Sarah
This was a lot of Deadpool-style sarcasm and fourth wall leaning fun. I enjoy time loop settings and games with save points so this was amusing - if it was more anime background dependent, it maybe would not have been for me, that's just not something I've gotten into.
You won't enjoy it if you get upset at any hint that a woman can enjoy sex. You won't enjoy it if you think that a woman who enjoys sex has no morals. Sadly most of the reviews on here for this seem to have that assumption, which says more about them than the book.
I loved this. Sweet romantic line, with emotional growth, all is good, honestly. I'll be reading the rest of these asap.
I really enjoyed this, have read the series twice. I appreciate that Atticus starts out pretty sneaky - after all, at his age with the range of characters who aren't fond of him, he'd have to be sneaky.
(received as a freebie as a First Reads giveaway, in 2014)
Interesting world-building and a unique setting, but the training ended up being so very detailed that I was skimming through up to the last 100 pages roughly - I just don't enjoy descriptions of fight scenes much, and this was so very heavy on dry fighting choreography.
Tau as a character was also frustrating, and claiming this society is a matriarchy seems bizarre since there's almost no female characters (and the few that exist only get mentioned to inspire rampages of revenge from guys - which is a disgusting trope). I'm willing to give the second book a chance, but damn, this was a slog at times.
I liked the flowery writing style, but found the plot boring and a struggle to maintain interest to finish. I kept wondering if this was a spinoff from a series I'm not familiar with, since there was so much assumption of “of course you already know how abilities work in this world.” But I never got even remotely interested enough to check if it actually is a spinoff from something else.
Didn't find myself caring about Gallow, or any seelie or unseelie characters. I haven't read anything else from this author, and now I'm not sure I ever will, it was such a grind to finish reading - and this isn't a long book.
An oddly slow read. The setting feels distracting - more like “I'll just constantly mention the slang and clothes and such” than it being subtle and established somehow? Bugged me about the first book, too. I kept wanting to give up and dnf both.
I haven't read the first book for a few years but this was fun. I like book couples that clearly adore each other even as they're snarky, and sometimes tea and fashion and dirigibles are just necessary.
This was spooky, fun, and very creepy at times. I could have done with less detail being given on the blood-draws and more on the magic side. Took a while to really get engrossing, since the storylines were very separate at first.
I needed this when I was younger, but I'm glad it exists now. The more serious subjects are balanced out fairly well by the lighter moments.
Interesting world-building, I liked the murder mystery aspects and slow reveal of how Mareenian society really is... I'm definitely going right to the sequel.
Sooooo much emphasis on the forced outing trope, it got tedious. I did like Simon's family though.
I enjoy retellings of myths, but this ended up leaving me cold. There's a lack of focus with so many ideas and interests, it just got overwhelming, and the dream sequences make that worse. Plus, Achilles gets transformed and then dismisses anyone else who's trans?
I liked Tessa and Myles a lot, their storyline was fun. Her sister was terrible until the end of the book, though the “oh we've grown apart and need to try harder” realization for the friendship group - and trying to turn that around - slightly fixed that. The sisters felt like actual fleshed-out humans, the friends were more shallow, but the interactions with Roxane just made me tense and no RL Tessa should put up with that nonsense. I know it happens, I have put up with that type of behavior, but oof, that was painful.
This was pretty standard for “magic-ish trials in the first book in a series” but I do not mean that in a bad way. I've read worse and better, we probably all have.
I enjoy dragon and school stories, I enjoy “let's point out how silly and limiting the respectable manners are” stories, I enjoy heavy topics that are handled well. The alt history felt realistic. I really hope the second book is going well and is announced soon!
I am wondering where the sequel can go, other than dating issues and maybe a second year - or more about the dragons themselves? This was so much more about colonialism and the assumption of “we're improving the savage” when you're really not, and the dominant society doesn't realize its own issues. Anequs is super mature and outspoken for 15 and she doesn't seem to change or develop, she knows who she is and what she wants, she never has to wonder if she's doing the right thing. Theod got a little more development but not much, since he's always had to be very conscious about acting appropriately.
I really did enjoy this. Dragged a little at the start and I'm not sure why, then it picked up when Anequs decides she has to go to the school.
I'm glad I read this though I'd mostly disliked the first Simonverse book. I really liked Imogen getting a chance to figure out what feels right and the overthinking is sooooo relatable. And gatekeeping is a thing of course, and it is good to have that discussed/shown as really obnoxious and useless. It's a quick book, Lili's other friends other than Tessa are kinda flat - but considering it's set over roughly a week, how could they not be?
It was cute, it's good to have more “you don't have to have always known you're not straight” stories.
I liked the first book a lot more; getting through this was a little struggle. The extra anger for all the characters as motivation to keep fighting was understandable, it just wasn't as interesting as the first book's focus on figuring out how far the corruption went and what all the threats were.
I enjoyed this a lot. And I'd expected a lot from it, when I realized it's a heist with dragons story. :D
I appreciate that there's a lot more to this world than dragons and who can use them, and that dragons seem to be kind of a pain (at minimum) or actively but quietly unwelcomed by everyone who can't ride/bond them.
I deeply enjoyed the queer normative world and the Anahrod/Ris/Sicaryon relationship. I especially liked the small hints about the ring system for indicating what type of attention you'd be interested in from others, if any at all. I'd like to live in that sort of setting, though preferably without dragons occasionally losing their control.
Dark update of Peter Pan with pixie dust as a very addictive drug with rather dark origins - it's an interesting premise, and I'll definitely be looking for more from the author.
Peter could have gotten more description, at least as Jordan and Baron realize he's really the villain, but I like the slow reveal and transition for Jordan into the Captain Hook role - and that her sister isn't completely corrupted. I didn't like the romance element with Baron - some trauma bonding obviously makes sense, but it didn't seem like that was there until after they were already back on the island and it was an extra way to keep him involved in helping Jordan.
The characters are very damaged, but interesting.
Interesting world building and the main character shift at the end made it obvious in hindsight that Fetter had never been the main character after all? Which is odd and going to tempt me to reread, but I probably won't. I liked this but it dragged at times - and then I read two thirds of this in a day. Even as it still felt slow.
This was a good distraction from winter and cold, which is really all I'd looked for from it. The abuse and domestic violence were startling.
I loved this for its focus on piecing together more of the women's lives, not their sad deaths. There's so much speculation already about the killer's identity - it's good to learn more about the women instead.