Catalina Pedraza
I did like this book a lot more than I did that other one. Perhaps it's presumptuous on my part but reading the reviews that rated this book very low seemed to utterly miss the point of it.
Many of the complaints come from dissatisfied readers that expected the same thrills from this than they do from the so called YA genre, but got an introspective thoughtful take of the story that dwelled very little on the things that made that other book so popular, instead.
Maybe those readers should go a little further than just how hot the love interest is or think more about the author's intent behind not giving names to her characters.
So I just finished this book. And I'm conflicted.
First and foremost, spoilers, this'll be full of ‘em. Don't say I didn't warn you.
This is one of those really, really hyped books, fortunately I arrived late so I didn't experienced any of the actual turmoil it stirred among the book community. Still, as late as I am to the party I'm gonna give you my thoughts.
I kind of liked the book for the most part. The beginning was good and I was enthralled by the story, it's no record (in reading speed) but I congratulate Maas in writing book that I didn't want to put down, it was that well paced.
The story in itself was interesting enough, I suppose, as I don't really have any bias towards the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and I felt very inclined to know what was going to happen next. Funny thing is I was extremely lazy to write my usual notes throughout the book so we only have some from today.
I enjoyed the first half? Two thirds? Before Tamlin was taken and the whole actual court thingy happened, in a silly romantic story way. I still had my problems though. Some really cheesy dialog and the fact that all felt a bit bland... I mean there were some parts that had their action moments, placed so we wouldn't get bored with all the “I had dinner with them and the days passed and I painted and had dinner and some days they talk at dinner and some days Tamlin has to go somewhere and some days I painted in the gardens and blah blah blah” but, yeah, I can't remember much from that, maybe the... thing with liquid stars and the Fire Night but besides that...
The romance was ok, I had my issues with the characters but had a nice time with their story. The Fire Night was specially... ehr... hot. I liked that about this book, it was borderline New Adult, I sometimes wish YA books were more daunting with those subjects, with this main character not being a virgin and stuff not feeling so taboo.
Now onto the characters:
Feyre... I had no idea how to pronounce her name for most of the book, I just kept thinking “is it supposed to sound like fae or faerie or fairy or what?”. I liked her. I was very wary of this book being a Maas creation, ya know with her taste for Mary Sues... still, I do think Feyre is a bit Mary Sue-ish, but ultimately I enjoyed a most of her personality... yet, she wasn't very clever? She kept insulting the people her survival depended on? And she only got some halfassed biting retorting return? She spent her entire life fearing the faeries and then she just decides to go catch one that she has been warned is one the humans based their legends off? And doesn't prepare the questions better? She knows she has to be precise in her diction and stuff but doesn't think some very specific questions?
I liked that she didn't know how to read or write, it was an interesting character flaw... except she gave up on it? She tried two days, got to see the mural thing and forgot about it? And they brought it back only for Tamlin to write some dirty poems we didn't get to read? I expected her to work her ass off trying to overcome her illiteracy (remember, this was one of her very explicit insecurities, mentioned by her sister and later reinforced by the faeries) but no, and then when I hoped she would try to do something about it, perhaps read some book or something to know what she was up against and maybe find some loophole (also! it would've been nice if she had tried to learn how to read so she could study the treaty herself) before she went to Amarantha she just got a disgustingly long infodump monologue from some person.
Anyways... (I hadn't realised I had so many issues with her)
Tamlin, I will always think you por name is Temlin, no idea why though. We had very little of him, just Feyre's impressions but there were things I liked and some that didn't, let's start with the bad things shall we? I hate that they stripped the faeries from flaws... he is perfect in every way, and I don't like that, I simply can't imagine someone so unnervingly handsome and kind and hot and nice, this can sound like I liked him a lot but I genuinely don't like books with faeries in them simply because they are always like this... perfect in every way, I just feel the need to roll my eyes when an author describes the perfect person, stronger, sexier, immortal etc.
I liked his awkward self. It was cute. What? Yes that's all I've got for the good things. Oh, and well, he was respectful.
