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shaun_trinh's Reviews (126)
At first I wasn't sure about this book, the writing at the beginning was a bit on the nose trying to play up the poor girl, be invisible, aesthetic, but as we moved forward I really started to love everything about the book.
This was honestly a vibe read and the vibe was emmaculate. The characters were fun, the mystery was enticing, and rich people drama is great! I'm really glad they didn't make Avery completely helpless in the story, I liked that she was smart and was a player in her own right. ALl the Hawthorne brothers were really fun and distinct too. While I think I do have a favorite, they're all very personable and I don't feel like im disappointed when reading about any of them. The only one who kind of gives me that feeling would be Nash, simply because I don't paticularly care about him and Libby, but I still like his role in the family.
I will say that I did guess the final twist at the end. With "Harry" being at the start of the story and everyone bringing up Toby all the time, it's kind of hard to not see it. Still with that said, I'm still on th edge trying to figure out how it all connects to Avery and the Hawthornes.
Also fuck Thea. Weirdo.
This was honestly a vibe read and the vibe was emmaculate. The characters were fun, the mystery was enticing, and rich people drama is great! I'm really glad they didn't make Avery completely helpless in the story, I liked that she was smart and was a player in her own right. ALl the Hawthorne brothers were really fun and distinct too. While I think I do have a favorite, they're all very personable and I don't feel like im disappointed when reading about any of them. The only one who kind of gives me that feeling would be Nash, simply because I don't paticularly care about him and Libby, but I still like his role in the family.
I will say that I did guess the final twist at the end. With "Harry" being at the start of the story and everyone bringing up Toby all the time, it's kind of hard to not see it. Still with that said, I'm still on th edge trying to figure out how it all connects to Avery and the Hawthornes.
Also fuck Thea. Weirdo.
3.5/5
So going into this sequel I did know that there were a fair bit of people that didn't like it as much as the first book and I can see why. The first half of Hawthorne Legacy was just missing SOMETHING in the writing that made the mystery and the relationships in book 1 feel rich and dynamic. Also it didn't help that Max is the most annoying, juvinile, and pointless character and for some reason just had to come and be a more frequent component in the story. And by that I mean she existed to give cringey dialogue and commentary that really wasn't necessary. Max has the role of being a friend to Avery and being a convuluted way to bring her back to Hawthorne house after the explosion, but she as a character offers nothing besides annoyance. We got more of her and LESS of Oren and that just makes me so sad. Love that man. Also I can't be the only one who finds it weird that there's just no issue with Thea going along with the mystery. She tags along and everyone accepts it despite the shit she kept pulling in the last book.
I also just didn't like how Avery was getting bullied by literally everyone. Yeah she's got some serious issues with other people, but could she not one up them, ever? She had issues with other characters in book 1 yeah, it just felt like she was getting piled on so much more in this book.
However comma, with all of this said I loved the 2nd half. The mystery, the relationships felt interesting again. Dramatic rich people problems got that bit of spice that the first half was missing. I felt enthralled again and not just trying to read through the story to find something interesting. I honesty don't even know how to describe the difference between the first and second half, the vibe was just different. The characters felt like what they were saying and doing had more weight too it even if the scene itself wasn't super severe and just chill or mundane. The mystery felt like it was more engaging and had more substnace. Also the 2nd half's drama was just better. Plain and simple.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending climax. I did just say the drama was better but something about this last climax between, Avery, Sheffield, Millie, and Toby felt very rushed and executed poorly. I assumed Avery wasn't actually Toby's daugher due to us being told about it so early on in the book and and Millie always did come off suspicious, but just how it all accumulated in the end was all so weird. I feel like Millie and her kid are gonna come back and challenge the will and I really don't wanna read about that.
Lastly I don't agree with Avery going for Jameson at the end. I think her dynamic with Grayson is a lot more interesting and I feel like the book is going to go towards Grayson anyways in The Final Gambit so I wish we didn't have to go through Jameson first and all that drama and comparisons with Emily.
So going into this sequel I did know that there were a fair bit of people that didn't like it as much as the first book and I can see why. The first half of Hawthorne Legacy was just missing SOMETHING in the writing that made the mystery and the relationships in book 1 feel rich and dynamic. Also it didn't help that Max is the most annoying, juvinile, and pointless character and for some reason just had to come and be a more frequent component in the story. And by that I mean she existed to give cringey dialogue and commentary that really wasn't necessary. Max has the role of being a friend to Avery and being a convuluted way to bring her back to Hawthorne house after the explosion, but she as a character offers nothing besides annoyance. We got more of her and LESS of Oren and that just makes me so sad. Love that man. Also I can't be the only one who finds it weird that there's just no issue with Thea going along with the mystery. She tags along and everyone accepts it despite the shit she kept pulling in the last book.
I also just didn't like how Avery was getting bullied by literally everyone. Yeah she's got some serious issues with other people, but could she not one up them, ever? She had issues with other characters in book 1 yeah, it just felt like she was getting piled on so much more in this book.
