Mikayla EC

Too little character development

Revisado: 07-10-23

I really wanted to like this book since the plot summary made it sound appealing, but I struggled to finish it towards the end. What with the detailed descriptions of torture (which were completely unnecessary, IMO), underdeveloped side characters, and how MC's seriously unethical (albeit understandable) actions towards end of the book, I ended the book feeling disturbed and glad to just be done with it. The plot was also not well implemented. Like, there's a moment where it's apparently revealed that a particular character was apparently behind the kidnapping, but it's not treated as an actual reveal, but as if it was known all along.


The one thing I did enjoy, aside from the few brief romance scenes, was the minor redemption arc one of the kidnappers gets.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Unhealthy romance

Revisado: 12-02-22

I WANTED to like this book, and I'll admit I enjoyed parts of it enough that I won't return it, but I can't recommend it because the the message is unhelpful and the male lead is just not a good partner. The female lead goes from being scared of romance due to unresolved emotional trauma to being head over heels in love in an unrealistically short time -- you don't get over those kinds of trust issues in a mere few weeks.

But my main issue with the relationship is all the secrets the ML lead keeps from the FL, and yet, while she's initially angry with him, she very quickly decides to trust him again, despite his repeated bad behavior (I don't wanna spoil the story for anyone who does still want to read it, so suffice it to say keeping secrets wasn't his only offense) and her own trust issues. And yeah, to his credit, he does apologize and he seems to be genuinely remorseful and to want to do better, but the reconciliation and forgiveness was just WAY too fast. If she wasn't going to break up with him, she should've insisted they slow way down and that he'd have to prove he really had changed and wasn't going to continue the same behavior if he wanted to continue the relationship. But she doesn't, because they've both decided they they can't live without each other.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Too dark for my taste

Revisado: 02-10-22

I've really enjoyed all the other Iron Fey books and I really wanted to like this one too. And I did, somewhat; there was good world building and the plot was interesting enough, but the overall tone was just so dark. Ash is just really angry and depressed for most of the book, and, while that's understandable given his current circumstances, it doesn't make him a very engaging narrator. He doesn't have much character growth, nor do we see much growth in any of the other characters. He has a few good moments with Puck and Megan where we see some real growth and connection, and there are a few moments of much needed comic relief from Puck, but overall the tone is just too dark and sad for my taste.

One thing I did like (though I wish it happened earlier) was the reveal about Nix's origin, though I won't spoil it. Part of the reveal is given earlier, in a way that's sort of anticlimactic, but the details and the confirmation happen later. It's mostly her own response that's interesting and gives her some real character development. I hope book 3 gives us a bit more about her and Puck. I really like Puck as a narrator, so I hope book 3 goes back to him, or maybe or Megan as narrator. Ash and Keiren are just not good narrators for when things are so dark. Megan and Puck and just more engaging characters in that context. I did quite like hearing from Ash when he was on his journey to earn a soul, because there was a whole lot of character development of backstory in that book.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Way too preachy

Revisado: 01-29-22

I loved the Circle series and I really wanted to like this one. I kept wanting to stop listening but then deciding to give it another chance before I finally stopped. There's way too much nonsense about how believing something makes it real. I believe in God and it's true that faith can be powerful, but that's not at all the same thing as claiming that simply believing you can walk on water means you actually CAN walk on water or even claiming that believing in God will give the ability to do such things. That isn't what faith means. Nor does having faith mean you aren't afraid of anything anymore, and love doesn't mean that either -- that isn't what "perfect love casts out fear" means, despite the book's insistence that it does.

Honestly, I might not have minded this so much if it was just part of the story -- just how this fictional world works. Heck I love fantasy. No, the problem is that the author practically beats you over the head with all this -- so much of the story is just Rachelle being told the same things over and over again.

Finally, the author seems to be obsessed with the word "polarity" and feels the need to repeatedly compare morally neutral things, like simple opposites (e.g. up and down), or even laws of physics, to the division between good and evil. He beats you over the head with the idea that "polarity" is somehow inherently bad and that you have to see past it.

