blewballoon's Reviews (763)

My friend read this and recommended it to me. They were right, it's quite good, and so is the author's note and all the artwork included. I'd recommend to fans of cozy fantasy and fae folklore. It's a slow paced day-in-the-life story with some lovely imagery, and it's satisfying to see how many elements of the day tie together in the end. 

Okay, I'm very glad I gave Abby Jimenez another chance. I DNF'd The Friend Zone, and I stand by that choice, but this was so much better. I could see almost from the beginning how this story was going to end, and that didn't matter a bit. I normally don't even like insta-love type romances like this, but it worked here. Daniel is my kind of love interest, he was so emotionally mature and considerate. I thought the humor was actually pretty solid and I laughed out loud a few times. I was frustrated with  Alexis, but I understood her. I found a lot more of this story relatable than I expected. The audiobook was really good, I especially liked the male narrator.

This is sort of like the Veronica Speedwell mysteries mixed with Monty Python? It's mysterious, adventurous, and feels very British. There are constantly humorous things happening in the background of scenes, but the characters are all quite nonchalant about them. It's almost like an alternate universe where there are some elements of sci-fi (technology that seems like magic) and society cares very much about literature and classic writing more than almost anything else. I do enjoy British comedy, so that element worked very well for me. I also enjoy mystery series led by a capable heroine, so another box ticked there. I might like Thursday better than Veronica. The narrator for the audiobook was perfect for the part, and I think helped the humor land even better. I think the main things keeping me from rating the book higher are that I would have liked to have felt more depth with the characters and there were some "problematic" passages (which are a product of the time this book was published.)

I enjoyed this book for the most part, but I did want something more from it. I feel like the "resolutions" to a couple of the characters plot-lines were unsatisfying, and since that's most of what the book has going for it in terms of story, that feels more significant than it might in a more plot heavy book. What the book does well is show a group of strangers coming together as true friends, which is a type of story that I eat up just about every time. I just had a few lingering doubts and concerns here that I would have rather been addressed better, and there were parts of the writing that felt a little too forced even for my sentimental soft heart. 

Such a fun way to read Dracula!

A cute and fun teen romance. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it at the start, but then once I was into it I was able to enjoy the humor and be charmed by the characters. I would recommend this to readers who like the friendships and lighthearted aspects of Alice Oseman's books. I was a little annoyed with the

third act breakup

, but it was a much less frustrating instance of the trope than I've read in other books.

This is a very well written book, with vivid world-building and interesting yet easy to grasp magic and fantasy. The characters are complex and intelligent. The tone is somber and heavy, with a sense of dread that builds from the first page and hardly relents. Arguably, the plot is a series of events going from bad to worse, a constant downward slope without many ups. For my personal preferences right now, I would have preferred there were more bright pockets to balance the reading experience. I ended up finding the plot somewhat predictable because I started just assuming the worst possible things could happen. If a slow, serious fantasy quest story is what you're in the mood for, this will work better for you.

My boyfriend read this book to me at night to help me fall asleep, and it's great for that. If you need an example of a fantasy book with excessively convoluted names, this is the book for you. If want a painfully slow and dry story with a vague sense of political intrigue but nothing too intriguing, this book is an excellent choice. How much you enjoy this book will depend on how much you enjoy the main character. I personally thought he was.. fine? Not a bad person, but not an exceptional one either in the grand scheme of things. I was much more interested in his close staff, such as his personal assistant who arguably did the most, his rotating bodyguards, and even his royal dressers who picked out his clothes. (Notice how I'm avoiding using anyone's name because I have absolutely no hope of trying to spell them.) I think this book would have been vastly improved by having more perspectives, like the staff members I mentioned, and a female character perspective would have been great as well. The emperor arguably does the bare minimum in terms of treating women decently, at least from a modern viewpoint. I am glad this is a book where

"Good" people have good things happen to them and "bad" people don't get away with doing a lot of bad stuff for very long.

If this were a more pessimistic book, I think the snail's pace and difficult to grasp world-building would have been even harder to wade through. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was worried that it would be a more grim fantasy story with a lot of violence and pain, maybe like Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler. There are definitely dark elements and high stakes, but the characters are really charming and easy to invest in. There is always a running theme that finding and caring for people is good, even though sometimes there are betrayals and mistakes. There were a couple turns the plot took that were refreshing compared to where I expected the story to go. A lot of plot was crammed in here. It felt much longer than it was, in the best way. The audiobook narration was pretty good as well. I'm definitely looking forward to more from this series.

I tried reading this and it was basically just the series script, but worse. I was hoping it would add more depth to the show, but it definitely doesn't do that. Skip this and re-watch the miniseries instead.