ve read this many pages before (aka 600+ page books) and read them quicker. It all depends on the pacing/characters/plot strength and obviously, how much I’m enjoying it. It’s a big world and there’s a lot of world-building attached to it. It’s done well, even though I took a while and rated it 3 stars. I liked that the book was very rich on all three fronts – plot, characters, world-building. Luckily the author was able to balance it all well enough (it was other reasons why I didn’t rate it higher).
This is probably a me thing but… modern terms/word in a full-fantasy world are still a new concept to me. If I see them in a book it tends to take me out, reminding me of where I actually am. When I’m reading fantasy I like to think I’m in the book itself. One or two “Yeah” in a full fantasy world isn’t that bad (in fact it works for me in other books but that’s due to the author’s writing style). There were multiple and other modern instances😅. It might have removed half a star or so for me. One thing I was confused about in here – so this family owns an apothecary. The main female character helps her aunt and uncle run the shop and her cousin (their son) helps. They ALL just LEAVE to go to the event so WHO is running the shop? A friend they didn’t mention? They don’t have any other family members. Are they good with having no money for x amount of weeks/months as they said nothing about asking someone to take over or closing the shop for an extended period of time. Yes, this bothered me throughout the book 😅
We had a dual pov – Rose and Leo. Rose was an average character for me. She was spunky and held her own in dangerous scenes. I liked her journey and how she improved in her magic; but other than that I found her mostly “okay”. I wasn’t so jazzed about Leo, our other main character, who has quite the intriguing backstory. He was interesting but I found his sister, Rissa, to be the more interesting one. We had a lot of scenes with her in both povs so that made up for it (her not having a pov). I did have an issue where I couldn’t tell Rose and Leo’s pov voices apart – I kept having to check whose chapter we were in. I like multiple povs but not having to focus on whose head we’re in.
I really did like the magic system. I love it when there are different areas of magic and we can learn the rules. I didn’t mind that there was a lot of explaining and showing of the magic – and it’s done well here. The plot was a lot to take in at the start but did get easier. The author did a good job with the plot. It wasn’t messy, it followed through, there were twists and turns. What I didn’t like was the amount of chapters – 81. Not counting a prologue and epilogue – that’s a lot for a first book in a series. The chapters were also short which meant I kept wondering why they couldn’t team up and we have half the amount of chapters. I felt like the pacing fell off in the second half – it slowed down and dragged a bit after the 50/60% or or mark. Long chapters, slowed-down pacing, okay characters – unfortunately meant lowered rating.
This is probably a me thing but… modern terms/word in a full-fantasy world are still a new concept to me. If I see them in a book it tends to take me out, reminding me of where I actually am. When I’m reading fantasy I like to think I’m in the book itself. One or two “Yeah” in a full fantasy world isn’t that bad (in fact it works for me in other books but that’s due to the author’s writing style). There were multiple and other modern instances😅. It might have removed half a star or so for me. One thing I was confused about in here – so this family owns an apothecary. The main female character helps her aunt and uncle run the shop and her cousin (their son) helps. They ALL just LEAVE to go to the event so WHO is running the shop? A friend they didn’t mention? They don’t have any other family members. Are they good with having no money for x amount of weeks/months as they said nothing about asking someone to take over or closing the shop for an extended period of time. Yes, this bothered me throughout the book 😅
We had a dual pov – Rose and Leo. Rose was an average character for me. She was spunky and held her own in dangerous scenes. I liked her journey and how she improved in her magic; but other than that I found her mostly “okay”. I wasn’t so jazzed about Leo, our other main character, who has quite the intriguing backstory. He was interesting but I found his sister, Rissa, to be the more interesting one. We had a lot of scenes with her in both povs so that made up for it (her not having a pov). I did have an issue where I couldn’t tell Rose and Leo’s pov voices apart – I kept having to check whose chapter we were in. I like multiple povs but not having to focus on whose head we’re in.
I really did like the magic system. I love it when there are different areas of magic and we can learn the rules. I didn’t mind that there was a lot of explaining and showing of the magic – and it’s done well here. The plot was a lot to take in at the start but did get easier. The author did a good job with the plot. It wasn’t messy, it followed through, there were twists and turns. What I didn’t like was the amount of chapters – 81. Not counting a prologue and epilogue – that’s a lot for a first book in a series. The chapters were also short which meant I kept wondering why they couldn’t team up and we have half the amount of chapters. I felt like the pacing fell off in the second half – it slowed down and dragged a bit after the 50/60% or or mark. Long chapters, slowed-down pacing, okay characters – unfortunately meant lowered rating.