sarahsbooklife's reviews
470 reviews

The Iron Prince Special Edition by Julie Kagawa

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

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emotional hopeful relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I enjoyed this story. Loved how much of a simp Eli was and loved how neurodiverse/autistic coded Rue was written. They were very cute.
But it's not my favourite book I've read by Ali Hazelwood. It felt a little choppy at times and I wasn't super engaged with the story. I usually read Ali Hazelwood's books in a day or two but this took me nearly a week because I didn't feel drawn into the story like I did her other stories.

The thing that kept drawing me out of the story was the little confessions of weird and/or fucked up stuff that Rue and Eli had done or experienced. To start with it was fine but it felt like it happened every time they had a conversation at one point. So, when both Eli and Rue confessed their big secrets I didn't really care that much. Like they answered questions I had but it felt overstatured. I think if there had been less of these moments it would've been more impactful.

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The Iron Night by Julie Kagawa

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adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

I ended up enjoying this book so much more than I thought I was going too. I liked Ash in the other books but I wasn't sure if I would like reading a book from his pov. But I ended up loving this book (it might be my favourite in the series so far). This book focuses more on friendships than the first three books which are a bit more romance heavy. There's adventure, a quest, a group of unlikely heroes (made up of old and new characters), and strong character arcs. There's also more world building as the quest that Ash goes on takes him to new places in the Nevernever that aren't seen in the first three books. Which I loved.

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The Immortal Games by Annaliese Avery

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adventurous reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I liked this book. It was good. It's one that teen me would've eaten up. Especially the romance.
When I started this I thought it was going to be like the Hunger Games but with greek mythology. In some ways it was but they weren't all trying to kill each other. But the games/trails themselves were instead. I mean most of the contestants do die, but not necessarily by the hands of their fellow competitors.
I liked the elements of greek mythology throughout the book. And I liked that this story wasn't a retelling/reimaging of a greek myth.
I wasn't super satisfied with the ending. It was a good end to the story but I think it could've been better. Overall, it was a solid adventure and competition/quest/trial(?) story.

*SPOILER-Y THOUGHTS*

I think Ara should have also asked for these games to end. Not just have her friends and other competitors brought back to life, healed, and allowed to live again. I felt like her story would've ended with her realising just how terrible these games are. Not just for the mortals that play them, their families and the fear that anyone can be picked as a game piece for the gods to use.

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