dbguide2's Reviews (863)

It took me a while (15 days) to read and finish this book, which for me is long time. Now I know it’s a long book but also I know I’ve read this many pages before (aka 600+ page books) and read them quicker. It all depends on the pacing/characters/plot strength and obviously, how much I’m enjoying it. It’s a big world and there’s a lot of world-building attached to it. It’s done well, even though I took a while and rated it 3 stars. I liked that the book was very rich on all three fronts – plot, characters, world-building. Luckily the author was able to balance it all well enough (it was other reasons why I didn’t rate it higher).

This is probably a me thing but… modern terms/word in a full-fantasy world are still a new concept to me. If I see them in a book it tends to take me out, reminding me of where I actually am. When I’m reading fantasy I like to think I’m in the book itself. One or two “Yeah” in a full fantasy world isn’t that bad (in fact it works for me in other books but that’s due to the author’s writing style). There were multiple and other modern instances😅. It might have removed half a star or so for me. One thing I was confused about in here – so this family owns an apothecary. The main female character helps her aunt and uncle run the shop and her cousin (their son) helps. They ALL just LEAVE to go to the event so WHO is running the shop? A friend they didn’t mention? They don’t have any other family members. Are they good with having no money for x amount of weeks/months as they said nothing about asking someone to take over or closing the shop for an extended period of time. Yes, this bothered me throughout the book 😅

We had a dual pov – Rose and Leo. Rose was an average character for me. She was spunky and held her own in dangerous scenes. I liked her journey and how she improved in her magic; but other than that I found her mostly “okay”. I wasn’t so jazzed about Leo, our other main character, who has quite the intriguing backstory. He was interesting but I found his sister, Rissa, to be the more interesting one. We had a lot of scenes with her in both povs so that made up for it (her not having a pov). I did have an issue where I couldn’t tell Rose and Leo’s pov voices apart – I kept having to check whose chapter we were in. I like multiple povs but not having to focus on whose head we’re in.

I really did like the magic system. I love it when there are different areas of magic and we can learn the rules. I didn’t mind that there was a lot of explaining and showing of the magic – and it’s done well here. The plot was a lot to take in at the start but did get easier. The author did a good job with the plot. It wasn’t messy, it followed through, there were twists and turns. What I didn’t like was the amount of chapters – 81. Not counting a prologue and epilogue – that’s a lot for a first book in a series. The chapters were also short which meant I kept wondering why they couldn’t team up and we have half the amount of chapters. I felt like the pacing fell off in the second half – it slowed down and dragged a bit after the 50/60% or or mark. Long chapters, slowed-down pacing, okay characters – unfortunately meant lowered rating. 

Normally I love magical school settings but it didn’t work here. Barely anything happens at the school because it’s so centred on the main character and her ‘boy troubles’ (more on that later). I wasn’t bothered by the book being character-driven; I just think it’s silly to fully focus on the characters when you’re attending a magical boarding school and have to battle all sorts of creatures. We do get sections and glimpses of the world-building but then the attention swings back to the main character. An issue I had for the first 40 or so percent is I kept getting confused between Grimm and Grievers. Grimms are the creatures that the Grievers often have to battle. A Griever is what Everly is. There are Grimms at the academy but they’re good/instructors for the Grievers. I kept getting confused because in the (excellent) tv series Grimm – Grimm is the name of those who hunt down the creatures. I don’t really have much to say about the worldbuilding, other than I was rather let down. I’m guessing more will be revealed and explored later in the series but I’m not going to carry on.

I didn’t feel much of anything for the main character, Everly. She tried to act really smart and the book kept telling us she was smart but it never really showed her intelligence. All the characters felt the same. When they said a name I had to wrack my brain to figure out ‘best friend? Best friend’s brother? Quiet girl?’ etc. I don’t want to do that. None of the characters felt like they were fleshed-out – not even Everly and she’s the main character! You would expect the main character, her best friend, and her twin brother to be well-rounded characters because we know they all know each other before the book. It’s not as if they’ve just met at the school – they’ve known each other for years now. So why did it feel like they knew nothing about each other? 

Now because I know YA books and series, I can tell there’ll be a love triangle. Everly, the apparent ‘bad boy’ at the school (who’s not? bad at all? He’s slightly arrogant but you could probably chalk it up to him being a guy or the best student in class), and the best friend’s brother (Hunter). Now Hunter has a girlfriend who’s a bit of a bitch towards Everly (why do we have to have this?). There’s a scene where he says “I love you” to his girlfriend on the phone and then strokes Everly on the face or something. And then BLAMES HER for ‘tempting him’? Everly, if I were you I’d be running away. But no, she CONTINUED to be attracted to him. Honestly even Ian, the ‘bad boy’ wasn’t a great contender either. I have a feeling this will continue on into the trilogy – which I won’t be carrying on with. I don’t know what I dislike more – best friend’s brother or love triangle. 

I also can’t tell you what the plot was about because I just… had no idea. I couldn’t firmly grasp it, it seemed to be all over the place. Even near the end it didn’t feel like anything had really happened. A girl goes missing from the academy earlyish on in the book (I think early) and then it’s not really spoken about until the end mark. But you can clearly tell it’s the first book in a trilogy. Plot points are started with the intention of carrying on in the next book. Characters are set up with the bare bones of personalities so you have to read the next book to see their story. At 89% it still didn’t feel like anything really happened. I had an hour left in the audio and it felt like I was halfway.

Another thing I didn’t understand why it even happened was they have to set up fake social media accounts. So it looks like they’re doing normal things at their boarding school (that’s it, that’s the reason). Everly, of course, doesn’t have social media accounts (#notlikeothergirls) and they have to create ones for her. For some reason Everly gets paired with Ian and the whole thing… is just to have them ‘act’ like a couple in the photos. Which brings tension because “he’s a bad boy. Holland and Hunter told me so.” They then give her a book and she just… sits down and reads and they snap pictures of her because she’s giving the perfect casual look while reading? They also allow her to only read the book… when she’s taking photos in the on-campus photo studio. I think this happened like once in the book so I really didn’t understand why. 

Throughout the book I kept getting this feeling that the book reminded me of something. And then it dawned on me – a (bad) CW tv show. Classic paranormal, school setting, love triangle, mystery. Holland was annoying in that CW best friend way.