I'm always a little skeptical of YA fantasy, especially when it has a romance in it but I enjoyed this.

I did feel like Sophia's 

feelings for Constance were insta-lovey though and happened very soon after the whole situation with Erin but then she still kept thinking about her and literally risked her life to see her and it was for nothing. Erin had no right to be mad at her though. It's not Sophia's fault that she is being abused by her husband and it's not fair to be mad at her for not wanting subject herself to the same miserable life.

Constance was kind of annoying tbh. 

Even though she ended up being right about Amina, she took every open opportunity to provoke her even when this woman let them into her home and was the only reason they accomplished what they set out to do.

I liked Sophia for the most part. She is a child still and that did show at times as expected.

Good for her forgiving her father in the end cause I wouldn't have.

I was definitely shocked about the twist at the end but I forgot that the 

portrait of her son

  was mentioned so I didn't even think about it.

This also could have been 50-75 pages shorter, the ending felt like it dragged a little

My intrigue in this series decreased the farther into I got. I didn't connect to any of the characters which made it kind of hard to care about some of them

We finally got 

a reunion between Essun and Nassun and it was incredibly anticlimactic. I didn't really believe the relationship between Lerna and Essun. It was obvious that he had always liked her but she always seemed indifferent to him.

 

Even then, I was still curious about the ending which is why I kept going. Not sure how I feel about the ending though

I was really loving this until about halfway through. I like the characters, I was intrigued by the history and structure of the clans, but some of the events in the second half fell flat for me.

 

Lan's death was very anticlimactic and I don't necessarily know if that needed to happen. I feel like maybe it was to force Shae back into the clan which honestly felt like it would have happened eventually without that.

I also didn't like the direction that Anden's story went in. 

I hate that he rejected his jade and Hilo kicked him out of the family.

And the thing that pissed me off the most is that 

somehow Bero's bitch ass is still alive. He seriously thinks that he somehow managed to kill the Pillar of the No Peak clan and he didn't even have anything to do with it. He strayed from his actual assignment and followed a super powerful Green Bone, got caught in the process and then ran away like a little bitch. What did he think he did??? Literally Lan fell off of a fucking cliff and that's it. Bero better not last until the end of this series.

 

I've come to the realization that novellas are bound to be insta-lovey so I let that go. However, we were doing so well until the lack of communication thing at the end and how Gus could have asked her a very simple question to avoid feeling the way he did.

She wasn't actually ghosted to start. But the reason I didn't rate this higher is because I hate the 

"I'm going to cut ties abruptly and severely hurt you but also make myself miserable af"

  trope so it irritated me that Fab did that and then also pushed her way back into Likotsi's life the way she did

Didn't enjoy this as much as the first but I think it's because I don't care for the characters....... any of them. It will be interesting to see Essun and Nassun reunite and this whole business with the moon tough

I feel really indifferent about this book.
It was okay, the societies and the magic were interesting but I didn't like any of the characters.... except Dawes. I don't really like Alex even though I feel for her and want her to have a happy ending after everything that she's been through.
I don't care about Darlington. Would traveling through hell in the next book be interesting? Maybe but I don't care enough to continue reading the series
I did appreciate the twist because I didn't expect it and I love a good plot twist but I don't think this series is for me

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this! Portia is so much better than she was in the first book although there were some things annoyed me.

Love the chemistry between her and Tavish. Really enjoyed getting a little bit of Ledi and Thabiso

Could have been a five star read but the tropes got me again.
 

Portia thinking that because she's been a fuck up in the past that she's destined to fuck up again as if making mistakes isn't normal
Portia and Tav mutually deciding to make  themselves miserable by staying away from each other despite the fact that they are happy together
Portia gets mad at Tav for letting her leave even though she was the one that placed the boundaries. Then gets mad when he finally does ask her to stay 

 

I also didn't mind the age gap at all because it wasn't creepy and wasn't brought up every 10 seconds

I also didn't love the ending because it wasn't as clear cut as A Princess in Theory and I have some questions.

I didn't care about a lot of what was happening in this. The reason that I didn't rate this lower is because I think that the concept is actually decent but execution wasn't great. A tournament of champions but the competitors are being killed off one by one.....sounds intriguing right? WRONG!

Unnecessary love triangle gets in the way. Dorian is a creep. 

The fact that he kept entering Calaena's room without knocking or seeking permission is weird - being a prince doesn't make it okay - 

I probably could have like Chaol if it weren't for the love triangle which doesn't make a ton of sense since people are dying left and right and Calaena is trying to figure out wtf is going on.

The only character that I actually like is Nehemia - the only person of color in sight - 

who I've heard dies in the next book [eye roll] 

 

Also, kind of disappointing that this is my first time reading a book about an assassin and she didn't assassinate anyone

Fuck
My heart hurts. This made me cry.
There were so many unexpected turns
 

  what's crazy is that there is a list of characters in the back of the book and damn near everyone is dead with the exception of Chaghan and Nezha maybe. Kitay is my favorite character so I hated the ending. I hate that he was so ready to die and that Rin didn't know how to release him

 
The ending definitely makes sense but it still hurts