I'm going to start off by saying that I actually did enjoy this book, but a lot of it came from how I read it rather than the book itself. My friend and I, since One of Us Is Lying, have been reading McManus' books together. When we do this, we plan out set chapters to read each day, so we're staying on the same page and can discuss. This leads to a lot more theorizing, discussing, and suspense than usual, because we force ourselves to stop reading every few chapters, often on cliffhangers, and try to solve the mystery ourselves. Without that stopping, this book could probably have been read in a few hours in one sitting. However, because of our forced stops, suspense and tension was able to build in moments the book didn't have any, and as we were reading, we found the book itself to be creating very little of the build-up itself. So, the experience was enhanced by how we read it, but the book itself isn't necessarily to thank for that.

Additionally, I just found it a lot weaker than One of Us Is Lying. This may in part be due to how predictable McManus gets the more you read her works, as she seems to make the MCs question everyone and everything except the actual culprit. While the final, final twist did get me, I had pieced the entire rest of the story together by about halfway. Which isn't really a bad thing, foreshadowing is important and someone will always guess it, but I didn't necessarily guess because of the foreshadowing itself, but by knowing how McManus tends to reveal twists and hide suspicion, and it made this book feel cookie cutter. Additionally, I found the characters of her first book a lot more compelling, both the individuals and the relationships. To be honest,

Spoiler

I was not into Luis, a year out of college, dating Maeve, a high school junior, at all, and that set up made me super suspicious of him the entire time.

Additionally, while I like cameos of past characters, I hate when those characters instead become the focus of new books where they're supposed to be background. Nate and Bronwyn's relationship was just messed with too much in beginning in my opinion, and while this settles and is backgrounded as the plot progresses, it was quite frustrating in the opening scenes.

While I do think I'll keeping reading new releases by McManus, for now, I'm definitely going in less and less excited.

This was another one of those books that I read with my friend broken up over a week. We generally go for unique contemporaries or thrillers, and this seemed to fit the bill! However, the book itself didn't actually spend too much time focusing on the uniqueness of the rating system, nor on the mystery style plot it seemed to contain, but rather on the characters themselves and their (many) individual issues. Additionally, most of these issues were ones that teens in our own society would have, with only slight variations because of this new rating system. Honestly, if you removed the rating system entirely, the book would kinda just be the same.

What this book had: diverse characters with cute relationships (as a group and in pairs)

What this book lacked: plot, pacing, focus, and depth

From the beginning, I knew this book was trying to tackle Too Much. There were 6 characters, all with very intense set of problems (abusive parents (physical and emotional), eating disorders, dead parents, distant parents, sick siblings, secretly adopted, etc, etc), and only a mere 330 pages to solve all of those issues and the plot itself, which was tied to a brand new rating system that needed explanation, a large mystery needing solving, and a society needing fixing. All in all, that's a lot to accomplish in a single book, especially if you want me to connect with and feel for the large cast by the end of it, as each only got about 5 chapters in their point of view.

This book was able to successfully accomplish one thing, and that was making me like the characters. This is due to the focus of the book for the first 60%, which was basically to individually spend a lot of time with the characters without bringing up the plot much, as well as start pairing off some of the members of the group. They didn't even truly team up (or feel bothered to try and solve the mystery) until 70% into the book, which is extremely late. The pacing of this book was just so incredibly off, with characters finally having very obvious revelations way too late or not at all, and it was just in general too odd. The ending suffered heavily due to this, as the novel spent most of the time describing how terrible the lives of these teens were or how dramatic their problems were only for them to be solved in the final chapter suddenly, with only a slightly longer explanation of these solutions in the epilogue. Additionally, a large part of the plot and a lot of clues weren't even addressed until the epilogue, which was also just a weird choice.

Additionally, the Too Muchness of this book meant that there wasn't really any depth to anything that was able to be discussed for more than two pages, and the focus was extremely all over the place, and entirely dependent on the POV you were currently reading from. It just didn't feel cohesive, and my friend even commented about halfway that the novel read more like an anthology in that 3 different stories were being told, they just happened to be taking place in the same world/setting/time.

The plot was also just odd? It felt both big (like, change the world level) and small (change your life level), and never actually decided what it wanted to do. It also just never intrigued me? Like I never necessarily cheered for them to take down the rating system or figure out who was sending weird messages and drawing graffiti on everything. We were just given so little crumbs as readers, especially for the first 60%, that by the time the plot actually became important, we were already checked out or no longer cared about that aspect of the book. Plus the end reveal was too obvious and I didn't care for it either. (And there's this hanging thread that they just, never take about again?

Spoiler

what happened to london girl??? is she dead???? will i ever know???

)

Honestly, this book would've been a lot better if the rating system was just removed and it was about the teens finding each other and finding themselves/the strength to stand up for themselves. That part was done really well, it was just bad at everything else.

I was super wary going into this, but I think this book tied up the series really well while also just being an enjoyable read on its own.

