Ohh I read this a long long time ago and just now realized it was an ARC and I was supossed to write a review about it.
Welp.
Here we go (with what 4/10
Ohh I read this a long long time ago and just now realized it was an ARC and I was supossed to write a review about it.
Welp.
Here we go (with what I can remember).
It felt weak.
From the beginning everything was unconvincing. The way each person acted, the way they conversed... I can't really explain it but the only thing this book had going on for it is the wlw part? But even that was.. lukewarm?
Okay, it really wasn't that bad, most things aren't - I just get frustrated and disappointed which leads to me being unable to control those feelings while I write reviews. After I finish the book, especially every day romance type of thing, something that's not that new or interesting (like here), I'll mostly forget what's going on but I'll always remember how it made me feel.
And this book made me feel sceptical of most things in the story. By the time I was done with half I'd just wanted to finish it already.
I think that the problem with that was mostly the length of the book. It's a novella and it definitely my fault I didn't see that before reading it. Would I read it still? If I knew? No.
Can something really be said about a different world than ours in 160 pages? A world that would need way more details to be convincing.
Yes, their love was a cute part, sure (didn't really care for it to be honest which is rare thing with me), but the best thing about this book was, by far, the cover. The power of it's graphic promised such an adventurous tale that I feel a bit tricked as well....more
I do have a feeling like this would've been book I would stop reading pretty early on were I reading it on my own. Luckily I listened to the audio6/10
I do have a feeling like this would've been book I would stop reading pretty early on were I reading it on my own. Luckily I listened to the audio and honestly I'd recommend it to anyone who's into audiobooks.
It feels as if nothing is happening in 80% of the book (pretty minor things) and then in the end theres a chaos of stuff.
I feel like the book would’ve been so much better without the constant sexual thoughts Feyre (the MC and my least favourite character) has. It's so old, forced and tiring. And I had to skip the sex as well. Thanks, no thanks. I was here for the adventurous story. I guess that throughout the book I liked Lucien, Rhysand and Nesta the most. And the two girls in the end of the book seemed very likable. Feyra and Tamlin just annoyed me, honestly, so much that at one point I liked the villain more than them.
The riddle was kind of predictable to the point that I overthought thinking no way it'd be easy like that. Yes, it's cliche but it fits with the story - I get it. I guess I'm mostly disappointed because I thought I'd be reading a fast paced fantasy adventure about some skilled strong ass girl. The only thing from my wish list that I actually did get irl is the “girl” part.
I found the ending quite entertaining and it's wrapped up so well that I'd say writing a sequel is very forced. I get that it's written for profit and since the opportunity arose why not explore the world more.
My girlfriend thinks I'll like the second book much better though, so, in some time, I'll definitely get onto it as well.
I wanted to try out other Sarah J Maas series, too. But I'm not that sure anymore. I feel as if I'd like it better if it'd be leaning more towards a real adventure and not sitting and f*cking (like in this book). This is just giving me Nora Roberts vibes. Ugh.
7/10 audio
I've never come across Jennifer Ikeda before but she did a pretty solid job here. I actually advise listening to the audiobook while doing something instead of reading it by yourself....more
I mean, technically you could just declare the end here and while I tend to like those endings as well, I7/10
wHAT?? NO. I NEED THE SECOND PART ASAP!!!
I mean, technically you could just declare the end here and while I tend to like those endings as well, I got so invested now that I need more.
Alyce and Aurora, the MCs, are A1s, honestly. No pun intened. Well, I always do like more problematic and dark characters, so, naturally, I liked Alyce, more. Aurora, though very likable felt 2D at times. I would've liked it, and it would've felt so much more natural, to see their relationship develop more before the Climax*, as well. No pun intended, again. And, sometimes, though rarely, things they do felt forced. But, since this is a Fairy Tale type of book, I'm guessing you do need some cliche parts in there, as well. The MCs are cute and very similar, they know what they want but they're caged and can't do much about it.
So, the book is about finding freedom. I want to see these sapphics finally achieve it.**
Months have passed in this book (8 if I'm not mistaken) but everything felt rushed at times that I couldn't even see neither their (Alyce and Aurora's) relationship nor Alyces magic developing that well.
Vila does resemble the word villain, but it's also the word for fairy in most Slavic languages. So, Alyce, a fairy/magical creature with dark magic, called a Vila is, honestly, kind of, genius.
I'm not that big of a fan of the book cover, though. I think it deserves a much prettier one!
A very solid debut from Heather Walter, indeed. Hope I'll be reading the second book of the Duology next year!
* well, the climax of this book at least. Not of the whole story.
** mostly why I need that second book, tbh.
Some notes I wrote down while reading: (view spoiler)[ • Honestly, Kal gives off creep vibes. Something's not right.
