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onceuponanisabel
This book was super duper cute — I cannot get over how much I love Liv and Jay and Ash and Tiffany; they were all such dynamic interesting lovable characters and I’ll probably pick up the next volume of this soon.
The world-building here was pretty cool but the plotting and the characters just left me incredibly detached from the story and skimming through a lot of the book
Alice retellings are some of my favorites (I've got almost enough to just make a whole Wonderland shelf and I'm excited for the day I actually do it lol) and this one was a good contribution. Alice was a really great main character -- incredibly strong while still feeling human and flawed. The story was very fast-paced and I was able to absolutely fly through this. As an added bonus I loved how much of this story was spent in the real world. I feel like Alice retellings tend to take place mostly if not entirely in Wonderland (as the original does) but I really enjoyed the more urban fantasy elements of the parts of this book that were irl.
The only thing I found frustrating was Alice's conflict with her mother. Her being out, breaking curfew, and not answering texts while in Wonderland was a conflict that just Kept. Coming. Up. I feel like it got a little repetitive, especially since there were never any actual consequences that hindered Alice in any way.
The only thing I found frustrating was Alice's conflict with her mother. Her being out, breaking curfew, and not answering texts while in Wonderland was a conflict that just Kept. Coming. Up. I feel like it got a little repetitive, especially since there were never any actual consequences that hindered Alice in any way.
Y'all this book is insane and I loved it.
Bonds of Brass is about a young pilot who deserts from his post to protect his best friend, secretly the heir to the empire for whom they both fight. As the two travel across the universe, they discover a large rebellion and new friends.
Many of the most popular reviews of this book so far relate this book to FinnPoe from Star Wars, and while, honestly, this really only has a few tinges of that particular ship, it was very gay and very reminiscent of Star Wars. So it will probably fill that void for you, as it did for me.
The relationship dynamics in the book are really what drive it -- what's going on between Ettian and Gal is constantly shifting and always complicated. They have an unbreakable loyalty to each other despite their very different political affiliations (Ettian was orphaned by Gal's parents' armies), so it's often an "I love you, but I don't like you right now" kind of situation, which I kind of love. They struggle to reconcile their bond with each of their own individual motivations and it was pretty fascinating to watch play out.
This is definitely one of those fun intrigue-y plots where there are a million players who all want slightly different things, and you never really know how it's going to end until you get there. Which is really my favorite thing, so kudos to Skrutskie. I've read her book [b:The Abyss Surrounds Us|24790901|The Abyss Surrounds Us (The Abyss Surrounds Us, #1)|Emily Skrutskie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014825l/24790901._SY75_.jpg|44425139], and really enjoyed it, and while this really has very few similarities to Abyss, it has a similar flair for the dramatic and equally complicated relationships.
So lastly, why 4 stars instead of 5? It did feel shockingly derivative of Star Wars, and not just in the way that all space operas feel somewhat Star Wars-esque. I wanted a little more originality in the world-building and to be honest, I kind of wanted the Ettian himself to have a little more personality. I know it can be difficult to imbue a narrator with personality, since they can't be described from the outside, but he felt so much flatter than Gal or Wen.
But to be honest, those things are relatively small nitpicks, because I really, really enjoyed this book. If you love space operas and sci-fi like me, this is one to pick up.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Bonds of Brass is about a young pilot who deserts from his post to protect his best friend, secretly the heir to the empire for whom they both fight. As the two travel across the universe, they discover a large rebellion and new friends.
Many of the most popular reviews of this book so far relate this book to FinnPoe from Star Wars, and while, honestly, this really only has a few tinges of that particular ship, it was very gay and very reminiscent of Star Wars. So it will probably fill that void for you, as it did for me.
The relationship dynamics in the book are really what drive it -- what's going on between Ettian and Gal is constantly shifting and always complicated. They have an unbreakable loyalty to each other despite their very different political affiliations (Ettian was orphaned by Gal's parents' armies), so it's often an "I love you, but I don't like you right now" kind of situation, which I kind of love. They struggle to reconcile their bond with each of their own individual motivations and it was pretty fascinating to watch play out.
This is definitely one of those fun intrigue-y plots where there are a million players who all want slightly different things, and you never really know how it's going to end until you get there. Which is really my favorite thing, so kudos to Skrutskie. I've read her book [b:The Abyss Surrounds Us|24790901|The Abyss Surrounds Us (The Abyss Surrounds Us, #1)|Emily Skrutskie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014825l/24790901._SY75_.jpg|44425139], and really enjoyed it, and while this really has very few similarities to Abyss, it has a similar flair for the dramatic and equally complicated relationships.
So lastly, why 4 stars instead of 5? It did feel shockingly derivative of Star Wars, and not just in the way that all space operas feel somewhat Star Wars-esque. I wanted a little more originality in the world-building and to be honest, I kind of wanted the Ettian himself to have a little more personality. I know it can be difficult to imbue a narrator with personality, since they can't be described from the outside, but he felt so much flatter than Gal or Wen.
But to be honest, those things are relatively small nitpicks, because I really, really enjoyed this book. If you love space operas and sci-fi like me, this is one to pick up.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley
This book could have done with some transitions. There were times when something would be brought up for the first time and I was left wondering if it had been mentioned before and I’d just missed it? But besides my gripe about pacing this was really cute and I (I have I real explanation for this) liked it a little better than The Kiss Quotient.