However comma, with all of this said I loved the 2nd half. The mystery, the relationships felt interesting again. Dramatic rich people problems got that bit of spice that the first half was missing. I felt enthralled again and not just trying to read through the story to find something interesting. I honesty don't even know how to describe the difference between the first and second half, the vibe was just different. The characters felt like what they were saying and doing had more weight too it even if the scene itself wasn't super severe and just chill or mundane. The mystery felt like it was more engaging and had more substnace. Also the 2nd half's drama was just better. Plain and simple.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending climax. I did just say the drama was better but something about this last climax between, Avery, Sheffield, Millie, and Toby felt very rushed and executed poorly. I assumed Avery wasn't actually Toby's daugher due to us being told about it so early on in the book and and Millie always did come off suspicious, but just how it all accumulated in the end was all so weird. I feel like Millie and her kid are gonna come back and challenge the will and I really don't wanna read about that.
Lastly I don't agree with Avery going for Jameson at the end. I think her dynamic with Grayson is a lot more interesting and I feel like the book is going to go towards Grayson anyways in The Final Gambit so I wish we didn't have to go through Jameson first and all that drama and comparisons with Emily.
I saw someone describe a book as a vibe read and that's how I feel about this entire series and probably manga as a whole. Loose plot with just vibes in between major events and im here for it. This volume is again focusing on Akihiko and Haruki which is nice that they're story isn't getting abandoned though I'm hoping we get more development for Uenoyama and Mafuyu in the next volume.
Gay vibes for the win!
Gay vibes for the win!
Could be a 4.5/5 depending on how hard I think about the story/plot.
This was a step back up for the series. From the get-go I thought the mystery of who kidnapped Toby and what they wanted was thrilling. I like how the stakes were raised and that the tone of the puzzles had changed from the first two books. On an entertainment level this would be an easy 5/5 star book, but since this is the end of the main story and that there really were questionable plot choices, I felt the need to drop the perfect rating.
Thankfully this time around, Avery was in fact not bullied every second and remained an astute player in the game. She was fun, clever, and remained true to her character. I wish that we got to see more of her non-romantic relationships develop though. Specifically with Oren and her maternal family. Oren can do no wrong in my eyes and I've really enjoyed the protective father-like figure that he's had for her and I wish it was explored more explicitly. With Avery's maternal family, I don't need them to get on positive terms, I just wish we saw an active development between them. I mean, why couldn't they have been in cahoots with Blake against the Hawthorne family? It would make sense since Vincent Blake is specifically targeting Avery and by extension the Hawthorne legacy.
Love interest wise I'm still conflicted. To me it felt like the story had built Avery and Grayson up to be eachothers perfect match, with Jameson being the still loved but not THE one in the end. It's as if the author wrote themselves into a corner in the last book by having Avery end up with Jamesson and had no way out of it without tainting Avery's moral character. Even in this book the flames were still being stoked between Avery and Grayson between Eve making her jealous and the wine room that kept being referenced for most of this book. They even make Avery and Jameson flat out say that he wasn't always the one for her and that had Grayson forgiven himself for Emily (derogatory), that they would have been together instead. Don't get me wrong for the position that the author put herself in they did make the relationship between Avery and Jameson still work, it's just not what I think should have happened considering how all of their relationships progressed throughout the trilogy. Jameson just didn't feel like the main love story for Avery's character.
Speaking of Eve, I knew home girl was not to be trusted since the first page she was introduced. Tooooooo sketchy. We left Toby off with him explicitly saying that he didn't want Eve near the Hawthorne legacy due to the dangers, and yet he allegedly told her to go there if anything happened, AND the kidnappers knew their rendavous spot AND didn't take her for extra leverage? I think the fuck not. Plus the pity party and comparisons to Avery entering the fold was pretty heavy handed and hard to ignore.
On a more positive note, I liked how we expanded more on Xander and Nash's character, even ever so slightly. Since they're not romantic interests they don't get as much page time, but we got a fair bit of personal development for them. I don't like how it's implied Xander and Max have a thing now, it's unecessary for every brother to need to be matched with someone associated with Avery. Also, I DON"T LIKE MAX. WHY DOES SHE TALK LIKE A MIDDLE SCHOOLER. WHO GREEN LIT HER DIALOGUE???
Going off of this, I wish that got more relationship development between Avery, Thea, and Rebecca. At the start of the story it really felt like they were becoming closer friends, but the plot doesn't bother to invest time in it as the story moves forward.
Now to the plot. Again I really enjoyed it, but there are just some things done that were not the move.
First off lets talk Eve again. The whole climactic scene with her aiming a gun at Avery and htining she would get out of it with what she wanted was absurd. I just knw Avery was laughing off page while this was happening because that girl is dumber then a bag of rocks. It felt so weird that it escelated to her being this cartoonish villain. I knew she couldn't be trusted, but like, she couldn't do better then this? Also, I wanted more groveling from Grayson and more anger from Avery for how he spoke to her concerning Eve.
Same complaint with Vincent Blake, that climax felt like a cartoon! AND IT ENDS SO QUICKLY. This bafoon of an antagonist gets fooled easily into betting all of his leverage and power away because Avery is a "little girl" despite the fact he's watched her solve an endless amount of puzzles and that she just beat Toby when he knew Toby was excellent and let Eve beat him. Then the moment we actually get an Avery vs Vincent Blake scene, it ends in like 2 pages. What was that!
Also what was Graysons plan supposed to be? He swapped hostage places with Alisa, giving him a more valuable hostage, and just didn't leave a note or anything behind to tell everyone else what his plan was so they would know? Then was surprised when Avery gone about with her own plan? Fool! No thoughts. head empty. And is another reminder of why was he not the end game love interest????
