Riri
It is a shock this book isn't more popular. For once, a retelling of Japanese mythology done right. You can tell the author did her research well, all the terminologies are used correctly and the writing never come off as being weeb-ish. The story takes place in fictional Japan, and since naturally all the characters speak Japanese, there's no random Japanese words being thrown around inappropriately in conversations for no apparent reason. After my not-so-good encounter with Flame in the Mist, Red Winter turns out to be a pleasant surprise for me when it comes to Asian-inspired stories.
As the protagonist, Emi is exactly what you'd expect from a shrine miko who was raised to fill the role she was supposed to fulfill. She's meek, obedient, pure... almost without any real “personality”, some would say. She does, however, evolve along the way and shows a very human reaction towards the truth she discovered. She's not exactly the best when it comes to battle and needs to be saved many, many times, but that's what makes it good because if she turns out to be a pro youkai slayer it wouldn't make any sense considering her upbringing. People may have diverging opinions regarding her personality and goals, but you can't deny that her characterization is consistent throughout the whole book.
There's a really nice situation reversal too for Emi. At the beginning, she's described as a very special figure with a very special role to play—just like the “chosen one” trope we all dread. After she finds out the truth though, everyone around her starts telling her to deal with it because her existence as a person is so small and insignificant compared to what she needs to accomplish by playing this very special role. It adds a nice twist without destroying or changing the “chosen one” trope entirely, I find that really clever.
I also like how we learn nearly nothing about Emi's new youkai friends. Both Shiro and Yumei reveal nothing but mysteries and unanswered questions, and for the most part I think it's fair trade since Emi didn't tell them anything about her identity either. It keeps the story intriguing since we get bits and pieces of information at a time, and it's fun trying to piece them together instead of getting a massive info dump. The other youkai that have appeared so far are given details that stay true to how they really are in the mythology too, such as Ameonna and Sunekosuri. Again, it's well-researched and doesn't make you cringe from inappropriate usage.
The overall vibes of the book is similar to the game Okami. There's barely any modern civilization mentioned (except for the one time Emi ventured into a city), and to be honest, I prefer it that way since this kind of story works better when the setting is closer to nature or is a rural location. It just adds to the mysterious / traditional feel, so I hope it stays like this for the remaining two books.
Also! The illustrations are GORGEOUS and really helps with the visualization!
Pretty disappointed. The plot twists are nice, so an extra star for that. The protagonist, on the other hand, is really bland and makes everything that happens around her feel bland too.
One thing, though. It's nii-san with two Is. It really grates on my nerves when people just omit the extra letter. If you're gonna write words / terms in foreign languages, please do it right. It might change the meaning entirely, not to mention it looks unprofessional AF. You wouldn't write “waacking” as just “wacking”, would you?
So it's a story about war that takes place in an Asian-inspired world, begins at a military school, with a “powerful” female protagonist. Sounds like it'd be right up my alley, but surprisingly I didn't really like it. Mostly because of the writing style.
The book starts off really promising, with a peasant girl acing an exam that lands her a spot in the prestigious military academy. Once you get past the first batch of classes, however, that's where it turns into a blur. Nearly everything is described in a vague way, even if it doesn't seem so at first glance. Aside from the strategy class, the lessons are only described briefly. Even the lore lessons, which is our protagonist's major, and the link it has to the more spiritual aspect of the story only made it even more unclear. Whenever the story turns to explore the spiritual realm / Pantheon and the path leading to it, I often find myself zoning out because it's too much of a blur for my mind to connect to.
The academy life ends abruptly once the second part of the book begins, and the third part only twists it further into an entirely different direction. I feel like if only the second and third parts were written for the next volumes, the story would've been better in terms of pacing. Once Rin chose which subject to pledge, the book just... quickly skips her following years in the academy, so there's not enough build-up and the war ends up feeling so sudden.
Didn't help that I played Sen no Kiseki and thought they did the whole “military school students thrown into war” thing much better.
As the protagonist, Rin goes from having my encouragement 100% to making me facepalm multiple times as the story progresses. Her frustrations were understandable at the beginning, but she progressively turns into the spitfire heroine who's rude to everyone for no particular reason, and I really don't like this type of protagonist. Maybe it is understandable considering what happened towards the end of the book, but I feel like her characterization could've been handled better.
The story is engaging though, so I'm hoping the writing will improve in the next books.
