charliauthor's Reviews (531)

(3.5)
I've started this re read because its always nice to see how your reading tastes change over the years and whether your old loves still hold as much weight.

I'm happy to say that while its not as great as i remembered, Eragon still holds a special place in my heart as the book that opened up epic fantasy to younger minds. Before Eragon, it felt the only books of this scope were for older readers and so i'll always love and respect it for bringing the gap between old and new fantasy and make it palatable for younger readers.

I realised i'm not a fan of the play by play style of writing that was pretty prevalent back in the day. I doubt this story would be picked up as quickly nowadays as it takes a while to get to the real point of anything. It is wonderfully packed full of old magic and elves and dwarves and all the ingredients for an epic fantasy but for me it is very slow before the fun of the final battle.

I will always love CP for including brown people very early on, before it became a tick box for some writers they feel they need to complete to be considered diverse.

I stopped reading the series after book 2 for unknown reasons so i'm really excited to continue and see how the full story actually ends. As well as learn more about Galbatorix and that shady ass biyatch Murtagh....

(2.5) I gave this a low ranking because although i finished it, i did take about a two month break because i lost interest.
Overall, the books are too slow. I respect the old school way of writing Fantasy and still respect it for its straightforward way of getting to information but at time it felt dragged out. The chapters with Ferin travelling to give information from an ancient Clayr were boring and the battle they fought, unclear to me why it was even happening.
Lirael's chapters were better but more so because of the blossoming romance between she and Nick and the fact that we saw the other characters that we love so much more then these random new ones.
I have two more books to go in this series and while im looking forward to going into the past, i really hope Nix has upped his style a bit to include more action.

(3.5)
WATO has a lot going for it in the way of showcasing diversity in a magical/urban setting as well a the breadth of its world building and general imagination.

There are a lot of cogs in its machinery that while i commend for its complexity, did find hard to follow in the beginning chapters. It evened out as the book went on but for me there was still some uncertainty about exactly what was going on.

Outside of this, the worldbuilding and mash up of Gods and humans and the creatures and entities in between were all fascinating to watch come to life.
The shaders were my favourite, reminding me a lot of daemons from Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights series.
Brandi was a good MC as well in that she was very ballsy and take charge which i enjoy in my FMCs

(3.5)

There can be no slow build, no quiet lust, intimacy frosted over days, weeks, months. Not for them. So she longs for the mornings, but she settles for the nights, and if it cannot be love, well, then at least it is not lonely.

I liked this quote before i even finished the book but found that it was a sum up of how i felt about Addie and the book by the time i got to the end. Its about making the most of situations even if its not what you want.

Straight out the gate, I enjoyed it. Some bits more than others but overall, I did enjoy Addie more than i expected since most of my friends thought i would hate it! lol
I enjoyed the links to history, the art inspiration and of course, Luc, but we'll get to him later. I enjoyed the scenes in the past more than the present ones, mostly because they were just more interesting. I loved learning about the limitations of the curse on Addie and how she would navigate her life in order to survive. I found it clever and inventive and a genuine joy to see how the author made things make sense. The writing was just the right side of flowery for me but i could have done without the endless descriptions of how raindrops look against glass or whatever. I'm much more for character and drama so these parts slowed it down for me in a big way.

Why I didnt give this a four was that there were some parts where it started to drag for me, especially when she met Henry. Once it was revealed why he could remember her, his relevance to the story was lost for me. I found him really boring to be quite honest and while i was happy that Addie had found someone, it felt flat in relation to the more exciting encounters she had with Luc. I didnt really care too much about Henry's home life or issues, mainly because i don't think it came across what his actual issues were. Don't get me wrong, i realised he felt suicidal by the end

Spoiler

because of a heart defect i think?

but i didn't understand well enough why he would want to die because people didn't like him? I may have gotten that all wrong but i admit it was unclear so it was hard to have sympathy for him.

The end further reiterated how inconsequential Henry really was because he wasnt needed for Addie to have made the choice she did. Despite the illusion that she did it for Henry

Spoiler

I felt that Addie used him to give herself the excuse to be with Luc without it feeling like she'd given in/lost their battle of wills.

Addie still came out seeming rather selfish and hypocritical to me. She'd denied her feelings for so long only to essentially lead this man on before moving on

Spoiler

with her immortal lover.

I think overall, i would have rated this a tad higher if the story would have focused on Addie and Luc and been their battle of wills for centuries. The mindgames, the back and forth, the stubborness in both characters would have made for some explosive scenes which i was entirely here for.

Overall, i enjoyed the book enough to be annoyed by it at the end and would definitely recommend to people, to see what they get from it and see what they feel about Luc lol He's a bad boy/toxic masculinity in the best ways, but his treatment of Addie during their 'argument', really set me on edge about him that i couldnt sit firmly in his camp lol