The motivations that Tobias Hawthorne had for picking Avery were also iffy as well. We already knew it was partly because of her connection to Toby and her potential to bring the Hawthorne brothers together, but then we find it its also because Tobias knew Vincent and other enemies would attack after his death and he wanted to get the target off his grandsons backs and onto someone else, Avery. Now don't get me wrong I'm glad they kept Tobias an asshole until the end. Love that. But lets think about this logically. Why wouldn't his enemies till go after his grandsons? They're still loved by him. Are they incapable of multitasking? Attacking the financial legacy AND the Hawthorne brothers. Why would they just completely disregard them and only attack the new heir? Especially Vincent Blake! It makes perfect sense for him to still go after those boys when he's primarily motivated by his own son dying by the hands of the Hawthornes (though a deserved character death). Also, attakcing the Hawthorne financials and legacy, IS STILL HURTING THE BOYS.
Also the story starts us out with Avery learning self-defense with Nash, and yet, I don't think we actually ever see her putting it to use. She learns how to shoot with a gun, but doesn't use it at all. It's constantly mentioned that she has a knife in her boots, and yet never uses it. Like I get the in-story reason for it since home girl has been getting assasination attempts left, right, and center, but to play into it so much only for it to be inconsequential is disappointing.
Lastly for plot complaints I can remember off the top of my head to mention from this book, is how we kind of just brush over Avery reporting the dead body and murder of Vincent Blake's son to the public. Like they all just believed her entirely? Didn't think any of the Hawthorne's or their staff that were alive at the time of the murder were suspicious? Didn't find this whole press conference in front of the Blake property to be suspicious. Or about the fact that Toby was alive, changed his name, and figured out who his father was? We're just going to gloss over all of that? If i think about it for too longer it all just kind of falls apart in my head.
To end more positvely, I really appreciate that the story didn't compromise Toby's character and development. He didn't suddenly get to come back scotch free despite all of his beliefs about the Hawthorne name and his attonment for how his actions lead to the death of 4 people. Out of everything, his story and actions had bitter sweet consequences that strengthen the ending.
Overall, I did absolutely love the puzzles, plot twists, and relationships in this book depsite my critiques and it was a worthy ending to the Inheritance Games and I'm looking forward to reading Hawthorne Brothers when it comes out.
Oh side note. WHAT DO GRAYSON AND JAMESON LOOK LIKE???? I could have sworn in book 1 they said Grayson had black hair and Jameson had wavy brown hair. Yet when I looked at the character art on the fairyloot editions online, I saw a blonde male and a black/dark haired male, so I assumed I had misread and Jameson had blonde hair. BUT NO apprently Grayson has had blonde hair this entire time????? WHAT??? I swear I read a line somewhere in this book about Avery commenting on his blonde hair and I was flabbergasted.
This was a step back up for the series. From the get-go I thought the mystery of who kidnapped Toby and what they wanted was thrilling. I like how the stakes were raised and that the tone of the puzzles had changed from the first two books. On an entertainment level this would be an easy 5/5 star book, but since this is the end of the main story and that there really were questionable plot choices, I felt the need to drop the perfect rating.
Thankfully this time around, Avery was in fact not bullied every second and remained an astute player in the game. She was fun, clever, and remained true to her character. I wish that we got to see more of her non-romantic relationships develop though. Specifically with Oren and her maternal family. Oren can do no wrong in my eyes and I've really enjoyed the protective father-like figure that he's had for her and I wish it was explored more explicitly. With Avery's maternal family, I don't need them to get on positive terms, I just wish we saw an active development between them. I mean, why couldn't they have been in cahoots with Blake against the Hawthorne family? It would make sense since Vincent Blake is specifically targeting Avery and by extension the Hawthorne legacy.
Love interest wise I'm still conflicted. To me it felt like the story had built Avery and Grayson up to be eachothers perfect match, with Jameson being the still loved but not THE one in the end. It's as if the author wrote themselves into a corner in the last book by having Avery end up with Jamesson and had no way out of it without tainting Avery's moral character. Even in this book the flames were still being stoked between Avery and Grayson between Eve making her jealous and the wine room that kept being referenced for most of this book. They even make Avery and Jameson flat out say that he wasn't always the one for her and that had Grayson forgiven himself for Emily (derogatory), that they would have been together instead. Don't get me wrong for the position that the author put herself in they did make the relationship between Avery and Jameson still work, it's just not what I think should have happened considering how all of their relationships progressed throughout the trilogy. Jameson just didn't feel like the main love story for Avery's character.
Speaking of Eve, I knew home girl was not to be trusted since the first page she was introduced. Tooooooo sketchy. We left Toby off with him explicitly saying that he didn't want Eve near the Hawthorne legacy due to the dangers, and yet he allegedly told her to go there if anything happened, AND the kidnappers knew their rendavous spot AND didn't take her for extra leverage? I think the fuck not. Plus the pity party and comparisons to Avery entering the fold was pretty heavy handed and hard to ignore.
On a more positive note, I liked how we expanded more on Xander and Nash's character, even ever so slightly. Since they're not romantic interests they don't get as much page time, but we got a fair bit of personal development for them. I don't like how it's implied Xander and Max have a thing now, it's unecessary for every brother to need to be matched with someone associated with Avery. Also, I DON"T LIKE MAX. WHY DOES SHE TALK LIKE A MIDDLE SCHOOLER. WHO GREEN LIT HER DIALOGUE???
Going off of this, I wish that got more relationship development between Avery, Thea, and Rebecca. At the start of the story it really felt like they were becoming closer friends, but the plot doesn't bother to invest time in it as the story moves forward.
Now to the plot. Again I really enjoyed it, but there are just some things done that were not the move.
First off lets talk Eve again. The whole climactic scene with her aiming a gun at Avery and htining she would get out of it with what she wanted was absurd. I just knw Avery was laughing off page while this was happening because that girl is dumber then a bag of rocks. It felt so weird that it escelated to her being this cartoonish villain. I knew she couldn't be trusted, but like, she couldn't do better then this? Also, I wanted more groveling from Grayson and more anger from Avery for how he spoke to her concerning Eve.
Same complaint with Vincent Blake, that climax felt like a cartoon! AND IT ENDS SO QUICKLY. This bafoon of an antagonist gets fooled easily into betting all of his leverage and power away because Avery is a "little girl" despite the fact he's watched her solve an endless amount of puzzles and that she just beat Toby when he knew Toby was excellent and let Eve beat him. Then the moment we actually get an Avery vs Vincent Blake scene, it ends in like 2 pages. What was that!
Also what was Graysons plan supposed to be? He swapped hostage places with Alisa, giving him a more valuable hostage, and just didn't leave a note or anything behind to tell everyone else what his plan was so they would know? Then was surprised when Avery gone about with her own plan? Fool! No thoughts. head empty. And is another reminder of why was he not the end game love interest????
The motivations that Tobias Hawthorne had for picking Avery were also iffy as well. We already knew it was partly because of her connection to Toby and her potential to bring the Hawthorne brothers together, but then we find it its also because Tobias knew Vincent and other enemies would attack after his death and he wanted to get the target off his grandsons backs and onto someone else, Avery. Now don't get me wrong I'm glad they kept Tobias an asshole until the end. Love that. But lets think about this logically. Why wouldn't his enemies till go after his grandsons? They're still loved by him. Are they incapable of multitasking? Attacking the financial legacy AND the Hawthorne brothers. Why would they just completely disregard them and only attack the new heir? Especially Vincent Blake! It makes perfect sense for him to still go after those boys when he's primarily motivated by his own son dying by the hands of the Hawthornes (though a deserved character death). Also, attakcing the Hawthorne financials and legacy, IS STILL HURTING THE BOYS.
Also the story starts us out with Avery learning self-defense with Nash, and yet, I don't think we actually ever see her putting it to use. She learns how to shoot with a gun, but doesn't use it at all. It's constantly mentioned that she has a knife in her boots, and yet never uses it. Like I get the in-story reason for it since home girl has been getting assasination attempts left, right, and center, but to play into it so much only for it to be inconsequential is disappointing.
Lastly for plot complaints I can remember off the top of my head to mention from this book, is how we kind of just brush over Avery reporting the dead body and murder of Vincent Blake's son to the public. Like they all just believed her entirely? Didn't think any of the Hawthorne's or their staff that were alive at the time of the murder were suspicious? Didn't find this whole press conference in front of the Blake property to be suspicious. Or about the fact that Toby was alive, changed his name, and figured out who his father was? We're just going to gloss over all of that? If i think about it for too longer it all just kind of falls apart in my head.
To end more positvely, I really appreciate that the story didn't compromise Toby's character and development. He didn't suddenly get to come back scotch free despite all of his beliefs about the Hawthorne name and his attonment for how his actions lead to the death of 4 people. Out of everything, his story and actions had bitter sweet consequences that strengthen the ending.
Overall, I did absolutely love the puzzles, plot twists, and relationships in this book depsite my critiques and it was a worthy ending to the Inheritance Games and I'm looking forward to reading Hawthorne Brothers when it comes out.
Oh side note. WHAT DO GRAYSON AND JAMESON LOOK LIKE???? I could have sworn in book 1 they said Grayson had black hair and Jameson had wavy brown hair. Yet when I looked at the character art on the fairyloot editions online, I saw a blonde male and a black/dark haired male, so I assumed I had misread and Jameson had blonde hair. BUT NO apprently Grayson has had blonde hair this entire time????? WHAT??? I swear I read a line somewhere in this book about Avery commenting on his blonde hair and I was flabbergasted.
Okay so this is some of the cutest shit I've ever read. I thought the characters and romance between Iris and Roman was so sweet. They had great chemistry and the dialogue was surprisingly smoothe. At first I was a little skeptical because I didn't expect this to be a multi POV story and I thought there'd be more antagonistic tension between the two at the start, but as I kept reading I just got more and more down with how their relationship was progressing.
Despite a lot of this book being about war, I felt very at ease reading it which I attribute to how Iris and Roman's relationship had me feeling. I read most of this book while chilling with friends and I had to stop myself from giggling like a school girl due to just how genuine it felt to read. When they got married I was like "wait, HUH" because they had only just gotten together, but then I realized that the type of time period/society this story was taking place in aaaaaaand I won't lie I may or may not have gotten a few butterflies cuz damn this is some good YA romance. Probably the best and most genuine romance I've read.
