hann_cant_read's reviews
468 reviews

I really wanted to love it, but some things fell a little flat for me.
To start, I really did love the prose and the vibes. It was beautifully written, and the descriptions were poetic. It felt like the setting itself was another character.
It was pieces of the plot that I had more trouble with. Not even plot holes, just like "oh, that's it?" moments.
Reid really did a great job setting up for a fantastic story. I think the initial plot line of 

the widow being the true author

was predictable just from the theme of

men exploiting women

that was established very early on. I genuinely don't think a predictable plot is a bad one though, and I had thought that Reid had created enough going on alongside this plot-line to really create a captivating story.
But then, nothing else really happened. There were some super interesting side plot setups:

Effy having some other worldly beauty to the point that even a random boy at the college was annoyed with her until he saw her face then promptly asked her out. Sirens and selkies were even mentioned throughout the story alongside with Effy being a changeling child, but nothing ever came of it.

The war was mentioned quite a bit, but always in passing, like it didn't actually affect anyone we knew. It seemed like the only purpose was for the Sleeper Museum to have a function, and/or for Effy to make vaguely racist comments to Preston when she was mad, but it felt very underdeveloped.

I did like that for awhile we're really not sure if Effy is crazy like everyone thinks or if the Fairy King is real, because even she isn't sure.
Some questions I do still have that people might be able to answer for me:
1.

Why didn't the widow talk to them at all? Why/How did she escape the hall without making a sound if she wasn't a ghost?

2.

The random sex scene felt out of place. It felt less intimate and more like the precursor to a 3rd act breakup

3.

Why was the estate guy so cagey? He was helping Preston one minute, but suspicious of them the next.

 This book was so freaking funny. I legitimately laughed out loud at people's quips multiple times. The banter really was something else. That's probably why I loved Emily so much but man, she was streeeessing me out. She really was her own worst enemy.

The LGBTQ+ rep was very endearing, and didn't make me feel lectured or condescended to, it just was and the characters were navigating it.
 
If you're looking for an accurate portrayal of the regency period you are very much barking up the wrong tree, it's more "inspired by" the regency period I think,

The audio was narrated by Ell Potter, and she really nailed everyone's different cadences and comedic timing. I absolutely would listen to a book she narrated again. 

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC
DNF @ 27%
I just couldn't get on board with Penny. She seems very dumb despite her somehow being very successful. 
The premise was interesting, I do think I will return to finish it at some point / update my review. Just couldn't get past her

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.
DNF at 11%
This book was interesting, but the world building made me feel like I was reading a text book. I would like to come back to it at some point though! I'm hoping when I get through that it will flow a lot easier.

 Okay. So. I have a lot of thoughts. Most of them being that this book was fine. Nothing was like a major issue, but there were like a bunch of little things that bothered me.
1. Rosy's aversion to war made sense at first. Her grandfather was used and discarded by the Kingdom and then her Grandmother was punished for what seems to be a very natural reaction (familiars going feral when their bonded partner dies). But Rosy keeps acting like the kingdom just wants to go out and conquer land when at least by all appearances they are being attacked and need to defend themselves. Like, you choosing to not help defend your people when you have the ability to isn't going to stop the war from coming to you? I'm pretty anti-war but it felt like a weird take.

We do learn at the end that the war is pretty manufactured, but Rosy doesn't know that.

