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sabrielreads's reviews
552 reviews
For the Throne by Hannah Whitten
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-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
4.5
4.5* (8.86 on CAWPILE)
This is EXCELLENT. Even better than the first book.
If you want yearning, dark magic, snarky villain romance and overall the love of two sisters being stronger than anything - then this book (and the duology in general) is for you.
Genuinely so pleasantly surprised by this series! Especially for a debut; the writing is lyrical and really made me feel such strong emotions.
I did picture Solmir as Gale from Baldur’s Gate 3 (long hair pulled back, wears lots of rings, snarky/clever and does magic). He’s basically Ascended Gale (kind of an arsehole. Bit of a villain. But still cute).
The only thing that dropped a half star for me is I do feel like Lyra and Fife as characters could’ve been cut from the entire story and not much would be different; and also there were two editing mistakes in this particular book of the duology (a spelling mistake and the words “a rueful noise” occurring twice on the same page) which is frustrating and takes me out of it.
This is EXCELLENT. Even better than the first book.
If you want yearning, dark magic, snarky villain romance and overall the love of two sisters being stronger than anything - then this book (and the duology in general) is for you.
Genuinely so pleasantly surprised by this series! Especially for a debut; the writing is lyrical and really made me feel such strong emotions.
I did picture Solmir as Gale from Baldur’s Gate 3 (long hair pulled back, wears lots of rings, snarky/clever and does magic). He’s basically Ascended Gale (kind of an arsehole. Bit of a villain. But still cute).
The only thing that dropped a half star for me is I do feel like Lyra and Fife as characters could’ve been cut from the entire story and not much would be different; and also there were two editing mistakes in this particular book of the duology (a spelling mistake and the words “a rueful noise” occurring twice on the same page) which is frustrating and takes me out of it.
Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This was really, truly, honestly awful.
I wanted to love this SO much. I got to page 300 before I started skimming to see if the plot got any better and it just got more ridiculous as it went on.
This is basically what you get if you take the first two ACOTAR books and smush them together into one, forgoing any time taken to get to know the characters or have any real development or believable trauma occur. The first 230 pages of this follow similar plot beats to ACOTAR, except in 100 less pages - and it wasn't done that well in ACOTAR either, so to have even less time for these characters to be enemies to lovers is INSANE. It was comical how obvious the plot points and the relationship development was. It is every single romantasy trope wrapped up in one.
The "banter" is cringey, the dialogue is boring. They warmed to each other far too quickly and yet still claimed they hated each other. There was zero slow burn in this, it was instalove with the tiniest hint of "enemies" at the start. This left absolutely no intrigue for their relationship and how it would develop because you could predict every single thing that happened in your sleep.
The setting is fairly interesting, except there was NO reason for greek myth to be involved at all. It would've been better for the author to use made up words/gods/language/names because the greek side of things added nothing to the story, literally just the names were taken and that was it.
The writing is so predictable and leaves less than zero intrigue because of how obvious things are. Take Lukas for example; he's said multiple times he didn't call Ariete, and he even asked for help once because of his shadows, yet the main character just chooses to ignore this and <i> doesn't think any further of it</i>. She has no brain cells.
I liked the characters at first but they just went nowhere! There was no development, and the villains were like caricatures or villains from kids books. Not scary at all just ridiculous.
The saving grace of this (just barely) was the soulmate plot thread that resolved at the end, which was the only thing that made me feel something. The sex scene(s) were okay but because I wasn't invested in the characters I didn't care. It also felt like there was added swearing to make characters seem badass/the book seem more mature but it did the opposite - this made it feel like a teenager trying their hardest to sound like an adult.
I wanted to love this SO much. I got to page 300 before I started skimming to see if the plot got any better and it just got more ridiculous as it went on.
This is basically what you get if you take the first two ACOTAR books and smush them together into one, forgoing any time taken to get to know the characters or have any real development or believable trauma occur. The first 230 pages of this follow similar plot beats to ACOTAR, except in 100 less pages - and it wasn't done that well in ACOTAR either, so to have even less time for these characters to be enemies to lovers is INSANE. It was comical how obvious the plot points and the relationship development was. It is every single romantasy trope wrapped up in one.
The "banter" is cringey, the dialogue is boring. They warmed to each other far too quickly and yet still claimed they hated each other. There was zero slow burn in this, it was instalove with the tiniest hint of "enemies" at the start. This left absolutely no intrigue for their relationship and how it would develop because you could predict every single thing that happened in your sleep.
The setting is fairly interesting, except there was NO reason for greek myth to be involved at all. It would've been better for the author to use made up words/gods/language/names because the greek side of things added nothing to the story, literally just the names were taken and that was it.
The writing is so predictable and leaves less than zero intrigue because of how obvious things are. Take Lukas for example; he's said multiple times he didn't call Ariete, and he even asked for help once because of his shadows, yet the main character just chooses to ignore this and <i> doesn't think any further of it</i>. She has no brain cells.
I liked the characters at first but they just went nowhere! There was no development, and the villains were like caricatures or villains from kids books. Not scary at all just ridiculous.
The saving grace of this (just barely) was the soulmate plot thread that resolved at the end, which was the only thing that made me feel something. The sex scene(s) were okay but because I wasn't invested in the characters I didn't care. It also felt like there was added swearing to make characters seem badass/the book seem more mature but it did the opposite - this made it feel like a teenager trying their hardest to sound like an adult.
Princes of Legacy by Angel Lawson, Samantha Rue
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I was disappointed in this as a finale as there were quite big plot threads that were left to be picked up in the next trilogy. This hasn't happened in the previous trilogies, there were knock-on effects of actions and plot points but never loose plot threads unanswered.
I gave the first in this trilogy five stars because I loved the start and trusted the process with Samgel that all would be revealed and also actions made up for in sequels. Unfortunately I don't think that was successfully done with the Princes; I didn't feel the chemistry and love in the relationships as much as I did with the Lords and Dukes, and the ties between them and Verity were a lot more tenuous compared to the previous trilogies' quartets too.
I still LOVE this universe and I did really enjoy the character development, but I feel this finale did miss the mark for me :(
I gave the first in this trilogy five stars because I loved the start and trusted the process with Samgel that all would be revealed and also actions made up for in sequels. Unfortunately I don't think that was successfully done with the Princes; I didn't feel the chemistry and love in the relationships as much as I did with the Lords and Dukes, and the ties between them and Verity were a lot more tenuous compared to the previous trilogies' quartets too.
I still LOVE this universe and I did really enjoy the character development, but I feel this finale did miss the mark for me :(