And the very specific sins:
* She had to clean up beautifully didn't she? Years of malnourishment didn't stomp her growth or leave her without curves. No, she is just ‘enticing'.
* Funny how conveniently just before the curse is about to reach its deadline someone perfect for its breakage appeared. Not old or ugly. No, no less than a nineteen year old beauty. A bit scrawny, but nothing a good plate of faerie food and a handsome faerie LORD can't solve
* How is it that nobody is talking about Nesta being the real MVP... ok, maybe I wouldn't go that far, but still, probably my favourite character.
* Why did you get rid of the faeries' incapacity to lie? Its was such a good plot devise!
* It took Feyre several days of physical and psychological torture to figure out what is probably the easiest riddle in the history of twirling moustache villains' unsolvable riddles. Ever. I think it ruined the book for me. Yes, it was that bad.
* One of the most boring villains I've read in a long while.
So, there you have it. I think this is a solid 2.5 veering towards the 3.
Actual rating 3.5
Ok, huh, ok.
Where to start... oh, I know, the disclaimer: as usual this review will be filled with spoilers, proceed with caution.
Now, well... I had...uh, fun, but this book could've been way better. Too vague? Okey dokey.
The first half was awful.
I actually liked the main character, she was nice and not too swoony. I have to admit that I really liked that she picked up on the regular plebeian chores fast, I always find myself groaning internally at how some works paint nobility as clueless stupid people that can't do anything, as if their hands were broken by pampering, I mean, yeah, they've never done any work... like, ever, but really how hard can it be to sweep the floor, clean tables or put a kettle to boil (I'm looking at you, Downton Abbey). Of course I'm not saying that serving tables is easy but so it is for everyone, and also she was willing to learn. Short rant over.
The big problem is... nothing happened. From the moment they started running away I was hoping for one close encounter with a solider to spice thing up and... well, nothing. It's ok, I'm sure something will happen at the town... no? Alrighty, I guess when the prince and the assassin arrive something will happen... no? W-well I'm sure the assassin will try something, oh, he has fallen for her... but what about the princ- no, there he goes too. This is my cue for the rolling of eyes. Jesus, some of the writing was terrible... not disgustingly so but I definitely have various passages with notes saying only “eye roll” or “eye rolling intensifies” or even “hey! Is that my brain?”.
[insert here a screenshot of my notes while reading, but couldn't paste here because you can't put pictures from you camera roll and I was too lazy to create an account in imagur or something to upload pictures to the net]
I swear there was always something to roll my eyes at. And nothing happened. And then rolled my eyes a bit more, and some more nothing happened... For nearly 300 pages in a book 468 pages long. Nothing. I can't remember anything remotely important going on in this interlude and I know the romance was supposed to help but it was awfully boring, yes the author was building the character relationships and I would guess that the plan was that the romance would be enough to keep us occupied... because she needed to think how the rest of the book would go...? honestly, I have no idea why she made this part so long and slow and dragging. The only reason I was kept interested was the fact that Rafe was supposedly the assassin and that offered things going somewhere (pro-tip: when the promise of something, anything, happening is the only thing keeping the readers in, that's when you need re-examine some of your life choices)
Also, I hate to sound trite but I was so very annoyed at the love triangle I couldn't stop thinking how much better this would be without it. (I literally, and I mean literally, was in the shower thinking: she just should've left it out, this an obvious love triangle à la Twilight without the benefit of it being a pioneer). Yes, it indeed made the story intriguing later on but as I have said, the book's first half would have been loads better without it.
Now, I did have a ‘what if who we think this is is actually someone else' moment at the start of the novel but discarded the thought because the interesting conflicts Lia feeling greatly attracted to the assassin would bring were admittedly the only interesting conflicts anywhere near the horizon of this novel... so it's understandable that I wasn't surprised in the least when that reveal happened, and the rest of the book I wondered whether that was really the author's intent or it was just me reading carelessly. (I still do)
I like my romance sparkled throughout the story, and I specially like it when there's actually a story... and y'all know how important it is to me when done right... or wrong.
Luckily the novel picked up from here and got interesting. There were some touching moments and exciting reveals and character development.