I will say though that I wanted more anger and grovelling when Iris found out that the person she was writting too, "Carter", was actually Roman. But she couldn't be that mad because this man literally just saved her ass an almost lostt his leg in the process. So relative to that she really couldn't be that mad, and she wasn't after a few pages. However comma, I wanted her too be because I'd be pissed and humiliated if that happened to me and who doesn't love soom rightly deserved groveling. For me it would have meant that Iris needed to have found out BEFORE going to the frontlines and getting protected by Roman, but with that said with how the story actually went I'm still satisfied with how it played out.
Another surpring bonus to the book was the in-story writing. I expected a lot of cheesy, purple prose writing since most books that have a character or plot aspect centered around writing usually is plagued with it. However, this book really found that nice spot of having most of it's in-story writing being the right amount of poetic, while not being too over the top with it and making me want to sink in myseat from cringe and embarassment.
Plot wise I was a little surprised by how we didn't actually see the gods more in the present time. The only time they were on page in the present was in the epilogue. Darce specifically felt very human and not like a transcendent divine being. We also didn't get that much lore about any of the other gods outside of Darce and Enva which would have been cool. The plot is pushed by the conflict and influence of these gods, and it doesn't feel like their characters and lore as a whole were pushed as far as it could have been.
Now to the brother, first of all i'm very confused on how Iris was sending him letters at the start of the book. She sends letters by some sort of typewriter magic, but they've all been sent to Roman unbeknownst to her, and it's played off at the start as something that has only JUST happened with the first letter we the reader see Roman receive, but Roman's been getting ALL of her letters. So if her letters disappearing is seemingly new to her at the start of the book, but she's been trying to send Forest letters ever since he left, how was Iris sending letters for her to not notice this magic, letter sending typewriter???
I knew there was some slick shit going on with how we just kept not hearing from Forest, but until the very end I didn't realize it was him that was watching Iris and Roman near the end of the book. I honestly thought it was Roman's father or someone that works for Roman's father getting ready to kidnap him for ditching his home. Not sure how I feel about him at the end because if he had stopped being difficult they definetly could have saved Roman as well and not abandoning him. I'd also be more pissed if I was Iris, but alas, it is her brother who she hasn't seen in a while. I am curious to see how Darce's influence works on people he's saved and how life debts work. RIP Roman getting into that because of Forest, but I'm excited to see where this story goes in Book 2.
Despite a lot of this book being about war, I felt very at ease reading it which I attribute to how Iris and Roman's relationship had me feeling. I read most of this book while chilling with friends and I had to stop myself from giggling like a school girl due to just how genuine it felt to read. When they got married I was like "wait, HUH" because they had only just gotten together, but then I realized that the type of time period/society this story was taking place in aaaaaaand I won't lie I may or may not have gotten a few butterflies cuz damn this is some good YA romance. Probably the best and most genuine romance I've read.
I will say though that I wanted more anger and grovelling when Iris found out that the person she was writting too, "Carter", was actually Roman. But she couldn't be that mad because this man literally just saved her ass an almost lostt his leg in the process. So relative to that she really couldn't be that mad, and she wasn't after a few pages. However comma, I wanted her too be because I'd be pissed and humiliated if that happened to me and who doesn't love soom rightly deserved groveling. For me it would have meant that Iris needed to have found out BEFORE going to the frontlines and getting protected by Roman, but with that said with how the story actually went I'm still satisfied with how it played out.
Another surpring bonus to the book was the in-story writing. I expected a lot of cheesy, purple prose writing since most books that have a character or plot aspect centered around writing usually is plagued with it. However, this book really found that nice spot of having most of it's in-story writing being the right amount of poetic, while not being too over the top with it and making me want to sink in myseat from cringe and embarassment.
Plot wise I was a little surprised by how we didn't actually see the gods more in the present time. The only time they were on page in the present was in the epilogue. Darce specifically felt very human and not like a transcendent divine being. We also didn't get that much lore about any of the other gods outside of Darce and Enva which would have been cool. The plot is pushed by the conflict and influence of these gods, and it doesn't feel like their characters and lore as a whole were pushed as far as it could have been.
Now to the brother, first of all i'm very confused on how Iris was sending him letters at the start of the book. She sends letters by some sort of typewriter magic, but they've all been sent to Roman unbeknownst to her, and it's played off at the start as something that has only JUST happened with the first letter we the reader see Roman receive, but Roman's been getting ALL of her letters. So if her letters disappearing is seemingly new to her at the start of the book, but she's been trying to send Forest letters ever since he left, how was Iris sending letters for her to not notice this magic, letter sending typewriter???
I knew there was some slick shit going on with how we just kept not hearing from Forest, but until the very end I didn't realize it was him that was watching Iris and Roman near the end of the book. I honestly thought it was Roman's father or someone that works for Roman's father getting ready to kidnap him for ditching his home. Not sure how I feel about him at the end because if he had stopped being difficult they definetly could have saved Roman as well and not abandoning him. I'd also be more pissed if I was Iris, but alas, it is her brother who she hasn't seen in a while. I am curious to see how Darce's influence works on people he's saved and how life debts work. RIP Roman getting into that because of Forest, but I'm excited to see where this story goes in Book 2.
