hann_cant_read's reviews
468 reviews

These two lovesick idiots were killing me.
It was cute, and cheesy as it was supposed to be, but man.
We never got an actual explanation / apology from Rhys about the betrothal issue that broke them up in the first place - it sounds like it was all a misunderstanding anyway but for some reason they never discussed it, even though it was severe enough for her to hold a NINE YEAR grudge.
Speaking of which, they were not acting 28/29, specifically Vivi. If it had been like three years later and they were 22/23 their behavior would have made so much more sense.
I still don't understand the reasons they couldn't be together toward the end.

He owned a travel company. He could literally do that from anywhere. And even if he didn't want to move they have those stupid travel stone things. There's no such thing as long distance with travel stones.

It's possible I'm biased, but anything Leigh Bardugo writes is an insta-buy for me, and this was no different.
It started a little slow, it took a little bit for me to get to know who Luzia was. I will say, part of that was absolutely the point though - she has spent so long hiding herself that she also needed to relearn who she was. It was a journey we took together.
Santangel. Maybe I just have a thing for emo sad boys but he had my heart right away.
While it's written in 3rd person, each chapter is from the pov of different characters throughout the story. Personally, I love how that gives us a way to see Luzia as other people see her - and how their view of her changes over the course of the story.
The only thing that was a little tough, was (as this was set in Spain) a lot of Spanish terms were used. I don't think it's a negative by any means, and most of the terms I could parse out just from context clues, but it is something to be be aware of going into it.

The prose is so hard to get through. Every single paragraph is trying to end with a dramatic punch, eventually the effect is diminished and nothing actually makes an impact.
The world building is so clunky and for attempting to be political intrigue, each nugget we learn feels like an after thought. Nothing happened the entire first chapter except our main character just listing examples of why Colonizing Empire = Bad. We got it. The info-dumping monologues (both internal and via speech!) were killing me. Worse than being morally gray is just being annoying. 

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. It definitely felt like the middle book in a trilogy. More like a bridge connecting two stories than an actual story in and of itself.
The first half really dragged. The author kept teasing a reveal that seemed so obvious, that it was just annoying that it took the entire first half of the book for Lore to realize it (or come to terms with it, really).

I think the goal of the first half was really for Bastian's descention arc, but it just wasn't very smooth. (Bastian hating but eating cantaloupe could have been such a good clue if both of those things hadn't been told to us at the exact same time.)

There were some weird interactions that didn't quite make sense. Lore as a whole was just kind of a blank slate for whatever the plot needed in that exact moment. 

Lore told Gabe that something was off with Bastian, but he said she was wrong. But later, when Lore is talking to Alie, Alie mentions that Gabe noticed Bastian was different, and instead of being pissed that Gabe brushed her off when he clearly agreed, she's nervous that Gabe is noticing?

It also doesn't make sense to me why Lore withholds the random information that she does, other than to make the plot seem more mysterious.

These people are on your side! Plus her requesting the group to tell Bastian things when she KNOWS telling him is as good as telling Apollius so why is she even asking?

Also, Lore was extremely boring in this one. While she didn't have a lot of agency in the last one, she at least understood that and was making the small decisions she could to try and make the best of the situation. (She knew her limitations!) But in this one she's just sad and confused and the story is playing out around her. Even as she has this insane power she's just kind of...there. I know part of it is to draw parallels between her dynamic and Nyxara's, but because it went on for so long with nothing happening it just felt like slugging through the story.
That being said, the second half went a LOT quicker, and while the God lore was a liiiitle bit info dumpy I found myself really interested in that background history.
My last point of contention is the dialogue sometimes felt weirdly modern but only randomly. It wasn't a huge deal but it just felt a little jarring at times.
I do think, because of the pacing of the last half that I'll end up reading the third one when it comes out. I'm curious to see where the story goes.

Thanks to netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I heard some rough reviews before giving it a shot so I was a little apprehensive going in, but I ended up enjoying it.
There are some issues - the world building is kind of shallow and a lot of the world building we got was a little info dumpy. I know parts of Lore's past were kept intentionally vague for a while but even her life / the culture of living outside the citadel was boiled down to drug running and illegal fighting rings. 
The magic is still a little confusing to the point that there were instances where I knew the characters realized something but I was struggling to see what their conclusions were.
Also, Lore has to be the worst spy I've ever heard of. I understand that being under the thumb of the actual King / Fantasy Pope is a little more nerve wracking than her normal spy work, but

apparently even the guy she was spying on before that knew what she was doing.