Now, as per custom, some very specific sins:
* Oh, what's that? You're angry you don't love the guy before marrying? You're not angry you haven't even met the guy yet? But don't worry, he's not old nor decrepit or smelly, instead he's the handsomestest person you'll meet and you'll have an instant true love connection because of magic, no, seriously, ~magic~.
* “She's the most interestingest because she doesn't care about jewellery or clothes or getting dirty, she's so different from the rest, because girls that don't like girly things are the most interestingestest for some reason”
* Oh, these dudes have this shady vibes but yeah whatevs they sure are a fisherman and a farmer
* Yes, you love her, yes you've known her for three hours.
* No, she had no interest in these shady books she stole and that practically had her killed, not even a glimpse of curiosity, not even to know if these were the scholar's secret porn magazines stash. None, at all... that is, until it was convenient for the plot.
* No one is alarmed her friend is barely twenty and is already pregnant and a fugitive??
* Yes, I, too, am utterly tired of the misinterpreted relatives' affection scene as a lovers' encounter cliche. Quit it, find something new.
I did tell you that there would be some unpopular opinions, didn't I?
As always, this won't be a proper review if I didn't spoil everything, so you're warned. (I know you can actually hide the entire review because of spoilers, but really, who are we kidding...)
I did not like this book as much as I wanted to. This is not a drill. I didn't and until I re-read this and find some new elements that make me change my mind, it is going to stay that way.
I do feel kinda bad, ya know? EVERYBODY, and I mean EVERYBODY loves this book with the raging heat of a thousand suns. And I don't. I'm not sure why, but I'll try and explain.
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.
I liked the characters, and you can see that from my updates on the reading, I'm not gonna lie. The characters wpere very well written, it wasn't difficult to connect with all of them. I liked even more the different interactions with each other; I specially liked Nina and Matthias' relationship.
I loved the worldbuilding that went into this, you can sense the love and dedication the author put into creating this, it all felt real and meticulous.
Now that we put that out of the way, onto the bad.
Damn me and not taking notes.
First of all, I was a little thrown by the multiple perspective, admittedly I got around it, but still recall my first reaction to it, pure unadulterated sloth, I couldn't care less for Nina's perspective the first time, and then there was another new perspective and another, and another. It didn't end, but then, why wasn't there one for the mysterious “fugitive with a privileged past”, I get it was a decision for dramatic effect, but why not one afterwards, when we already knew who he was. I can only imagine it is some device concerning the next book.Then there's the fact that I didn't like Inej and Kaz romance completely, I did of course, but for some reason I wasn't satisfied, It felt rushed somehow, like all of the sudden this character was acting very out of character. (If that's even possible, I mean this is canon after all).
I don't know how you go from “there was something so satisfying about the little furrow between her black brows” to “he was twisted, crooked, wrong but not so broken that he couldn't pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her” in just two weeks. We get it, before all this he had a little crush on her, now he's in love. We have THREE POVs of him before he says the latter statement, the feelings development literally is: he likes furrow in black brows, very upset about wound, too shy to speak to her, she gave me space in a place with seemingly no space, and undying love, I'm not kidding, I went through all his POVs in which something about her is mentioned.
It was rushed. And if you subtract all the flashbacks you'll notice.
I loved Matthias and Nina's relationship, basically because it was a good ol' hate to love (and a bit love to hate?) dynamics, my problem? We arrived at the middle of it. I love me ‘denial, anger, bargain, acceptance' when it comes to this kind of character development, we just couldn't experience it with the characters, instead we had to see it in awfully short flashbacks. THERE WASN'T ENOUGH WYLAN AND JESPER.
* The whole book felt a little like this.
*The final twist was just not impressive. I was just like, Hey this is the guy that's got an indenture that can walk through walls and could've killed that one important ambassador. Kaz even said it: “so that's the way they did it” and they don't suspect despite him being shady af.
And the Ugly.
Just everything about Inej's kidnapping. I'm not going to lie and say that I suspected every turn of events, but this was just a thing that I had thought about (when she couldn't get past that security clearance before the party) and dismissed because, no, surely Bardugo won't leave her here so that she becomes the hero's motivation, that is one plot device I hate.
