It's a chilling depiction of what would happen if gene editing was treated like a hobby accessible to the general public, done without a second thought. It's a very Black Mirror-esque story just like Dark Matter and Recursion, but tied to a very real problem we are all facing today. It really made me look within myself and recognise myself in the descriptions of the humanity's biggest flaw. I really liked how the author approached the topic.

I will say that all all three - Dark Matter, Recursion and Upgrade - are pretty formulaic. If you read all three, you will see the similarities. And yet despite the similarities, I find the premise of all three really unique, with the execution there to support it. I've not been let down by the author yet and I'm so excited to see what his mind will come up with next.

When the only thing I can think of "I'm glad it's over" then I guess the series wasn't that good, was it?

Honestly I'm annoyed at the entire thing because I feel like I wasted my time. I see I've given the second book four stars and I can't for the life of me remember why because I know for a fact I was extremely disappointed in all three books. The only reason I even finished any of them was because it was a buddy read with a friend.

Let's start with the good - the premise of the series is amazing, so it being really popular is absolutely no surprise to me. The puzzles - great, really interesting. But the bad.. the bad made me really hate ever hearing about the series.

The execution of the story just fell SO flat. The "romance" was absolute horseshit. There was no chemistry between Avery-Jameson OR Avery-Grayson. Their interactions in this book made NO SENSE. Most of my notes on my e-reader about their interactions consist of "huh?" because they were just so confusing. Jameson's insistence that Avery really wanted Grayson, his dramatics about wanting to be a DiFfErEnT MaN for her and protect her from harm (read: control her and lock her up) because she's just that good, Grayson's constant wallowing about Emily (who was an absolute turd of a person, hated every second of having to hear about her, so good riddance) and how he's broken and weak and not worth anything - give me a fucking break with the theatrics already.
All of the characters, with the exception of Xander who I actually liked, either make no sense or are deeply unlikeable and hard to give a shit about.

At some point in the story, I got just exhausted with all the twists and turns and I felt like the story itself was a damn Rube Goldberg machine - unnecessarily complicated. It felt like the author tried to be super clever and thought that the more twists she included, the better, but it only managed to overwhelm and annoy me. I also couldn't make sense of the characters' ages and I feel like something is not adding up there.

The ending was really predictable, not to mention unrealistic.

When you inherit a fortune, you don't inherit it all in plain money, it's tied up in assets, so her giving it away makes no sense.

And don't even get me started on that foundation name. It's just as bad as, if not even worse than, Renesmee or Edward Jacob. I mean jesus christ.

As for writing, I absolutely DESPISE how the author cuts up direct speech. It really messes with the flow of reading and it makes no sense to insert comments IN THE MIDDLE of direct speech.

I really liked this book. The atmosphere was top notch, I loved the characters, the story was interesting and different from anything else I've read. I really loved the Welsh elements, as it's something I'm not familiar with, and based on other reviews, it's not very common in books either.

Deducted a point for predictability, I also felt like the story lacked a tiny bit of depth. More romance would have been great as well.

Overall a pretty decent read, albeit a bit skimpy on the horror side. The plot was engaging and the story was structured nicely, but the writing was very amateurish and the book is in serious need of editing - there was just an inexcusable number of errors and I can't figure out what the author has against commas. It really throws a wrench my flow of reading if I constantly have to go back and read sentences again to try and make sense of them. I also didn't understand why the author uses full names for a few characters, but just first names for others. A bit of an odd choice.

The last chapter felt very rushed.

I knew quite early that either Nick or James was involved somehow, likely through blackmail

, but the way it was unravelled in the last chapter was too clumsy and made Chloe seem like a rambling lunatic. For her to jump from

what Eamonn said about Faulks being involved with a doctor or a surgeon to nurses and Nick

was just such a huge reach without anything leading to it, so it seemed like the author was unsure how to tie it up.

I'm disappointed. It sounded so promising and I really liked it at first. The atmosphere of the story is amazing and a tea-based magic system is such a cool and unique idea, but the execution fell really flat for me. I'm just left super confused about the characters and their motivations. It's not enough to just give characters names, I want to know who they are, why they're there, what their purpose is. Same with places. What are they and why are they important? You can't just randomly name provinces and kingdoms without any prior introduction. That was probably the most lacking part for me because at some point I had a hard time understanding what was even going on and what the world was like. Like okay, the kingdom is in danger and people are scheming and we can't trust anyone, but who these schemers are and what they want - no idea. The romance, if it can even be called that, is just as confusing and far-fetched. There was no chemistry, no connection, and the MC somehow manages to ruin even that. The purpose of some events makes no sense either, such as why the

emperor's death was concealed? And after it was announced he was dead, nothing happened. Nobody cared, nobody questioned it.

I will not be finishing the duology.

It was definitely engaging from start to end. However, I'm pretty sure I only enjoyed reading it because I had seen the movie and loved it. Had I not, I would have had a hard time making sense of what was going on because it's very math and science heavy, there are words whose meaning I didn't know before and don't know now, I just glided over all of those scientific descriptions. Another thing that made me want to finish was my love for Project Hail Mary - a masterpiece. That being said, I now realise why so many people say that the MCs are exactly the same. They really are way too similar and I had the exact same issues with them, with the difference that while Ryland eventually grew on me, Mark did not as much. I found myself often cringing at his humour and some things were just in poor taste. It was also difficult for me to believe that a person's mental state and positive outlook would remain so static in such a difficult situation and extreme isolation.

I read plenty of thrillers and mysteries and have found that I really enjoy locked-room stories. This book is like a mix of Squid Game and the Saw movies - both of which I love. Overall, I liked the plot, it was super gripping and I couldn't put it down (which alone is high praise from me), but I am still left feeling like the story has some issues that are too big to overlook. I think that some major points in the story could have been made clearer for the reader because I obviously don't see inside the writer's head. I don't like it when writers bait and switch me for their own convenience or shock value. It takes you out of the story when you realise that no matter what is said right now, it doesn't mean anything and can change at any point if the writer so decides. I much prefer being able to deduce what is what on my own than have major twists and turns and details that ultimately leave me confused. It's a good story and a great idea, but I think it just needs a bit of polishing.

Thank you to the author for my review copy!

TJR did it again! The way she writes interpersonal relationships is simply unparalleled. It's magic on the page. Her characters are SO realistic, even the most minor ones. I really liked the portrayal of the same behaviours being passed down from generation to generation and how difficult it is to break out of that cycle when it's the only thing you've ever known. Also, the reflection of the classic oldest sibling syndrome was so amazing that I started to wonder if she's writing from personal experience.

I just really love how she can make such a complex story seem so simple and how she can write an entire book about one single day without it dragging.

The entire series was such a joy to read! I find it so rare for a series to get progressively better because it's usually the other way around. It started at 4 stars and ended up at 5 for me. 

I loved the world and the atmosphere so much. I realise that for fantasy, it isn't very complex and intricate as one might expect, especially in terms of characters, but to me, the characters were what made the story so enjoyable, even if they were a bit one-dimensional and predictable at times. They were just so heartwarming and felt like sipping a cup of hot chocolate.

The second book in the series definitely did not disappoint. A lot of what I predicted turned out to be true, so I guess you could say that it's a bit predictable, but I did not mind it actually and felt that the story still kept me on my toes. I liked the little clues the author dropped in because it was like a puzzle I could figure out. The plot gets super intense around chapter 13. 

The royal family is definitely a bit too trusting, especially considering the danger they're facing. As characters, I guess you could say they're quite one-dimensional, not one bad bone in their body, but I'm not too bothered about it because I think the story is meant to be sappy and sweet, at least on the royal family side, to emphasise the clash between

Vallentis and Corentine. Definitely did not expect Kiva to end back at Zalindov, so I'm excited to see how the story will progress, how she'll get out and solve the situation with Jaren and the rest of the royal family.