2.5/5 stars
More things need to be happening. Things inclduing and revolving around the core cast. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Yes, yes I'm glad the other characters rekationships are going well or whatever, but half the main characters, the original draw of the manga, that are barely on page. PLEASEEEEE.
More things need to be happening. Things inclduing and revolving around the core cast. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Yes, yes I'm glad the other characters rekationships are going well or whatever, but half the main characters, the original draw of the manga, that are barely on page. PLEASEEEEE.
This book is HORNYYYYY! ITS HORNY! ITS HORNY! It's so unapollegetically horny and I'm here for it. I finally got to reading this book because the movie adaptation is coming out soon and I knew if I didn't read it before watching then I never would.
When I heard that the movie was going to be rated R I was surprised because I thought the book was considered YA. But now I know, now I kno why this movie is rated R because its HORNY!!!! What makes this funnier to me is that I was first introduced to this book my senior year of high school in 2019 by my english teacher who definetly didn't realize what the book was like. I returned it to her with only reading the first 10 pages or so because I didn't feel like reading a 3rd person POV but Ms Wydra I SEE YOU. YOU ARE AN ALLY.
This book is truly an idealistic gay mans wet dream with how HORNY the first 66% of the story is and how every adult talks and acts the way every closeted gay person wishes their parental figures would act. Would real adults and royals talk, behave, and get overruled the way they did in this book? No. But the gays are WINNERS today, so I don't care. I had so much fun reading this book even if the last quarter was pretty unrealistic with how a gay prince royal and first son scandal was handled by both families. That didn't ruin shit for me!
I was a little worried with how much I would enjoy this book since there were a fair bit of people who called it overrated trash, which in some regards I can see why with how cartoonish and idealistic the conflicts were handled, but other then that everything was amazing and fun for me.
Alex and Henry were great characters and their romance was so sweet, wholesome, cheesy, and surprisngly very HORNY. Their characters were very well defined and I honestly BELIEVED in their relationship. I can see why they fit together like a pair of gloves and I loved how they had and visciouly pursued their own passions and dreams.
All the side characters were great and never felt out of place, and I'm really glad this book didn't force the whole "we don't mind that your gay but it's too inconvenient" or "how dare you not tell me about being gay or your taboo relationship with the gay prince" storylines on both Alex and Henry.
The only thing I wish there was more of was genuine conflict between Alex and Henry. Yeah we had the first 20% of them not liking eachother, but they got out of that and into scandalous romance and gayness pretty quickly. This could very well be me being toxic and being one of the rare few that are okay with 3rd act relationship conflicts, but I just wish we actually saw Alex and Henry face an internal conflict with each other and not just external.
Otherwise, everything was *chefs kiss* and I'm super glad I got this Barnes & Noble edition with the extra chapter from Henry's POV.
When I heard that the movie was going to be rated R I was surprised because I thought the book was considered YA. But now I know, now I kno why this movie is rated R because its HORNY!!!! What makes this funnier to me is that I was first introduced to this book my senior year of high school in 2019 by my english teacher who definetly didn't realize what the book was like. I returned it to her with only reading the first 10 pages or so because I didn't feel like reading a 3rd person POV but Ms Wydra I SEE YOU. YOU ARE AN ALLY.
This book is truly an idealistic gay mans wet dream with how HORNY the first 66% of the story is and how every adult talks and acts the way every closeted gay person wishes their parental figures would act. Would real adults and royals talk, behave, and get overruled the way they did in this book? No. But the gays are WINNERS today, so I don't care. I had so much fun reading this book even if the last quarter was pretty unrealistic with how a gay prince royal and first son scandal was handled by both families. That didn't ruin shit for me!
I was a little worried with how much I would enjoy this book since there were a fair bit of people who called it overrated trash, which in some regards I can see why with how cartoonish and idealistic the conflicts were handled, but other then that everything was amazing and fun for me.
Alex and Henry were great characters and their romance was so sweet, wholesome, cheesy, and surprisngly very HORNY. Their characters were very well defined and I honestly BELIEVED in their relationship. I can see why they fit together like a pair of gloves and I loved how they had and visciouly pursued their own passions and dreams.
All the side characters were great and never felt out of place, and I'm really glad this book didn't force the whole "we don't mind that your gay but it's too inconvenient" or "how dare you not tell me about being gay or your taboo relationship with the gay prince" storylines on both Alex and Henry.
The only thing I wish there was more of was genuine conflict between Alex and Henry. Yeah we had the first 20% of them not liking eachother, but they got out of that and into scandalous romance and gayness pretty quickly. This could very well be me being toxic and being one of the rare few that are okay with 3rd act relationship conflicts, but I just wish we actually saw Alex and Henry face an internal conflict with each other and not just external.
Otherwise, everything was *chefs kiss* and I'm super glad I got this Barnes & Noble edition with the extra chapter from Henry's POV.
3/5 Stars
Very on the nose with the Monsters vs Hero theme, which yeah this is YA but it was a bit much at times. I also had a LOT of 2nd hand embarrasment for the main character. Home girl just could not catch a break and was saying and doing some dumb shit. Like I know this whole world is new to her but damn can we not have some decorum with our panic and dumb decision making?
I liked all the characters, but damn everyone and everything including the plot was messy. I'm also not entirely sure how some of the time traveling rules work, I took a while to finish reading this so I don't remember specific examples, I just remember scratching my head a little at some rules about what can or cannot be done and when you can't exist.