So there you have it, boys, girls, inbetweeners.
So. Eragon. Well...
Firstly I must make clear that my grammar is the shittiest thing you will read today- unless of course you think Eragon was worse. In that case I have nothing to say.
Anyway. This review isn't really going to be long because I read this book like 3 or 4 years ago and still think it's great, but not for the reasons you might spect so let's get started.
I absolutely loved it the first time I got it on my hands. I thought it was a good story (dragons, magic and an ancient language that held the true meaning of everything) and it was well written (Although I read a translation so I can't really say much about it), I also was pretty fond with the characters... So I enjoyed it a lot, we got it clear.
This was in fact THE book that introduced me into this world of words. It started it all. And I couldn't (or wouldn't want to) stop.
Everything was fine until I came here and saw the reviews. I knew the movie was awful (even though it lead me to the book) but I knew nothing about what were the people's thoughts on the book so after all those years I discovered this site and saw all this opinions and... I completely agreed with what they said. Things in its moment I ignored, now I notice and aren't exactly good. A bit of Gary Stu here, a drop of nonexistent character development there, and a teaspoon of tedious descriptions everywhere. (Go to the other reviews to have a deeper analysis).
So why the high score?
I think it was out of nostalgia.
Don't get me wrong I still think it's a fantastic book but I wouldn't say it is as incredible as I thought the first time.
Actual rating 3.8. Mild spoilers ahead.
I really liked this book. It has its objective mistakes but overall the good parts were good enough (for me) to oversee the bad ones.
Yes, it has some of the standard tropes of YA literature (i.e: lost royalty, court infiltration, badass with weapons main character, first person pov, forbidden magic, etc. etc.). (Read Jessica's review to see the things that got beneath my skin but I let go: review)
I specially liked two things. The pacing and the romance (and I'm kind of picky when it comes to the latter).
I was on the edge of my... bed? I was lying down, ok? You get me. The wraithland part was very nice, it is just you, Wilhelmina and the mysterious lurking secrets that dwell on the wraithland waiting to be discovered.
The romance, tho, the romance. Look it's great when you have a real sexy, real handsome love interest, I'm all for it, but if you insist on shoving it down our throats every ten lines (I'm looking at you Obsidian and Princess of Thorns) I'm gonna end up kinda hating him. The thing about this is that everything is more about what he makes her feel and not (spoiler?) so much about how he's ripe to eat and the crown prince. Don't get me wrong, he is... but by the time we get something remotely romantic we're more than half the book down and I don't care about how he looks but the fact that he ToUCHEd her arm, this is some 2005 Pride & Prejudice Darcy's wild unchaperoned taking of Lizzy's hand to help her get on the carriage sort of thing here. Ok? Ok. (I actually think I liked the book only for the way the romance plot was written)
I quite enjoyed the read but wouldn't recommend if you're tired of the aforementioned cliches/tropes and/or if you are craving a complex story.
Also there were like three or four infodumps that could've been put out of their misery.
I'm going to discuss specific plot points so reader caution is advised.
So, you already read the summary blurb: girl is Sleeping Beauty's daughter called Aurora (SB is now nameless) and she needs to reclaim her throne from the evil ogres that took it ten years ago. After years on the run her brother was captured because of plot... I guess? And Aurora sets out on a mission to rise an army to distract the queen so that she can slip into the castle unnoticed and free Jor (her brother, yes, also her nickname is Ror). She is captured by bandits she tried to recruit but fortunately the also cursed prince sex god (no, really, she describes him as a literal god) Niklaas from the neighbouring kingdom finds her and the adventure begins!
Ok, so first let's talk about the plot structure... what the everloving fuck is that? The author wouldn't know how to build conflict or expectation on a reader's mind even if her book's success depended on it.
My biggest issue was the queen subplot treatment: we're some chapters into the story and suddenly the PoV changes to the queen, honestly we don't care, we don't even care about the hero yet and you're trying to make us what... pity? understand? care? For the antagonist? Is it to create conflict? Well, it doesn't work because we won't have other narrative from the queen's mind in a bunch of pages later so by then we've already forgotten it and is the all same first impression: jarring and out of place.
