Riri
Short and beautiful, adding depth to both the world of the trilogy AND Arin's background. It's much more meaningful if read after [b:The Winner's Curse 16069030 The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy, #1) Marie Rutkoski https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1377023523s/16069030.jpg 21861552] though, so I'd recommend reading that first before picking up this one.
This book started out rather slow. The first half is filled with the heroine, Kestrel, thinking about which decision she should take in life, and the slave, Arin, plotting for something that eventually blows up in the second half of the book. It's pretty clear from the start that there will be betrayals, though there are a lot more twists than I initially expected. The world-building is solid. The succinct writing style and short chapters made the book really easy to read, and I flew through most of the book in one day.
What I like the most, however, is how “human” the characters are. They commit mistakes, they fall in love, they make stupid decisions, and they don't easily abandon the people precious to them based on emotions alone. There's no easy way out considering Kestrel and Arin's positions, but they didn't fling everything out the window just to be with each other. Their relationship is complex. Despite the mutual attraction, their definition of right or wrong are clearly different, and that's exactly what makes it interesting.
It also feels refreshing to see a heroine who's actually good at strategics and keeps herself under control most of the time. Kestrel does act rebellious from time to time (which is understandable due to her background and the situation she's in), but she spends a lot of time thinking things through before taking action. I also like her friendship with Jess because of how genuine it is. Even after everything goes to hell, Jess is still one Kestrel's top priorities and stays in her mind up until the very end.
I can't help but feel sorry for Ronan, though. I hope he appears again in the second book, as I feel that the man deserves to be happy after being so supportive of Kestrel. (:3」∠)
This book doesn't make sense.
Actually, the main character, Mare, doesn't make sense either. Her logic leaps all over the place, and she jumps to conclusions at the speed of light. She calls people she barely knows “cruel” or “black-hearted”, only to take it back and defend them, and then turning against them again later on. This happens mostly with her main love interest, who I think shares nearly no chemistry with her—if any.
The first time I read the blurb, I was excited. The story has such an interesting premise, but the execution... not so impressive. The world-building is rather flimsy. I feel like the whole concept of the Silver's powers never started off on a strong basis to begin with, so all the details never really stuck. It's like they're simply sprinkled all over the story, but never thoroughly explained.
Needless to say, between Mare's selfish, jealous, petty thoughts and the shaky details, I found it really hard to get into the book. The writing style itself is fine, but it's these little things that bothered me to no end. Especially the leaps in logic. The betrayal everyone called “mind-blowing” didn't exactly blow my mind, though I enjoyed the way things go south from that point on.
That's about it though, the rest is definitely not my cup of tea. I can't help but feel disappointed. It had the potential to be good. I wanted it to be good. But sadly it's not as good as I hoped it would be.
Actual rating: 4.5 stars
Rounded up because the world-building is intriguing and the mythology is lovely. Some of my friends have been saying that the heroine, Twylla, is rather passive and dumb, but I have to disagree. If anything, I found Twylla very realistic. She's not saintly kind or nice. She makes terrible decisions which she'd only regret later, but she admits her mistakes and her reactions—in my opinion—is very natural considering the situation she's in.
The summary only covers about half of the story. In the second half of the book, the scope broadens to reveal many plot twists hidden beneath Twylla's days as an executioner. Some of them I saw coming (like Lief's real objective), but some of the revelations really surprised me. The romance is lovely—in a twisted way. Both love interests are broken in their own ways, and I'm really curious about the direction they're going at the end of the book.
For those wondering if this story is like Shatter Me—no, it's not. Not at all. The Sin Eater's Daughter is intense, with thick political tension and a slightly religious tone. The elements of the story are beautifully woven together, and the writing style is so easy to follow that I read most of the book in one sitting. It's fascinating. I'm definitely looking forward to the next volume and Melinda Salisbury's future works.
This book is full of messed-up relationships one after another, but it makes a very fine trainwreck. I started reading it purely out of schadenfreude, so I was surprised to find it much more engaging than expected. Despite of what the blurb says, the story is mainly romance. About 85% of the book is about romance and tangled relationships, with all the conspiracy, magic, and revelations jammed into the remaining 15%. It was all drama up until the 85% mark, and then suddenly torrents of explanations towards the end. One may call it bad writing, but I didn't read this book for the plot. It was for melodramatic trainwreck, and for that part I'm pretty much satisfied LOL.