Not a favorite, but I do like the endpaper art on the editions I have and I've already gotten a special edition of the 2nd book so I might as well keep going.
Very on the nose with the Monsters vs Hero theme, which yeah this is YA but it was a bit much at times. I also had a LOT of 2nd hand embarrasment for the main character. Home girl just could not catch a break and was saying and doing some dumb shit. Like I know this whole world is new to her but damn can we not have some decorum with our panic and dumb decision making?
I liked all the characters, but damn everyone and everything including the plot was messy. I'm also not entirely sure how some of the time traveling rules work, I took a while to finish reading this so I don't remember specific examples, I just remember scratching my head a little at some rules about what can or cannot be done and when you can't exist.
Not a favorite, but I do like the endpaper art on the editions I have and I've already gotten a special edition of the 2nd book so I might as well keep going.
Love love love love looooooove this book. Took me a long ass time to read it because of classes and i'm lazy but it was worth the time committed!
Concept - love
characters- love
setting - love
I really enjoy fantasy books that have houses or divisions with all different or unique abilities (unlike how in a lot of fae stories many houses have the same powers), and this story does a good job at developing an entire world with a multitude of different houses and divisions with idfferent specialities that. Many of them while not relevant to the story, do emerse the world building.
I love the concept of the dead, revenants, the breach, the different sides of the war and how the past is driving the actions of the present.
I really liked both of the main characters as well, Wren and Julien were extremely fun foils of each other and had really smooth and funny dialouge with each other that felt like it was naturally building up their relationship to one another and didn't seem to come out of no where. I liked how their conversations naturally built up our and their understanding (and misunderstanding) of the world and their motivations. Nothing about them felt shoehorned in which made their friendship and romantic plot all the more sweet and compelling.
While I got a general idea lof the setting and a much better feel for the aesthetic, there wasa fair bit of times where I just didn't know what to picture and what I was told to picture didn't make sense in my head. Like when Wren fell off the bridge into that hotspring that lead to the underground city, I was confused on where both sides of the shore was, where these apprent stairs and doors were, and how the ghosts/revenants weren't able to find away around the water to get to her and Julien. This didn't really ruin anything for me as I still got the general vibe of what I should have been picturing, I just didn't always get the specifics.
There are a few mostly relatively minor things that I wish were different in the book. Firstly could we not have done anything better then "corpse queen" for the name of one of our lead antagonists? She sounds like a monster high reject and I really think we could brain storm better.
Secondly there was this GIANT info dump near the end of the sotry that just felt so clunky, especially when it was between middle-aged war veterans discussing their previous cover ups and greivances. This is also where we learn more about the evils of the past and present and it just all felt so juvinile for who these characters should be and didn't line up with how the rest of the book was. Also one of the twist antagonist really did just come off as too cartoonish when revealed.
Lastly one of my biggest pet peeves is when very specific powers get made needlesly OP. Having a power that has a specific set of abilities/areas of control is so much more interesting then powers that can do it all or are so vastly strong that it takes away the tension of the story because of how broken it is. Wren at the end of the book get amplified by an item to be able to physically toss 6 guards around because the item is boosting her power to affect/control bones. So basically telekenesis for anything that has bones. While she's shown to be able to summon bones from deceased bodies in the earth using exhausting techniques, this just feels too much. She already got a very powerful ability earlier in the story, and if we wanted to increase her abilities as a bonesmith, I think different avenues should have been taken. I'm just afraid that the story and the bonesmith powers will be a lot less compelling with such an uninteresting decision to increase Wrens power.
With that said I adored this book in its entirety, I adore the endpaper art on this edition, and am looking forward to read the next installment whenever it comes out.
Oh also I don't know if the twist about Wren being a ghostsmith is supposed to be a surprise, but it definetly wasn't.
Concept - love
characters- love
setting - love
I really enjoy fantasy books that have houses or divisions with all different or unique abilities (unlike how in a lot of fae stories many houses have the same powers), and this story does a good job at developing an entire world with a multitude of different houses and divisions with idfferent specialities that. Many of them while not relevant to the story, do emerse the world building.
I love the concept of the dead, revenants, the breach, the different sides of the war and how the past is driving the actions of the present.
I really liked both of the main characters as well, Wren and Julien were extremely fun foils of each other and had really smooth and funny dialouge with each other that felt like it was naturally building up their relationship to one another and didn't seem to come out of no where. I liked how their conversations naturally built up our and their understanding (and misunderstanding) of the world and their motivations. Nothing about them felt shoehorned in which made their friendship and romantic plot all the more sweet and compelling.
While I got a general idea lof the setting and a much better feel for the aesthetic, there wasa fair bit of times where I just didn't know what to picture and what I was told to picture didn't make sense in my head. Like when Wren fell off the bridge into that hotspring that lead to the underground city, I was confused on where both sides of the shore was, where these apprent stairs and doors were, and how the ghosts/revenants weren't able to find away around the water to get to her and Julien. This didn't really ruin anything for me as I still got the general vibe of what I should have been picturing, I just didn't always get the specifics.
There are a few mostly relatively minor things that I wish were different in the book. Firstly could we not have done anything better then "corpse queen" for the name of one of our lead antagonists? She sounds like a monster high reject and I really think we could brain storm better.
