ceraphimfalls's Reviews (319)

You guys! How has it taken me so long to read this!? What a joy of a story!

The dual POV kept the momentum going beautifully. The writing also changed as Meg moved through the recovery and rehab process, which I found rather cool. But it did get repetitive, it did feel like the author didn't know where she was going at times (she even admits to such in the back), and the twistier twists were more absurd than they should have been. But I had a good time and it distracted me from being sick, which is pretty dang good when you're gasping for air. And this might be a minor spoiler, but I am so so glad the repressed memory section didn't go where I thought it was going.

Considering I read this in less than 24 hours, with sleep thrown in the middle, I think it would be folly to rate it any lower than a 4.5. It was so fluidly written, so easy like a bedtime story, to consume. The very end was perfect, but the denoument was a little too late and too quick. There were loose threads that should have been tied up (threads absolutely essential to the story, not just plot points I would have liked to have seen an ending to), but overall, it was beautifully done and beautifully executed. 

While the writing style keeps your reading running a pace, it isn't good, in the lyrical sense. It's imminently readable, and I don't feel like I wasted my time, but I also don't think this was necessarily time well spent considering how early I called the murderer/twist, and was 100% on that guess by around 40% of the way through.

Comfy, cozy, and just a lovely way to spend some time.

I adore this series and it saddens me that this novella is unavailable in print. It might be the best story of the series.

This is the ideal bathroom book, and I mean that as a compliment!

If this wasn't for a book club, I would have DNF'd. It was so self-insert, so predictable, so one note. The individual characters did not have distinct voices, and that really let this down. If you are going to write a retelling of a cultural folktale, respect the culture; that doesn't mean just throwing in some words in Mandarin and a name here and there. 

I don't know, dude. Something about this didn't sit right with me. It all felt white as hell. Everyone here is not diverse within the book's universe, so it really isn't a diverse book- especially since the focus is on rich people and their control issues. There is a queer subplot between two maids that is forced at best, flippant at worst, so it isn't even worth counting.

Let there be an editor strong enough to cut down a YA romantasy to about 300 pages, and maybe this genre will stop feeling like the checkout aisle straight-to-home-video bargain bin that it's turning in to. Start with this book! Because the bones here and the flow of the writing are excellent. But I can't see them for all the faffing about with "the chosen one" narrative yet again.