blewballoon's Reviews (763)

I am normally not a big fan of short story collections, but this one worked better for me because all of the stories are taking place during the same event and there are a lot of connections between the characters in each story. There was also one story that we would keep coming back to. I wished there were more characters that weren't high school students dealing with teenage romances, but then I remembered this is YA and that's the intended audience. There was only one story I didn't really care for, but otherwise I thought the writing was solid. I listened to this on audiobook and the narrators also did a great job, though I preferred some over others. 

This book got me. I love books that take a fantastical concept and make it feel perfectly grounded in reality. This one manages to also be hilarious and touching. This is the best possible way I could have imagined a book with this premise to go.

I absolutely adored this. It's got some excellent philosophical discussion and reflection, wrapped up in a sweet story in a fascinating world. 

This wasn't the worst, but it had a lot of tropes I'm a bit tired of. I wouldn't recommend this book to men, since most of them are portrayed in a cartoonishly villainous way. I find it boring when women character arcs are focused on motherhood/pregnancy, men, and not much else.

In a ridiculous example, A 12 year old girl's plot and decisions mostly revolve around not knowing what a period is and assuming the blood is caused by a dead man haunting her.

There are 3 POV characters, and I felt like they all over-explained what was going on. I feel like there should have been more trust in the reader to understand the nuances of the situations and emotions. I listened to this on audiobook and the narrators did a great job with their characters, though. 

I enjoyed this adventure a lot! I loved having an older and more experienced fantasy protagonist, I loved the diverse cast of characters, and I had fun being immersed in cultures and locations that aren't as familiar to me as typical fantasy settings. I think this book delivered solidly on its premise and my expectations were definitely met. I am not sure why, but despite all that, I had a slow time reading this. I found myself having to force a little to pick it up, and it wasn't until I felt like I was nearing the end that I began to read with more momentum. I am not sure why this was, since the book is fairly action packed throughout. It may be that I got lost a little in the unfamiliar terms and creatures? I'm not sure. This is more of a personal issue that I have with some romance books as well, but I found

Amina's horniness and ogling of the males around her to be off-putting. I was mildly disgusted that she had sex with her "demon" husband again towards the end of the book after everything we know he has done.

This isn't my favorite in the Lily Adler Mysteries series. I listened to the audiobook, so apologies if I spell any names wrong in this review. Lily was off her game here, she was clearly dealing with some internal struggles, so I feel like the choices she made could be explained by that, but that doesn't mean I liked them.

I don't love that she spent the night with Mr. Spencer, and I'm glad it was just a "fade to black" very vague implication, but I probably feel the same way Ofelia does about it and understand that she's a grown woman and can have her impulsive fun if she wants. It felt out of character based on what we've seen of her, but she's in new territory emotionally and finding her footing as a widow out of mourning. It was much harder for me to accept her snapping so harshly at Ophelia. It definitely made it clear that Lily was Not Herself.

I really missed the presence of Captain Jack and Bow Street constable Simon Page, especially after we got some of Mr. Page's perspective in the last book that I sincerely enjoyed. I also missed Lily's staff and the young boy that Captain Jack hired in the first book. I did love meeting her Aunts and getting some perspective chapters from Ofelia. One thing I really like about this series is how much diversity it includes and how it shows that lots of different people existed in this time period just going about their normal lives. In my opinion, the new family and staff that we meet for the murder were not as interesting or sympathetic as the past families and murder victims had been, and I thought the investigation aspect wasn't as strong. It felt like they were running around in circles with how many times we had to revisit people and scenes. I assumed from the start that it was one of two characters, and I ended up being right but not really happy about it.

Got this at a book sale and then read the reviews after. 

I have so many conflicting thoughts about this. I may update this review later with more organized opinions. Like the previous books in the series, the front chunk of the book is mostly "what is going on?" and then there is a rushed ending with a rapid release of information and twists. Ultimately this was a lot more enjoyable than Harrow the Ninth during the "what the hell is happening?" Part of the book, but I think I liked the "rapid release of info and twists" part less? I did grow attached to Nona and appreciated her innocent view of the world. I enjoyed the somewhat domestic, almost slice-of-life storytelling before we got into the heavier plot stuff.

I absolutely loved the first Lily Adler mystery and I loved this sequel just as much, if not more. I find Lily very easy to relate to, and I love how competent yet compassionate she is. This book handles some more sensitive subjects with grace and respect, I teared up a few times. I missed some of the characters from the last book, but I was happy to see the ones that did return and to meet new characters that helped solve the case. I was able to puzzle out the mystery fairly early, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment at all. I thought my theory was a bit of a long shot and I was happy to be right. I've been listening to this series on audiobook, and the narrator is an excellent choice for the material.