And then there's the repeated insistence that epigenetics means we can change our bodies just by changing our beliefs. While there is some truth to the idea that our beliefs can affect us physically -- the placebo affect is a thing afterall -- that isn't what the science of epigenetics is about; it's about how our environment affects our genome. This shouldn't be *that* big of a deal -- authors get science wrong all the time -- except that the beginning of the book, before the actual story even begins, explicitly claims that all the science in the book is correct and that if you don't believe him, you should "Google it."

The narration was fine -- not phenomenal, but I have no complaints about it. The storytelling though -- it's just bad.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Characters have no moral compass and no large plot

Revisado: 08-21-21

I wanted to like this book I enjoyed the first part, but after a while I just couldn't take how casually the main characters treat changing the past for their own selfish purposes. They don't even CONSIDER the impact this will have -- well, ok, they do initially try set things up so as to have a minimal impact, but they've apparently never heard of the butterfly effect. Plus, there's no clear larger purpose for why they're doing what they're doing -- they seem to just be in it for the money and because it's somewhat interesting. That'd be find for a shorter story but something this long needs a larger overarching plot.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Mixed Feelings

Revisado: 10-02-20

Of the three books, I definitely enjoyed this one the most. I liked seeing David grow as a person and as a leader and I was glad to get more information about how the powers work. I STRONGLY disagree with another reviewer who said the ending was terrible. I don't feel that way at all, but it also wasn't the greatest ending either. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't go into any details, but I would have liked more explanation of how the powers work. However, I'm not really sure how Sanderson could have given more explanation without turning the ending into an essay on the nature of epic powers. I also would have liked more character development for Calamity/(SPOILER ALERT!!!!)

Larsoner. Why do his people think it's their job to bring out the supposed corruption inherent in otter species and get them to destroy each other? That's horrific, albeit a not uncommon trope when it comes to stories about otherworldly creatures. But we get no explanation for why they believe this or even who they are. I'd be interested to read a sequel series that goes into in more depth.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Excellent writing; MC's with questionable ethics

Revisado: 10-02-20

I bought this at the recommendation of a friend who assured me that it wasn't really about revenge, despite what the summary seemed to imply. I've also heard such good things about Brandon Sanderson's writing. Combined, those factors motivated me to keep going, hoping it would get better. It's not that it was poorly written. Not at all. It was very well written and that's part of why I did finish it. No, what bothered me was that the main characters never seemed to seriously consider the consequences of their actions. Yes, Steelheart is a tyrant and a murderer and yes, he deserves to die. But then what? What's to stop someone worse from filling the power vacuum if he's killed? To Sanderson's credit, this issue is mentioned, but David just brushes it off, never really considering it. He never really think it's through and neither does anyone else, except Megan,
but she just goes along with what the rest of the team want even though she thinks it's a bad idea. I would've been fine with it if they'd actually thought it through and decided it was worth the risk, but they never do that. They don't stop and seriously consider the best course of action. Or maybe Prof does, but his only justification we actually hear is a vague platitude (I can't remember exactly what it was).
To be fair, this is only the first book in the series and the character development gets a lot better in the following books, with David considering his actions and consequences more and trying to be less reckless. So maybe it's not actually a bad thing per se that little time is spent actually considering whether what they're doing is right, because it makes the character development in the later books more meaningful. Still, it made this book much less enjoyable and I'd probably not have finished it if not for my friends recommendation and a review I read online talking about how hope is a prominent theme (which it is). As the first part of a series, I'd rate this around 3 and a half to four stars, but on its own, I'd give it 2 and a half to 3, so I'm going in the middle with 3.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Ending was "meh" and the villain underdeveloped

Revisado: 07-23-20

So I actually really got into this story. I liked Carden and Arabella and Rule was also an interesting morally grey character. However, Queen Coer was rather overthetop evil. We get a brief backstory for her at the very beginning, seeing that she got her heart broken, but it really didn't real sufficient to explain just HOW cruel and sadistic she was to absolutely everyone. She wasn't a character you love to hate, but one where you just go, "She did WHAT now?! How did it even OCCUR to her to do that?" It was too much, IMHO. She reminds me too much of the villains from children's stories who are evil just because. A good villain should have sufficient motivation for their actions that they make sense with what we know of the character. But Queen Coer's character is hardly developed at all. We know hardly anything about her other than that she's the evil and sadistic fae queen who once had her heart broken by a human.
In spite of the poorly developed villain, I did still enjoy the story, as Arabella's character was much more developed and she was likeable and sympathetic.