This novel honestly just reads like a very long conclusion, and honestly, that's pretty much what it is. Everything that's been building up the past few books is finally coming together, all Aelin's scheming, plotting, and manipulating is finally all coming to fruition. It was honestly great to see all the allies coming together especially, even if I've forgotten most of the particulars of how Aelin met them/got them on board in the first place. The book also spends enough time remembering past events for readers that didn't reread the entire series recently (like me), so even though I may not remember everything clearly myself, the book reminded me in subtle ways to make the ending just as hard-hitting.

Honestly, I loved this. It was a good combination of hard times and miracles, of sacrifice and victory, and it kept me hooked the entire time (even though this book is so LONG). There were a few issues I had with the romance, mainly at the end, because once everyone's kinda paired off, the dynamics within all the relationships kinda became all the same. But honestly, I still loved reading it all and seeing everyone (friends and lovers) finally come together again one last time.

ACOWAR and ACOFAS made me quite way of Maas's "endings," but I can tell that KOA only strengthened my love for these characters rather than killed it. I've been reading these books since I was 13, and if I'm being truthful, I'm super sad to see them go :( I am glad Maas ended it here though, a further extension would have only weakened this strong ending.

This book was too messy for me. I've been wanting to read a cute fluffy romance lately (waaay too much fantasy and intense stuff recently), but this was just not it.

There's too many extras outside the romance itself that distract from it, and while I like a decent plot in my romance stories, I still want the focus to be the romance itself. Both main characters just had way too intense of a story for me, and while I may have liked them individually, it was Too Much.

Additionally, Tiffy's story was just a bit dramatic and unbelievable at times. I think stories of leaving abusive relationships and learning how to work with the ptsd and anxiety that came from those relationships are important, but there was just a better way it could've been handled here.

Spoiler

had Tiffy working through her trauma been the main focus, without the randomly appearing abusive ex, the story would've hit harder and been more believable. I'm not saying what happened in this book was impossible, I just think it was over the top at points. Tiffy can be suffering from the ghost of her ex without actually having to see him every 20 pages in an increasingly freaky altercation

It also just took me a while to get into this because of the position both MC's were in romance wise. Neither were in a position to enter a relationship soon, Tiffy being wrapped up in Justin/haunted by him and Leon literally in a long-term relationship with someone else, that I didn't start off wanting these two to be together necessarily. I had to grow into wanting them to be together, and by the time I wanted it it had already happened, so I lost the important moments of "hurry up and kiss already!"

There was a sweet spot to the book where it was a lot of cute fluff without too much of the outside drama, but that made up 20% of the book at most. It mainly just showed me what could have been,

I'm not really sure how to explain how I feel about this book. Like I both enjoyed the world, magic, and plot, yet never actually felt attached to it.

Admittedly, I had to switch to the audiobook early on because the writing felt too disjointed/weird to me at first (I had to reread some sentences multiple times because they just read oddly), and listening made all those issues go away. However, it was so much harder to keep track of what was going on/all the characters, so that also affected my reading. In the end, I'm not sure whether it would've been better had I just pushed through reading my physical copy or not.

I do have to commend this novel's diversity though. It's so casual and everywhere and I love it. This is what fantasy deserves! Not just token characters here and there, but everywhere! (I mean there was f/f rep, trans characters, ace characters, and more rep I'm missing/wasn't as clear cut). That alone made this fantasy stand out.

Unfortunately, I wasn't all that into the plot. It just hit too close to [b:Enchantée|36613718|Enchantée (Enchantée, #1)|Gita Trelease|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542046529l/36613718._SY75_.jpg|58370622] for me, even though they're not really that close story wise. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for a French Revolution style fantasy again, and I didn't go in realizing just how close to that it would feel. I loved the magic system and the setting, just wish the plot itself was slightly different.

I really liked the characters though, even if I didn't feel a strong connection to any of them. I feel like this is where the book really shines, and would have been my favorite part had I not been so confused by the amount of them sometimes.

Overall, I'm not writing off other books by this author just yet, but I'll be going in a bit more wary,

So many good series stumble on the last book, failing to both remain interesting and wrap things up in a satisfying, yet realistic manner. This book, thankfully, did exactly that.

This book flew by yet never felt rushed (like all the other books of this series) and I honestly can't praise that aspect of this series enough. Somehow, Holly has managed to get us so incredibly invested in this series, these characters, this romance, without needing 500+ pages a book to do it. It's honestly astounding, and I'm super thankful for it. Sometimes I just need a good, short book! And those can be rare.

I also just loved how this series wrapped up. There was seriously so many ways for it all to go at the end of The Cruel Prince and even more after , and yet I love the path Holly took for the ending. It was fulfilling yet not unrealistic, and there was enough loss and consequence (and tension) without the book feeling hopeless. Everything was just honestly balanced so well.

Also the characters shined even more in this one. I've always loved Jude and Cardan's dynamic and seeing it flourish, and become more 'healthy', was honestly great. I also love how things were left with a variety of other characters, like Taryn and Madoc. Holly did no wrong here, in my opinion.

Sure, I felt like there were less twists/gasp-worthy moments in this book, but it also made sense. I still enjoyed this book as much as the others all the same, if for slightly different reasons.

All in all, I'm so happy with how this series turned out yet sad to see it end. Holly has a habit of cameos though... so maybe we see Jude and Cardan again in the future?

“You’re nobody’s doorway but your own, and the only one who gets to tell you how your story ends is you.”

Every Heart A Doorway is a story about lost children, the ones who find magic doorways and have thrilling adventures in magical worlds that start to feel like home. Every Heart A Doorway reveals what happens when those children finally come “home,” back to the mundane and boring world, and the school parents ship them to to “get better” and forget their impossible adventures.

I was drawn to this book, and series, by the surprised reviews of my friends. Almost all of them had commented on how much this book seemed to contain in its less than 200 pages, and how surprised they were to love such a short book so fully. Naturally, I had to read this book for myself, and even knowing my friends’ love for the series, the book still managed to surprise me in its greatness.

Everything about Every Heart A Doorway was fantastic, and it had none of the usual drawbacks that a short book comes with. It didn’t feel rushed, cut short, or undeveloped, and those 170 pages were still enough to get me fully hooked on the characters, world, and plot (though the plot is definitely not the greatest part of the novel).

For a short novel, Doorway did have quite a few important characters. Generally, this would cause each character to feel quite shallow, and remove depth from the overall novel, but the combination of fantastic prose and intriguing backstories for all the characters managed to create them as fully dimensional characters quickly. Additionally, since all these characters had such varied life experiences (as they all went to very different worlds), it meant that each new character felt entirely unique, rather than cookie cutter characters. Lastly, Doorway has a fantastic amount of sexual and gender diversity, and depicts it in a rather refreshing way. The novel itself isn’t about this diversity, so the focus isn’t on coming to terms with your identity or anything, but the book still gives enough space to the diverse characters and their identities that it still sends a positive message.

My favorite thing, however, had to be the world building itself, and the endless descriptions of the doorways and different worlds these children fell into and out of. While it’s a semi confusing system to understand at first, Nancy’s confusion lines up with the confusion of the reader fairly well, showing that not even the characters themselves fully understand how everything works. It also leads to Nancy asking the exact questions the reader has, and our knowledge growing along with her own. But not only is the building and explanation of the world fantastic, but the world itself is as well. There’s something so extremely fascinating about all the separate worlds and how they intersect, and how this is used in more of a “fantasy” way than a “sci-fi” one.

Lastly, the writing itself was also remarkable, and was probably my second favorite thing about the book. It positioned the world and the characters so well, and often made the reader stop and think about certain scenes, looking for the hidden meaning. It was a mix of “thoughtful” and “fairytale” prose, in my opinion, and the blend of the two made something truly amazing.

All in all, I absolutely loved Every Heart A Doorway, and cannot wait to continue the series. I highly recommend this book to almost everyone, as I’m sure there’s something in it for everyone to love.

Reread Edit: Rereading this has only cemented what an amazing series starter this is. There's seriously so much to explain and lay out to the reader in this first book, and McGuire manages to do it in 200 pages while still having an interesting plot and developing the characters. Additionally, rereading this after having read some others shows how much more zoomed out this book is character wise, which makes my connection to Nancy even more amazing. Honestly, I love this series so much and I love rereading them now, and can't wait to get to some new content! There's also just so many amazing quotes.

Admittedly I wasn't as much as a fan at first because of listening to the audiobook at first, and I didn't find the narrator that engaging, but she ended up growing on me anyways. I liked the accents she did for some of the characters!

I don't read many classics in my free time, and enjoy even fewer, but I really liked this. I did go in with a positive feeling because I've enjoyed Oscar Wilde's plays a lot, and it (mostly) lived up to my hopes.

I don't think anything will ever truly live up to The Importance of Being Earnest for me, as there was just something so hilarious and fantastic about that one, even though it had been assigned for a high school class. The beginning of this book read similarly, with jokes at the expense of society here and there, but those slowly gave way to Dorian's descent into darkness. While I had hoped for more humor, I ended up quite enjoying what this book was instead, even the language it was written in.

Dorian Gray was also just an interesting character, and seeing his spiral was intriguing. When we were first introduced to him, I had no idea where this story would end up going, and I have to admit I'm shocked at how far he went because he had no "physical" consequences from living. It was also just quite gay, as far as classics go, and seeing those phrases here and there that stuck out were cool to see, considering the time period this was published in.

I might give some more classics a try in my free time after this success, as maybe now I'll find something in them I hadn't been able to before.

Reread review: I don't know what it is about this specific book but it just hits perfectly. I love this story so much, and of the 3 Wayward Children books I've read so far, this is definitely my favorite. There's just something so compelling about the story of Jack and Jill, individually and taken together, and I love how McGuire set up and told their story. Adding in the long intro about their childhood made this novella even more hard-hitting, and I can't wait to see how this story further develops (since I know we return to the Moors in book 5!)

I also just really love Jack as a character and find her intriguing as a main character, especially when taken together with her introduction in the first book. There is much to come!

I also like how different this book feels from the first, and it shows the range these books (and McGuire) has. This book is much more specific and honed in on a specific world, yet still brings in the concept that was built up in the first book. This is a series that feels like it can do anything, and I'd love it.