Almost marked this as read just to said I’d done it, but I didn’t want to lie. I tried to read this cause I’m genuinely interested in 18th century European philosophy (mostly for fantasy novel research purposes), but this book is just every bad thing that could happen to anyone ever happening to the same people One after the other. Maybe I’ll come back to it later.

This book is good! I’m just not really in the mood for middle grade right now. Will try to pick up again another time.

Three things happened here:

1) The loan got returned to the library
2) I stopped dating the person who said I should try the audiobook
3) I decided I simply do not care enough to continue this book at this time

I requested and was approved for an advanced reader copy of this book before I finished reading the first book in the series, Tess of the Road. This was a mistake. The first book had some good aspects, but its handling of gender, as well as a few other aspects, made it really hard for me to get through. So I started this second book optimistic that it would be better. Unfortunately, the characters continued to be awful and various serious issues continued to be treated poorly.

I might pick this one up again sometime, but for now, it’s a no from me. I still love Rachel Hartman’s previous two books in this universe, Seraphina and Shadow Scale, but I don’t really recommend these ones.

I was contacted by Stories Untold on behalf of the author with a request that I read and review this book. I was happy to do so. However, the book was not for me and I did not finish it.

I think there are aspects of the world and the story that middle school readers would enjoy. It’s very whimsical. Unfortunately, this whole book is just a Harry Potter rip-off, right down to the gratuitous fatphobia. I also don’t think I’ve encountered this many shades of purple in any other book, and that’s not a good thing.

Overall, I try not to be too hard on indie books, but this one would have really benefitted from better editing and a little more sensitivity.

There’s nothing wrong with this book, but it was very predictable and I wasn’t in the mood for it and my Libby loan was about to end. I might pick it up again some other time.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley, but there was too much transphobia for me to make it very far into it. I would have tried to finish it if I thought the author was getting at something interesting, but that clearly wasn’t going to be the case. It was basically just the cis main character getting used to her trans cousin and the rest of the family being transphobic about and to the cousin. Also the way the narrator talked about race was strange to say the least. The writing wasn’t that bad, but I had no interest in the characters or the story.

I’m definitely planning to go back to this book at some point because I think it’s very good, but I need to take a break from it. I think I need the weather to be warmer to be in the mood for it.

I don’t know why I thought reading this would be a good idea. I’ve kind of been going through a vampire phase lately, so I thought I’d try this one out, but it’s so full of racism that I can’t do it. Maybe if you’re more of a vampire person this is good to read for the lore and the importance to the genre and whatever (possibly the origin of the somewhat sympathetic Confederate vampire thing, which, yikes), but I don’t care enough to put up with it. Maybe some other time when I’m very desperate for something to read.

I've realized that I can't read high fantasy books as ebooks. If I can't flip through the physical book to look at the maps and things, I need a good narrator to keep me engaged. I listened to the sample of the audiobook and hated the narrator, so I will need to acquire a physical copy. And I wasn't enjoying it enough to justify buying it, so I just won't be finishing this book until I can get a physical copy from a library. I'm hoping I'll enjoy it more when I do.