annieice's Reviews (791)

This is a YA fairy tale retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Melrose is a young high schooler who's a nerd, wears glasses and gets bullied a lot. The typical girl of the 2000s movies who has to get a makeover and take off her glasses to be beautiful… It's set in 2012 Ok? Lucas is her older brother (adopted) who's very protective of her. One day one of the trio's girls who rules the school wants to be friends with her. She's shocked but happy until her brother ruins it by being suspicious of her motives. This starts a weird drift between them with Melrose now knowing who to believe when she gets betrayed and taken by the other two of the trio while Lucas is doing some digging to save her sister from what he believes are witches trying to make her one of them too, as he believes she was cursed before they met.

It was an interesting story not gonna lie. I didn't like that it tried to be so edgy, and sweary though. The story was too simple and Middle-Grade at parts and then more YA later, confusing. I'd say I liked the whole found family thing and how even though it used terrible cliches like the makeover thing it made sense. This seems like some high school mean girls' book but it's way different. I didn't like Star though, she was annoying. She and Lucas just felt weird. Melrose was so whiney and childish that I couldn't stand her even though I understood the why. The plot twists pretty good and made some sense. I liked Lucas the most from the MCs though, he had a nice personality, and I wouldn't mind him being my big brother (I don't have any, ok?!). I also likes the spell rhymes and fairy tale-esque stories.

I think it's a stand-alone right? It ended in a way that made it seem that there'll be a sequel but I don't know. I don't think I'll be up for reading it. I feel like the story is over so there's no need. Overall if you want a quick one-sitting read while you're bored and in pain, it does the work, lol.

I got this free copy from BookSirens, so thanks! Opinions are all mine.

This is the sequel to Undine's Tear which was a book I didn't love much but I still liked it enough to be curious on how it continues. Now Calandra's actions have started a revolution and the Free Will society is getting bigger. Narcissa is being stranger than usual and is acting crazy. Zale is training with her in the academy but others are avoiding him because he's a male undine. Robert is having an existential crisis and is losing his mind over what Abela really is. His brother and his people are looking for some sphinx heart. Osaze is being enslaved. Overall many people human, and nonhuman have different ambitions and ideas on what's happening, but something that the majority agree on is that their world is in danger, not just Sirenia and someone should stop it or make it worse.

I was honestly so bored while reading this… it was way too long and dragged out. The majority of the plot just happened in a day or two. Time was a huge issue. The different POVs didn't even get together yet. The story ended in a way that didn't satisfy me. I know it's gonna have a sequel sometime but still all these pages for not much. I just wanted more character depth. I know the author tried, but it didn't feel complete. I was on Narcissa's side most of the time, she has a point about Calandra being so whiny and annoying. Zale was sweet but I still just wanted more you know? Damaris wasn't bad, but their ship didn't even develop much. The plot twists weren't that satisfying. The author obviously had a religious agenda, which I didn't mind but it was heavy sometimes. The epilogue was intriguing but I don't think I'll be reading the next book, this one was bad on my mental state enough. I guess I'm not made for more dramatic and long fantasy books. This could've been so much more simpler…

I guess those of you who really really liked the first book and maybe the novella too will enjoy this, but it's not for me. Enjoyment is more important to me than simply being interested in knowing what happens next. After all, skipping many long pages of just descriptions and inner thoughts isn't a good sign, is it? I just wanted the ending, wasn't here for the story… Also, I don't like it when disabilities can be miraculously fixed. Like Calandra 'fixing,' someone's blindless and making it impossible for disabled undines to exist…