There are five perspectives in this book, each coming from Aelwyn, Marie Victoria, Ronan, Wolf, and Isabelle. I must say that I was impressed by how Melissa de la Cruz handled these perspectives, since there wasn't a single time when I confused them for one another. The book is narrated in third person, but the different perspectives are so clear and distinctive—even when two or more characters are highlighted in a single chapter.
However, the world-building is shaky, there's only a dash of magic despite the setting, and a lot of things—including important ones—are simply glossed over to make room for the romance. If you're looking for an extensive fantasy world with deep character development, you won't find those here. The fantasy is very light, and it feels more like a world of celebrities with gossips all over the place... which is exactly what I was expecting. :'D
While reading this book I felt like I had a lot to say, but now that I've finished it... I'm honestly at a loss for words. The final chapters of Champion hit me right in the heart, because that's where it all sinks in. How far Day and June have come, how they have matured since they first met, and how much they had to endure for each other. The quick attraction they shared in [b:Legend 9275658 Legend (Legend, #1) Marie Lu https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397663963s/9275658.jpg 14157512] grew complicated in [b:Prodigy 13414446 Prodigy (Legend, #2) Marie Lu https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1336254717s/13414446.jpg 18712554], and it's given even more depth in Champion before finally reaching a bittersweet open end.I really liked the character developments in this series in general, but my favorite part is probably how Marie Lu never sets gender boundaries. The characters are never judged for loving someone of the same gender, men and women are treated equally for the most part, and the last fight between June and Commander Jameson—the women—was so fierce I literally couldn't put the book down.Also, the loving Tess is back. In contrary to how she was in the previous book, Tess is very supportive in Champion. When she talked to Day about how she truly feels, I think it makes her jealousy much more understandable. June and her warm up to each other towards the end, and it makes me so happy to see them being on friendly terms again.tl;dr I still can't remember all the things I wanted to say, but this series is really great and I'm now sad that it's over. ;_____;
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Nice short stories for Day and June, even if they don't exactly add anything new to the main plot. Day's shows how hard life has been for him on the streets, while June had her own issues as she entered university at the age of 12.
This booklet is included in the box set, so I have no complaints regarding the price. :D
As a Chinese who was born and raised in South East Asia, I connected to this book on so many levels. Malaysia is very close to my home country and the language is similar for the most part, so I find the usage of Malay terms really interesting. A lot of things in this book feel super familiar to me, ranging from the food, the traditional clothing (specifically kebaya and batik), to Chinese notions about the afterlife. The paper houses, paper servants, paper furniture―I've seen those on my grandparents' funeral. That makes the spirit world section kind of eerie, but in a good way.
The plot of The Ghost Bride moves rather slowly, and there are many times when the book takes side trips to focus on other issues. That distracted me from the main conflict with Lim Tian Ching for more than half of the book, but it surprisingly gave depth to other characters, so I don't really have any complaints regarding this aspect. A part of me wishes for the relationships to be handled better since the thing with Tian Bai dragged on towards the end, but I also found it understandable because marriage was a sensitive issue for Chinese women in that period.
Well, that or I'm just being 100% biased and happy with the end result. Before I knew it, I started wishing for Li Lan to switch to this mysterious stranger with a beautiful voice, and nothing coukd describe my joy upon reading the last two lines in the story. It was so brilliant. :'D
As far as heroines go, I liked Li Lan just fine. She makes mistakes and gets herself into trouble numerous times, but she honestly accepts the fact that she was wrong. Most of the time she's sweet and nice, but she has firm beliefs and always holds onto them. As much as I like how nice Tian Bai is, I think Li Lan's personality shines more when she's with Er Lang, and I really like the chemistry between them.
Thanks to Mitsu for sending this book to me. Without her it'd probably take me ages to wade through my reading backlog and reach this book.
