This was actually a pretty interesting fantasy. Particularly with the pacing and writing. Really curious about the sequel now

Yeah I don't...I don't get it. Like...what's the point? I've gotten to the last quarter of the book and I'm so bored and exhausted so I'm just giving up.

This is definitely a taste thing. I'm not a big watcher of horror films, let alone cult horror films so I just think a lot of it is going over my head.

I did this for you Meg!

throwing in the towel at chapter 37. cringey writing, annoying and underdeveloped characters, meh pace, a romance that I don't like...and did I mention cringey writing?...AND I WATCHED A LIFETIME ROMANCE MOVIE THE SAME DAY!

Unfortunately, I DNFed this book at page 57.

Historical fiction is harder to write that people realize...especially when you're writing two different historic time periods. This authors does one of the biggest no-no's I have for historical fictions: she TELLS me about the historic time period rather than showing me. You have to suck me into this new world, not go yourself and then tell me about it second hand (if that makes sense). I also find it incredibly infuriating when there's different POVs and timelines in books that change each chapter yet each chapter doesn't specify the POV and time. It gets confusing and frustrates me immensely.

I'm a massive fan of heists, cryptography, and WWII historical fiction.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

I received an eARC from NetGalley for review.

Oy vey...

So I am normally able to read a 200-400 page book in one night. I managed to read The Revolution of Marina M. in 2 days (it's an 800 page beast of a book set in Russia). I enjoy reading and I'm fast at it thanks to learning how to speed and skim read for my six years in post secondary. I also love (LOVE) things set in Russia...about Russia...with Russian characters. I love books even remotely connected to Russia. I am an avid inhaler of historical fictions and I love when there's details put in.

With that said...it has taken me 3 days to get to page 30 and I caught myself skimming the last page!

There's both too much and not enough information at the beginning to the point that it is off-putting--not intriguing. Page 30 and I know basically nothing and I was bored out of my mind. The writing style reminds me so much of when you had to write a 25 page paper and you're at page 15 and have nothing else to add to your argument so you just start adding in random information and sentences in order to meet the length requirement. The first 30 pages could've been condensed into like 5 and kept my attention.

I'm not someone afraid of bailing on a book so I am DNFing this. I have a general rule of trying to get to page 50 of a book before bailing but I just don't want to keep reading this unfortunately. I haven't gotten far enough in to give any criticisms or praises about the story itself. Hopefully it will give others some enjoyment but this writing is just not for me.

I received an eARC of this book on NetGalley

I only managed to get to page 30 before giving up on this book.

I knew it was going to be a little weird and I thought the premise sounded interesting but the first 30 pages were so immensely unenjoyable. I have absolutely no idea who this book is targeted at. It is far too juvenile for the average YA reader but definitely too adult for the MG audience.

It may have just been the ARC formatting but the smashing up of several words into a single word without spaces was infuriating, appeared far too often and was actually pretty distracting. I had to read several of them at least twice in order to pronounce the words properly (i.e. read vs read sounds different depending on the tense used. On top of that, the writing was choppy and very off putting. I had to continuously reread sentences...pause and squint...think...reread the sentence and confirm that I was reading it right. I found the use of baby-sounding words (like "munmun") so uncomfortable based on the supposed age of the characters. The next sentence would include a swear word or phrase which totally messed with me and my ability to imagine these character.

Yeah I've just read some books set in Rome in the last few months that we're better and I have other books Seth in Rome in my TBR to get to. Just not for me. DNF @ 3 hours into audiobook

I received an eARC from Edelweiss+

I really struggled with this book and ended up DNFing it on page 137 of the eARC.

The positives:
I really love this cover. Even though I didn't really enjoy the actual book, the cover does a good job or reflecting the central event that ties all the characters and their POVs together. I also enjoyed the inclusion the paddles decals at the start of each section. The writing was also decent. Despite the choppiness of the story/stories, it somehow managed to make things flow. This story with lower quality of writing would have been an early DNF for me. The writing is the only reason I tried to push through. I think I will keep an eye out for this author in the future and maybe pick up a book that's in a genre more to my tastes.

The negatives:
I just did not care about any of the characters. I found most of them to be pretty unlikeable and the massive jumps in time/events in their lives made it impossible to get invested in the characters. I almost got through all of Isabelle's POV before I realized I was completely skimming the last 5+ pages because I just didn't care.

I think these types of books are for a very specific audience. By "these types," I mean books where nothing really happens and you just observe events that are somehow supposed to make you evaluate or reflect on yourself or a part of the world around you. Unfortunately, I do not tend to be that general audience.

ugh i feel bad I did't like this. I got through about 75% and just am beyond bored.