I knew when the eye colors of the main characters were purple, teal, and "yellow but also brown but right now they look black" that this was gonna be one of those books

Five Broken Blades is a YA fantasy that I think I can safely say is just BookTok tropes on steroids. Did I pick it up because it's a multi-POV fantasy heist? Yes, I did, but I don't want to talk about that right now. I've been bamboozled. Whoever called this a thrift store Six of Crows isn't entirely wrong...
As I mentioned earlier, this book is supposed to be about a heist/assassination plot. I say supposed to because the actual heist/assassination is relevant for approximately 20% of the book. The first half is devoted almost entirely to traveling just to meet each other and being horny...because each of the three main couples had instalove. And like INSTA-instalove. I'm going to be completely honest and say this whole book felt like it could've been a prologue, backstory, or just the first half of a book. I read 500 pages, but it feels like I barely read anything because nothing super important happened. And while some of the plot twists are foreshadowed well, some of them just feel abrupt.
I tried to like the characters, but they didn't feel very complex. Tiyung was probably my least favorite just because he was so irrelevant and had no personality. Sora was okay (she's a poison maiden, aka assassin that seduces people), but she also felt generic, and her relationship with Tiyung was only "enemies-to-lovers" for, like, two chapters before they were in love. I thought I would like Euyn (a prince) and Mikhail (his spymaster), but they also just felt horny 24/7 despite the fact that they had negative histories. Royo (hired bodyguard) and Aeri (thief) also just felt way too trope-y because Royo was so grumpy and Aeri was heavy on the sunshine vibes and their instalove took literally one chapter.
If you're a fan of popular fantasy tropes and don't mind predictable storylines, Five Broken Blades is a book for you.

3.5/5