Take a photo of a barcode or cover
emily_hyperfixates's Reviews (62)
This review is spoiler free for both Red Queen and Glass Sword.
WOO boy this one almost got 3 stars but the ending saved it.
I’ll be honest, after the absolute RUSH Red Queen gave me, I was pretty disappointed in the sequel. It started off pretty strong, bringing me to tears by 25% and thennnnn the filler happened. The filler and Mare’s never ending pity party.
I understand that it was imperative for there to be time spent on finding and recruiting new bloods but for some reason it really turned me off. I think it could be that it was pretty monotonous. One of the things I liked best about Red Queen was how fast paced and action packed it was and almost everything between 30% and 80% was not that. I can tell that Aveyard tried to make it exciting too, throwing in a high stakes scenario every mission, but somehow that made it worse? It felt forced in a way and it didn’t help that literally every single time something happened, I had to listen to Mare moan and complain about how she’s so miserable and not the same person and can’t love or trust anyone ever again, blah blah blah. All of those things are, of course, valid considering the sheer amount of trauma she went through but it got SO annoying. I literally just spent the whole time waiting for her to snap and rise to the occasion which she FINALLY did. In doing so she lowkey ruined her relationship with Cal but I was kind of excited about that too because it added some FLAVOR FINALLY. Then again, I am a big fan of angst, so that could just be me.
Also can I just say that her attempt at comedic relief and insults literally KILL ME. Aveyard is INCREDIBLY skilled at action, drama, and angst but oh boy is her humor and insult game just terrible. I will never get over “they should call you the QUIET GIRL” for as long as I live. What a sick burn, Maven.
Now all that said, the book was by no means BAD and I think that Aveyard did exactly what she needed to do to get from point A to point B. Regardless of my issues with the action in the book and lack thereof, I don’t really think there was a happy medium that could be found here. Aveyard still produced an incredibly exciting book, with twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat and stopping to sit with my mouth hanging open in shock/horror. And as usual she did an incredible job of developing a myriad of complex, morally gray characters that I could literally talk about forever.
The ending really saved this one. I was literally so riveted I could barely breathe and it honestly made me forget about how annoyed I was with the whole middle filler, so it brought my rating up to 4 stars instead of three. It is DEFINITELY worthwhile to sit through Mare being miserable to get to the real excitement.
WOO boy this one almost got 3 stars but the ending saved it.
I’ll be honest, after the absolute RUSH Red Queen gave me, I was pretty disappointed in the sequel. It started off pretty strong, bringing me to tears by 25% and thennnnn the filler happened. The filler and Mare’s never ending pity party.
I understand that it was imperative for there to be time spent on finding and recruiting new bloods but for some reason it really turned me off. I think it could be that it was pretty monotonous. One of the things I liked best about Red Queen was how fast paced and action packed it was and almost everything between 30% and 80% was not that. I can tell that Aveyard tried to make it exciting too, throwing in a high stakes scenario every mission, but somehow that made it worse? It felt forced in a way and it didn’t help that literally every single time something happened, I had to listen to Mare moan and complain about how she’s so miserable and not the same person and can’t love or trust anyone ever again, blah blah blah. All of those things are, of course, valid considering the sheer amount of trauma she went through but it got SO annoying. I literally just spent the whole time waiting for her to snap and rise to the occasion which she FINALLY did. In doing so she lowkey ruined her relationship with Cal but I was kind of excited about that too because it added some FLAVOR FINALLY. Then again, I am a big fan of angst, so that could just be me.
Also can I just say that her attempt at comedic relief and insults literally KILL ME. Aveyard is INCREDIBLY skilled at action, drama, and angst but oh boy is her humor and insult game just terrible. I will never get over “they should call you the QUIET GIRL” for as long as I live. What a sick burn, Maven.
Now all that said, the book was by no means BAD and I think that Aveyard did exactly what she needed to do to get from point A to point B. Regardless of my issues with the action in the book and lack thereof, I don’t really think there was a happy medium that could be found here. Aveyard still produced an incredibly exciting book, with twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat and stopping to sit with my mouth hanging open in shock/horror. And as usual she did an incredible job of developing a myriad of complex, morally gray characters that I could literally talk about forever.
The ending really saved this one. I was literally so riveted I could barely breathe and it honestly made me forget about how annoyed I was with the whole middle filler, so it brought my rating up to 4 stars instead of three. It is DEFINITELY worthwhile to sit through Mare being miserable to get to the real excitement.
Kind of vague spoilers!
UGH I want to give this book 4 stars so badly but I know I’m just blinded by how exquisite the ending is.
Victoria I cannot keep defending you when you’ve given me ANOTHER book that is only really good for the first and last 25%! This book just felt so much like the last one and I’m really so bummed out about it. ESPECIALLY after the whirlwind that was the first book. If you have a look at my review for the second book, it’s going to look pretty similar to this one. Once again, after about the first quarter of the book it’s just so much filler. I was so incredibly bored with the motions of Mare being miserable for months with Maven and then happy as can be with the Guard and Cal. The characters just felt so flat. I think the key to formatting a book like that where there’s this great action at the beginning and end but a mellow middle is that the middle has some solid character development. Mare’s character and relationship with anyone else has not changed whatsoever since the beginning of this series. With the sudden addition of the point of views of Camryn and Evangeline, I was so excited to see how their characters evolved and still I was disappointed with Camryn. Evangeline was a breath of fresh air in comparison. I LOVED getting some crumbs of her perspective because her character is so dynamic where everyone else’s is so one sided.
I feel as though this book would have benefitted far more from the addition of Cal’s POV rather than Camryn’s. I still have no idea why Aveyard would include her. It just didn’t seem relevant and even if she has some sore of significance later on, I doubt that her appearances in this book will be of any real use. Maybe it’s just because she annoys me but I’m pretty unhappy with her addition when Cal, who has been struggling with his morals and allegiances for the entire book and would have been so interesting to read about, WAS RIGHT THERE.
It also pains me to say that I feel like Aveyard is really failing Maven as a character here. I can tell that she tried to flesh out his character but there’s just not enough of him to make his story hit as hard as it could. The only reason I feel like (at this point in reading the series) that all of us love Maven so much despite the fact that he’s the villain of this story, is because we sympathize with him from the measly bit of childhood trauma we get out of him, but imagine how much more interesting his character would be if he’d been present and actively engaged with Mare for more than a few conversations.
Now let’s talk about the good here: I will not stop raving about the incredible use of Evangeline until the day I die. That was brilliant and EXACTLY what I wanted from her character. I love her. And then, of course, the ending. I was planning on taking a break from this series for the time being since the disappointments of the second and third book burnt me out. But once again, Aveyard has pulled me right back in. I am DYING to know where things go from here. I had chills the entire last 20 pages of the book. Here’s hoping the next book gives me more than this one did.
Of course, I’m going to finish the series. I’m too invested in what happens to Maven and Evangeline (I could honestly care less about Mare and Cal at this point) to stop. I just hope that the final two books of this series are more interesting than the second and third.
UGH I want to give this book 4 stars so badly but I know I’m just blinded by how exquisite the ending is.
Victoria I cannot keep defending you when you’ve given me ANOTHER book that is only really good for the first and last 25%! This book just felt so much like the last one and I’m really so bummed out about it. ESPECIALLY after the whirlwind that was the first book. If you have a look at my review for the second book, it’s going to look pretty similar to this one. Once again, after about the first quarter of the book it’s just so much filler. I was so incredibly bored with the motions of Mare being miserable for months with Maven and then happy as can be with the Guard and Cal. The characters just felt so flat. I think the key to formatting a book like that where there’s this great action at the beginning and end but a mellow middle is that the middle has some solid character development. Mare’s character and relationship with anyone else has not changed whatsoever since the beginning of this series. With the sudden addition of the point of views of Camryn and Evangeline, I was so excited to see how their characters evolved and still I was disappointed with Camryn. Evangeline was a breath of fresh air in comparison. I LOVED getting some crumbs of her perspective because her character is so dynamic where everyone else’s is so one sided.
I feel as though this book would have benefitted far more from the addition of Cal’s POV rather than Camryn’s. I still have no idea why Aveyard would include her. It just didn’t seem relevant and even if she has some sore of significance later on, I doubt that her appearances in this book will be of any real use. Maybe it’s just because she annoys me but I’m pretty unhappy with her addition when Cal, who has been struggling with his morals and allegiances for the entire book and would have been so interesting to read about, WAS RIGHT THERE.
It also pains me to say that I feel like Aveyard is really failing Maven as a character here. I can tell that she tried to flesh out his character but there’s just not enough of him to make his story hit as hard as it could. The only reason I feel like (at this point in reading the series) that all of us love Maven so much despite the fact that he’s the villain of this story, is because we sympathize with him from the measly bit of childhood trauma we get out of him, but imagine how much more interesting his character would be if he’d been present and actively engaged with Mare for more than a few conversations.
Now let’s talk about the good here: I will not stop raving about the incredible use of Evangeline until the day I die. That was brilliant and EXACTLY what I wanted from her character. I love her. And then, of course, the ending. I was planning on taking a break from this series for the time being since the disappointments of the second and third book burnt me out. But once again, Aveyard has pulled me right back in. I am DYING to know where things go from here. I had chills the entire last 20 pages of the book. Here’s hoping the next book gives me more than this one did.
Of course, I’m going to finish the series. I’m too invested in what happens to Maven and Evangeline (I could honestly care less about Mare and Cal at this point) to stop. I just hope that the final two books of this series are more interesting than the second and third.
4.5 Stars
This book was precious!! It was just such a good, wholesome paranormal contemporary romance and I just loved every second of it. I wasn’t as interested in the plot as I have been with other contemporary novels which brought it down just a bit for me but I really just think that’s a me thing since I’m not a huge sci/fi fan for some reason. The characters really just did it for me in this one though. The supporting cast is truly just exceptional and I fell in love with every single one of them. I also related so much to August and it felt so good to experience this with her.
Loved it, highly recommend, Casey McQuiston you’ve done it again.
This book was precious!! It was just such a good, wholesome paranormal contemporary romance and I just loved every second of it. I wasn’t as interested in the plot as I have been with other contemporary novels which brought it down just a bit for me but I really just think that’s a me thing since I’m not a huge sci/fi fan for some reason. The characters really just did it for me in this one though. The supporting cast is truly just exceptional and I fell in love with every single one of them. I also related so much to August and it felt so good to experience this with her.
Loved it, highly recommend, Casey McQuiston you’ve done it again.
3.5 Stars
ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT BEFORE EVERYONE COMES FOR MY THROAT: I think my review for this book would have been higher if I had read it FIRST instead of third in the series. Did I still love this book? Yes. Was it beautifully written and crucial to understanding Celaena’s character? Yes. Did I cry? Yes, a lot. BUT I had an INCREDIBLY hard time getting invested in it because I knew that most of the characters would either not recur in future books in a significant way AS CHARACTERS. I’m sure they’ll be relevant for plot at some point still but I just couldn’t invest myself in any of their stories really because I knew that they were literally just plot devices. The whole first half of the book, it just felt like I was going through the motions, almost forcing myself to read it just so I could get to the next book. And that REALLY sucked.
But I think the key here is the place in the series at which I read the book. So many people said to read these novellas third and I TRUSTED YALL BUT I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE. If I had gone in blind, not knowing the fate of the characters already, I wouldn’t have had such a difficult time. So all that’s to say that this book is VERY good, but most enjoyable if read either before starting the series or maybe after finishing it (which I haven’t done yet so I can’t be certain on that theory). It’s just not as heart wrenching and immersive as it could be when you read it right in the middle and that’s so unfortunate. I can see why people do it that way but in my humble opinion, they’re wrong.
As for the content of the book objectively from the reading order, it’s exquisite. Maas did an impressive job of fitting Celaena’s origin story into this series of novellas while still doing justice to the story. The formatting was exceptional and all the little details thrown in allowed for so many fun (and absolutely heartbreaking) “aha!” moments. As usual, Maas left me just wanting more and I am THRILLED to find out where the story goes from here.
ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT BEFORE EVERYONE COMES FOR MY THROAT: I think my review for this book would have been higher if I had read it FIRST instead of third in the series. Did I still love this book? Yes. Was it beautifully written and crucial to understanding Celaena’s character? Yes. Did I cry? Yes, a lot. BUT I had an INCREDIBLY hard time getting invested in it because I knew that most of the characters would either not recur in future books in a significant way AS CHARACTERS. I’m sure they’ll be relevant for plot at some point still but I just couldn’t invest myself in any of their stories really because I knew that they were literally just plot devices. The whole first half of the book, it just felt like I was going through the motions, almost forcing myself to read it just so I could get to the next book. And that REALLY sucked.
