The Wren in the Holly Library

Listen. I do not read Red Tower books expecting quality. It's just an unfortunate fact that the writing in this was just so poor and amateurish that I was in disbelief that this was an actual print book I was reading and not some random Kindle Unlimited fodder with a man's bare chest on the cover. However, what editing this book lacks, it makes up for an attempt in storytelling. Key words here being: an attempt.

Firstly, I can tolerate the comparison to A Darker Shade of Magic, but I have a bone to pick with everyone who compared this to Six of Crows. News flash: not every book that features a thief needs to be comped to Six of Crows just because it's the most hyped-up heist book out there. It set this book— and many others with this comp— at unrealistic expectations, and it affects my personal reading experience. So please, kindly, stop!

Okay so. The writing. Yikes. Reading this felt like reading a first draft, or an amateur fanfiction. You know the common writer saying, “show, don't tell”? Yeah, well this author does a fuck-ton of telling and not showing. “Kierse did this,” “Graves did this,” “Then, Kierse did this,” “Then this happened.” “Finally, Graves did this.” It was so hard to read at points that I just started skimming. There were these ✨ moments of brilliance ✨ though, scenes here and there that actually started to make this seem like a well-put together story, but it would quickly lose itself to that basic, boring telling again. To me, this felt like a lack of skill and creativity, with everything being made so obvious, like I was reading an informative textbook rather than a fictional story.

Beyond that, there were also a lot of inconsistencies in the writing. For example, the author reveals that Graves is a warlock in chapter 14 on page 92, a species Kierse was unaware of prior to their conversation. However, Kierse calls him a warlock in the previous chapter on page 88. There are so many instances like this, to the point where I literally doubt that this book had an editor at all during the publication process.

Another thing, the names of the people and places? I mean, come on. The main characters names are Kierse, Graves, Lorcan, all fine and dandy for a paranormal fantasy novel. But then the side characters names are all Ethan, George, Nate, Gregory, etc. Like, where did the creativity go? Pick a side, go with fantasy or modern names. It's upsetting when you can tell a character's importance in the story just based on their name alone. Also, the location names had no creativity at all. The Holly Library. The Five Points. The Third Floor. It's all so conventional and unrealistic, I was at the point of laughing because this is some of the most outrageous shit I've read all year.

My final writing complaint: the romance— and this one might get me side-eyed a bit. In my ever most humble opinion, Kierse and Graves had more of a found family-type, mentor/mentee or even parent/child connection, and their romance came completely out of left field. When I first started reading, I was wondering if maybe I had read the synopsis wrong and Kierse's love interest was actually supposed to be Lorcan? Because the relationship between her and Graves did not seem like it was steering in that direction at all until it very abruptly did, and I was a bit weirded out if I'm being honest.

As for the storytelling, I have to give Linde some credit. The story, at its base, had the potential to be something great— it's the execution that fails it. I would've loved this story had the planning, writing, and editing been up to par; a modern-day paranormal fantasy, with monsters and humans living in uneasy harmony, with a Beauty and the Beast-inspired romance? Sounds like my dream novel. I'm just so disappointed that it had been published like this.

Entangled Publishing (Red Tower's parent publisher), I'm begging you: the pretty covers are nice but PLEASE hire editors for your books. If this book had anything beyond beta readers or a line editor, this probably wouldn't be half as bad as it is. And the thing is, I'm not even mad, I'm just ironically amused. That's the main reason I didn't DNF this, as well as the receipt for this book saying that the return due date was literally the day before I started reading this so I was like “this must be fate” lmao. Lowkey I wanna read Sanctuary of the Shadow now for shits n giggles because if this one was that bad...

(Also, I don't think that this is entirely K.A. Linde's fault, and I'm still interested in giving her Ascension series and Royal Houses series a shot at some point, probably not anytime soon though. Her non-Red Tower books seemingly have more of a positive reception, so I'm hopeful that her next venture isn't as unsatisfactory as this one.)

TL;DR: Pretty cover syndrome strikes again, concept was cool but execution was shit, it's so bad it's funny and I want to give it a zero but I can't so I give it a one, and another one of my bookish rants is now over.

I liked a lot of the twists and turns this took, all the different monsters and magic. However, it dragged often and there were a few straight-out-of-Twilight scenes that were a little too obviously Twilight.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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This was an easy enough book to read. I would have been able to finish this faster had I not been struggling to finish reading another book.

The pacing of the story is good. It started off in the middle of something but, as a reader, it didn’t feel like I was dropped in a confusing situation where a lot of things were happening at once. The plot followed a certain flow. There’s a BIG GOAL. But on the way to the BIG GOAL, smaller goals were set. So, the story didn’t feel dragging or not exciting for large stretches of time.

There are spots in the plot where it seems like it’s what’s happening just seems too convenient. However, I forgive those just because it keeps it from adding too many characters or complications.

The author was also not afraid to kill off characters. Sure, they are minor ones. But given how the last book I read had a ‘Big battle’ where only one person from the protagonist’s side got killed, I appreciated this.

There were enough instances of twists that made me doubt if they will succeed in their goal or at least doubt if they were going achieve it without losing something along the way.

There were romance and what folks these days call “spice”. Personally, I didn’t think the plot needed it. Or if the author really wanted it to have it, they could have just upped the ‘will they or won’t they’ factor rather than have it happen without showing us the building tension.

The end was open ended which gives the author leeway to write more.

Overall, it’s a solid read. Is it the best thing I’ve read or wowed me? No. But I wouldn’t discourage people from reading it.