Emaan
EDIT: Re-read no.1 done
That was a difficult read with all my migraines but quite enjoyable. I would have to give it 3.5 stars or 4, not quite sure yet.
Update: I have confirmed that it is, in fact, 4 stars.
It had adventure, albeit in a castle, but I was all here for it. The pace was pretty normal which can be a bit painful, since it's over roughly 4 months I would say it drags a bit more than one would want.
Celaena Sardothien, is there anything better than her (fake) name, well.... there is and he comes with the name Dorian Havilliard.
Now, this is an unpopular opinion but I quite like Dorian. Other people may be thinking that Chaol is everything amazing but he was genuinely anything but a love interest in this book even though Maas hints heavily to their romance.
—”Celaena remained watching the door, even after Chaol had shut it behind him.”—
Even with Dorian right there, she continues looking to where Chaol left. It was blatantly obvious from then on. Other hints had been when Chaol gave her the ring after chucking Dorian out of the room, as well as often getting jealous of Dorian and Celaena spending time with each other.
One can only imagine how the next book goes.
Now, the element of mystery kept things interesting. I always knew Nehemia was good, but I always had my bets on Duke Perrington being the one summoning these monstrous demon-like spawn. Most of it was down to how he was described, his eyes shifting between light and dark, good and evil. Other parts of it involved knowing that Cain's size increased almost day by day. He seemed the most suspicious and the one with the most to lose.
However, now that I know it was Cain who used magic and wyrdmarks for evil, I can still understand and yet still come to the same conclusion. Duke Perrington is evil, I call it even now.
—”“Your manipulation of Kaltain was interesting,” said the king at last. Perrington remained kneeling. “Were you using the power on her?”
“No; I've relaxed it recently, as you suggested,” the duke replied, rotating the obsidian ring around his thick finger.”—
Now, onto the next book... Hopefully
Edit: I seriously hope Kai begs Paedyn for forgiveness in the next book. Begs and begs and feels intense, bone crushing, heart blistering guilt for everything that happened to her. Both throughout her life and by the hand of his father. They also have to be endgame. I have high hopes for Lauren and Reckless!
I have either never felt pain like this before or it's another one of my nightmares.
I must admit that this book never held my attention at the start, I swear it took on and off reading for roughly an hour to scrape 29 pages. But, I do like to say that some of the best books have the slowest, most boring starts that can kill anyone if they focus too hard. This, combined with complete and utter confusion, can lead to wanting to give up but that was not something I could do. After reading the first ~100 pages of Dance of Thieves and my siblings graciously picking out Powerless for me I knew I had no chance of a DNF until I was well into the hundred or so pages of the book.
And turns out I was wrong. Again.
A boring start can trick the best of us and we are left very impolitely with a sad ending that makes you feel as though you've had you're heart ripped out. They say “a life for a life” and who knew that could be so true. A 14-15 year old Kai killed Paedyn's father, whether he was unsuspecting or not to who the guy was it most definitely happened. A present day Paedyn Gray thinks the king has killed her father only to be told by him, and realise for herself, that it was her precious Malakai. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. Paedyn kills the king. Payback. Heart-wrenching payback.
I don't know how to come back from this, especially with Kai going back to chase his official hunt as enforcer. But do not get me started on Kitt, I hate him with a passion.
4.5 stars!
Sooooo good. I don't know what to rate it though, is it worthy of a 4.5 stars or is it only 4 stars material. I would rate it a 4.25 stars but that's really getting into the ratings
I just love any formula one book. Especially ones that are unbiased. This one was purely stats based, technically speaking. One thing I found interesting was how it said that James Allison was technical director when he only just came back from making boats(?) Not that I don't mind the addition, it was just quite unexpected.
I have to admit that this book got to me for the first 200 pages, the last 200 reeled me in though. I can safely say that this has brought my rating up to a 3.5 stars.
I loved Celia and Marco's relationship, after knowing each other for 16 years they were both willing to die for one another. Their ending was a little disappointing though, as wholesome as it was for them to end up together roaming the circus without being seen by anyone else ever again, I would have hoped to know they were dead instead. A little mean, I know, I can't help it though.
Aside from the many POVs I found pointless and the pain of not being able to give up, this book did interest me and I couldn't wait to get it over with (again, it sounds mean but I'm not embellishing the god honest truth). I wanted to know what was happening but I also wanted it to end so I'm glad that happened today. I don't think I would've lasted tomorrow.
This book was so sweet. I loved the step back from Aelin and the war with Morath/Erawan. We had also learnt a lot of much-needed backstory for the war and what was to occur. It was also beautiful for it to be on another continent, where everything was insane and flowing. A continent that worked seamlessly.
This also made me appreciate Chaol a lot more after hating him, we have Yrene to thank for that!
It's definitely got a high rating although I cannot decide just yet
Edit: I have finally come to the conclusion that I need to rate this book. Apparently, changing ratings also means being able to give a book a rating as well.
I loved this book a lot. Like I said before I loved the step back from the action. I just cannot settle on a suitable rating. I loved Yrene in this, my liking of Chaol definitely grew from QOS and Sartaq was pretty interesting, but Nesryn was pretty boring. If she wasn't, this book would have been an easy 5 stars but I'm being critical.
So a very close 4.5 stars!
