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redsrecs's Reviews (310)
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was lucky enough to be part of the eARC team for this book.
Book 1 in this series for me was a 5 star read so I had high expectations for this book.
Overall, I really loved this book. I couldn't put it down, I fell more in love with Samkiel and Dianna and their story. I got to know so many other cool characters and I am absolutely on the edge of my seat wondering what the next book will have in store for us.
This was such a well-done loss and grief story, with exceptional metaphors around how Dianna was processing all of these issues.
As much as I really enjoyed this book, some things that bothered me while reading:
1. The first nearly 50% of the book feels different and detached from book 1
The first chapter really reeled me in with Liam's POV taking off from where book 1 ended, but it just seemed off from there. The characters' inner monologues didn't feel like the same characters we had in book 1. With the exception of Dianna who is obviously grieving and is feeling some extreme emotions, everyone else felt insincere and unreal.
There was also a ton of repetition that became more annoying than pleasing. How many times can we be told "It's not her" by many different characters? There were really lengthy inner monologues that seemed as if characters were talking in circles and then similarly there were characters who had these really long monologues about the same thing.
Throughout most of the first half of the book it seemed as if Liam had a savior complex and felt like he was changing the narrative to suit his stalker tendencies. This isn't the case, it just felt that way with the way his POV was written.
All in all, it felt like someone decided the first bit of the book was too short and it needed to be filled up with repetitive information.
2. Flashbacks
As much as I enjoy a good flashback and even as much as I enjoyed the first few flashbacks, the flashbacks in this book became really disruptive. After about the third flashback, they started getting on my nerves. Just as I was getting into the story there would be a flashback and each of them kept getting longer, taking me away from what I was enjoying from the story to give me a random info dump I could've gotten through subtext or even snippets of a flashback here and there.
On top of this, they were happening so frequently that they felt like they were part of the core of the book, but then suddenly stopped.
3. The characters felt generic
With the exception of Kaden and Cameron, all the other new POVs felt generic. The characters differing personalities weren't prominent enough for me to be able to read their POV and know who they are. I continually had to go back and look at whose POV I was reading for a lot of the characters. As much as a love a multiple POV and think this granted us the opportunity to get a lot more information, it just felt like there was one character with a different name slapped onto it in some instances.
4. Character focused
This book is mainly character and not plot focused. We mostly just follow Dianna on her grieving journey which BTW was done exceptionally well. The issue I have with this is that all of the plot gets dumped on the reader within the last 15%. It felt really rushed and after the fact, I seemed to be hearing things from other readers that I missed because of how rushed everything was.
The last 15% was honestly the best part of this book, I just would've liked to see more plot throughout the rest of the book.
5. The ending felt meh (Spoilers ahead)
By the end, Samkiel is grievously injured and is dying in Dianna's arms, even with everything that happened, I never felt the distress that Dianna must have been feeling. It just seemed really obvious for multiple chapters that she was gonna use their mating bond to save his life. It never felt urgent, it never felt like the end and I was kind of numb while reading these chapters. More than anything I just have a lot of questions around how this will affect them in book 3.
Book 1 in this series for me was a 5 star read so I had high expectations for this book.
Overall, I really loved this book. I couldn't put it down, I fell more in love with Samkiel and Dianna and their story. I got to know so many other cool characters and I am absolutely on the edge of my seat wondering what the next book will have in store for us.
This was such a well-done loss and grief story, with exceptional metaphors around how Dianna was processing all of these issues.
As much as I really enjoyed this book, some things that bothered me while reading:
1. The first nearly 50% of the book feels different and detached from book 1
The first chapter really reeled me in with Liam's POV taking off from where book 1 ended, but it just seemed off from there. The characters' inner monologues didn't feel like the same characters we had in book 1. With the exception of Dianna who is obviously grieving and is feeling some extreme emotions, everyone else felt insincere and unreal.
There was also a ton of repetition that became more annoying than pleasing. How many times can we be told "It's not her" by many different characters? There were really lengthy inner monologues that seemed as if characters were talking in circles and then similarly there were characters who had these really long monologues about the same thing.
Throughout most of the first half of the book it seemed as if Liam had a savior complex and felt like he was changing the narrative to suit his stalker tendencies. This isn't the case, it just felt that way with the way his POV was written.
All in all, it felt like someone decided the first bit of the book was too short and it needed to be filled up with repetitive information.
2. Flashbacks
As much as I enjoy a good flashback and even as much as I enjoyed the first few flashbacks, the flashbacks in this book became really disruptive. After about the third flashback, they started getting on my nerves. Just as I was getting into the story there would be a flashback and each of them kept getting longer, taking me away from what I was enjoying from the story to give me a random info dump I could've gotten through subtext or even snippets of a flashback here and there.
