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shealea 's review for:

Society of Wishes by Lynn Larsh, Elise Kova
1.0

Oh my god, I don’t know what to say. Ever since I fell in love with Elise Kova’s The Alchemists of Loom (review to follow!), I was highly anticipating the release of Society of Wishes. It almost literally hurts my heart to say that Society of Wishes is, without a doubt, my biggest reading disappointment of 2018. I am devastated, people. DEVASTATED. In all caps.

From ridiculously underdeveloped characters and their superficial relationships to the most awfully executed romantic development I’ve ever encountered, there was nothing in this book that I could emotionally invest in. Regarding the latter, the heroine developed feelings for a pale-as-fuck, inhumanely nonchalant love interest with whom she had, at most, four very brief interactions throughout the entire book. But whatever.

The plot progressed so slowly I had to take multiple breaks in between reading. I was also guilty of largely skimming the passages, if I’m being totally honest. To make matters worse, the story itself wasn’t even rewarding at all! The dialogue made me cringe a lot. There were too many information gaps to fully appreciate what was going on. The magic system, in particular, was frustratingly vague. As I read, I accumulated more questions than answers – some of them being: What is the point of all this? What’s the actual story? What are the stakes? Why should I care about any of these characters? Why is Society of Wishes so shockingly, unexpectedly terrible?

I am scrambling to come up with something remotely positive to say, but my mind keeps drawing a huge blank. On one hand, this is not the worst fantasy novel I’ve ever come across. On the other hand, I already have a digital copy of its sequel, but I am not entirely certain that I’ll ever muster the strength to try reading it because I’m worried I might hate the second book even more. Honestly, skip Society of Wishes altogether and pick up The Alchemists of Loom instead. That’s my two cents.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of Society of Wishes from the authors in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh! I apologize that it didn’t work out this time.