While [b:Legend 17800966 Legend (Legend, #1) Marie Lu https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1366036715s/17800966.jpg 14157512] highlights the attraction that brought Day and June together, this book shows the differences between them and the consequences of what they've done so far. Especially for June. Doubts start to form between them as they get more and more involved with the Patriots, as Day gradually grows to see past that attraction and begins to question June.There's a lot of development here, both for the characters and the ongoing political drama. I was hoping to see the world expanding, and it does expand into a bigger picture once Day and June leave the Republic. They have to part temporarily due to a certain plan, and that's when they are forced to rethink and reconsider their options... because nothing is as it seems.Sadly, I'm not too fond of how Tess turned out to be in this book. Most likely because I liked the platonic relationship she shared with Day in the previous one. In Prodigy, Tess is terribly jealous of June and makes accusations based on jealousy alone. As much as Day tries to defend June, there's a point in the story where it does get to him, and the argument it caused was so painful for both parties. It doesn't help that Anden, the new Elector, is a brilliant character and seems to be a better option for June in comparison....and then I felt guilty for having such thoughts because of that ending.
So, I picked up Legend after [b:The Young Elites 20821111 The Young Elites (The Young Elites, #1) Marie Lu https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407318399s/20821111.jpg 25217978] successfully roped me into reading more of Marie Lu's works. Some people warned me that Legend is “not as impressive” and that I might be disappointed if I expect it to charm me as much as The Young Elites did.It didn't disappoint.In terms of depth, Legend is rather light and has gradual world-building. There are no info dumps, and the details come in small bits and pieces. But it's fast-paced, action-packed, and comes with quite an intriguing mystery too—making it hard to put it down. I finished around 70% of this book in one sitting, that's how engrossing it was for me. Then again, I really like Marie Lu's writing style, so maybe this book matches my taste.I loved the two main leads, Day and June, right from the start. They're both perceptive, cautious, and think things through before making any decisions. Day is a very devoted person who would do anything for his family, while June is a bit judgmental at first—which is understandable due to her upbringing—but has a good heart. I didn't really feel their romance when it started, but it grew on me. While it's more on the subtle side because of all the things going on, the chemistry is definitely there.Insta-attraction? From the first sight.Insta-love? Not exactly.There are also complaints about how quickly Day and June, at the young age of 15, put the clues together in nearly every situation, but honestly? I don't see anything wrong with that. It's more refreshing than anything else to have sharp protagonists, actually. That, and they're both prodigies with perfect Trial score so that makes sense to me.So far I feel that there's still a lot more to explore as far as world-building goes, but it looks like the world will expand more in the next books. The story takes place entirely in the Republic here, so I'm looking forward to see what seems to be Day and June's next destination―the Colonies. Now that they're on the same side, I hope we get to see more interaction too.Well then, excuse me as I move on to [b:Prodigy 13414446 Prodigy (Legend, #2) Marie Lu https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1336254717s/13414446.jpg 18712554].
This book is impossible to put down once the story starts moving. I picked it up thinking it'd be a nice fantasy read. IT WAS MUCH MORE THAN THAT. It has everything I love in a story: a good political drama, solid world-building, lovable characters, development, gradual romance, nice interaction, and clever twists. It's definitely not what I expected, but the story just pulls you in and refuses to let go until you're done.
...and when I'm done, the book left me crying and screaming in my mind because of how it ended.
WHY.
The second book is coming out next year in June. I'll be weeping until then.
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
This book has solid world-building and interesting mythology, written so nicely that it's easy to fall into the world and get yourself immersed in it. The thing is I have way too many issues with it that I couldn't enjoy the story entirely.
First is the main character, Lia. She might be cool for some people due to her sass and spunk, but most of the time I just find her rude, immature, haughty, and ignorant. She really annoys me to the extent that I wanted to throw my phone away because of the way she acts. She runs away from her responsibility, fully knowing that she's screwing everyone over and not feeling any remorse until it eventually comes back to hit her in the face. However, she does show some growth and becomes somewhat more likeable towards the end.
Next is the pacing. While the plot itself is okay, the pacing is so awful that I was falling asleep trying to finish this book. For the first 60% of the story, Lia spends her time playing maid in a tavern. It's dragged out for so long that the plot isn't going anywhere, and I was so happy when the book finally showed some progress with the story... except that it stalls again for about 30% of the remaining 40%. It's like the book simply moves to a different point, but nothing much beyond that. It still drags out the plot, just at a different location.
