onceuponanisabel's Reviews (1.48k)

So, like. This book was mostly a dumpster fire. A protag who epitomizes "not like other girls." A romance that's some abusive, god-awful combination of Reylo and Alarkling. It did feature vampire dystopia rather than vampire paranormal/urban which I do generally prefer, so some points for world-building. But the characters? The plot? World-building can't cover for it. I didn't have particularly high expectations for this -- I probably wouldn't ever have read it if I hadn't won a copy in a Goodreads giveaway I don't remember entering. Do yourself a favor: skip this one and sink your teeth into [b:The Coldest Girl in Coldtown|12813630|The Coldest Girl in Coldtown|Holly Black|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367312471l/12813630._SY75_.jpg|17962903] instead. You'll have a much better time.

While I liked this less than its predecessor, The Duchess War carries on the trends of bold, interesting characters, unexpected plots, and happy, shippable romances.

This was one of the first historical romances I ever read -- stolen from my grandmother when I was definitely too young to be reading it. While there are certainly problems with it (although I'm not sure I would have acknowledged them then), I think it was this book that initiated my love of historical romance (although now I'd like to say my taste is a little better)

I rated this five stars when I was first setting up this account for reasons I cannot fathom because I hadn't read the book since I was in about the fourth grade. Like so many older fantasy books (Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes to mind) The Hobbit is extremely episodic in kind of a weird way. Some of these episodes are deathly boring (it takes a shocking amount of time for the group to ford a river) and some move entirely too fast and I can understand why the Peter Jackson movie adaptation drew them out (like, idk, the battle??). All in all, this is still a classic, the world-building is still just absolutely stunning, and the characters are still close to my heart. I just wish I could enjoy reading it more.