HOLY HELL, Sarah Waters, that was a thing, wasn't it? It's pretty hard to write a review of this without spoiling things. I think the only reason I don't give this 5 stars is that it was a little longer than it needed to be. I don't think it would have suffered from a bit less around the 60% mark as it started to drag me down and I was less engaged by it than I was the first half of the book until about the last 15% (this is hard to explain without giving something away!)

I have to say, I went into this expecting a fun romp around London with some morally grey gang of thieves. Well, there were thieves, there were A LOT of morally grey (and probably just black) characters involved, and I feel like there was something about each character that made you love them and also hate them in equal measures. It was truly fascinating to see writing that was so well-balanced and didn't Mary Sue the main character(s) as triumphs of the human spirit, as it were, especially in some shitty situations like these.

I am excited to read more of Waters' work at this point. This really takes you for a ride and when you think, "Oh, well the ride is surely almost over now, how is there still so much more book to go?" Well, you certainly find out how! 

So I picked this up initially because I love wolves so I was interested to read a book that kinda centered around them. While they are involved, it's definitely more focused on the characters and their lives, but I did enjoy the characters a lot.

I found the romance in the book to be kinda meh--it felt weirdly developed and I never really understood how the main character even liked them that much, but it wasn't a main focus of what was going on so it didn't bother me too much.

This is very gritty, very dark, a lot of 'the worst of humanity' themes being explored, yet it stayed compelling and interesting the whole way. I was pretty well entertained and interested the whole way through, especially since it kind of had a dreamy sort of quality to the writing that made it flow well. 

Hard to explain, but really liked it a lot. 

This was cutesy and very low-stakes fantasy. It was definitely a romance story with a fantasy setting. It got a little cringey at times, but for the most part it wasn't so over the top that I had to stop reading. 

I did find the main character to be a little excessive at times, but she was still likeable enough. And I figured out the bad guy very early on. It was a little too stereotypical for my tastes; bad guy was very "twirl evil mustache" levels of douchey. 

I think if the book had felt a little more grown up, I might have enjoyed it more. It felt too childish in a lot of places to really work as an adult fantasy (to me, at least). 

Super interesting world that I have not really read the like of before, but I didn't find the political atmosphere very interesting. 

Obviously not a groundbreaking piece of literature, but I'm glad I got to hear things from her perspective instead of just those around her. I just can't imagine living through something like that, especially when it's your family that's pushing you down. I hope she can surround herself with steady people she feels she can trust from here on out. 

I liked the love story in this, but the rest was a bit weak. Also the ending just... ended. It was so abrupt and felt kind of unfinished? 

I liked a lot of parts of the book, but I had trouble connecting with the male lead which made me very uninterested in their romance and eventually I didn't find the story that compelling anymore. 

The world is interesting, but it feels too long. I got bored and glazed over in quite a lot of parts. 

This had all the makings of a great story, but just didn't quite get there. The amount of cheesy dialogue was staggering. The lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers didn't really ring true because half the book they spent hating each other so it was unbelievable that they ever even dated in the first place. 

I don't think they should have gotten together in this book. If things had a longer time to simmer, I may have found it more palatable, but it just felt too forced. 

The reveal in this was bad enough that it mostly soured the whole thing. And I don't mean

finding out where Travis and Maggie are. The whole "Levi magically made us forget" bit just felt awkward and unsavory. I can't explain why that bit felt so unbelievable while Travis' abilities did not. I think it was the half-hearted explanation for how he was even able to do it all that made it far less believable.

I dunno. I thought it was interesting and enjoyed most of the characters 60% through, but the ending really made it a huge meh for me.