booksonmars's Reviews (670)

loved the winter imagery, but the event that everything was leading up to had zero shock effect and the ending fell flat. 

was trying to find a reason to dnf then one of the side characters mentioned his ‘summer in israel’ and ‘the sense of community’. no thanks. 

thoughtful and thought-evoking, but the titular story fell a bit flat for me, and the ones after kinda fizzled too. 

an easy read, but the details were vague and the relationship between emery and nick felt underdeveloped. every other one though, including the two sisters, were really touching and it had an emotional ending.

i have a feeling i’m gonna dislike this as much as myorar, so i’m dnfing before i give it that chance 

there was something so off about this book. i really wanted to get into it but the chemistry came off so wooden at the beginning. most of their conversations were awkward and would end with him just insulting her and her career choices, which they never really discussed later. the first sex scene came out of nowhere, and then it was insta-love with a little bit on angst. 

i don’t think there was enough depth in this book. all the emotional turmoil was told instead of shown, so the characters came off as flat. i’m disappointed because it was an anticipated read for me. however, it was easy for me to read and it did (momentarily) pull me out of a reading slump. 

do not listen to naysayers because i absolutely loved this sequel! i wish i could stay in this world forever. i wish that dryadology was a real and honest academic pursuit and that i could traipse around the english countryside looking for faeries as a job. 

emily grows so much in this book; yes she still comes off as prickly but she’s more aware of the fact and she honestly tries to do better with the people she cares about, like wendell and ariadne, and eventually rose. i loved the addition of more characters in this adventure, its kind of a representation of how emily has let more people into her life, which is such a stark difference from her curmudgeonly behaviour in the first novel, and her longing to have more friends. the animal and common fae friends she makes along the way give her the air of a disney princess, which i found really sweet.

emily’s relationship with wendell blossoms too; wendell is very affectionate with her and i was surprised yet pleased to see emily return the sentiment. there’s a little bit of howl and sophie, as well as jude and cardan in their dynamic.

the world is every bit as atmospheric and enchanting as the first. the plot did drag a bit during the bridge between the second and third act, and i do think the de grey/eichorn plotline wrapped up too quickly, but i truly loved this book and i’m excited but so so sad to read the final book. 

if a man wrote me poetry like that as a text i'm killing myself

this is a horror story. the amount of hate it evoked in me for men only for the twist to be absolutely chilling. each woman was written so vividly and in depth, they were all so different which i like because a lot of the time when there's a female ensemble they seem to resemble each other despite stated differences in personalities. this is the second beth o'leary book i've read (after the road trip) and i was way more emotionally invested in the characters and their relationships.