this has been on my “currently reading” bar for 6 months, I’m never finishing this unfortunately

For not reading anything since September, this was a pleasant surprise to read. I really enjoy Greek Mythology, and Apollo is one of my favorite gods. This is a twist on the Daphne Apollo myth, combined with other Greek myths that I quite enjoyed. It was pretty standard YA, but a great book to get me out of my year long reading slump

This was everything Throne of Glass tried to be, and failed. Poison Study excelled in every area without fail. The characters were all very well written; the main character especially. She was everything Celaena Sardothien strived to be. Yelena is better than Celaena because of the way she grows as a character. Maria V. Snyder actually writes training sequences, and scenes to distinguish how Yelena has bettered herself (something SJM did not do in Throne of Glass).


The romance is also so much better than whatever awfully written love triangle went on in Throne of Glass. Valek and Yelena deserve the world. Valek is such an intriguing character, and really compliments Yelena’s personality well. They had undeniable chemistry, and their interactions were very well written.


The court intrigue, the mysteries, and the motives of each of our characters kept me on my toes the entire time. I really haven’t read a fantasy novel that’s made the plot have this many twists in a very long time. This is exactly what I wanted to read when I read Throne of Glass. If you want Throne of Glass done well, please read Poison Study.


I’m very very excited to continue on with this series and this was definitely a great first book to read for the new year.

DNF @ 47%

I really tried with this book, like really tried. But I've been reading it for almost a week and I can't seem to get through it. I don't understand the world, I could give a shit less about the heist, and the only characters I care about are Séverin and Laila. I really wish I liked this because the cover is

dnf at pg. 76

I really don’t care about anything happening to these characters. Eliana and Rielle’s voices are undistinguishable, and they feel like the same character. I also don’t like either of them anyways. Usually I’d power through if I was this far into a book and it had around 350 pages—give or take some. But, Furyborn is a very long book and I have other things i want to get to more.

For how much this was supposed to be about witches, spells, and a good sapphic romance, we didn't get any of that. The first 150 pages of this book to me about 5 days to read (which I can literally finish over 5 books in that time frame). I couldn't seem to find a plot. But I continued reading, because by the 150-page mark, the actual book synopsis came into play. So, I continued on; I should have listened to myself and DNF'ed at the 150 pages but alas, I did not.


There wasn't much I enjoyed about A Lesson in Vengeance. I guess really the only thing was the writing? I mean it took me almost a week to get through this, but I didn't mind the writing. I also liked the Dark Academia vibes? I mean, that's about it.


However, my dislikes are many.

- Nothing happened. This was 370 pages of absolutely nothing. You came for a plot? Well leave as soon as you can because there isn't one.

- The romance was awful. Ellis, our love interest, is a manipulative, self-centered, and lackluster main love interest. I was told I was getting a great f/f dark academia romance with witches, which didn't at all happen. KINDA SPOILER: Ellis doesn't even believe in witches, and she's never once convinced witches are real.

- The stakes for murder and witches were never there. The author obviously wrote our main character, Felicity, as an unreliable narrator to try and up the stakes on the murder and witches. But it just wasn't done well. Unreliable narrators aren't really that complicated to write. But when you keep enforcing the ideas that your characters are grappling whether real or not real, the reader is going to know what's real and what's not real.

- The overall final mystery takes place within the last 70 pages and gets resolved in quite literately 20.

- Speaking of the final mystery, the last 100 pages of this book felt like I was reading an entirely different story all together. The final mystery did not make any sense whatsoever. It came out of nowhere. It felt like even the writing style changed slightly.

- The magic system made no sense. Apparently, everyone can become a witch?

Overall, I'm just extremely disappointed in this story. A Lesson in Vengeance was one of my most anticipated releases of last year. Everything about this sounded like something I'd love; however, unfortunately it was not. I don't know if I will pick up anything more from this author, but if Victoria Lee writes something that especially intrigues me, then I may pick it up.