This is quite possibly one of the worst things I've ever read in my entire life. Can't even shelf this under “romance” because I really don't think the relationship portrayed here can be considered as romance. It is all sorts of problematic, and everything that Ben has ever done is so utterly disgusting that I would've DNF'd this book if only OCD wasn't a thing.
Eh, it was okay. It's not really original if you've read stories set in feudal Japan or anything involving court politics before, but the writing is okay and the staccato sentences make it a quick read. The ending is kinda rushed, not to mention it leaves many questions unanswered, but I don't like any of the characters enough to care.
You just have to turn off your brain temporarily so you don't tsukkomi every single thing, which gets really annoying since there's just so many things that are obviously not Japanese culture done right. A bit better than the first book, but some of these things can be easily learned simply by Googling...
Hirata Suke is an atrocious name though. Not only -suke is an attachment and not a name on its own (just like the -maru in Ranmaru), but it is only used in male names too. The poor creature who got Suke as a given name in this book is a girl, so that's like double offense for me and I can't take it seriously.
One extra star for the plot twist, otherwise this would've been a 1★.
There's just TOO MANY incorrect usage of Japanese for me to enjoy this book thoroughly, not to mention the gap between Mariko's image in people's eyes and her actual personality. Everyone keeps saying she's smart and clever, while in reality she tends to be dumb, opens her mouth when she shouldn't, and miscalculates a lot of things.
First of all, there's a glossary in case you are not familiar with Japanese terms. But a lot of the terms listed there are not exactly correct. Here's a few examples:
anate—the command for “fire,” as in “to fire an arrow
HA
boro—patchwork fabric worn by maidservants and peasants
honshō—true
sumimasen—thank you
It's when Mariko lost her virginity to some irrelevant boy to make a statement that her body is hers, and it is her choice what to do with it. In feudal Japan, an umarried woman's virtue is a huge deal so what she did would only bring disgrace to her family. Especially since Mariko is from a warrior family. Women in this era were raised with that in mind, so no one in their right minds would bang some random guy just because IT IS HER BODY SHE CAN DO WHATEVER. That mentality does not exist in that time and place, sorry.
This novella accomplishes absolutely nothing. Is this a necessary addition to the series? Nope. Literally nothing happens in this entire book. The majority of it is Feyre doing mundane everyday stuff that contributes nothing to the main plot, including repeated, separate shopping trips to buy gifts for her family and friends.
It also makes me dislike Rhysand. The things they do here pretty much undid everything that happened in the previous books. Especially the way Rhysand sees Feyre, it's like ACOMAF just went out the window. Every single time we get into his head, we see him lusting over Feyre and thinking about how much he wants to bang her. And he did bang her. In the air. Because his raging boner couldn't wait until they get home, so he decided to do it in the sky of Velaris. And Feyre just laughed it off. Just... let that sink in for a while.
Remember how Tamlin is hated because he's so controlling towards Feyre and never treats her as his equal? Well, here Rhysand does exactly the same thing. He just flies all over doing High Lord business, while Feyre does what?
Staying at home. Calling herself—I kid you not—”Defender of the Rainbow and the Desk”. Chilling on her bed when Rhysand returns, and this happens:
His Illyrian leathers gleamed with melted snow, and more of it shone on his dark hair and wings as he quietly shut the door. “Right where I left you.”I smiled, setting down the book beside me. It was nearly swallowed by the ivory down duvet. “Isn't this all I'm good for?”
freaking gloat in his face
nothing
Gentlemales
Actual rating: 4.5★
⚠️ TW: attempted sexual assault.
Such an addictive read. The dollhouse / princess-ish theme at first glance, the lavish descriptions, and the beautiful writing provide a nice contrast to the darker undertones in the story that fully unraveled towards the end of the book, where all the beauty comes crumbling down and ugliness comes in full force.
After reading so many stories involving court politics, one would be aware that not everyone—or worse, no one—in court could be trusted. Throughout the entire book I was left wondering who's gonna turn on Camellia and stab her in the back because everyone is shady, and in that sense the story doesn't betray in the slightest. Of course, the Belles themselves also carry certain secrets that they may or may not be aware of. I love it.
The pace is a bit on the slower side, especially for the first half of the book, but it's really engaging still. Definitely looking forward to the next book even if it doesn't even have a release date yet.
Well, that was unexpected... and I didn't mean it in a good way.
