Lyndsey
I get what she was trying to do but for me she didn't go far enough - although I realise I was probably not the target audience for this book. I liked the two narrator style though giving the different versions of events. There just wasn't enough there for me.
Took a while to get into and the pace didn't really pick up until half way through. Then the mystery section ends and there is still 20% of the book left. All in all I enjoyed parts of the book and other parts not so much. I can also live without knowing the square footage of every room!
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.
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.
I really enjoyed the story until they get to under the mountains. That's when things get weird.
It's like reading the first half of one book and the second half of another.
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.
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.
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.
Started well.
Got weird.
No one warned me about the spice level.
Ended daft.
Need to stop getting book recommendations from bookstagram.
Really didn't like this book. Not because of the subject matter. Nancy was annoying and not particularly likeable at all. She weaved back and force between its my choice and being swept along into what she was doing and I didn't get the sense that she'd thought about it beforehand at all. I also didn't like that everyone is described as either fat or slim. There are a hundred ways of describing physical appearance - not just those two.
I would not recommend this book at all.
3.5 (wish we could give half stars).
This was so much better than Throne of Glass but not quite a 4 star yet.
I have high hopes though.
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.
Yes, there are parts that are predictable.
Yes, there are the tropes.
But damn, it is a blast to read.
Lots of character (mostly unlikeable) with only hints of story. I enjoyed how the book was written - in fact i thought the descriptions were quite beautiful. But the story actually never went anywhere!