I actually applaud the author's intent, I do, but it comes off as awkward. Let us believe our own take on the story just to turn it upside down in the end. Our main character believes the queen is evil, let us believe that too, so that when we learn about the prophet's manipulation we feel conflicted too. Even better, change our paradigm some chapters before the great confrontation, let this new knowledge trouble our minds while we read about Aurora's need to kill the queen.
I would've like this book much better if Stacy just would've changed a bit the order of the chapters.
I also have issues with the pacing... but I wouldn't know how to explain why I found it kinda boring...
Now onto... characters...
I just can't with Niklass. I didn't matter how many times Aurora went on how he's the most beautiful being on earth I couldn't get my first mental image to go away. As soon as Aurora said:
“his golden hair falling in waves to his shoulders, his bee-stung lips, his eyes as bright and blue as the sea stone I stole from Janin's treasure box.
He is ... magnificent.”
This guy appeared on my mind never to leave again:
But my main pet peeve is his sudden newfound lust after a person that two days before he could call a brother. I mean, it is one thing to lust after a person only to discover that he's your brother (a call out to The Mortal Instruments) but a very different thing is to consider a person your brother, find out it's a girl and then consider her the most beautiful being of creation and woohoo-worthy.
There wasn't any desire from his part at all. We people box other people according to their relationship with us. You have your friends, your family and your romantic interests all in different boxes, of course you can move your friends to the romantic interest box, but you wouldn't do that with your little brother.
Yes, yes, he thought of her as a brother only for three weeks, but he was thinking of being his big brother while married to her “sister”. I would accept it if Nik would've refused to think of her as a brother, the author could've brought up an interesting issue about sexual orientation besides the one concerning gender.
Is just that is a tad creepy to have all that brotherly love and just because she has boobs it is no longer brotherly but romantic.
Also, Niklass is a very convoluted way to style the name Nicholas.
Good, now, Aurora. She's... fine.
I have nothing to say about her. She's less whiny and swoony than other YA protagonists (she's still swoony, just try and count how much of the word count she spends describing how godly he is) and that's it.
Other little problems I had.
1. Why didn't Aurora tell Niklass about her curse after he told her about his? She just woke up, she hasn't thought of her idiotic plan to rob him of his will. It was the perfect moment, he just told her that he's not interested in kissing her so why not tell him, she owes it to him and I would certainly fell compelled to tell him about it even if it is just to make him feel better. My pick? The author only decided not to reveal it then because she wanted some cheap drama for the end.
2. Is it me or this book has some real weird prose? I have read “whiskers” and “babe/s” far too many more times than is advisable. And just read this: “thank all the gods and goddesses and the little baby demigods in their downy cradles” or “Less than two minutes later, I am born into my new life in a rush of filth and wet”. What?
3. Magic, oh, magic. Gettel says that Niklass curse won't break if Aurora forces him to marry her or some bullshit about love... but there weren't any mentions about love in the curse, we suppose that a way to break a curse is to find a loophole in the rules set up by the curse and take advantage of it, because that's what Niklass is trying to do, but now you're telling me that there's another clause that wasn't mentioned at all before? You telling me that even if he managed to marry one of the other girls he wouldn't be free from the curse because of some bullshit random rule you just came up with? Because the gods you haven't even mentioned before wouldn't approve it? That's a new level of cruel.
4. And, finally, what's that bullshit about succession lines? He wouldn't leave his line because he is married to another ruler. That's literally what the royals don't want, how awesome it is for your children to be the the heirs of two kingdoms at once. I would've like for the author to research royalty, because apparently there are no convenience marriages in this generic medieval land. Also no one would set 18 as the age to inherit the throne, why would you anyway? Not one eighteen year old is fit to rule a country. Why not just leave it so that you inherit the throne when the former ruler dies? As the king is immortal you can change the motives for the curse to be that... I don't know there's a vision of one of his sons discovering a way to kill him and so he curses them.
Jezz.
I'm finished now. Phew!
Let's do this one in English, shall we?
