ryan_isreading's Reviews (195)

This book was by far the spiciest in the series. A lot of people talk about the level of spice in this series like it’s all that it is, but I truly love the action/battle and the politics in this world SJM built. The mental health aspects of this book as well as the sisterhood both familial and platonic had me shedding tears in multiple chapters. Looking forward to more in the 6th!

I was a huge fan of the original trilogy and had high expectations for this book. My main gripes are that:
1) I felt Lucy Grey was a little annoying. I get that she was meant to be a little bit intentionally a mystery as to be a surprise. But I think I would have liked to see more of her cunning written out. Even if it was like an epilogue from her perspective or something. I would have liked to see her written so much more overtly fierce.
2) It felt like on more than one topic, there could have been so much exposition edited down to only what really mattered
3) I wanted way more of the story to be of Tigris’s perspective and life. In fact, I think if there was another book to follow this story line, we should learn about Snow’s continued atrocities through her and how she responds to his villainy

Overall, I did still enjoy the majority of the villain origin story of Snow. I liked the nods to the original trilogy throughout.

I loved it! Especially loved the battle scenes, the ending/reveals, and the fact that the badass main character has a chronic illness.

I liked it! There are definitely some sweet moments, some LOL moments, and some very real moments. One aspect I really did like was the lessons from therapy that are woven in and found them very healing to read and process with Anastasia (FMC). Sometimes I was taken out of it by a little cringe. But I am also not typically a romance girly. I needed a reset/palette cleanser after a book hangover and before starting a lengthy new series. This got the job done, but I didn’t like it enough to read more of the series.

I struggled with the beginning of the book to truly want to pick it up - until 40ish% in. Then I wanted to be reading it all the time. I felt the same with ACOTAR. I’ll trust my friends and keep going with this series! I wasn’t blown away, but I did enjoy it!

Did I read it in one day? Yes. Would I call it a good book? No. I did like some of the twists in the plot but just could not take the MMC seriously. Rolled my eyes quite a bit. But! It keeps 3 stars cause I was entertained enough to read it in a day and I finished it ✅

I got into “can’t put it down” mode with this book much faster than Throne of Glass and thought it was an excellent sequel. While I did see one huge twist coming, there were several I didn’t see coming and I’m just delighted when that happens. Many doors seem to be opened to more aspects of fantasy in the story and I’m ready for book 3!

I finally get the Throne of Glass hype. Can’t wait for more. Taking 2.5 books for me to be fully invested was tough (likes TOG and COM just fine, but wasn’t THIS invested by any stretch of the imagination). I’m really glad I stuck with it. It took me 8 days of forcing myself to pick it up to read the first half, but I read the rest in 2 days. In classic SJM style, sooo much is happening at the end. And it was so GOOD.