booksonmars's Reviews (670)

Despite the tense fighting scenes and grisly assasinations, this is a quiet yet moving story about a woman struggling in a society where ageing is seen as something to be ashamed of. The ending was so beautifully sad but very touching.

i’m so glad i picked this book up again. it had the same amount of whimsy and cozy vibes as the first, and the romance was delightful. one thing i hate about romance series is when the mc’s are too similar or feel like carbon copies of each other; for this one effie was so different to dora but just as loveable. definitely gonna pick up the next one. 

loved this book. it was very pinterest fantasy aesthetic meets hunger games but in a good way. the plot was engaging and i found myself on edge after a lot of chapters. the worldbuilding is well explained and left enough intrigue for the next book. speaking of, i can't wait for it! the way it left these characters was devastating, particularly kai who actually was my favourite character. i think he had more character development an depth than paedyn, and i can't wait to see how his character progresses in the next book.

never have i read a thriller so ridiculous. the characters were unlikeable at best, misogynistic at  worst. the killer reveal was boring and rushed as was the plot twist right at the end. jessica is probably the worst person in the world. i did enjoy the flashbacks to college only so i could pretend i was reading a dark academia book that was actually good. 

loved that there were extra scenes that weren’t in the movie added here, broke my heart for the second time 

can’t say i enjoyed this as much as i thought i would. there was way less fantasy elements than i thought, it was more historical romance which i didn’t mind. also, i don’t think they were truly rivals; we only got some rivalry tendencies in the first few chapters and even then it was mainly workplace bickering. i found their romance sweet at times, slightly stale at others. the ending felt so rushed, with some points barely explained despite being built up

like the chemist creating gas bombs for dacre, or dacre’s power of life debts, which i suppose will be a big part for roman

. i’m hoping they actually start explaining stuff in the next book, but you shouldn’t read a whole book and have hardly any magical backstory explained. not sure if i want to read the sequel either.

kind of disappointed with this one given how much i loved into the dream house. i didn’t enjoy the majority of the stories; i found the endings and the vagueness to similar, and the horror element was lost to me on a few. i have to admit i did skip the law and order one, but i might read it before i return the book to the library. my favourite stories were the first one, the resident and the dress one, the others i felt ambivalent towards.