Lady

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.

This story is carried by its characters. The plot is pretty interesting, which augments the enjoyability, but the focus is entirely on the main crew. Their chemistry and interactions are quite good. There's a lot of found family trope elements, and if that is your jam, you're going to adore this book.

I was intending to give this a full 5/5 ranking, but after about the 60% mark is when I started binge reading it, and I have to say--this isn't a book that stands up well to rapid binge reading. A lot of the dialogue is funny, but it's "quippy one-liners" funny and after hours of solid reading, it began to grate on me more than amuse me. The book started to feel a bit like an action blockbuster movie made by Marvel. There was a little too much repetition on certain things--key phrases and memories, like flashbacks in a show. A few spots that reminded us, unnecessarily, of character traits that had been long since established and really required no further reminders.

These things don't break the book though--just bring it down from what could have been high marks to a satisfactory passing grade instead. The stories are still very good, and you will still get attached to the characters, and for someone who enjoys a character driven story, that's all I need.

This book is, probably primarily, a Romantacy, though it could also be considered Cozy Fantasy (if an erotica scene and sexual tension doesn't disqualify it from that genre for you.) It's modern day fantasy featuring witches. If that sounds good, and you truly just want an uncomplicated, standard grade read of either of those genres, this book will serve you well.

What follows is a breakdown of why it wasn't really what I wanted, in the end.

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Firstly, and primarily, I wasn't impressed with the overall writing. The pacing is not very good. Events are supposed to take the course of a few(?) weeks, but it's hard to tell what is happening relative to when, because a lot happens and evolves in the relationships of the characters that really feels like it should have evolved slowly over a long period of time. Especially the romance--rushed to the point that I kept wondering *why* these two characters feel the way they day about each other. I feel like I read the cliffnotes version of a longer romance story instead of actually getting to enjoy the entire story. Overall I'd say the romance has the same feel and depth as a Hallmark movie.

The erotic scene + the sexual tension also feels a bit strange in this book. For me, personally, it pulls it out of the Cozy Fantasy genre--too explicit for that. But it was also just one scene. I feel like if the author had wanted to go in that direction, then commit! Draw it out, make it extra steamy! Throw in a couple others! It could have transformed the meh, lukewarm romance into something more interesting and complicated; the characters didn't like each other at first, but make them attracted to each other sexually, and *acting* on it, while the emotional development is still struggling, and bam, you've got some pretty standard erotica tension to work with.

It also loses marks for the prose, which has some amateurish weaknesses in spots. Some sentences simply do not flow how they should; some, the word choices are questionable (using 'primly' and 'Primrose' in the same sentence really rubbed me the wrong way.) The inner monologue of characters gets repetitive--a lot of people's mouths seem to run away without conscious input from the characters and it's invariably followed by some kind of inner mortification of the fact. And yet, it keeps happening.

The child characters frequently don't feel like children. Their ages are given to us but I can't remember for the life of me what they were because everyone talks like a young adult, even though I'm fairly certain all the kids are supposed to be under the age of ten.

Some of the writing feels, again, kind of rushed. We get brief overviews of activities instead of being allowed to sink in and experience them slowly and leisurely. There's a bit too much telling over the showing. Scenes feel very short. Instead of being tight and snappy, they feel lacking as a result. This is a book that should have either been cut down to novelette length or allowed room to grow so each scene could be marinated in detail.

There are some good, important themes and morals in this book but I kept feeling like I was being bludgeoned with them repeatedly. It circles back to telling more than showing. The same statements get repeated by the same characters, over and over. By the end of the book I was exhausted with it. I was also kind of exhausted with that Hallmark feel I alluded to. Nothing really felt earned enough, so the saccharine ending was just And Then They Lived Happily Ever After.

For me this book started really strong, but ended with a whimper. I think it could have benefited from being cut in half.

This book was a wonderful little murder (and more!) mystery set in a fantasy setting with some very interesting and unique world building. The characters are all extremely compelling, even Ana, who is quite obviously an homage to Sherlock Holmes. Despite that fact, she manages to still stand out as her own true self, not as a cheap imitation, and it's hard not to love her, especially when viewed through the eyes of her assistant.

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.

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.

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.

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.