Due to the pacing, I feel like the book lost its focus on the main issue it's trying to convey—like Lia's power and the “prophecy” she found. By the time it gets to that, I was so bored beyond my wits that I couldn't care less about the gradual reveal anymore—I just wanted the story to get somewhere. As if that's not enough, it ended at a dreadful cliffhanger. Just when the story was about to unravel. I couldn't help but feel like I wasted my time reading a dragged out build-up and nothing more.
I like how the author conceals the identity of the assassin and the prince, though. At the beginning, you can't tell which one is which and it was fun trying to pin down their identity. There are multiple parts in the book that were clearly written to throw you off, and it was done in a brilliant way.
Also, I picked up this book because I heard there's sex in it. It made me curious because there's only a few fantasy YA series that has sex scenes right from the first book, but... As I promised Owen, I'll just paste some of my tweets here:
“The banging was so vague it didn't make up for the snorefest.”
“But who doesn't appreciate good boning scenes in YA novels? 8)”
A beautiful finale for the His Fair Assassin series.This is Annith's story. While Ismae's hovered around the political intrigues and Sybella's focused more on the action / war, Annith has a journey that covered more of the world and the gods—which pushes this book slightly a bit more onto the fantasy realm. It has a slow start as it takes a while before Annith can join Ismae and Sybella in Rennes, but it answers a lot of questions and brings a nice conclusion to the conflict between Brittany and France.Similarly to [b:Grave Mercy 9565548 Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1) Robin LaFevers https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320269319s/9565548.jpg 14452295] and [b:Dark Triumph 9943270 Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin, #2) Robin LaFevers https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346852168s/9943270.jpg 14836636], Mortal Heart holds a lot of twists. Some of them I saw coming, like Annith's connection to the abbess, but some others completely took me by surprise. Especially the identity of Annith's father. The twists were brilliantly written, and I was greatly pleased as everything fell into place. As far as the romance goes, this one is definitely my favorite from all three books... though I'm 100% biased to Balthazaar and his nature.It was a fun, emotional ride. Robin LaFevers has built a charming world, with the perfect mix of fantasy and history, and this series easily made its way into my all-time favorites.
I really, really wanted to love this book. I loved the little prequel, [b:Icicles Like Kindling 23304663 Icicles Like Kindling (Snow Like Ashes, #0.1) Sara Raasch https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-4845f44723bc5d3a9ac322f99b110b1d.png 42859855], and I was really excited to start Snow Like Ashes because of the glimpse into Meira's early life... only to end up in disappointment.This book is by no means bad. The world, as in the setting of the story, is amazing, but the world-building itself is lackluster. I'm not sure if that makes any sense. Does that make any sense? I love the world, the land of Primoria. It has eight kingdoms. Four of them—the Season kingdoms—have only one season all year round, while the other four—the Rhythm kingdoms—have the rotating four seasons. I think it's brilliant. Each kingdom has unique traits and culture, and it really gives off the fantasy feel that I love in books or games. BUT. When it comes to the actual execution, there's not enough details to completely bring this world to life... and so the beautiful setting becomes a bit flat.Another thing that bothered me was Meira, the heroine. She's fierce and strong, true, but she's also immature, reckless, and awfully—I repeat, awfully—whiny. She often disobeys orders and throws tantrums, putting not only herself in danger but also everyone around her. What I dislike the most is how Meira often acts like this to advance the plot. At first it felt like a very convenient coincidence during her Lynia mission, but then it happened again in Cordell. In exactly the same way. I actually liked her complicated relationship with her father figure, Sir, but the tantrums she throws at him irks me most of the time. It was, however, understandable in some situations, and Meira does grow as a character as the story progresses.Actually, this book has a lot of situations that are too convenient to be true. It's made very clear right from the beginning too. Like how a councilman rambles about information he's not supposed to say, just so Meira can figure out the locket location. Or how Herod put Meira, a captive, onto her own horse and left the locket piece dangling nearby, just so she can snatch it and runs off. This isn't even all of it. Convenient. Way too convenient.Complaints aside, the plot starts picking up at around 50% through the book. That's when it finally started getting exciting for me, and I mostly enjoyed the rest of the story from that point on. There's a love triangle, but I fairly liked both of the guys. Especially Theron. Man, he's just so fascinating and has some of the best interactions with Meira. I feel that we still don't know much about him and Mather though, so I expect to see more depth in the second book. Also, there's the twist. It was predictable especially if you pay attention to Meira's dreams, but I quite liked it. The matriarchy in some of the kingdoms felt refreshing too.I love the concept and the setting.I wanted to love this book, really.But in the end, 3 stars is all I can give. ;_____;
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
Atlantia is actually an interesting book. I always find the concept of underwater cities fascinating, and the world-building is beautiful too. There are lots of detailed descriptions of Atlantia, Above, and the connection between these two worlds. The details can be a bit too much sometimes, but still I find it gorgeous.
