Merili
Holy crap this was INCREDIBLE. Jude and Cardon have my heart. Holly Black is a genius and crafted such a beautiful finale to the series. Will be adding this to my to-buy list.
Katherine Center strikes again with yet another book I love, her fmcs are always so relatable and funny
I can't do it. I tried. Historical fiction is my least favorite genre ever. My blood pressure can't handle it. This genre is too depressing. Also the dialogue felt sooo stilted. If I was vienne and my crazy sister was endangering the safety of my 8 year child in front of nazi soldiers i think I would have been a lot more mad but idk
Dnf, this book was fine except my morning sickness and aversion to meat was just too bad and this book had so much steak references and I couldn't do it today
Cults are freaking creepy. Loved this book. She did a great job of narrating the the steady decline of her independence and being manipulated. glad she got out
Chemistry felt flat compared to previous books, wasn't terrible I just couldn't bring myself to finish
reread from back in high school. the only thing i remembered abut this series was 1. i remembered liking it better than twilight, and 2., good romance
things i liked about this book:
-writing style is high quality
-the academia mixed with magic. topic tier. love this
- could've been a little bit slower burn but romance is still good
things i didn't like:
DIANA doesn't freaking do ANYTHING for like the entire book. all of her decisions are so slow and felt so off-kilter. Like if I found out ashmole 29492340 was actually super important, the next page you'd see me go look for it again!! and figure stuff the heck out!! but this takes CHAPTERS to do. Why??? mostly because she's living a calm academia life and doing weird yoga with matthew. and then she finds out she has capabilities for a million gazillion witch powers. and does she do anything about it? NT FOR SO. MANY. CHAPTERS. like?? girl if you're so strong an independent why don't you go try to develop these powers instead of just being a victim and letting the situations PULLL them out of you?
Also, Matthew felt more inconsistent than the first time i read these. i was annoyed. Half of the time he's like no Diana i have to protect you. you can't do this. you can't do that. don't watch me eat animals even though we're married and i kno u kno i'm a vampire. u are only to be protected. but THEN (finally) he's also like “you need to become stronger and train”.
I just felt like diana was such a victim of the plot and didn't make a ton of decisions on her own. without being pushed into them CHAPTERS LATER than when she probably should have already decided.
This was a super fun refreshing urban fantasy read. The author did a great job of worldbuilding and i loved all of the characters. especially adrian the nice witch and bex's motley crew of demons. my one complaint is that i'm a big fan of drawing out secret identities as long as possible for the Drama, and i wish bex's identity as one of the queens of hell was revealed in the next book or even later. overall a great time
I was disappointed by this installment in the series. Rhythm of War was incredible, but this book didn't quite live up to the others. I fully acknowledge I'm in the minority with this opinion
1. Half of the characters appeared to accomplish nothing (I'm looking @shallan, rlain, renarin, and all the stuff with mishram...??).
2. The other half of characters who accomplished something could have done it in 100 pages, but since there were SO many side plots, it was drawn out. over. 1300. pages. (i'm looking @my poor guy Kaladin)
3. A little bit too modernized - I felt like the beauty/mystique of the high fantasy of the previous 4 books was lost in this one. There were a few things that contributed to this - like the genre turning more sci-fi in the end than fantasy, with all of the gods/shards...idk.. Also, all of the therapy with Kaladin and Szeth. Therapy is a great concept and practice. I am 100% in support of going to therapy. But I usually read my fantasy books AS my therapy, with characters fighting through their problems and finding support in their friends amidst wars and powerful enemies and plots. I don't usually read my fantasy books to see characters going to.....actual therapy.....if that makes sense. I can (and do) read self help books for that. I'd prefer showing, not telling - aka Kaladin or Szeth showing us how to overcome emotional struggles and depression through their experiences. Not Kaladin repeatedly mentioning he is Szeth's therapist now. It made all the stuff he said feel so cringey and lowkey from like a #PositiveThoughts instagram bot account or something. idk. But i fully acknowledge this is just a PERSONAL PREFERENCE and Sanderson still included lots of showing too. Again, I'm NOT anti-therapy.
4. This book was fineish up until ~pg 1200 when i started to realize that, like Season 2 of Arcane, very few things were going to get cool resolutions.
5. What the heck with the fifth ideal??? The fourth ideal was so sick in the last book but then Kaladin getting to the last one didn't get anything bc we only have 20 pages left and he's gonna be a herald so what do the sick powers even matter?
6. The ending of book4 made taravangian/odium out to be such a scary villain. in this book.. he's not that scary. the tension was lost. idk. I think part of it was when Wit just realized on his own that Taravagnian had altered his memories.
