ellenareads's Reviews (564)

I could not care about anything so far in the book. I struggled with this authors works before but I read the other entries in this series and liked them, so I decided to give this one a shot. It's the exact same problem that I had with the Kate Daniels series - the info dumps just pull me out of the story so much.
I loved the Hidden legacy series, but that one is not secondary world fantasy which seems to be the disconnect with me and their books. If I read it at another time other then behind an incredible 5 star science fiction book maybe I could have enjoyed it more.

 Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. 

If I was rating this book based on the first chapter alone this would have been a five star read. I would absolutely agree with almost all of the reviews of this book - this is a Hallmark movie but in a book, with all of it positives and negatives. It has all of the Christmas charm, the well loved grumpy sunshine trope and the enemies to lovers trope (the 2 chapter enemies kind), found family and a bit of magic. With the classic stilted dialog and under development relationship that somehow always seemed to happen off page leaving you feeling like you missed something. The author wasted a lot of time on developing the magical part of the story, and I felt that the character growth and character relationships suffered for it.
But with all of that it was a fun time and a nice Christmas read worth checking out.

 Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. 

I love a good sci-fi with a small cast of characters in a spaceship in space. That might just be my favorite trope, and this book just confirmed that for me. Even though I didn't really like all of the characters at the beginning I absolutely loved all of their dynamics and relationships. As the book when on the flashbacks sequences really fleshed out all of the characters well and their motivation, so their actions in the present felt very purposeful and in character.

The ending still sticks with me almost a year after I read it. Even though some reviews said it was a bit predictable I was still that person that was trying not to get her sought on the Kindle while reading that last chapter.

I implore you, if you love fast-paced, small crew in space with a bit of a twist, please pick this book up.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

 

 DNF @ 40%
I really did give this book a fair shot. It's been on my 'currently reading' over three months but I was just unable to finish it. My main issue with the book is that even though I enjoyed while I was reading it, the moment I put it down I had no desire to keep reading. I felt like the plot has not progressed from the start of the book. I just didn't know where we were supposed to be progressing to, what was the end goal. Characters were interesting but I just couldn't get attached to them. The relationship of the two main characters is already developed prior to the start of the book, and I think that I never fully bought into it.
I wasn't attached to the characters, I don't know what the plot is, or where the characters are supposed to end up or what the end goal was. And the thing that would probably get more explored by the end of the book, but I just could not stop from affecting my enjoyment is that there is basically no fantasy or magic system mentioned so far in the book. So, I didn't care for the characters, plot or the magic system. There was nothing to hold my interest anymore.

Reasons why you might like this book:
If you are the big fan of politics and maneuvering at court;
If you want minimal/low fantasy setting, this one is for you;
If you like stories with slow moving plots this book might just be for you.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.