The problem is that aside from those things, I feel that the book is incredibly flat. The pacing is really slow. The narrative mainly focuses on Rio's thoughts and not action, so I don't get that much tension from the story. In fact, despite the internal thoughts, I find it hard to connect to Rio... or any other characters aside from Maire, for that matter. Rio strikes me as uncaring and selfish, so I couldn't bring myself to care about her. She does show some growth late into the book though, and I like how the ending is handled.
It's really too bad. I wanted to love this book because of its concept and the fact that the heroine is a siren, but it just didn't work for me.
This book is definitely one of my favorite reads this year. It has everything I love: an amazing heroine, grey characters, unpredictable twists, and a plot that doesn't get overshadowed by romance.
Our heroine, Adelina, kicks ass. For me, it's very easy to relate to her and her thoughts—both the lighter and darker ones. She's been abused, ignored, shoved aside for all her life, and it's refreshing to see her embracing her bitter hatred and anger instead of denying them to stay on the good side. Even when she explodes and screws up, a part of her still thinks that her victims deserve what they got for hurting her. As Marie Lu herself wrote:
“I realized the problem was that I didn't want to tell a hero's journey; I wanted to tell a villain's.”
I still can't get over Enzo's death though, and I think the mourning period will last for a while. ;___;
To be honest, I was disappointed. It's not that this book is bad, because while it drags on with vague scenes and alternating POVs, I still enjoyed the story... until about 85% into the book.
The first problem I've encountered with this book is Eliza. She appeared so suddenly, without any explanation about who she is and why we're switching to her perspective. I understand that her identity had to be revealed later on, but that also made it hard to care about her. It doesn't help that Eliza's scenes kind of overshadowed Karou's stolen moments with Akiva, especially when the story began shifting more towards her and her secret.
Speaking of Karou and Akiva, what happened with the war between seraphim and chimaera? It went well up to the part where they finally took care of Jael, but the... development? new plot? “bigger picture”? that comes after that makes this whole issue look so trivial. The previous 2 books were all about building this up. Akiva and the empire. Karou and the resurrections. It used to be about them, their story, and the war of their people... and yet I feel like this new issue completely thwarted it and threw it out the window.
Well, to be fair, there were some hints about this too. It's just they were so subtle, and the development came out so suddenly it left me all ? ? ? WHAT. That's also why the resolution feels more like deus ex machina than anything else, and it makes me sad because the plot was good until then. When the scope expanded with the Stelians and Faerers revealed, I feel that the story lost its focus and fell all over the place. It's like the important things don't really matter anymore, and trivial, unknown things suddenly become important. There are moments when Karou and Akiva got shoved to the background to make room for all these stuff.
I wasn't satisfied with the ending either. They called it a “happy middle” and not a happy ending, but I'm not sure if I'm happy with it. What about the dream shared by Karou, Akiva, and Brimstone? While they did accomplish the "beginning" they wanted to make, but it felt unfinished and small because of the issue with the beasts. It's very underwhelming, but guess I can take comfort in Karou and Akiva's happiness.
At first I considered rating this 2-2.5 stars because the twist near the end left a bitter aftertaste, but my favorite couple happened in this book (Ziri and Liraz) and they're super adorable, so I bumped it up to 3 stars.
I keep questioning myself: Why am I still following this series, despite being sorely disappointed by the first two installments? Oh, right. It was because a dear friend said she loves the last two volumes, and looking at reviews they do seem to be better. So I'm holding on. For now.