So, you already saw the rating, I Mcfrigging™ loved it.
Spoiler alert, this review might be a little biased. (And will probably contain, duh, spoilers).
Ready? Go!
We find ourselves in a fictional land where there's an empire on the grow: Valoria. The story follows young Kestrel, the daughter of the most renounced general, who has given the valorian territory several conquers, within them: Herran, a fertile peninsula, former home to the Herrani people, who are now slaves. One day, Kestrel accidentally finds herself witnessing an auction, impulsively, she buys a herrani slave that captures her attention, things escalate big time from there.
When I first came across this book I had the impression that this was a dystopia or set in outer space, I was certainly expecting a voice like that of The Red Queen, very... YA heroine™.
First off, characters.
You haven't the faintest idea of how much I enjoyed the characters.
Kestrel is everything I wanted of a YA heroin and more, she is not your average protagonist, she is a skilled liar, a deep observant, a brilliant strategist and also a gifted musician... yet she is far from perfect: she is too trusting, exactly because she believes her judgements to be without fail, she thinks she is foolproof.
She is a cold and calculating strategist. But she can also be kind. She is stubborn, she is selfish and proud, and caring and selfless too. She feels balanced and human.
She is pretty but, and here goes something I really like about the way this book is written, we never have a description of her looks. Yes, there are hints of she looks like but that's it. We know she's blond, fair and has brown-ish eyes... because every valorian has those traits. We know she is agreeable, not unattractive by the emperor's words.
And last, for now, I like the fact that she is average to bad with weapons. The thing is... she isn't a helpless damsel in distress, she's been trained, but her weapon of choice (though sometimes isn't a choice because she does suck with weapons) is her intellect. There's a common trope these days that our female characters must be deadly fighters for them to be badass. Well, not you, Kestrel, not you.
Now onto Arin. Oh, you little shit.
Arin is also very intelligent, he beat Kestrel in several Bite and Sting games (a board game based on deception, strategy and reading your opponent) and also in life, like, she shared information with him that helped murder a ton of people, but then, he was trying to free his people.
He's a little brooding, tall, dark and handsome but he deserves it, with having your family killed and being enslaved and all. He is, indeed, quite the looker, however, he's not the typical cold bastard with the huge ego that knows what he's got going and knows also how to use it at his advantage (don't get me wrong I do love my fair share of sexy bastards), quite the opposite actually; he, as with Kestrel, is not described outside of his ethnicity. Kestrel really doesn't pay attention to his appearance until the very end, she concentrates on the color of his eyes, the sound of his voice, and the things he says (and doesn't say).
Although, this doesn't mean that he is a modest nun, he is prideful and it is this very thing that catches Kestrels attention at the auction, his refusal to bow down, his defiance.
Arin wouldn't know how to be cold even if an ice cube hit him on the face. He is cold blooded, surely, he isn't squeamish when it comes to kill but he is ruled by his emotions, his feelings draw the best and worst of him. He is intelligent and has a mind for strategy, but ultimately he would choose his heart over what is wise.
He, too, is a breath of fresh air.
The story & writing
The plot is very simple. What makes you stay is not the fast pacing but the way the author decided to take on the story.
The way she deals with this kind-of-a-taboo-thing that is Kestrel and Arin's romantic plot, this master/slave thing, is masterful. The feelings the characters have in the first place are the correct ones: curious indifference (Kestrel does find him intriguing but she doesn't really care) and hatred/contempt on the other side, but then they strike this deal that sets them both in a position of equals which allows for the relationship strive forward in a way that lets them build a kind of kingship between them, then respect, friendship and something else by putting aside the elephant in the room that is Kestrel's position of power.
Not much is described about the internal struggle that Arin has throughout the narration but we do see Kestrel's gradual change, trust, grow at finding someone that sees things in a light not unlike her own.
I think that one thing that I like the most about this is the slow burn of feels, and that it is not built on looks alone but upon thoughts and the understanding of the other.
There are some other things I think I could mention but you got the point of my gushing.
Ps. There was just one thing I did not like and was this... thing about (spoiler?) Arin being a singer. Did she have to make him a music prodigy too?
