aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)

Reading about the author's Evangelical upbringing in the middle of my listening to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe created a lot of weird mixed feelings for me, especially about my childhood. Granted, my upbringing was very different from Craig's but a lot of his struggles with faith and Christianity and the church, WHEW that felt familiar.

I really loved this.

There was a lot of really interesting elements to this story. I love how focused it was on female relationships and sisterhood. None of the female characters have any names, which was a really bold choice by the author (to be fair, I think like 5 characters are ever named). However, the novel was really poorly paced, which was a criticism I saw that was very common. I also had a difficult time understanding the magic. I think I vaguely understood, but I really can't be sure. Like I had no idea what was going on between the narrator and Lo-Melkhiin at the beginning.

I liked how the author set up a lot of time with weaving and spinning, since the next book is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Unfortunately, I didn't like this book enough to continue with the series.

This was such a cute little book! It was really delightful to watch Rishi and Dimple fall for each other. The author created so many fun situations to throw them into, and I loved how they all reacted. Wow, was it refreshing to have a male character who was actually mature! Plus, we get a female character who is super into science and technology, which I adored. And I love that the cover had Indian models on the front and back, yay for YA diversity!

Probably the biggest flaws for me was the weird pacing and the subplots. The book goes between Dimple and Rishi's perspective multiple times in a chapter, which is fine. However, one scene can be split up into 5 chapters and just drag on, and then suddenly a week has passed. I liked all the little moments they had together, but that kind of pacing did make the romance feel a tad insta-love to me. I know this is YA, but the plotline with the "aberzombies" and Dimple's roommate and her love interest

I couldn't stop rolling my eyes at Cecilia and Ashish it was WAAAY too convienent and so unbelievable

felt really juvenile. Maybe it's because I'm 23 and I would have responded differently had I been a teenager reading this, but it all felt very one-dimensional.

But the love story sold me, and now I need 100 more arranged marriage romantic novels.

Towards the end of the book, there's a bit of storytelling which throws off the pacing a bit. I liked her stories, and I love her comics, but the narrative bits came out of nowhere and weren't formatted well with the rest of the book. I like Sarah's voice and art A LOT, but this was a weird editing decision.