Secondly there was this GIANT info dump near the end of the sotry that just felt so clunky, especially when it was between middle-aged war veterans discussing their previous cover ups and greivances. This is also where we learn more about the evils of the past and present and it just all felt so juvinile for who these characters should be and didn't line up with how the rest of the book was. Also one of the twist antagonist really did just come off as too cartoonish when revealed.
Lastly one of my biggest pet peeves is when very specific powers get made needlesly OP. Having a power that has a specific set of abilities/areas of control is so much more interesting then powers that can do it all or are so vastly strong that it takes away the tension of the story because of how broken it is. Wren at the end of the book get amplified by an item to be able to physically toss 6 guards around because the item is boosting her power to affect/control bones. So basically telekenesis for anything that has bones. While she's shown to be able to summon bones from deceased bodies in the earth using exhausting techniques, this just feels too much. She already got a very powerful ability earlier in the story, and if we wanted to increase her abilities as a bonesmith, I think different avenues should have been taken. I'm just afraid that the story and the bonesmith powers will be a lot less compelling with such an uninteresting decision to increase Wrens power.
With that said I adored this book in its entirety, I adore the endpaper art on this edition, and am looking forward to read the next installment whenever it comes out.
Oh also I don't know if the twist about Wren being a ghostsmith is supposed to be a surprise, but it definetly wasn't.
Overall I did like this series of poems. There were a lot that I could resonate with, especially at the core of the authors struggles that promoted her journey. However I did also have issues connecting or understanding chunks of poems within each "chapter."
I thought the theme of all 4 sections were very clear, but the story being told within each section wasn't always as understandable. I found myself occasionally getting lost on what I was supposed to take away at random intervals in the book. The poems in the order that they are will have "weak points" where the cohesion of the section is lost because:
A.) We're radically changing topics from one poem to the next. Making it hard to understand where the author is within this part of their journey
B.) Specific types of people will be brought up multiple times like romantic partners, and it can be unclear on who they are as not all of them are resolved as ending.
C. There are poems that feel like fluff, that don't add to the overall message of the book or the section that they're in. They might have some sort of significance in it's own right, but as apart of this book, most sections had a few poems where I felt were unnecessary and muddied up the themes and discussions that the author wanted to have.
Another problem I had while reading was that I honestly couldn't tell where some of the poems ended. Sometimes I found myself reading onto the next page thinking the poem was continuing since the formatting was very similar between pages and there are no titles, only to realize "oh wait this doesn't make sense" and have to go back and re-read the previous poem to figure out if it ended on Page A or Page B.
I thought the planet headers were an interesting idea, though I don't know what the intent was with that choice. Was it to lead up to the poem on pages 202-203? The poem about Pluto and Charon.
I like a lot of these poems in isolation, but as a whole it was taken down a little because of the organization and formatting.
Something I did love about this book were the illustrations, I thought most of them while not always being giant, helped make the poems feel complete and more clear. They were also just really well drawn.
I also appreciated the lost and found opening poems to each sections.
The strongest point about this series is definitely the more raw, stripped down poems that focused on talking more directly to the reader about the authors experiences and feelings. Big metaphors and comparisons are great and the author uses them well, but there are also times where you can get a message across with less being more.
I picked this book up because I'm taking a creative writing class and we're doing poetry right now and wanted some inspiration to draw from and the author didn't disappoint and made me have a better appreciation for the craft.
I thought the theme of all 4 sections were very clear, but the story being told within each section wasn't always as understandable. I found myself occasionally getting lost on what I was supposed to take away at random intervals in the book. The poems in the order that they are will have "weak points" where the cohesion of the section is lost because:
A.) We're radically changing topics from one poem to the next. Making it hard to understand where the author is within this part of their journey
B.) Specific types of people will be brought up multiple times like romantic partners, and it can be unclear on who they are as not all of them are resolved as ending.
C. There are poems that feel like fluff, that don't add to the overall message of the book or the section that they're in. They might have some sort of significance in it's own right, but as apart of this book, most sections had a few poems where I felt were unnecessary and muddied up the themes and discussions that the author wanted to have.
Another problem I had while reading was that I honestly couldn't tell where some of the poems ended. Sometimes I found myself reading onto the next page thinking the poem was continuing since the formatting was very similar between pages and there are no titles, only to realize "oh wait this doesn't make sense" and have to go back and re-read the previous poem to figure out if it ended on Page A or Page B.
I thought the planet headers were an interesting idea, though I don't know what the intent was with that choice. Was it to lead up to the poem on pages 202-203? The poem about Pluto and Charon.
I like a lot of these poems in isolation, but as a whole it was taken down a little because of the organization and formatting.
Something I did love about this book were the illustrations, I thought most of them while not always being giant, helped make the poems feel complete and more clear. They were also just really well drawn.
I also appreciated the lost and found opening poems to each sections.
The strongest point about this series is definitely the more raw, stripped down poems that focused on talking more directly to the reader about the authors experiences and feelings. Big metaphors and comparisons are great and the author uses them well, but there are also times where you can get a message across with less being more.
I picked this book up because I'm taking a creative writing class and we're doing poetry right now and wanted some inspiration to draw from and the author didn't disappoint and made me have a better appreciation for the craft.