When I say that I knew some of the ending would happen, I can thank fanarts for that, but I never realised it would happen like that and so soon. It made my heart hurt a bit, but apparently I'm not so attached to Aelin so when the end did come I wasn't in tears like with the previous books. Still, one thing I can commend Sarah for is her ability to make the final 100 pages of her books the most intense and amazing.
4.5 stars for the lovely book!
SJM has a talent when it comes to the last 100 pages of any book she writes.
One word I would use to describe my reaction to the ending is:
Gobsmacked
It was that good. RTC!
Edit: Arguably one of her best books ever written
I feel like I should have liked this more than I did, but I feel as though I'm falling into a slump. If I weren't going into a reading slump, I would have likely given it 4 stars so that's what I'm attempting to do.
Edit: I'll be kind and give it 3 stars, even though it is painful to read and I never agreed with the romantic route taken
I think I've gotten past my inability to read any of the Throne of Glass books and this one happened to tear my heart to pieces.
First of all, I hated all of Manon's chapters until I decided that they were a nice change from the typical Aelin/Celaena, Chaol and Dorian povs.
Those last 150 or so pages were a ride and they made this book amazing. I hate how good it got, I hated the pain that came with it. And I just need Dorian to be okay..
Edit: Bumped down the rating to 4 stars, no hate against the book but it seemed more suitable
That ending, what was that? Both were abducted by people who would rather them die than live? I can't believe Livia's family and friends ambushed Erik like that. Imagine if their own daughter was with him and they killed her.
AND the part I really wanted to bring up, Larsson. Villain era. Hell, the guy has wreaked havoc everywhere but I'm not surprised to find out he was the one that caused all of this, it doesn't surprise me at all. I had a feeling when they abducted Livia and he said something about playing the Ever King when Livia fell under the sea fae song. It just struck me as odd that he would say such a thing when he could tell Livia didn't care about who fulfilled her desire. It was a massive giveaway put so far forward it probably would never have gotten picked up if I didn't find it odd.
Anyways 3.5 stars
Let me just say, this is probably my 7th reread of this and it did not disappoint. Turns out, since it's one of my favourite books of all time I can still remember all of it as if I just read it for the first time yesterday.
Finished! And it feels like one of my many reluctant 5 star reads!! (I will just be typing all the thoughts that pop into my mind)
But I have to give it 5 stars since it was beautiful. It was a mystery-romance with a twist and they are my soft spots, just look at A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid and you'll understand it a bit more.
I'm so upset that the book has ended, it should have been longer. Like way longer. But then again it was beautifully fast-paced, a longer book would have been a drag.
This book will have me malfunctioning if I don't think about the 5 stars
I don't even know what to put for this just yet, even rating it is hard so I need to slowly reread it and take the words in. I finished this at 2am so that explains where my head was at in the moment.
I love the ending but everything that came before has me a bit confused, I wish there were more Jacks chapters. It was very counter-intuitive having a memory-less Eva with a majority of the chapters and then a weak Apollo with the next. Jacks would have been the suitable character to focus on and he should have fought for Eva more since she did most of the fighting in tbona. I wished we saw more of Jacks, his presence seemed very fleeting and he disappeared very quickly.
Then there were the plot holes, why was Eva such a big target for murder? Yes, she was Jacks' ally but she completely lost her memories. In that sense she was never in cahoots with Jacks, so was it just an excuse for moments with Jacks? It seemed as if the story was jumping around a lot, Eva could never actually catch a break AND she never saw Kristoff even though she was meaning to. Time only ever slowed when Eva was with Jacks in the Cursed Forest and all other moments with him after, as well as her moments with LaLa. Whenever Apollo was around, it was as if time sped up so much.
Now, I wish this book were longer, even 500 pages would have been enough to complete the book well. But I can't fault Stephanie creating a happy ending for Jacks and Eva, in which their only antagonist got himself sealed off into a tree.
3.5 stars for now!
While this book wasn't near as perfect as the first, it was an overall good book. I just wish it was a 2 pov where Finny was the most prominent character.
3.5 stars!
My prediction was correct. It was more a 3.5 star read than anything else. As a 3.5 star, it was enjoyable but pretty easy to forget. The first 4 chapters were majorly boring to me while it slowly got better and the end was pretty good. If it had been consistent throughout, it would have been far better. But beggars can't be choosers and this was a solid debut novel.
One thing I can safely say is Amelie was really desperate to go as far as to do this. I'm glad she realised how wrong things were and managed to break free. Must have been hell with Cobalt
This book took a different turn to the first. Alessa and Dante were pretty much split for the most part of the book, where something caused one or the other to hold back.
The plot was a lot more different, with a new issue arising and focusing more on Dante's pov instead of just Alessa's. This was a refreshing switch which made the book feel like a standalone.
The ending was so powerful, turning a game into something so expansive, something so worrying. All while giving us a happy ending.
I'm not like the typical person, I love that Amelie got her happy ending even if it were in a form she knew couldn't glamour her.
This book was adorable. I still love Silas but have found him as odd as Elisabeth and Nathaniel seemed to find him. Not to say he's any less of an interesting character though.
Nathaniel and Elisabeth have my heart, they are a lovely duo and I think this novella served its purpose by being a pallet cleanser.
While I'm not typically a fan of cosy fantasy, this one proved to be a quick and easy read with characters I already knew who already had their fair share of action. While being good, I do wish there was more so 3.5 stars for not quite being enough for me