While the action in this book kept me reading, I can’t say I loved it. Or even liked it, really. I was turned off almost immediately by the racial slurs (yes they may be historically accurate, but that doesn’t excuse using that language in 2023). I don’t even know if I was satisfied by this story, because the resolution was pretty bittersweet. It mostly just made me sad about the world. 

For a young adult fantasy, this book works really well. The world is really well developed, and Alanna is a full character that is fun to watch grow up. There were times the pacing was almost too fast, but knowing this is a quarter makes that make sense. I haven’t read these books probably since I was 13 or so, and I really enjoyed coming back to Tortall!

It took me a while to read this, which may have affected my rating of it, but I really enjoyed the ending of the Scythe series. A lot happened, but the development of the plot was so interesting. The ending worked really well and left me really satisfied. 

For my first Sanderson book, I’m glad I started with this one. The Princess Bride is one of my favorite books, so the vibe of the book worked really well for me. I loved Tress and her journey, and all of the side characters were equally wonderful. It was nice that figuring out the “twist” was not something that the author was necessarily hiding, so it worked! I just enjoyed the whole story, the adventure, the characters, everything. I’m very interested into diving into more of Sanderson’s work!

I just wasn’t into the narrative style, or the world building. The world didn’t make sense to me, and the way the main character infodumped the exposition was really annoying. 

I can’t quite tell how I feel about this book, it was mostly fine. The layered mystery was interesting, but I found Emma to be pretty difficult to like. I normally don’t mind difficult characters, but she was pretty bland and annoying to me. And I just didn’t love the ending.

Why she would possibly pick Leo, who was a jealous prick the entire time, over Henry, or really why she would end up with either of them, was maddening.

also, while I appreciate the homages to Audrey, the full list of about a million references from very tiny things was just too much for me. There’s references, and then there’s bending over backwards to have things that can tie to Audrey. 

Again, this series is just wacky and delightful. I will say, this one took me a little longer to buy into but by the end I was totally in. I love the mixture of humor and action, and the pure unhinged nature of the story. This is one of the few historical romance series I can fully dive into. I look forward to seeing what this author does in the future!

This book was enjoyable, and fine. It had some moments that were fun, and the spice was great, but it still felt pretty basic. 

I feel like this book could have benefited from being longer. I liked the world and the way it was built out, and Iris and Kitt were interesting protagonists. The ending was just a bit rushed for me, and maybe (without reading the second one, obviously), could have been a fuller story without the cliffhanger ending. 

Pretty solid historical fiction. I don’t always love the genre, especially WW books, but this one was good. I liked both storylines, and the ending was satisfying if predictable. Very enjoyable, I’m happy I read it.