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Pre-review thoughts:


I've come to the conclusion that maybe dark academia is not my genre. I always seem to have issues with one thing or the other when it comes to novels like this. They all tend to blend together this point, and they never seem to have a cohesive plot. Maybe I'm reading the wrong ones, but my hypothesis is that dark academia is not my genre.

For some reason, this book was not marked as "read" on my 2019 reads? Anyways, maybe that was my mistake, but I'm just marking this as read because I very clearly remember reading this.

4.5 stars

Trisha Levenseller has slowly become one of my favorite authors over the past 4 years. She was one of the first young adult authors I read back in 2019, with Daughter of a Pirate King (which was one of my favorites books I read that year), and Daughter of a Siren Queen. After that, I read The Shadows Between Us which I initially rated 4 stars, but I now consider one of my favorite books of all time. And finally, I finished Warrior of the Wild which I also adored and still think back on almost a year later (I believe I rated that book 4 stars as well, but it was definitely a 5-star read). Blade of Secrets was one of my most anticipated books of last year. However, I was in a huge reading slump the entire year and did not get around to reading it.


However, I'm very happy more than I am upset for waiting to read this book; the anticipation of waiting for this sequel would have killed me. I really loved everything about this story. I loved our main character, who I could very much relate to in the anxiety representation. This rep was done very well in my opinion, and I very much felt represented by Ziva's inner struggles. I loved the sisterly bond between our main character Ziva and her younger sister Temra and I adored their dynamic. It distinctively reminded me of my sister and I. Especially reading from Ziva's POV, because she is the older sister and so I am. Temra very much reminded me of my sister; maybe not in terms of being boy obsessed, but the bold and unapologetic way they both walk strikes me as very similar. I was very happy I could most relate to these two things. I feel like I can never find good anxiety representation in fantasy, and I can never find a good sisterly bond without one of the sisters betraying the other, or one of them being an insufferable asshole.


The romance was also very sweet and fun to read. I adored our love interest, Kellyn who reminded me a lot of a... more self-aware version of Thor from the MCU. Like a version of Thor who understood Earth? Does that make sense? I have absolutely no idea. Kellyn also reminded me a bit of Steve Trevors from the Wonder Woman movies (I loved how I'm just referencing superheroes in a book that involves nothing in semblance to superheroes. I will take any time to be a chaotic nerd). He has that same spirit of reluctant hero, and he kind of has the personality of Thor. Or maybe it was just because he was described in a way that reminded me of first MCU movie Thor/Chris Hemsworth (maybe a bit on the younger side however). I don't know what I'm talking about. What I do know is that he was a very fun character to become attached to. He had such a bold & fun personality, which definitely hindered the way Ziva saw the world. Kellyn was also very attentive to the way Ziva felt, and he always paid extra attention to her. Their romance was genuinely the sweetest.


I loved every character in here; even Petrik who I have yet to mention above. Levenseller writes building interactions between each of the characters, and meaningful, witty banter that keeps you turning the pages as fast as you can. These characters were all so different; one of the best parts about this book. And while they did clash, that was the best part about their friendships. Learning to trust each other despite their oddities and coming together to create a fun-to-read found-family dynamic.



I was never bored, and the plot was super engaging. There was not a dull part about Blade of Secrets. Adventure after adventure happens for these characters, and nothing is ever slow or not happening. The story is the perfect length (maybe even a bit short to be honest), and I flew through this in about 4 hours (which is insane for even me)


Overall, I really loved this addition to Tricia Levenseller's works. She is one of those author's that I will forever dearly love, and obviously an auto-read author for me. This was no exception for my entertainment, and I absolutely adored everything about this. The only it's not a full 5 stars due to my enjoyment not being that full 5 stars (what can I say, I'm stingy with my 5-star ratings), but nevertheless, I really loved every second of this.

DNF


I started this book back in November of 2020. It’s currently the middle of February 2021. I didn’t really enjoy what I read of this before I put it down, and it’s been 4 months. Realistically, I won’t be finishing this