The ending though -- it sucked. SPOILER ALERT FOR THE ENDING:


We went all the sudden from Arabella and Rule having won a COSTLY victory over Queen Coer to suddenly Arabella having the perfect life, with Cardan somehow back from the dead and no one but her remembering anything. And all of the sudden we find out that Rule was the true mastermind behind everything. That part did make sense, but instead of it being a big reveal with an explanation, it was almost like an afterthought, just briefly mentioned at the very end, after her getting her perfect life. It just didn't feel believable and it completely ruined my willful suspension of disbelief.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Well-written characters, too little communication

Revisado: 07-22-20

So I really liked both Trevor and Rays, especially their time bonding while they were both on the island together, but there was too much "will they or won't they" nonsense. 80% of the conflict in the latter two thirds of the story would have been resolved if either one of them would've just told the other how they felt. The whole "both characters are in love with each other, but neither realizes the other feels the same and so doesn't say anything for fear of ruining the friendship" has been done too many times before; it's always obvious that that eventually they'll end up together. It wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't drag on so long, but it did.
Don't get me wrong -- this was by no means a bad book. It was well-written and I did enjoy it, hence the 4 start rating. There was enough interaction with secondary characters to keep things interesting in spite of the main plot point being cliché and drawn out and the first 3rd of the book was really good.
It was also nice to see Ella and Asher again and get to know Prince Cardan a bit too.
The ending also did manage to surprise me a little, though I won't spoil it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Slow Start but a great story

Revisado: 07-14-20

First the negative:
So I was a little unsure whether I liked this book at first, because it was a little slow in actually getting to the main plot and then it threw too much information with too little information all at once. For instance, the girls are told they must return to the undergarden every night, and they agree, clearly afraid, yet they've not been told of what will happen if they don't. There isn't even an implied threat of consequences if they don't and so their immediate acceptance of the demand seemed odd and implausible. The story overcomes these issues after a while though, and it eventually makes more sense why they simply accepted the demand without asking why they should.
The other thing I didn't like was that it wasn't until around halfway through the book that we have any significant scenes between Lilly and Eban (her love interest) and I was afraid that the ending, when they presumably ended up together (since that's almost always how these stories go) would feel unsatisfying. I was wrong though -- while it took a bit for the author to show us the love between the two, I was quite satisfied by the end when they do end up together, so I guess that's a positive and a negative together.
The positive: I loved how close the sisters are. They're all very supportive of each other and care very deeply. For example, when Lilly can't communicate properly (I won't say why, because that would be a spoiler, albeit a minor one), all her sisters rally around her and go out of their way to help her, including interceding for her with their mother. And they do this without question. You quickly get the impression that the sisters are ALWAYS there for each other, without question, without having to be asked. Lilly is their unofficial leader as the eldest and they all follow her, not because she intimidates them or orders them around, but because they trust her and respect her. She quickly proves herself to be a very caring person worthy of this trust and respect, even though she doubts herself sometimes. There was a little of the annoying "let me sacrifice myself for my loved one without telling them" trope, but that's pretty quickly put aside -- almost as soon as she decides to do this, her sisters all show up with another solution, putting themselves at risk for her, but not nearly to the extent of giving up everything, as she was going to.
I do also like Lilly's character. She does have some self-doubt which gets a bit annoying to listen to, but it's kept to a minimum. I love how much she cares about her sisters but that she's not the kind of character who decides she has to do everything on her own to protect them. On the contrary, they help her probably more than she helps them, because that's what the circumstances required.
There was the cliché, "I love him and want to tell him, but there's no way he possibly feels the same" while he's thinking the same thing about her and it's obvious to the audience, mainly because it's such a common trope. This was also kept to a minimum though, so it didn't get annoying.
I quite liked Lilly's relationship with her father -- he loves and respects her and encourages her to make her own choice about who she wants to marry and when. I only wish he'd been in more of the story. He was absent for the majority of it, though we do get an explanation for why. Still, it did actually work pretty well to bring him in towards the end and encouragement her to make the choice she should have made months ago.
I didn't love the villain's character. He's introduced too suddenly and we get new information about him only in chunks without much build-up. I didn't really mind too much though, mainly because there are so many other characters.
Overall, this was a good book which I quite enjoyed.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña