4.3 How Nobody came to the graveyard. There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

At fist the first two lines of the book did not make much sense, but as I read on they were ingenious. I'm not the biggest fan of the storytelling style Gaiman used for th novel, where each chapter is like a separate adventure, but the story was so unique and hooking this I just had to read on. I absolutely love the concept, the relationships, and the mysteries.

This book was absolutely amazing. I've always found fictional world war two stories very generic, but Lina's was original and gave a new perspective on the war and who else was effected. Ruta's writing is so vivid and emotional it is hard to believe these words were not written by a real Lina Vilkas. She is a great antagonist, she has a strong personality that is reflected in her art. I also loved how the flashbacks were placed. They were placed at the exact right moments that made them flow with the story. This a work of genius.

This was a nice conclusion about how life will always move forwards and about the best in humanity. The message as sweet and came through very well. Overall the book was very good. The plot was relevant to the rest of the serise and it tied in the third book that at best seemed a bit random. It did a very good job at tying in The Prophet of Yonwood. It was much better than I would have imagined.

3.5 I'm not a huge fan of contemporaries, but I did enjoy this book. It was cute and more realistic than most romances. I also loved the boarding school aspect. I found that very interesting and it was the highlight of the book for me. What I did not like, however, was how the main characters all seemed to have dysfunctional families and were using relationships to escape them. The relationships also seemed fueled by these family problems and the characters were more focused on escaping them than fixing them.

I found it hard to connect with Lola as a lead character. We are polar opposites. Normally, this doesn't bother me, but it did in this book. Many of her ideals and opinions seemed weird and alien to me. The romance between Lola and Cricket was not as problematic as I was expecting it to be, but I did not enjoy the one between Lola and the other guy. It made no sense to me. Also, I found the same problem with dysfunctional families being the reasons behind relationships was still present in this novel, though not as bad as it was in Anna and the French Kiss. I also found the appearance of Anna and St. Clair amusing, and it was one of the few reasons I continued reading the novel.

Trigger Warnings: Sex, mild language.

4.75 I absolutely loved this book. The world is so vivid and its history is so just as interesting as its peoples. Rhapsodie's character is so well developed. Her perspectives were clear and consistent throughout the entire story and relatable. She's a loveable character with a huge heart. A few things bugged me like how everyone had a crush on the main character how unbelievably beautiful she was, but the reasons behind it and the way it helped develop the character was worth it. The relationships in this book seemed like they could be real and not all happy go lucky, which was nice although it took up a lot of the plot.

3.5 This book, more than anything, is about the corruption of power. It's not driven by its world or by its characters, but the message behind it. In this book, animals at a farm revolt and take it over after their owner forgets to feed them. All goes smoothly and everyone is treated fairly until the pigs begin to see the advantages of having more than others. They get away with it because most of the animals are unintelligent or not educated and they cannot tell when they are worse off than when they were with the farmer. This book reminds us that as long as someone has power over us, no matter what they say, we are not truly equal.

I can't find anything wrong with this novel. It has a vivid world rich with interesting history and peoples. It leaves you wanting more of the world's tales. It's magic system seems interesting and tangible. The light and dark sides have their strengths and weaknesses as well as their own hierarchies that are interesting. The characters have unique and definitive personalities from each other. They all have human emotions that fit them. The description in this book is perfect. There's lots were you want it and little where you don't. The novel is gripping throughout even if the story is going slow or there are no action scenes, because something that might be of importance later on is happening and is interesting to the reader. Part of my favourite series of all time.

4.5 The thing that bugged me was how many sub-plots there were. It was hard to keep track of and some of the plots had nothing to do with the main plot. I'm sure they will come into play in The Assassin King, but it left a lot of name bobbling around in my head after their story was dropped. Some reappeared neared the end and I almost forgot who they were and why they were important.

Now onto the many strong points of this novel. It's consistent with the rest of the series in lore and world building and character development. It was amazing. It is so vivid and real. I always want more from the world, yet I still feel satisfied when I finish a book. The leads are still strong and diverse and make the book better. Other than the amount of sub-plot, whether relevant or seemingly irrelevant, it was flawless.

3.5 This wasn't bad at all. It all the cool science fiction elements were there. Time-travel, apocalyptic 1980s, shrinking people and villains from the future. The art work was decent too. I liked how some pages were loaded with text, almost more text than image, and others had few to none. I never got board of reading too much or too little.

The story was a bit slow in the beginning, but once it got going it was much better. I would have liked to see more if the futuristic planets and how they function and stuff, but there's the rest of the series for that.