The writing is lovely, but there's no mystery whatsoever since the blurb literally tells you none of the characters are what they seem. There's just not much happening in the first half of the book, it's just pages and pages of Midnight comparing Wink to Poppy, while the plot is going nowhere. It didn't help that the characters didn't grow on me either.
At least the chapters are short though, so it was a quick read.
Well, that was adorable. I don't normally read historical fiction, with or without fantasy mix, because my attention tends to wander off, but this book kept me hooked until the very last page. It's not thought-provokingly deep and doesn't offer endless dramarama that spirals off into the abyss, but it's lighthearted, witty, and highly entertaining. Plus, the romance is cute.
It's definitely a fresh change for those who are tired of high-tension, action-packed stories. Can't wait for the second book.
At last, a story set in Asia with proper world-building and lore, and not Asian in name only. Bless.This is definitely a guilty pleasure read for me because the protagonist, Xifeng, is an antiheroine of the pretty nasty type, yet I enjoyed her dark inner thoughts and the questionable decisions she made. If you find it hard to enjoy stories with protagonists that have sketchy morality, then maybe [b:Forest of a Thousand Lanterns 33958230 Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress, #1) Julie C. Dao https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1496338822s/33958230.jpg 53186285] isn't for you... but I loved how unapologetically ruthless, selfish, and vain she is.From beginning to end, this book carries an ominous feeling as Xifeng leaves home and climbs to higher ranks in the court. It constantly gives off the feeling that something terrible is about to happen, even in the ending itself, and for this part it never disappoints.The writing, however, feels somewhat detached at times so during some of the most crucial moments it doesn't deliver the necessary emotions. It feels so strange when you're emotionally flatlining as you read through the deaths and heartbreaks of major characters, but hopefully this will improve in the next book.
This is so hard to rate. About 80% of this book, I would give 3.5★... but the last few chapters are worth 5★ due to the twists, one which I saw coming and the other which I totally did not expect.
But anyway, I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would. It is still a good read and it was definitely because I expected too much, but the VR gaming world isn't too expansive and so it doesn't really feel like MMORPG-like. Feels like it's much heavier on the competition side and doesn't offer as much in-game exploration as opposed to the VR features it brings to real life. The writing, however, is really nice and easy to follow as always, and the action scenes were pretty engaging that I wish there were more chapters about Emika's involvement in the Warcross matches.
The romance never felt sincere. There's a whole chunk of telling instead of showing, so I never really get how Hideo falls for Emika to begin with. All that was said, was that they started talking everyday. What they talked about and how it became that way, we will never know since it was summed up like that in a single scene. I did not see the development so I couldn't help but be skeptical by the whole thing... Well, until the last few chapters kick in and it all kind of falls into place. The ending was brilliantly done, leaving a great deal of things for the next books to develop.
The Japanese phrases, though... they kinda bother me. They are not wrong, but the usage and the nuance isn't right either and it makes the writing feel much more amateur for these particular parts only. It's such a shame because if only these were done right, the book would feel much more polished especially to those who actually do understand the language.
First of all, it's unnatural for children to use formal speech when talking to their parents like Hideo does. It is not strange in prestigious / noble families, but the atmosphere in Hideo's family is casual enough for him to help out in the kitchen and even cook a meal for his parents, so it feels weird seeing him using formal speech to his mother. Most people only do this once in a while, oftentimes they have something really serious to talk about, but definitely not all the time and definitely not when they are just reunited after a long time of not seeing each other.
And then there's this one phrase Hideo said: “Yukkuri, (name)-kun!”. Name is omitted because spoilers. He's using the word yukkuri to say slow down in English, but it's not meant to be used like that. No one would just throw the word by itself to ask someone to slow down, it's always ゆっくりで行こうよ or ゆっくりでやろうよ so even if the word has the right meaning, it's not the correct usage and it feels really unnatural. I hope this can be improved if the next books are going to contain more Japanese phrases, it'll have a much more refined feel to it and not feel kind of weeaboo-ish.
tl;dr I LIKE THIS BOOK, but I gotta tsukkomi what I need to tsukkomi. I'm sorry.
Actual rating: 4.5★
Rounded up cause it's a great finale to Feyre's story, though it seems like we'll get to see her and Rhysand again before moving on to the spinoff books. This one kind of drags somewhere in the middle and it takes a while before it picks up again, but once it does, it really gets things going.