2. The kingdom has ALOT of politics regarding class systems, wealth, family bloodlines, etc but gender and sexuality isn't one of them. I love a world where homophobia doesn't exist, but it didn't feel like anything was solved/worked through, it felt like any problems that might arise were ignored. The princess is a powerful bone witch, from the bloodline of an extremely powerful bone witch. Where is her heir going to come from when she bonds with Rosy? Whether it's magic that helps them produce a baby together, or a donor is used, it felt like a weird omission when the King wrote to Shaw critiquing her courting choice.
3. In the same vein, no one was worried at all about the only potential heir dying in battle? There is no backup plan and this is crazy to me.
4. The use of the word terrorist so often just felt odd to me. This is a personal thing I think, but it's used so often with racist connotations in the real world, that it felt jarring to hear it in fantasy.
5. The prejudices against Shaw felt less like actual problems and more like a way to manufacture a slow burn relationship. Rosy's gran hated Shaw because a prophesy about her leading a war, but loved her grandmother the queen she fought under? And Rosy just inherited that prejudice and was a bitch to Shaw because of it? Like hate the King, sure, but Shaw has nothing to do with anything.
6. It was also a weird dissonance where, in a book where gender/sexual politics weren't an issue, we spent a very long time in Rosy's inner monologue reviewing the importance of not misgendering someone. Either it's a lesson we need to learn, or it's not a problem that occurs in this world. We can't both acknowledge and ignore it.
7. This book leans heavy into classism / wealth inequality but doesn't actually do anything to address it. The classism seems to exist solely so that Rosy can not care about status, because she's not like the other girls. Shaw tells Rosy she wants to offer scholarships to ALL witches/familiars that can't afford it when she's queen. Like that's great in theory but where is this money going to come from? What's the plan? It gives ethical billionaire vibes, and she's doing nothing to stop the bullying of less fortunate students at witch hall now. You're just suddenly going to do it when you're queen?
8. The ending where

Rosy determines she CAN fight but still won't bond with Shaw. Because she's not cut out for Court politics? This is just so random. Two chapters ago Rosy was complaining about how the ranch is doing just fine without her and how much she misses everything about Witch Hall. These circumstances keeping them apart make no sense except to further the relationship drama. They don't serve any other real purpose.

Unfortunately, after the long wait for a conclusion to the Legacy of Orïsha series I am still left wanting. I would have dnf'd if I wasn't behind on my reading goal already - although with how long this took me to get through I don't actually know if I made the right choice.
I'll reiterate what I saw in a ton of other reviews: this book feels so disconnected from the first two in the series, almost like a side book in the same universe or even a fanfiction.

The random new enemy that is all powerful, except not sometimes?, came out of nowhere and honestly felt like a cop-out. The "we need to put aside our differences" trope doesn't work when the 'difference' is literally one side committing genocide against another.

The pov switches made me feel like I was missing information instead of getting more. It's like every time we switched to someone the action was actually happening somewhere else. The voices also didn't feel distinct at all. Multiple times I had to flip to the front of the chapter to remind myself who's pov I was reading.

I don't know how many times I needed to hear the inner monologue of Tzain just listing dead familiy members and repeating how he couldn't lose Zelie. His "journey" felt so shallow.

He was just super angry and a bad fighter but then one time he cried and suddenly was accepted by everyone and good at battle?

Amari was just useless? Like I actually don't understand what her role was literally in any of this was. We could have taken out all her povs and the story wouldn't change.

And I guess she's gay now? More power to her but it felt a little weird to have such a long setup for her and Tzain to just have her fall in love with someone new 15 minutes later.

Inan's pov's I guess were slightly better? Although we essentially missed the entirety of

his time reuniting Orïsha

while we chilled with other pov's. It felt like a very "trust me bro, he did it" situation.

You're telling me that he showed them ONE vision of them being attacked and they were singing around a campfire together making friendship bracelets like a literal genocide hadn't been taking place? And even if they could set aside their differences, the peace then LASTED after the outside threat was vanquished?

Zelie's was the most interesting pov, but to be honest even hers dragged most of the time. It was so much just train of thought, with very little plot momentum. I was often stuck thinking "okay, you're scared for Orïsha but like what is actually happening right now?" We never saw her actually doing anything.

All her "training" happened while we were in someone else's pov..and really it never amounted to anything until the end.

As a side note, never understood why no one even mentioned

killing Zelie as a way to prevent the skulls from getting her magic? She was the only one who thought of that? And then they brought her back to life why? Each and every time they had depended on her to be stronger than the king she failed and then didn't do anything different the next time. Why did they keep doing the exact same thing?!

One of the things I loved about the first book was the intricate magic system - it stands to reason that with new cultures being introduced that our main characters are going to be interacting with magic they don't quite understand the rules for, so I can be lenient in me not understanding it, especially as I'm learning everything in a first person pov. But they didn't really seem to wonder, or care how it worked the majority of the time.

I had a lot of problems with the ending, not the least of which was it just kind of ...ended.

I really don't understand why suddenly she was all powerful and able to defeat the king with one strike.

