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chronicallybookish's Reviews (1.53k)
3.5 stars
It was fine but honestly a let down after how much I loved book 1.
Full review to come
It was fine but honestly a let down after how much I loved book 1.
Full review to come
This Wicked Fate is the sequel to This Poison Heart. I adored This Poison Heart, but TWF fell a little flat for me.
There were interesting aspects, but all in all, the story wasn’t nearly as compelling as TPH. I felt no pull between Marie and Bri. No chemistry, no spark, not even a sense of particularly tangible friendship, let alone love. The pacing was rather slow. Objectively, a lot happened in the book, and yet it felt like nothing ever happened while I was actually reading it. Then, when we were faced with a tense situation, it always ended up resolved much too quickly and cleanly.
I think this story would have been stronger had TPH and TWF been condensed and adapted into a standalone compared to a duology. TWF picks up the very instant that TPH left off. If you pasted the two together as they are written, it would be seamless. Having it pick up so abruptly felt clunky and made the almost constant recaps of the first book in the first several chapters seem very blatant and out of place.
Every character also had almost the exact same voice. It was a distinct voice, one that likely belongs to Bayron herself. The speech patterns, slang words, and tone didn’t seem to change much at all, whether it was Bri, Marie, Mo, Circe, or a literal god talking. Similarities in speech are to be expected in people who come from the same socioeconomic background, or grew up in the same city or small town, or are about the same age. But for Bri, a teenager raised in the city, to talk the same as Marie, a hundreds-year-old immortal, to talk the same as Circe, a older-middle aged woman from a small town, does not make a whole lot of sense. Having them all be so similar in speech and mannerism made the characters harder to differentiate between and therefore harder to connect with individually.
I don’t remember feeling that way about the first book, but it’s been the better part of a year, so I may simply have forgotten.
The lore of the story was just as unique, fascinating, and engaging as the first book. We get new layers to it, which was great! Often the world building and lore are relatively set once you get through the first book in a series. But Bri and co. continue to learn more about and become further immersed in the magical aspects of their world and history throughout This Wicked Fate. Worldbuilding—and especially the lore—is one of my favorite things about fantasies, so I really enjoyed getting to see more of that in book 2.
I did enjoy the story, over all. The plot itself was interesting, the pacing of the book just wasn’t the best by my standards.
If you enjoyed book 1, I highly recommend still picking this up, and if you’re looking for a diverse series with Greek mythos inspirations, this series is definitely worth the read.
There were interesting aspects, but all in all, the story wasn’t nearly as compelling as TPH. I felt no pull between Marie and Bri. No chemistry, no spark, not even a sense of particularly tangible friendship, let alone love. The pacing was rather slow. Objectively, a lot happened in the book, and yet it felt like nothing ever happened while I was actually reading it. Then, when we were faced with a tense situation, it always ended up resolved much too quickly and cleanly.
I think this story would have been stronger had TPH and TWF been condensed and adapted into a standalone compared to a duology. TWF picks up the very instant that TPH left off. If you pasted the two together as they are written, it would be seamless. Having it pick up so abruptly felt clunky and made the almost constant recaps of the first book in the first several chapters seem very blatant and out of place.
Every character also had almost the exact same voice. It was a distinct voice, one that likely belongs to Bayron herself. The speech patterns, slang words, and tone didn’t seem to change much at all, whether it was Bri, Marie, Mo, Circe, or a literal god talking. Similarities in speech are to be expected in people who come from the same socioeconomic background, or grew up in the same city or small town, or are about the same age. But for Bri, a teenager raised in the city, to talk the same as Marie, a hundreds-year-old immortal, to talk the same as Circe, a older-middle aged woman from a small town, does not make a whole lot of sense. Having them all be so similar in speech and mannerism made the characters harder to differentiate between and therefore harder to connect with individually.
I don’t remember feeling that way about the first book, but it’s been the better part of a year, so I may simply have forgotten.
The lore of the story was just as unique, fascinating, and engaging as the first book. We get new layers to it, which was great! Often the world building and lore are relatively set once you get through the first book in a series. But Bri and co. continue to learn more about and become further immersed in the magical aspects of their world and history throughout This Wicked Fate. Worldbuilding—and especially the lore—is one of my favorite things about fantasies, so I really enjoyed getting to see more of that in book 2.
I did enjoy the story, over all. The plot itself was interesting, the pacing of the book just wasn’t the best by my standards.
If you enjoyed book 1, I highly recommend still picking this up, and if you’re looking for a diverse series with Greek mythos inspirations, this series is definitely worth the read.
The love interest was… super problematic??? Wtf was this. There was so much problematic shit in this book, that was never called out. Body-checking & shaming, homophobia, racism. From the so-called good guy characters. The LI was the worst and was never redeemed.
