I was right, the King of Scars duology is my favorite series in the Grishaverse - and my favorite duology ever.

I absolutely love these characters. I loved the plottwists, and I was so excited to continue reading about them. And when I saw I almost finished the book, I didn't want it to end. Reading about Nikolai and Zoya made me so happy, I'm sad that the duology is over.

Just like in the first book, I didn't care a lot about Nina's story, but this doesn't make the book any less deserving of the five stars I give it.

This book was also very heartbreaking. I really liked David, in some ways I related to him, so I couldn't believe it when he died. At first I thought that when they couldn't find his body, he would've been kidnapped. But then the next chapter started with his body burning at his funeral, and I had to stop reading because I was going to cry. My dear David, you will be missed.

I absolutely loved the appearances of the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows characters! Though I wish Jesper, Wylan and Inej had longer appearances, like Alina and Kaz, I still smiled every time I read their names.

And gosh that ending! Zoya the queen, who would've thought? The me who just finished fhe first Shadow and Bone book wouldn't have been happy with this, but the me who just finished this book definitely is. I never excepted to love her. Also her and Nikolai was something I didn't see coming before reading this duology, but now I definitely ship them!

I read that the ending is a hint at the third Six of Crows book... I can't wait!

Wow. Wowowowowowow. Even though I saw spoilers about that ending, it still shocked me. I had a whole review planned but I'm speechless...

3.5☆

I absolutely love this series, but this is the first book that I didn't love. It took me until the last few hours (I listened to the audiobook as I did with the others in this series) to start enjoying it.

I liked Celeste, and how smart she was, and it was frustrating that no other characters could see this. The whole book I was excited until others found out about it (and when that happened, I couldn't help smiling).

I wasn't sure how I felt about William at first, I didn't like how he showed romantic interest to both Celeste and Aurora, but when it was revealed that he had suspected she was the same person, I let that go. I like them together.

The ending and the epilogue were my favorite parts! I loved seeing what the characters from the previous 3 books were up to. (I kept being a little confused about Cordelia, the app I use doesn't have the novellas, only the main books, so soon I'll have to buy them to fully catch up.)

Celine really annoyed me, and I found Rafe less likeable than in The Princess Pact.

I didn't give this a 5 star rating because I think it's one of the best books there is, but simply because of how much I enjoyed reading this.

I had moments where I had to stop reading because I was smiling so much. And then something awkward would happen - like America calling Maxon by his first name on national tv, and I needed a few minutes to mentally prepare myself to continue. But no breaks made me want to read less. Every time I had to stop reading - to eat, to sleep, etc. - I couldn't wait until I could go back to reading this!

I liked most of the characters. The only ones I disliked are Aspen and Celeste. And maybe Silvia and some of the background characters, but I mostly feel neutral about them. I really liked Maxon, and I feel like, unless he changes in later books - you never know with series, I could potentially love him. I also liked America and reading from her point of view.

Can't wait to continue this series!

Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised. The summary (or blurb, I never know what the English word for it is) didn't really interest me, but I still wanted to give this a chance because I read so many great things about this author. This book wasn't for me, but I'm still planning on reading other books by this author.

I listened to this mostly as an audiobook, and sometimes switched to ebook (because apparently that's an option on Storytel). Eventually I ended up speading the audiobook up a bit, at first to 1.2x and then 1.3x, but in the end I listened with 2x because I just wanted it to end. I could've just DNFed it, I know, but I don't like DNFing books.

Not a lot happens in this book, it's mostly just July and Dino arguing and July saying she's 'not-dead'. I found July so annoying, it's a big reason why I disliked this. I just couldn't stand her and don't get why Dino wanted to be friends with her.

Talking about friendships, one of the reasons I did end up giving this a chance, was because I heard it's an lgbtq+ book that doesn't focus on romance (though it's still there on the background) but on friendship. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE romance stories, especially lgbtq+ ones, but reading books that aren't about romance is such a nice change.

Sadly, this friendship sucked, and I was not rooting for them to make up. This friendship reminds me of some toxic friendships I had in the past, which I'm gladly out of.

Aside from disliking July, I didn't care about any of the characters. And also none of the storylines interested me. (And the details about July's body still being dead and what happens to it made me feel really sick.)

Hopefully I will like the author's other books more.

DNF at page 102

I really wanted to like this but honestly I hated this. At first the writing style was funny but after 40 pages it got annoying. The repetition and the words crossed. I didn't like the characters at all, the storyline and world building also didn't make me want to continue. I heard some things about the romance in this series so I looked it up and found out it were ships I already know wouldn't like.

The whole time reading this I knew it was going to be a 2 star rating for me. I tried to continue hoping I'd start liking it more, but every time I opened the book and read a sentence I just didn't want to continue. So why continue if I know I won't like it? I'd rather DNF is now than try my best reading until 50% and then still DNFing it anyways, because then I would've wasted my time, and now it's early enough for me to say 'didn't like it, moving on.'

I am disappointed though. I heard great things about this series. Sadly I don't have the patience to see if this book gets better or if the other books get better.

I don't give DNFed books a star rating if I didn't at least reach 50%, but like I said it feels like 2☆ maybe 1.5☆

And that's generous because there wasn't anything I liked so maybe 1☆ would've been more accurate...

Dnf at page 36

For some reason I can just never get into classics. I looked through later chapters and still wasn't interested. Maybe I should just give up on classics for now.

DNF at somewhere around page 47?

I just can't get into it. For many days I have tried. The writing style isn't really my thing, it feels rushed.

I was sooo excited to read this ever since it was released, so my expectations were high. I think I'll try again some other time because of that, but right now I want to read something I'll enjoy.

4.5☆

Uhm, wow.

I didn't know what to expect from this. I absolutely love the Heartstopper series and thought it would be finally time to read the author's other books, and I wanted to start with this one since it takes place in the same universe. According to the book, it takes place in the same time as Heartstopper Volume 4, which I finished earlier this month (but I'm going to look through it again soon, and I now also want to reread the other volumes.)

I saw so many bad reviews, so I didn't think I would like it. But I did. And after around 50% of the book, I got sucked into it and couldn't stop reading - even though I was in a reading slump, I read like 60% of this book in one day, maybe even more.

I find Tori relatable. And I also liked that she's different than most main characters in contemporaries. Normally, those main characters are hopeful and positive and see the good in people. Tori is a pessimist with so many hints at depression. It was a different point of view to read. And as someone who can be quite the pessimist and has a history of depression and anxiety, it was so freaking relatable!!

I found the writing style really satisfying. It was easy and quick for me to read.

4.5☆

I think this series is going to be a favorite of mine! While I didn't love it as much as the first book, I still really enjoyed this! The story isn't going where I thought it would go, so many surprising twists, and I absolutely love that.

I kinda wished that more chapters focused on Cinder or Kai in this book, I missed reading about them and I felt like almost every chapter was focused on Scarlet - not that I don't like her, I actually really do.

Can't wait to continue the series!