• Is Laurel sus or are those my trust issues? She's too nice. lol
• There's a Renault in the book AAAaaaAAAa HAHAHHA (yes, it was an unimportant character that was only mentioned in a paragraph but I couldn't help laughing because I kept imagining a Renault Clio instead of a person. So weird. Lol. Hope there's a Fiat and an Opel in the next book. Or let's just stick to French cars and name someone Peugeot. I love it.) (hide spoiler)]...more
Two powerful women with doctorates made for each other teaming up to crack a code f*CK YES
I had a probl7/10*
Gay lara croft yES
Or so I thought. **
But -
Two powerful women with doctorates made for each other teaming up to crack a code f*CK YES
I had a problem with Vali’s other book (The Inheritance) which just bored and tired me so I stopped reading it at about 50% and even though I tried to skim through it till the end I just couldn’t finish that book. Because of that one I was very cautious with this book, too, but I really ended up enjoying the adventure.
Yes, this is an adventurous story with some mystery elements first (pretty dominantly), so, if you’re looking for a breezy light romance with a bit of mystery - this ain’t it. I liked it, though.
This is a bit random, to be honest, but personality wise Levi very frequently used to remind me of Anne Lister (from her diaries and the BBC/HBO show) so I somehow ended up imagining Levi as Suranne Jones’ Anne with all her quirks and gesticulation.***
Not really a big fan of Ali Vali’s writing flow because when I read it, I somehow always have a feeling like the book’s written wayyy before 2020. Especially since the characters act and talk that way, too.**** Tiring and forced if I dare say. It felt unnatural to me and it always has some weird aura of unbelieveableness because of it and it makes me sad/mad since it's stopping me from fully getting into the story.
I don't know if that's a recurring thing but this is a second book by Vali I read and also the second one that has the butch/femme pairing. So, if you're into that I'd recommend checking out her books.
The adventurous and mysterious part of this story is A1, honestly. But, if we're talking grades, the romantic aspect of this story barely gets a D.
I expected way more action so I was a bit disappointed with only these puzzle solving moments BUT it's such an interesting kind of historic story about Andre and the Templars that you have to read it. I ended up reading the book only because of that, honestly. I'm not the one for an instantaneous love - it's just not believable. It's not real. It happens too fast and I liked the book better until that moment. The MCs know each other for only a bit but EVERYONE talks about Levi being the one for Yasmine***** so surely??
I always almost v*mit when someone says “You’re different”. I just think of all the guys always saying that same thing to all the girls they want. And, on the other hand, it's also very pick me, choose me. Levi, I'm disappointed - you could've done better. Lol
So, yes, I feel as if the book would've been SO MUCH BETTER only if they got together a lot closer to the end.
You can then watch, well, read, as their chemistry grows throughout the book and all the code breaking and adventures they have and not them actually miraculously ending up together in the beginning of the book and saying they love one another so frequantly to the point it gets annoying and I have to roll my eyes.
Definitely a book I'd recommend but I can't help but feel disappointed, as well, since this story had so much more potential. It was in Vali's grasp and I feel as if she could've easily done it but she let it go, instead.
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
* Honestly, it's way more of a 6/10 (3 stars) because the romance part is so bad but the story itself was interesting and good so it just barely jumped to 4 stars. And I felt bad because I was giving so many ARCs bad reviews recently.
** Maybe I was finding so many similarities because I'd just finished Rise of the Tomb Raider. It definitely reminded me of this Lara Croft game. Though, it ended up not being as adventurous and high on action as I thought it'd be.
*** I love Anne. Can't wait for the Season 2. sksdkskjdsa Should read all the Anne Lister books I bought first, though. I'm just scared I'll spoil it for myself. Lol
**** Anne Lister vibes, again. Because of the setting this time - like they're living in the age of Industrial Revolution, as well.
I, honestly, don't know much about Lithuania but I loved reading about it. Well it was probably some pretty rural place outside of Vilnius here, a5/10
I, honestly, don't know much about Lithuania but I loved reading about it. Well it was probably some pretty rural place outside of Vilnius here, as I gathered, therefore there's not much you can actually learn about the country or culture. But you can learn about the mythology and that's probably Genevive McCluer's dominant thought when writing this book.
The only thing I really don't like in this book is gira. Lol. How could anyone willingly drink gira/kvass is beyond me. Even the sight of it in stores disgusts me. Slavs really be wildin'.
I really liked Taya. Myself being a Slav as well, I thought it was cute having some good Slavic representation for once. I think this is the first time, in my 22 year old life, something like that happened. We are definitely more than just mafia and war criminals, thank you very much. Though, kind of, that turned out to be a double-edged sword since (because of all the media) I caught myself reading almost everything in stereotypical broken English. Oh, well.
Vana and Roze are cute, I can't deny that. I like how they've been pen friends for so long and how they liked each other even with all the distance. I like Vana's friendship with Taya and Caroline. I like those two characters as well. The MCs met when I was about halfway through the book and since then had a tiny bit of very expected push-and-pull moment which later lead to a pretty sweet ending.