Anyway, this book does a great job in making me dislike nearly all the characters. Keenan, Donia, and the lovesick Seth. Aislinn I've never liked since the first book, and it doesn't help AT ALL that she keeps on repeating the same mistake in this one—over and over and over again. This book is filled with a lot of interactions, and well... depending on your taste, that can be really interesting or really draggy.
For me, it's the latter.
Skimmed through this book years ago, just picked it up today to read it properly... though sadly my opinion did not change. Characters and development are still as shallow as I remembered them to be, despite having tremendous potential to expand beyond that. There's also the 9:1 ratio of build-up vs actual execution, which was one of the issues I had with [b:Wicked Lovely 305234 Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely, #1) Melissa Marr https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327814035s/305234.jpg 296240].In conclusion: Still disappointed, still can't connect with the series and characters.
This novella fills in the gap in Daughter of Smoke & Bone, where Karou was busy traveling around the world and came back to see Zuzana and Mik officially dating. It's a cute story featuring their magical first date and first kiss. No grim war, no deaths, no bitter betrayals here―just sweetness.
I think it's a nice addition to the series that fleshed out Zuzana and Mik a bit more, giving more substance to their relationship and allowing you to know them better.
Actual rating: 3.5 starsIf you think the first half of [b:Daughter of Smoke & Bone 8490112 Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) Laini Taylor https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338613368s/8490112.jpg 13355552] is slow, this one is even slower. There's a lot of build-up taking place as both Karou and Akiva settle into the aftermath of what happened by the end of the first book, and it takes about 60% of the book before things finally start moving. In a way, it was good because the impact really blew when it finally came... but personally I found it a bit too slow. I kept getting distracted until that 60% mark, and the switch in perspectives didn't really help either—sometimes I had to backtrack to remember the last thing that happened to Karou / Akiva.Speaking of Karou, she really grated on my nerves in this book. Don't get me wrong, her bitterness towards Akiva is understandable—especially considering the situation she's in. It's just the way she acts... she's childish, hypocritical, stubborn, not to mention gullible. Considering her history with Thiago, and the way he's currently treating her, I just don't get how she could trust him more than Akiva. Then she attacked Akiva with insults that partly came from her own self-loathing. It reminds me too much of abusive partners, and that really bothered me until the end.Also, there's a LOT of scenes featuring Zuzana and Mik. Maybe a bit too much, even. They do have a part to play at Karou's side, but some scenes—like the hotel one—aren't necessarily important to the main plot? It does serve as a nice reminder of the human world, since this book focuses more on the seraphim and chimaera, but sometimes these scenes feel... “disconnected”. If that even makes sense.Complaints aside, though... I really enjoyed this book for the development. There's a lot of depth here, ranging from the characters to the war itself. I'm especially impressed by how Liraz is handled, since we only got to see her scornful and ferocious side in the first book. Here, she's nicely fleshed out and shows a lot more—like her compassion and fear. It's also nice to see that Karou and Akiva ended up where they planned to be a long time ago, though it's far from what they imagined back then.Ziri deserves all the love and happiness in the world though.
Picked up this book during waiting time between editing sessions at work. I surely wish I didn't though, because I ended up disliking this book to an absurd level.
There are many things that disturbed me about the culture of Japan written in this book; mostly the lackluster details, the disjointed writing, and the ? ? ? descriptions that might or might not fit the timeline... but what bothered me the most are the portrayal of geisha and the heroine herself.
First, the portrayal of geisha. This is an issue commonly seen in books about Japan: geisha are portrayed as prostitutes or concubines. True, some of them do sleep with their customers, but they are mainly what the term “geisha” means—entertainers. In this book, however, they got knocked up and had illegitimate children... and no, the father isn't necessarily a man of power.
The heroine is, frankly speaking, annoying to the highest degree. I do understand how she feels at first because women rights were strictly limited in 19th century Japan, BUT that doesn't make it okay for Rie to do all the crap she did later on in the book. She whines, whines, and whines. She whines a LOT, she's bossy, and she's forceful in a bad way IMO. I couldn't sympathize with her AT ALL.
I wanted to like this book, but I simply couldn't.