Lyndsey

Use of modern vernacular (“core memory”) was jarring given the setting.

Actual rating 2.5 stars.
I liked and disliked this book in equal measure - hence the rating.

Super cute cosy fantasy.
I liked it a lot.

This is quite possibly the best book that I have ever read.

Read this for a book club.

The plot was predictable but that was okay. It was like one of those cheesy Netflix rom-com type films. Nothing ground breaking but a fun, quick, easy read with likeable characters.

I really tried to like this book and there were good parts to it. However, it left a distinctly sour taste due to the author's obsession with all the female characters having “littles”.

There is one more book in this series and I think I am over it. There is limited character development which is fine if there is a good plot but I feel that there was a lot of telling the back story but not very much else.

I appreciate the author is trying to bring the threads of the other books together and finish the story but it don't think this one was for me.

I “read” this as an audiobook and thought the narration was very good.

I did enjoy - mostly but it is long. At 640 pages I have read longer books. But this felt long.

The book is told moving back and forth from the past to the present. I did enjoy the past storyline much more.

The present storyline did ever get to fruition for me. It seemed to be focused on celebrity and unnecessary backstory for those characters which ultimately never really cumulated to anything. The story in relation to filming the movie didn't get off the ground for me. So I wasn't sure what its purpose was. Perhaps I have missed something.

Gothic but not horror is, in my opinion, the better way to describe it. It's spooky in places but not scary.

For all its 600+ pages I was left wanting more of the past story and ‘the French connection' if you will permit me to use that term. Maybe that was the author's intention.

I did enjoy a lot of the book but not it all.

So 3/5 for me.

Scale:

1 = bad
2 = okay
3 = good
4 = great
5 = excellent

(Ratings 3 to 5 can be given even if the book is not perfect but there was an enhancing factor such as readability, enjoyment, or a certain spark).

Started well.
Got weird.
No one warned me about the spice level.
Ended daft.

Need to stop getting book recommendations from bookstagram.

If there is a word to describe prose, or even a person who writes prose, that contains numerous esoteric and unusual words that most people would never have heard of - well I am sure the author will know it.

The language used in this book almost made it unreadable.

Also the subject matter is pretty grotesque.

I saw some really positive and good reviews for this book but all I can say is that it wasn't for me.

It was a good job it was short.

What the heck did I read?
I really need to stop getting book recs from social media.
I would have given this book zero stars if it were possible. It is terrible.
0/10 do not recommend.
Really need to learn how to DNF a book.

I haven't yet decided on a rating.

I liked the idea of the book. It's well written and I really like Misaki's arc. I also liked the magic systems. How the author wove the different languages in with the primary language of English was excellent. It could have been jarring but it wasn't and worked well.

That being said I did find the book hard going and I think that it was just simply not a book for me. Which is okay.

Yes, there are parts that are predictable.
Yes, there are the tropes.
But damn, it is a blast to read.

This book was so boring.
I wish I could not finish a book once started.
Nothing happens until the second part of the book aka book 2 (and perhaps the last couple of chapters in book 1.

I disliked this.
Guessed the twist about a third of the way in.
The story was predictable.

The plot was either women being overly focused on their career, their kid, their family or their partner. It wasn't nuanced at all. Made the characters one dimensional and not very interesting.

I also didn't like how the author kept chucking in fancy words. Don't get me wrong I like a word that I haven't seen before and enjoy looking it up and learning something new. However in this book it felt like she was forcing them in to elevate a book that really didn't need it.

I liked this book - and - then it got weird.
I did find some aspects problematic.
I found the comment that Aurelia made to Selene about Harlow at the end of the book distasteful and no way for parents to be speaking about their daughter.
I also found the epilogue and how they referred to her awful as well.
A book so richly written ruined by coarseness right at the end.
I also found how the other characters treated he quite worrying. Clearly she was traumatised but hey let's set her up ‘for the season', truss her up for market, and pair her off to save the family shop.
She was treated poorly by her family and clearly her parents weren't all that interested in trying to help her. They would rather comment on her clothes.

That being said. I liked Harlow. She wasn't perfect. She had self esteem and self worth issues and she was trying to work on herself and through it. She made mistakes that had consequences. She came back after some time away and tried.

“vomit zombies” - that is my review.

Read this because someone at work suggested it.
First half I didn't like at all.
Second half was better.
I liked the concept of death as a person.
The main character was so naive and soporific.

What happened?
Where was the plot?
Where were the characters? Where did they go?
This great prophecy that never really came to pass.
There were whole chapters of repetition that were unnecessary.
There were scenes and chapters that I was just embarrassed to read.
Even the language and descriptors made it feel as though the world build (as simple as it was) wasn't there anymore.
I found it very 1 to 2 dimensional.
I wasn't expecting complex world building or multi layered plot lines but I accepted it for what it was.
However this last part wast just sad.

Terrible.
Would not recommend.

First half of the book was 2 stars. At times it felt like a job to continue with the story. So slow, so much information being put at there, how can anyone remember it all.

Second half of the book was better - it just took so long to get there.