This is a very light and fast YA read and I would probably recommend it to some young teenager who's into fantasy. And lesbians, i guess.
Admittedly, I couldn't grasp the concept where e.g. (view spoiler)[Roze easily travelled from Lithuania to Toronto in just one step but the there seemed to be no time change. The night the trio was looking for Vana's bff, said bff, Roze, was with her mum while she was cleaning some house. It was 9pm Toronto time which means it was 4am back in Lithuania. Is someone really not at home at 4am or is peacefully sleeping while a stranger is taking out their trash and loudly singing?? Or are time zones just nonexistent? (hide spoiler)] I was confused a couple of times because of that and this overlooked fact stopped me from fully getting into the story.
I love mythology and, when you know a lot about Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Slavic, Norse and Mesopotamian one, it's fun to see how everything is so similar and almost intertwining. So learining a small bit about Baltic mythology here was fun. Maybe that's my biggest problem with this book as well. There's only a tiny little piece of everything. A bit of mythology, a bit of Dovana and Roze's relationship (the one where you could actually see some connection between them because everything feels too flat and meh), a bit of Dovana's past relationship and her friendship with Caroline and Taya, a bit of her family, etc. But it didn't mix too well. Like when you mix too many colours and the colour you end up getting is some kind of brown. Brown is nice, it's calming but it's too plain. In my humble, visual artist's, opinion it's best to pick only one or two most important things you want to go with and make it stand out. You need indisputable accents. Otherwise you can see when artist's thoughts aren't clear enough for them, it starts to suffocate them, and you could see that they got lost while making the final product. Maybe it would've been better if the story was mostly about the mythology and adventure and then their relationship took much lesser portion of the story. Or the book was really about their relationship as the blurb states (I wasn't convinced) and then you really get in depth about that. Doesn't matter how much you want to, some good ideas, sadly, just won't make the final cut. But, then again - I'm not a writer. Maybe writing's different than other forms of art.
To be honest, I found myself shipping Taya and Caroline way more than the MCs. If McCleur, at some point, desides to write a book about those two (doesn't even have to be a romantic story - maybe it's more of an adventure where two bickering friends are managing through the very real world of Baltic mythology) I wouldn't hasitate to get my hands on it. At least those two had some chemistry. Dovana and Roze's relationship felt weird and not really believable from start to finish. It felt too forced and it makes me sad because I really wanted to like this book a lot.
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review....more
I’m a huge Noyes fan but I’ll have to admit that this book isn't favourite one by her.
Compared to all the other authors, though, it’s still a real7/10
I’m a huge Noyes fan but I’ll have to admit that this book isn't favourite one by her.
Compared to all the other authors, though, it’s still a really solid story. It’s cute and cliche and very different.
It’s definitely worth reading.
Why the lower rating, though?
This is an adorable soulmate paranormal story and I really loved everything about it. All the characters are amazing and how can you not love Noyes’ way of writing? Impossible. So the rating is a bit lower than it usually is for my favourite author solely because everything was really predictable here. It didn't grab me as much. And the MCs were annoying and acting dumb at some points. She really did set the bar high with all the other books, ey?
But, really, this is such a cute predictable story that you can’t help but love it. Also, I hear Abby Craden narrated it so I’d definitely recommend getting your hands on that one if you’re into audiobooks.
I want all of E.J. Noyes’ books in my real life bookshelf. Ksksk...more
I'm glad I chose this one for the first adventure/fantasy gxg book I'll read. This is a really good debut.
I usually don't read YA books but this o8/10
I'm glad I chose this one for the first adventure/fantasy gxg book I'll read. This is a really good debut.
I usually don't read YA books but this one, although kind of predictible is very cute and I'd definitely recommend it to my younger sister* because I know it's something she'd love.
8/10 audio
Ferdelle Capistrano and Andrea Emmes did a really good job and if you like audio books I do recommend this one.
*Well, if she weren't homophobic, I guess. lol...more
I only read this one, the last one, since I've seen all the movies (but the last two) already and wanted to find out how the story ends. Wish I'd10/10
I only read this one, the last one, since I've seen all the movies (but the last two) already and wanted to find out how the story ends. Wish I'd read the books first and then watched the screen adaptation. I'll try to read all the books in the series when I get the chance, though....more
I read it only because I was so hooked on the movie (khm Dianna Agron, Teresa Palmer khm) and I wanted to continue the story. For that reason I go2/10
I read it only because I was so hooked on the movie (khm Dianna Agron, Teresa Palmer khm) and I wanted to continue the story. For that reason I got the sequal as well.
Well, what a disappointment, honestly. I expected so much more.
In this very rare case the movie adaptation is a dozen times better than the original story by author....more
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