nicolealycia's Reviews (959)

June 2024 Update:
I’m reverting back to my original 4.5/5

So I read this series out of order, reading book 2 first and I have to say I’m rather glad I did. Despite the fact that I already knew “who dunnit” going into this book, I think if I would have read this one first I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did. I thought the story was a little confusing at times because of the way it was written but that might have just been me.
That being said, I still enjoyed this one and I’m looking forward to see what adventure Marion Lane and her friends go on next!

3.5/5 stars rounded up

Romance really isn’t my genre and I want to start my review off by saying that because I can understand why some people would really like this book
It was definitely cute and had some fun moments. I loved the setting being in Scotland and all the sites and Scottish life involved.
I did think the romance felt a little forced at times. While the characters had a decent connection I didn’t love it all the time, they wanted such different things and there really wasn’t a lot of middle ground to be found.

All in all it was cute, it had some emotional moments and is something I would have liked more had there been more traveling around Scotland in it

Book 3 in The Bridge Kingdom series has us following two new characters, Keris and Zarrah

I had a love hate relationship with both of these characters while reading the book. Both were very stubborn and set in their ways but always seemed to compromise at a weird time for me. And while I’m all about strong uncompromising women in books, Zarrah and her honor got on my nerves a few times.

Otherwise I loved the book! I loved seeing the story from the first two books told from different perspectives and I loved getting to know these two characters more! I’m super excited to find out where the second book goes although I’m a little worried there’s going to be more pining than I like in books

3.5/5

I want to start this review by saying I read an ARC of this book and I really really hope they fixed the errors in the ARC when they went to print because hot damn it was bad.

If you read my reviews you’ll know I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to books. Make it entertaining and easy to read and you’re almost guaranteed to get 3.5/4 stars from me. I give almost everything 4 stars on here. I can’t find a single thing to be optimistic about with this one … the only reason I didn’t give it 1 star is because I don’t believe in that. The author put the work in and it’s not their fault I found it bad.

The inconsistencies in this book were god awful. The premise is that 15 year old Piper went missing and her twin sister, Iris, is looking for her. At the start of the book we find out 8 years have passed and Iris is 23, it literally states this at the start of the book. Here’s where the story went from there:
1. Iris magically has a 9 year old son but he wasn’t born before Piper went missing.
2. Later on the same page where Iris said she’s been raising her son AND LOOKING FOR HER SISTER FOR 9 YEARS (even though it’s only been 8 years since her sister went missing) she makes a comment about her 8 year old son ……. Um I’m sorry but he’s been 9 the last 30 pages but now he’s 8? It makes more sense but not much.
3. But wait it gets better! About midway through the book we have a flashback to the past where Cal (the son) comes into Iris’s life…… it’s a year and a day after Piper went missing when they find Cal at their mothers house. His umbilical cord is still attached which means (as it says in the book) he’s probably less than a week old …… wait….. if he was born a year after Piper went missing that means he can only be 7….. but he’s already been 9 and then 8….. What. The. Actual. F*ck.

I cannot believe it got this far without anyone fixing all these glaringly obvious mistakes. And I really hope these mistakes were fixed before it went to print (I’m hoping to check the next time I work my part time job at the bookstore)

And don’t get me started on the writing. I had such a hard time following this book I thought I needed to be institutionalized. The writing was all over the place, things would randomly happen that made absolutely no sense whatsoever with the flow of the story and the ending was so ridiculous that it didn’t make the story better.

This was my first ever Tarryn Fisher book and it was a very discouraging start. I have read other reviews that have said this is nothing like the other books she writes but good lord I don’t know if I want to take the risk of reading another one after this. I’ve never been more disappointed after hearing so many good things about an author.

Just…. Wow…
I can’t even imagine the bravery it took to come out and write this book for Jeannette McCurdy … what a heartbreaking story.
I’m not one to listen to audiobooks but her telling the story made it so much more powerful and impactful.