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taylorloves2read 's review for:
The Tales of Arcana Fortune
by Hafsa A Jawad
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book was like a love letter to fairytales and for that I loved it. I appreciated how the tales were the original versions and not the Disney versions and that there were some that I wasn’t as familiar with as others. I had high hopes that this would be five stars, but I was disappointed with the plot and the romance.
The two main characters were pretty bland. I could sum up their personalities and relationship to each other with tropes; in other words they lack depth. They fall in love pretty much instantly, they have a few love confessions (without this use of the word love) before even half way through, and I much prefer a slow burn. We are told that they have this deep connection and would sacrifice themselves for each other and can’t live without each other but it doesn’t make any sense why. The mmc tells the fmc that life would not be worth living without her pretty much at the half way mark before he even tells her that he loves her and then she doubts his feelings for her later. It was a lot of unnecessary conflict that would have been more believable if they didn’t have such deep feelings for each other so early on. She literally calls him her best friend at the end of the first story. The mmc is also so overprotective and jealous, which I usually love (in moderation), but this was to the point of almost infantilization, it was very dramatic.
The plot had a major pacing issue with some of the stories being very good and in depth, while others were way too quick and I wasn’t even sure why they were included in the first place. I also wish that the stories were in a different order to help lead the main characters into a believable relationship.
Another thing that bothered me was the way the curse played out. Basically they are given seven nights to complete seven fairytales. They get sucked into the book to live out the stories, but they leave the book in between the stories. So they are staying in her cottage for the day and at night they get sucked back in to complete another story and that was just a little disorienting for me. I thought that they would remain in the book the whole time and go from story to story.
Overall I really enjoyed the magical atmosphere and getting to revisit some of my favorite stories, but I was a little disappointed with the execution of this concept, I think it could have been better. There is supposed to be a second book but I just can’t imagine that there would be more to this story (at least not a coherent one). I was just really hoping that this would be better.
The two main characters were pretty bland. I could sum up their personalities and relationship to each other with tropes; in other words they lack depth. They fall in love pretty much instantly, they have a few love confessions (without this use of the word love) before even half way through, and I much prefer a slow burn. We are told that they have this deep connection and would sacrifice themselves for each other and can’t live without each other but it doesn’t make any sense why. The mmc tells the fmc that life would not be worth living without her pretty much at the half way mark before he even tells her that he loves her and then she doubts his feelings for her later. It was a lot of unnecessary conflict that would have been more believable if they didn’t have such deep feelings for each other so early on. She literally calls him her best friend at the end of the first story. The mmc is also so overprotective and jealous, which I usually love (in moderation), but this was to the point of almost infantilization, it was very dramatic.
The plot had a major pacing issue with some of the stories being very good and in depth, while others were way too quick and I wasn’t even sure why they were included in the first place. I also wish that the stories were in a different order to help lead the main characters into a believable relationship.
Another thing that bothered me was the way the curse played out. Basically they are given seven nights to complete seven fairytales. They get sucked into the book to live out the stories, but they leave the book in between the stories. So they are staying in her cottage for the day and at night they get sucked back in to complete another story and that was just a little disorienting for me. I thought that they would remain in the book the whole time and go from story to story.
Overall I really enjoyed the magical atmosphere and getting to revisit some of my favorite stories, but I was a little disappointed with the execution of this concept, I think it could have been better. There is supposed to be a second book but I just can’t imagine that there would be more to this story (at least not a coherent one). I was just really hoping that this would be better.