This book is such a man book. I don’t know how else to say it. I didn’t hate it but almost every moment of it felt like a teenage boy was telling me about this intense video game fantasy. Which I guess is the plot anyways so it did what it needed to do there. But for me it just felt super annoying at points, particularly any of the “romance” portions, and especially the reveal of H. It was very in your face “women can do anything!” In a way that a woman would never actually want to be written about. 

The strongest part of this book was its world building and the evil sixers. It worked. But there is something so silly about a man that dies and wants to leave his money to someone good but puts no rules or regulations on how to win said money so an evil entity could realistically receive it. Like… donate it? Idk it’s hard to suspend reality for this fake billionaire that made stupid choices and was clearly a dick to everyone and gave his fortune to whoever could successfully study him the most. 

3/5

I thought I’d enjoy this more just considering who I am as a reader but something just didn’t do it for me here. It certainly is a cozy little fantasy and I can understand why it is appealing to others, but for me, despite being well aware that things clearly happen in this book, it just felt like nothing was happening? 

Even though it was well written it felt off to me, not sure why. 

While this book itself was not my favorite of the 3 I was a huge fan of the conclusion to this story, it was immensely satisfying and this entire series gets a 5/5 from me. 

I’m very surprised by the mediocre reception of this book, from what I can tell there were people who were majorly let down, and others who loved it which places its rating firmly average. I enjoyed this book a lot, I thought the prose were very pretty and that the story was interesting and I wanted to know what was going to happen. 

The strongest part of this story is Effy’s own personal growth while coming to terms with the trauma she’s endured throughout here life. Quite frankly the rest of the story felt secondary to that. I think there are some really beautiful moments in here from Reid, the prose are gorgeous in many places. But the story itself is just lacking a lot of substance. 

This book just made me smile, all of the characters were great and the ending was perfect. If you’re looking for a relaxed story that will make your heart happy, read  thjs. 

I wanted to like this book as I have the special edition from illumcrate, but I just couldn’t get into it. 

The characters were super one dimensional, they lacked a personality and frankly were hard to keep track of.

The moments of the book that were strongest were the flashbacks, everything else was just boring. 

I enjoy an unreliable narrator to a point but this felt like a LOT.

I do think one thing that kept drawing me out of the story was the dramatic endings to each chapter. There’s only so many times you can write “before her world came crashing down” in one way or another before it’s overdone and practically every chapter does it here. 

I think the strongest part of this book is the jumps in time.

Ultimately, I just never trusted the narrator, it felt very Roger Ackroyd esque so I wasn’t surprised by the twists.

This one was better than the first for me, I found myself much more invested in the characters and what would happen to them. Partly I think because a lot of the dangers they faced was much more real this time. 

My only complaint is how the book is essentially split in two, 1/2 about Frodo and Sam and 1/2 about everyone else, I think it would’ve been more engaging had it gone back and forth but I’m sure that is a more modern thing. 

What a ride. Nahri and Ali are by far the stand outs in this book, Dara’s perspective is not quite as interesting.

The politics of this series are what stand out most and it is done so well by the author, I find it so intriguing.