People just like and don’t like things and that’s okay. I’m not judging anyone. But I did not like this book. I originally gave this two stars but I took it back because I just couldn’t. The best thing about it was the blood forest which was promptly ruined once they ventured into it.

I almost dnf-ed it four times. The beginning was atrocious, it got better in the middle, and then went back to being terrible at the end. For me, it read like poorly written YA with some spice thrown in. 

Surprisingly, the info dumping didn’t bother me that much. I was much more annoyed with the way the reader was told what to think about certain things. Please, please, show not tell. The amount of times Poppy (I’m calling her that because Penellaphe is a horrible name) thinks about, tells someone, or is told how she can take care of herself and knows how to use her dagger was ridiculous. Show us she can do it and stop taking about it.

Also, the names. They were all just so bad. All of them. And Masadonia actually made me mad because North Macedonia is a country that exists. 

Then there was the cringe. In general Poppy was a cringy MC. But I’m specifically talking about some of Hawke’s lines. The most grievous one being “I was seconds away from taking you to the ground and being a very, very bad guard.” Yuck. 

Not to mention the part where she thinks that someone was staring at her as if she was “a puzzle missing all the edge pieces.” ???

Overall, I could have done without reading it. If you like it then that’s great. I just couldn’t.