But I think the key here is the place in the series at which I read the book. So many people said to read these novellas third and I TRUSTED YALL BUT I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE. If I had gone in blind, not knowing the fate of the characters already, I wouldn’t have had such a difficult time. So all that’s to say that this book is VERY good, but most enjoyable if read either before starting the series or maybe after finishing it (which I haven’t done yet so I can’t be certain on that theory). It’s just not as heart wrenching and immersive as it could be when you read it right in the middle and that’s so unfortunate. I can see why people do it that way but in my humble opinion, they’re wrong.
As for the content of the book objectively from the reading order, it’s exquisite. Maas did an impressive job of fitting Celaena’s origin story into this series of novellas while still doing justice to the story. The formatting was exceptional and all the little details thrown in allowed for so many fun (and absolutely heartbreaking) “aha!” moments. As usual, Maas left me just wanting more and I am THRILLED to find out where the story goes from here.
3.5 Stars
It’s cute! I honestly don’t have a ton to say about it. I honestly don’t think there’s much I could say that Alexis Hall didn’t put perfectly in her own review (I would highly recommend reading her review). It was definitely YA contemporary in a way that made me feel kind of old. I would have loved it at 15-17 and I did still think it was enjoyable, just not something I can really relate to or see myself in at this point. Part of that, I definitely think comes from the language used. I prefer it more flowery personally, and this really lacked that for me. I could definitely be a bit swayed due to the fact that I sandwiched it in while also reading A Court of Silver Flames and Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, which are CERTAINLY new adult level books and probably contributed to killing the vibe a bit.
Still though, I enjoyed the story. It’s new and fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick YA contemporary read.
It’s cute! I honestly don’t have a ton to say about it. I honestly don’t think there’s much I could say that Alexis Hall didn’t put perfectly in her own review (I would highly recommend reading her review). It was definitely YA contemporary in a way that made me feel kind of old. I would have loved it at 15-17 and I did still think it was enjoyable, just not something I can really relate to or see myself in at this point. Part of that, I definitely think comes from the language used. I prefer it more flowery personally, and this really lacked that for me. I could definitely be a bit swayed due to the fact that I sandwiched it in while also reading A Court of Silver Flames and Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, which are CERTAINLY new adult level books and probably contributed to killing the vibe a bit.
Still though, I enjoyed the story. It’s new and fun and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick YA contemporary read.
4.5 Stars
We all know how I feel about Alexis Hall, which is to say, I adore pretty much everything I’ve ever read from him. This was clearly no exception. Harry has my heart completely wrapped around his finger at this point. Rosaline provides a wonderfully humorous and real story. And of course, Amelie brought me unbelievable amounts of joy.
The not-quite-great-British-bake-off plot here is absolutely god tier. It’s funny and enjoyable and best of all, doesn’t fade into the background of the romance. I find that in books with competitions involved, a lot of times I see them get pushed to the wayside as the romance takes over, but that is certainly not the case here. I loved every single scene from the competition and every competitor found a place in my heart (except you, Alain. I hate you).
And of course, the bi representation in this one is wonderful. It’s so hard to find a book like this, with such well a well written bi main character and a realistic view of the discrimination they regularly face. So this one really gets bonus points for that.
So, this book tics pretty much every box you could want from a rom-com. I only drop it half a star due to personal preference of more action and highs and lows which is really just for my own personal rating system of enjoyment if that makes any sense. It’s really not a reflection on the book, just how I prefer to categorize them on my metaphorical enjoyment shelf.
We all know how I feel about Alexis Hall, which is to say, I adore pretty much everything I’ve ever read from him. This was clearly no exception. Harry has my heart completely wrapped around his finger at this point. Rosaline provides a wonderfully humorous and real story. And of course, Amelie brought me unbelievable amounts of joy.
The not-quite-great-British-bake-off plot here is absolutely god tier. It’s funny and enjoyable and best of all, doesn’t fade into the background of the romance. I find that in books with competitions involved, a lot of times I see them get pushed to the wayside as the romance takes over, but that is certainly not the case here. I loved every single scene from the competition and every competitor found a place in my heart (except you, Alain. I hate you).
And of course, the bi representation in this one is wonderful. It’s so hard to find a book like this, with such well a well written bi main character and a realistic view of the discrimination they regularly face. So this one really gets bonus points for that.
So, this book tics pretty much every box you could want from a rom-com. I only drop it half a star due to personal preference of more action and highs and lows which is really just for my own personal rating system of enjoyment if that makes any sense. It’s really not a reflection on the book, just how I prefer to categorize them on my metaphorical enjoyment shelf.