7. It felt like we were fighting an entirely different war than we have been the past 4 books. Half of the conflicts have been between the Parshendi and the humans and they have been JUICY. Some serious casualties and wars. This book kinda dodged the conflict by saying, “the power of love is enough. Now we're all good.” Idk maybe. Just felt like a cop-out.
Anyways, just a few thoughts. Still loved books 1-4. Will consider reading the next set of the series in like 30 years when they're all out. Some great set-up in this book for the future books.
SUCH a good ending to this series asdfhaksjdfdf s
i will say that while i appreciate yeowoo not picking either of her men, i still feel like it would've been SO fun for her to pick one and to see that relationship develop - i feel like kdramas have disposed me to prefer Peregrine but Marazul was equally sweet and fun. but still a great ending. Athelas and Camellia were soooo good
Dnf at 20%. It wasn't terrible I just felt like the characters were so flat and I couldn't get into it
DNF at 15% in mostly because I think i'm now in the wrong age category for this book - but as always, the author(s) are so witty and the writing style is enjoyable. if i was 17 i would have eaten this up
I'm really torn on the rating of this one. The writing was so good. So so beautiful. My heart ACHED for phoebe and her struggles. The first 30% was absolutely perfect. HOWEVER I wish there had rather been 0 romance at all than what her love interest(s) were... the groom? of the wedding? She's just been cheated on by her husband and the next guy she catches feels for is into her even though he's already engaged? He doesn't sound that trustworthy either??? like girl you don't think he'll cheat on you too?
But, despite this huge flaw, the writing was so good that I'm still giving this 4 stars. I loved Phoebe and Lila and the rest of the characters and the fact that no one was the good guy or the bad guy. they were all just making decisions as best they could.
except i never liked her ex husband and i was so mad when he came back. like you cheated on her and left her and it's been 2 years??? what gives you the RIGHT??
Also, note to myself if i ever recommend this - this book is NOT clean
dnf at 30%. i really wanted to like this, especially because the cover is sooo pretty and the idea seems wonderful, but the main characters are a little bit too immature and dramatic, even to be based off kdramas. the female lead's choices were veryyy questionable - i'm okay with morally grey characters but she murdered FIVE HUNDRED people in England? why are we okay with that? did we find out later the men she killed were criminals or something? does that make it better?
overall, i was hopeful but i just couldn't get through it.
some pros tho - the worldbuilding WAS very good. the author did a great job with that.
I loved this story. KA Cobell switches between 4POVS, which usually I don't like, but she does a great job of keeping the different POVs flowing with each other and the characters' individual narration styles are different enough that I enjoyed it. I LOVED Eli First Kill and his sister, they were probably my favorites, and Mara was also such a fun character. I hated Brody which worked out because he was the KILLER >:o . KA Cobell also brings up the gravity of issues faced by Native Americans, which was especially eye opening to me because I am largely unfamiliar them. Overall a great read.
dnf at 50%. I love Katherine Center's writing style and the way she usually makes you root for the female MC in her books. and this was no exception. Emma was a great female lead and I wanted to her to SUCEED...but the dude?? Charlie??? HE was HORRIBLE.
After being shown pieces of Emma's backstory and a picture of just what a nice, hardworking, hopeful girl she is... instead of getting a rich golden retriever male lead who values her dreams and wants to take care $$ of her..and we get this weirdo dude who insults her like 50x, isn't that cool, kinda weird about his ex wife, doesn't seem to have a healthy great lifestyle....???
I was proud of Emma for walking away from Logan and Charlie when they were being buttholes. that was so satisfying. and then she lands herself a better deal with them again, okay good, seeing the plot progress.
but then when she overhears Charlie being a butthole AGAIN in the bathroom when he's talking to Logan about her writing, she STICKS AROUND??? I'm like no, go home! This guy SUCKS!!
Also, I stopped at 50% so maybe it changed but the setting being 90% in Charlie's house wasn't doing it for me either, he's so weird
I did NOT want them to end up together
anyways, disappointed in this one. probably won't come back to finish. but LOVED Emma as a character. Hated literally everyone else.
Absolute great series, pereshati is a top tier heroine. i also appreciated that they didn't just gloss over the trauma she probably experienced from being killed by her family/fiance in her first life
DNF at 10%. It just...didn't seem that well written. Love the idea of a cursed main character and her curse specifically was a unique idea. but i wasn't really pulled in with the first few chapters. also, i'm tired of thief/robber/illegal den urban fantasy MCs. give me a slightly more creative backstory haha. maybe i'll retry this in a few months.
i did NOT know the manhwa wasn't finished and now i'm left a cliffhanger. i just want her to leave her family and run away to kallisto. everyone except him is terrible