Lady

I can walk away from this one feeling largely satisfied. There is the twinge of wanting more--but that in itself speaks to a level of satisfaction. I would like the story to continue... But I'm okay stopping here too.

I don't think either of the last books will ever be able to match the first book in terms of pure artistry. There are aspects of the world building introduced in Book 2 that I wasn't a huge fan of, and that carries into this book as well. But this one is where all the questions get answered, and I can't rate it any less for satisfactorily answering them.

I'll preface that my rating and my review stem primarily from the fact that I didn't feel like I really 'clicked' with this book until almost the end.

There isn't anything particularly wrong or glaring with the writing style, and concept is a delightful one. I do feel that there was a lot of characters. While they all had their role to play, the length of the story and the events transpiring didn't give enough room for all the characters to breathe and grow and become well known to me. I think that's one of the reasons I didn't precisely care about any of them until the book was almost over. However, the writer does keep the pacing at a decent clip and scatters just enough curiosity about events to have kept me hooked until the end.

The plot also didn't feel like it had a great deal of space to breathe. The most important beats are addressed, but there's aspects that felt like they could have been explored deeper--lore wise and emotionally.

It's not a bad book by any means or measure; it just could have been better. And being able to see that always leaves me a bit disappointed.

Audiobook version.

Thorn is like a Disney Movie, but even less compelling. The main character is Too Sweet, Too Pure For This World. The villains are cartoonishly villainous. Nobody is interesting in the slightest.

This book manages to cram an incredible amount of story into a very short space--and it does it well! It's taking liberties with some emotional shorthand, but that's absolutely fine given the end result. This is a story that either had to fit into the space it was given or be allowed to sprawl over 600+ pages. The world building is intriguing, the characters are interesting, and the story gets told.

My only regret is that I want more. I wasn't left wondering about loose ends with regards to the story that we were given, but there's definitely room to keep going should the author desire that. Though some may feel the story ended exactly where it should have--and that's valid too.

Nothing is wasted here. Little details that enrich the environment of the characters are used, called back, or relevant. Each interaction has meaning. Most of the characters have value. It manages to squeeze in biting commentary on how America has historically treated women and the LGBT+ community. "Chicago had loved us once ... But the cops cracked down on the pansy clubs in 1935, and these days, Chicago didn't love our kind at all." Dang!

All this while not losing the thread of the story nor failing to get us invested in its characters? It was as impressive to read as it was enjoyable.

This story is fairly solid. The plot is interesting, and I liked the fresh take on an old legend. The romance is pretty stereotypical for a ya novel, nothing exciting. My biggest complaints are that there is an unecessary amount of repetition in some observations, and that the writing is pretty simplistic. Nothing in the prose was noteworthy. Very tell over show.