The character arcs were another minor issue for me.

They seemed to stay relatively flat until the end. Gabe was always being pushed out of his comfort zone, so his betrayal was of no surprise, but he did come out of nowhere at the end to switch sides back and fight Anton. Bastian's was interesting although less severe. He was always looking to crack especially when it came to his father and uncle. Lore's just stayed flat the entire time. And tbh her at the end saying she was selfish was honestly just not true. The story started with her risking capture to save a fellow crew member. So idk where that came from

That being said, once I was about 40% in things really started picking up. I'm really curious about the character arcs for Bastian and Gabe alongside Lore.

This reads like a middle grade fantasy.
I think if it was marketed that way I would have come into it with a different mindset, but as it is, I'm very thrown off by the fact that they're supposed to be 18 years old. 14 would have made way more sense, and the cringey dialogue / actions (a dude trips her? in college?) would have felt more realistic.
Wren is so small. And has a double bird name. and is so short. and pours soap in a fountain for her birthday. and has pink in her hair. She's so quirky. and small. I also must have missed how everyone was supposed to keep this secret about moon magic but she still knows. If her parent's told her why did they make her uncle promise not to talk to her about it? How did she find out about Lee and Sam?
Lee is. sigh. Fine. His unrequited crush again feels a little juvenile. But I just can't bring myself to care about either of them or their romance.

The entire frame of this story revolves around Freya "wanting". Wanting glory in battle, wanting her family to not suck, wanting to bone Bjorn. But she refuses to do anything about it, preferring instead to let others "control her fate" and then alternating between rage from being used as a tool, and guilt over the decisions she let others make.
If it's not clear, I think Freya is pretty dumb. 
1. The entire story kind of revolves around her flipping back and forth in her bad decisions until

ultimately Bjorn just makes one for her.

2. She has no battle experience, (except like, for playing with her brother as a child? I don't know in what world that counts but okay) But still somehow the fact that other people have ACTUAL experience and might know what they're talking about better than her somehow never occurs to her.
3.

There is literally no reason for Freya to think that Ylva is the "traitor" except that Freya doesn't like her. All the observations of her seeing specifically a woman felt like she made it up to justify her train of thought. It was just so obviously a red herring that it wasn't even believable.

4. She would stop thinking people were lying to her if she would ACTUALLY listen to the things they're (

Bjorn

) trying to tell her without giving away their secrets to every single person around.
5. Her "subconsciously" being against using the healing salve is so stupid. It was an easy ploy by the author to give Bjorn an excuse to have to touch her, but the random psychoanalyzing of her guilt by a stranger and then the salve never being mentioned again was also weird. 

How, after all the nicknames Bjorn gives her, do we end up sticking with "Freya Born-in-Fire" the least roll-off-the-tongue name anyone has ever tried to say.
Which brings me to the dialogue. It was so cringe. First of all, it's a lie. There is no slow burn it is absolutely insta-lust. And somehow it turns to love despite the only thing them ever talking about is how big his ween is in various forms of innuendos. Alternatively, they keep alternating between dialogue that sounds ancient/mythological and then really modern sounding. 

Lastly, wtf was going on with her family? There just isn't any consistency.
Her dad wanted to hide her destiny to protect her I think? He literally said "If anyone ever learns, your life will never be your own!" but then also ignores her begging and forces her to marry an abusive man. 
Her mom

apologizes for choosing her brother over her but then immediately starts berating and calling her a whore before ultimately betraying her to save herself

 
Her brother

in the beginning at least had some sort of loyalty to her even if he was spineless, but the aggressiveness which he came at her toward the end was out of nowhere.

 Idk man I was just so bored. There seemingly should be a lot to be invested in. Dani's mysterious backstory and issues with her mom. The heist gone wrong. The band of misfits that used to be her family. I loved the dog, but everyone else was just kind of meh. I kept finding myself having to push to finish a chapter and life's too short. It's not badly written, I just could NOT get invested.