The POV changes were a bit jarring - one page it was one character and the next someone else. I really don't mind changes in POV at all but mid chapter like that and sometimes multiple times within a chapter.

The Hunt/Bryce romance left me feeling... embarrassed. They were so horny all the time and found myself disengaged with their relationship because of it. The scene on the ship almost made me stop reading. Does the relationship lack depth??? Nuance???

Felt a bit embarrassed for Bryce - she really didn't know her best friend at all.

Don't get me started on the 500 year old male with the teenage/early 20s trope.

Ruhn - glad to have more story for him. I did guess who Day was but glad that we got to find out more about him.

Did the book feel too male dominated? Where are the other female characters? Felt like it was Bryce surrounded by men (who are fawning over her. Creepy).

Also , if ‘Mates' are so rare - why are there some many of them?

Not really interested in the mer - for me that was the most boring parts of it.

I do not know how I feel about the ending and the crossover.

I do know that the next book I read is not going to be so long. 450-500 page (or less) for at least the next couple (lol).

Intriguing premise, well written, and as I listened to this as an audiobook it was well performed.

Ultimately, I think this wasn't for me. There were a couple of chapters I liked, a couple I really didn't, and some that felt disjointed from the rest.



1 ⭐️ Didn't like it all.
2 ⭐️ Wasn't worth the read, was boring or problematic to me.
3 ⭐️ Fair or good read. Fun but nothing profound. May have interesting characters, themes or plot items. May have flaws but I can overlook them.
4 ⭐️ Good or great read.
5 ⭐️ Perfect or as near to as possible.

I would have given this 3.5 stars if half stars were allowed.

Chaol is a character who I believe was given the short end of the stick in previous books. Used by Celeana and Aelin as a punching bag and to be blamed for a multitude of things that they both had also done.

I liked this book. Though I thought there were parts of the ending that were too cheesy and cringey. It was an interesting study in PTSD and the anguish of the many forms of grief. How a person can take what happens to them and lose themselves in it. What it takes to be able to face that and try to heal.

It's a shame he Chaol had to find new friends to help him. Because the ones he was supposed to have weren't there for him at all.

I was also glad of a reprieve from all the Aelin and Aelin/Rowan nonsense which has grown significantly irritating in my view.

Can definitely see the influences of Game of Thrones and particularly The Lord of the Rings.

Better than the others but still problematic.

What. The. Actual. Heck.

I did not like this book. It was so disappointing. Am I missing something here? Why the 4 star reviews? Clearly there are GoT references but wow they were just so obvious.

Aelin and Roman - their relationship is creepy. What is it about 900 year old males and teenage girls. Both characters are annoying but none more so than Aelin. I have really grown to dislike her. I don't like how she is described or written. It's all surface, how people look, how ‘gorgeous' she/he is. Both need more depth.

Dorian and Chaol's friendship is the only true relationship in the book. Aelin and Rowan (Chaol and Nesryn as well) they are weird and forced. Aelin snd Rowan we're friends in the previous book and made it clear that was all they were going to be. So how come this changed? Seems like a really cheap thing to do. Aelin doesn't even speak to or help Chaol when he gets hurt. She is literally the worst ‘friend'.

I don't like the character ‘development' for Chaol - if you can call it that. Didn't mind him being a rebel. But the way he is treated by Aelin. Used to a punching bag for blame. Abandoned by Adieon as well. It's almost as though none of what they went through in the previous book mattered or happened at all.

Dorian and Chaol deserved better.

I thought Kaltain's arc was good.

Manon and Asterin are developing into an interesting storyline.

I am going to continue with the next book because I am interested in what happens with Manon, Dorian and Chaol.

This book made me so mad.

1. What is up with Rowan? - he's such a dull uninteresting character.

2. Celeana's character has dramatically changed. Whilst I'm not appears to characters growing or developing- it seems like SJM took an interesting assassin and wiped all the interesting bits out. How would Celeana be okay with Rowan picking her up and taking her to his room and her just bring in there from then on? She spends a couple of weeks on her mission before deciding it's impossible. She went through a portal, battled a demon, but a few guards and a fancy dude on a horse is too much!!!

3. Celeana blaming Chaol for the same things that she has done was infuriating. I hope this is a plot device because at one point I wanted to throw my book across the room I was that cross. I told myself over and over that Celeana is supposed to be 19 and this is why she is written this way.

4. Did they forget about the tower, the wyrd, wyrdkeys etc.

5. The numerous and repetitive training scenes - I got bored with them. This made the book slow and took out any pace that the previous books had.

6. Isn't she allowed any interaction with female characters that aren't dead (or soon to be), evil or a minor character. The majority of people she interacts with are male and are in some way smitten.

The chapters with the witches and wyverns were the most interesting.


1 ⭐️ Didn't like it all.
2 ⭐️ Wasn't worth the read, was boring or problematic to me.
3 ⭐️ Fair or good read. Fun but nothing profound. May have interesting characters, themes or plot items. May have flaws but I can overlook them.
4 ⭐️ Good or great read.
5 ⭐️ Perfect or as near to as possible.