lidia🌷
i really, really like the way this was written, im more than willing to read more books by this author. the reason why i didn't give this a higher rating is because i feel like they almost ruined a perfectly good f/m friendship with something that was basically irrelevant to the main plot, and i disliked that so much, because autumn and tanner's friendship is so beautiful but frail at the same time, i feel like neither of them deserved that. also, i don't know what u have to do to find well written platonic relationships between boys and girls, do i have to sell my soul to someone? i will! the whole love story was pretty close to insta love, usually i don't like that, but the plot was so interesting and the struggles between faith and identity so well represented, i didn't really care about the insta love. it's a pretty solid book, beautifully written, with interesting characters, heart breaking and heart warming at the same time. i really liked it!
Oof. I read this in one go in a few hours. That's how excited I was for it.
This is a good book, it's fun, light-hearted and heart wrenching at the same time. The friendships are so well written, I said this in Carry On already, these books handle f/m friendships better than anything I've read before, and I'm so thankful for that.
The characters got deeper. I didn't care much for Agatha in Carry On and here she's one of the best characters, if not the best. I love the fact that we get to see the aftermath of the war, how it all affects the hero in a realistic and painful way, usually the chosen one stories end before we can explore that. I love the new information about vampires, how we got to see how lonely and lost Baz feels because he knows nothing about himself, how naive and vulnerable that makes him, and how easy it is to take advantage of all that.
This book has so many nice things, but it made me feel incredibly frustrated. I went through the whole book waiting for a conversation that never happens, the miscommunication trope between baz and simon is so frustrating it almost gets ridiculous, it's so painfully obvious how much they love each other, just let them talk it through!! It's really easy to fix!! And the over the top jealousy was so unnecessary and I'd dare to say it was kind of out of character for Simon under those circumstances. It's also super frustrating the fact that the ending is really abrupt and interrupts the possibility of conversation that should've happened in the middle of the book, and also the fact that there were so many questions left unanswered jn Carry On that aren't answered here either (when will Simon find out about his parents? why can't he get his magic back when both of his parts were mages? and so many more).
It's obvious there will be a third book, there's so much to unpack still, and Baz and Simon are far away from the happy ending they deserve. I'm glad we're getting more of these wonderful characters, I just wish the ending wasn't so sudden.
I have to say my favourite thing about this book was the friendship between Baz and Penny, they are family!
I literally just finished it, so I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention many things. Summing up, I was frustrated but I suffered a lot and had so much fun at the same time. Also the final fight amazing.
I can't wait for the next book, I hope we don't have to wait too long!