 

I ended up reading the physical copy instead!
The audio wasn't bad, but the beginning was a lot of world building and was easier to digest (for me!) in written form. I did listen to random chapters in audio once I was invested in the story.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
I'm so sorry I couldn't finish. DNF at 12%
This book is supposed to be New Adult. I'm learning that just means middle grade writing with probably some spice. Very weird dynamic.
The dialogue was so clunky, it read like a first draft or outline. I actually loved the premise but couldn't get through the actual writing.
Editors are not an optional part of the publishing process 

 Thank you to netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to love this book, and there were some really great pro's!
The writing itself was pretty and the different settings were described beautifully, even if I felt the story itself was a little lackluster.

1. To start, the pacing was rough. It started so slow, and then by the end it felt like we were rushing to get a conclusion before the book ended. The only time anything happened was in the Fairyland, but we barely spent any time there. So much of the time was just filler until they went back, and I still don't understand what the castle by the gate and the magic creature there had to do with any of the plot. 

2. The random celtic (I think) words could have added to the story, but she used them so much and then never explained what she was talking about. It was tricky to get into a story when I have to keep stop and looking up words to know what is even going on. It felt like I was trying to read an entire story in a different language instead of pulling in cultural elements. It was also extremely info dumpy at times, especially in the beginning, that I felt like I wasn't even retaining any of the information that they wanted me to.

3. Our MC was just so dumb. But then also randomly just understood things out of nowhere. She was so easily manipulated by everyone around her. She never learned. She talks so much about how she was forged into a weapon but we never actually see her be successful at it, except that she can dive into a frozen lake and survive I guess. She just has no critical thinking skills even when it's so so clear she's being lied to. How she randomly discovered how to save the day at the end I'll never know. I can forgive her not realizing her mom was manipulating her because she was just so desperate to be loved. But her sister? From the story Rogan told about her, to every single conversation Fia had with her it was clear she was trying to manipulate. 

4. The romances. So bland. I understand the initial falling for the prince, because he was the one person who showed her kindness growing up. But man he's so spineless and his only trait is having the hots for her. I even understand her succumbing to his "charms" because of her attachment. But that's genuinely all he had going for him. He was there, and he wasn't mean to her. But his attachment to her was just as shallow. There was nothing holding them together so why it took them so long to end it is beyond me. And once they ended it that was just kind of it? There was no aftermath or addition to the plot. We just moved on to the point that if they had just been friends the whole time the story would have been the same.
The other romance was at least more interesting if not any deeper. It still seemed like that love also happened as a matter of convenience though due to the lack of time they actually spent together. She was there and his skin didn't burn her so he fell in love. For how much of the book was focused on the romance instead of plot, we still barely got to explore actual depth to their relationship.

5. What happened to the random dude that she owes a kiss to?

6. The ending was abrupt. She suddenly knows how to save him, and her, and the world. Clearly there are things left unresolved for us to discover in the next one, but it just felt so convenient that she found the perfect solution with no real build up / quality foreshadowing to her thought process. 

So. The concept was interesting but man, the execution was not my cup of tea.

I have a few problems with this.
1. The MC isn't like other witches. She's a cool witch. There is literally nothing she isn't secretly amazing at. She had literally zero flaws except that she doesn't like to open up to people?

Except that she does, she has a really good friend at the school, she just doesn't delve into her past trauma, so apparently that means no one knows her. but like come on. Not only is she actually a surprise best at magic in the class, but also surprise she's been taking secret sword lessons and is actually better than the wielders at that too. And don't forget she's like an amaaaaazing healer. Way better than the other witches at that school.

2. The way our MC's magic manifests felt like a cheap shock value.

There had to be a rape because again, brutal shock value, but also it couldn't be her because she still needed to be a pure and untouched virgin, so it had to be her sister.

3. The constant flashbacks drove me nuts. They added nothing to the story and just messed with the pacing! We just ended up repeating that same information later in the main timeline, and then eventually it stopped being 1:1 chapters and just every other / every few chapters started with a flashback before going back to the main timeline.
4. The world building was mainly just listing different kinds of demons constantly. I couldn't keep track of what they were, and tbh I don't think it made a difference. There could have been just one kind of demon and it wouldn't have changed anything except shortened the word count a bit.
5. The characters had no depth, and so their attraction to each other had no depth.

Also, he would just randomly get naked, tease her about her discomfort with it, but then like act like he was doing his damnedest to hold himself back. Idk it really didn't make sense.