I wasn't really impressed by Feyre's sisters in the first two books, but they've grown on me after finishing this one because we finally get to see the depth of their characters. Kinda not sure how to feel about Elain and Lucien's relationship though, as I personally think there are better matches for both of them.
Oh, and as for Tamlin... he kinda redeemed himself. Somewhat. Just a little bit. It's still hard to like him again after all the crap he threw at Feyre in this book, but at least he sincerely cares about her well-being. Ianthe got what she deserved though.
Can't wait to see more stories taking place in this world. ❤
Actual rating: 2.5★
Slightly better than the first book, mainly because we're seeing things through Mira's eyes. The problem is it's exactly the same story told from a different point of view, and since for me the story was never that engaging to begin with, it gets repetitive real quick. Especially during the time spent in the Glittering Court.
Not sure if I'm gonna read the third book.
Actual rating: 4.5★
The ending is utter perfection. It's not the kind of 100% happy ending we often get, but it is the perfect ending for the story. Rating is rounded down for the dumbest reason ever because I'm salty and butthurt over the thing. You know exactly what I'm talking about.
Matthias' death. Why. Why was it so anticlimactic? Why was it so ironic that Nina's new power links to death and yet Matthias had to go? Why? Just... W H Y. I don't even dislike this outcome, I just... I can't handle this. I'm just gonna cry and drown in my own tears.
Actually more like 2.5★ because as Catherine said herself towards the end, she was a fool. She was spineless and made really dumb decisions that cost her literally everything, then blamed everyone else for it. Granted, her situation was indeed terrible and her anger towards those around her is understandable.
Bumped to 3★ because Jest was cute, though I wish the book told more about him instead of dragging out Cath's plans to avoid marriage for like 300 pages.
Fantastic. Would rate this book 100 out of 5 stars if I could.
Oh, and remember how I previously said that I don't ship Rhysand with Feyre? Yeah, I take it back. I take it all back. They're THE real thing. Tamlin can go flush himself down the toilet to be honest.
I absolutely love how Rhysand treats Feyre as his equal, how he always allows her to make her own decisions, and what he made her by the end of the book."'Not consort, not wife. Feyre is High Lady of the Night Court.' My equal in every way; she would wear my crown, sit on a throne beside mine. Never sidelined, never designated to breeding and parties and child-rearing. My queen."It was beautiful.And I have to agree with the reviews saying the issue is not that Tamlin changed. It's that he did not change. Feyre herself has changed, and how Tamlin treats her, while it might have worked for how she was before, is just not right for what she's become.Looking back, the thing with Rhysand also explains why he suddenly fed Feyre with a lot of information in the first book. It didn't make the info-dump any less jarring, of course, but at least now we know WHY.
Now can someone please tell me how to survive until the next book comes out?
To be honest, I would give about 75% of this book 3.5 stars. It feels too short and at some parts it drags on a bit. BUT. The ending couldn't be any more perfect, and the epilogue just washed me away with torrents of FEELS. This book, despite all the blood and tension and action, carries a subtle tone of sorrow up until the end, and that's what makes it fantastic.
Can you even call this fantasy?
It feels more like a historical fiction wearing the mask of a fantasy to me.
The only reason why I gave this 2 stars is because the first half of the book is quite enjoyable to read, despite the whole story having very little believability. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is a jumbled mess. It doesn't help that the characters are bland, there is no chemistry between Adelaide and Cedric, and there's no tension in the story. As if that wasn't enough, we also get a veeery convenient deus ex machina at the end. Brilliant.
Not sure if I'll read the rest of the series. Maybe if the next one is engaging. Both Mira and Tamsin seem to be more interesting than Adelaide.
Honestly, I have no idea why I read this book despite being sorely disappointed in [b:Red Queen 22328546 Red Queen (Red Queen, #1) Victoria Aveyard https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1449778912s/22328546.jpg 25037051]. Maybe I wanted it to get better, but sadly it didn't. What annoyed me the most in the first book was the heroine, Mare, and I don't see her improving anytime soon with how she behaves in this one. She's still selfish, she never learns, and she doesn't give a crap about things she should care about.The romance is still shallow and cheesy, but this time there's not enough Maven to make up for it, so I was left cringing the whole time. I also feel like the writing has gotten worse compared to the first book. At this point I'm totally giving up on this series, but we'll see if masochism will take over and make me read the next volumes.