On top of this, they were happening so frequently that they felt like they were part of the core of the book, but then suddenly stopped.
3. The characters felt generic
With the exception of Kaden and Cameron, all the other new POVs felt generic. The characters differing personalities weren't prominent enough for me to be able to read their POV and know who they are. I continually had to go back and look at whose POV I was reading for a lot of the characters. As much as a love a multiple POV and think this granted us the opportunity to get a lot more information, it just felt like there was one character with a different name slapped onto it in some instances.
4. Character focused
This book is mainly character and not plot focused. We mostly just follow Dianna on her grieving journey which BTW was done exceptionally well. The issue I have with this is that all of the plot gets dumped on the reader within the last 15%. It felt really rushed and after the fact, I seemed to be hearing things from other readers that I missed because of how rushed everything was.
The last 15% was honestly the best part of this book, I just would've liked to see more plot throughout the rest of the book.
5. The ending felt meh (Spoilers ahead)
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ek wens daar was boeke soos hierdie toe ek ‘n tiener was!
Die wêreld en die karakters is heeltemal uniek in terme van Afrikaanse fantasie en dit was so lekker om in my moedertaal te kan lees sonder om ‘n woordeboek nader te trek.
Baie van die plot twists was voorspelbaar maar daar was defendetief’n paar wat ek nie sien kom het nie, veral die einde.
Die storielyn was baie vinnig siende dat hierdie net ‘n novella is maar ek het verseker gesmag na meer inligting in terme van die verhoudings, karakters en die wêreld.
Hierdie was defendetief nie ‘n tipiese “happily ever after” boek nie en ek’s mal daaroor.
Ek kan nie wag om boek 1 van die reeks in te vaar nie.
Die wêreld en die karakters is heeltemal uniek in terme van Afrikaanse fantasie en dit was so lekker om in my moedertaal te kan lees sonder om ‘n woordeboek nader te trek.
Baie van die plot twists was voorspelbaar maar daar was defendetief’n paar wat ek nie sien kom het nie, veral die einde.
Die storielyn was baie vinnig siende dat hierdie net ‘n novella is maar ek het verseker gesmag na meer inligting in terme van die verhoudings, karakters en die wêreld.
Hierdie was defendetief nie ‘n tipiese “happily ever after” boek nie en ek’s mal daaroor.
Ek kan nie wag om boek 1 van die reeks in te vaar nie.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I could not get into this book at all and reading it made me feel ill. The themes are so relevant, but the characters are completely unlikable and every single happening in this book makes me anxious.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Racism, Classism
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️.5 daggers for Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo
“𝘕𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘢'𝘺𝘢.� 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥. �𝘌'𝘺𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵�. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”
𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏:
Plot: 4.5
Pacing: 4.67
Writing: 5
Language: 5
Characters: 5
World building: 4
Romance: 4
Ugh I have so many feelings about this book and especially the ending.
It starts off a bit slow, but the Grisha find their way to allies and endure battles to save Alina and Ravka.
The hunt for the firebird is a bit slow, but by it’s end the entire series seems to come to a head and Mal and Alina get their heads out of their asses and make peace with each other and themselves.
We get some epic worldbuilding, backstories that are plot twists, just general plot twists that will blow your mind and even some romance.
People die, things change, everyone grieves, life goes on.
The ending of this book will surely be in the top 5 of endings that just stay with me forever 😭
I don’t feel like I can say more about this book without spoiling it but as with the previous books it gave that really intense YA vibes that was common for the time the series was written and which I personally love (think The Hunger Games and Divergent)
If you love the series thus far I really think you’re gonna love this book 🫶🏻
“𝘕𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘢'𝘺𝘢.� 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥. �𝘌'𝘺𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵�. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”
𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏:
Plot: 4.5
Pacing: 4.67
Writing: 5
Language: 5
Characters: 5
World building: 4
Romance: 4
Ugh I have so many feelings about this book and especially the ending.
It starts off a bit slow, but the Grisha find their way to allies and endure battles to save Alina and Ravka.
The hunt for the firebird is a bit slow, but by it’s end the entire series seems to come to a head and Mal and Alina get their heads out of their asses and make peace with each other and themselves.
We get some epic worldbuilding, backstories that are plot twists, just general plot twists that will blow your mind and even some romance.
People die, things change, everyone grieves, life goes on.
The ending of this book will surely be in the top 5 of endings that just stay with me forever 😭
I don’t feel like I can say more about this book without spoiling it but as with the previous books it gave that really intense YA vibes that was common for the time the series was written and which I personally love (think The Hunger Games and Divergent)
If you love the series thus far I really think you’re gonna love this book 🫶🏻
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes