raenyreads's Reviews (345)

Well I'm officially obsessed. This was some of the cutest shit I've ever read and I'm not sure when I'll recover. I loved the characters so much, I'd die for Thimble, and the plot seemed much higher stakes because of how much I came to care for them. It's a really easy read, I read 80% of it in one sitting. If you're into fantasy but want something a bit more 'slice of life' I highly recommend this book.

I'm going to start with saying, definitely read this book last in the quartet. I've seen people say you can read them in any order, and for the most part I'd agree, but this one has to be last.

Now into the book itself. I enjoyed Summer, we met some of my new favourite characters from the quartet and I was excited to see characters I've loved in previous books return. I enjoyed Sacha and Robert's relationship a lot and enjoyed their conversations. I also enjoyed the further insights we got into the lives of characters from previous books and learning how they all interlinked. I was curious as to whether this book would include anything about the pandemic due to it being published in August 2020. It was included and I think it was blended well with the overall story. 

However, this is where I find my negative points. Where previous installments have had some sort of story to follow the characters along, though they were still very character focused, this one seemed to go nowhere and so by the end I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed. There was quite a bit of jumping back and forth in space and time, which didn't help with the feeling of a continual story either.

Overall, a good installment in the quartet but not my favourite. I look forward to reading Companion Piece once it's out in paperback!

I had anticipated reading this book for ages and it did not let me down! Saara El-Arifi has created a unique and compelling world with equally compelling characters. I was engaged from start to finish, plots with some sort of set of trials are always a favourite of mine. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is that though I was constantly engaged, I felt it was missing something which would truly wow me towards the end. I'm already looking forward to the next instalment!

Okay so I'm going to start by saying that I understand the cultural impact this book had and appreciate it for that, but wow it was boring. I've always loved the concept of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and in other works enjoyed its use. However, this book was not for me, I didn't enjoy all the long monologues, the blatant misogyny, and I was just always waiting for something to happen, don't get me wrong though I've loved books which are just character studies before, but this book just didn't have what I was hoping for. I'm maybe going to give it a few years and try again as I really wanted to like it, but for now it's just 2.5 stars for me and that's mostly due to its cultural impact.

I really thoroughly enjoyed this book. This sapphic scifi romance adventure is one of the best short books I've ever read. I loved all the world's we got to visit as well as following the main characters in their developing relationship. I was a bit apprehensive going in as I'd heard some people found it confusing but luckily this wasn't my experience. I'd highly recommend this book. It only loses half a star as I wanted a bit more build up before it turned romantic but that is to be expected in such a short book.

This book was alright, I didn't super love Nessian like I loved Feysand but they grew on me more in the end. Gwyn and Emerie were my favourite characters and I found them more interesting than the main characters, they kept me far more interested than I would have been without them. Trauma, I think, is tackled well and the character development scenes towards the end were the best parts of the book. Though large parts of the book did feel very slow, enough cool scenes were scattered throughout that they kept me interested. It's a alright addition to the series.

I did enjoy this book. I don't have too much of a problem with the writing style compared to what I've seen in other reviews, though it can be very repetitive. Mostly this was a nostalgic trip back to when I used to play WoW focusing on my favourite race to play - night elves. This nostalgia probably makes me think more fondly of this book than I would without but I still think its a solid addition to the WoW lore with an interesting plot and well developed characters. I do wish I'd read the War of the Ancients more recently as the events of that book come up a lot and I could barely remember any of it as I read it about 10 years ago!

I enjoyed this more than I actually thought I would. The art is amazing and the plots were good, though as always with short story compilations some were more memorable than others. I'd recommend reading this if you like weird, magical, witchy tales.

I really enjoyed this book and read through it much faster than I thought I would. As everyone says definitely check the trigger warnings as there are some very heavy parts of this book, made even more so by the fact that they are based on real events. The characters definitley have me intrigued to read more and I liked the magic system as its not like anything I've read before. It's supposed to be slow paced but it never drags or anything. I'm looking forward to book 2.