This was a really solid start to a series! I loved the magic, the world, the traveling, the relationships and the political chaos. It reminds me of Six of Crows combined with Pirates of the Carribean (therefore I love it). there's some romance but no insta-love (thank GOOOOODDDDDDD) and I am so excited to start Windwitch!

OH THE ACOTAR VIBES! (Yes, I know this predates ACOTAR I've read ACOTAR first). It's like a smash up of Narnia and ACOTAR? Maybe it's just me but I kept drawing comparisons to one or the other.

It's definitely a slower pace and got a very traditional fairytale tone/writing which took some time to get used to (but once I did get used to it, I was all good).

This was enjoyable overall. I liked the concept of the North/South/East/West born threads. I enjoyed the main characters and even though the romance wasn't built up as I would've liked, it fit the tone of the book.

I also love Tooki. Also, why did it take me to the age of 26 to read a book where someone makes a get away via a reindeer instead of horse?!

Why do I let Marissa Meyer do this to my soul every damn time?! Every good person needs to be okay cause they are treasures that must be protected! Kill all the douches! Please! Really good character and relationship development but the star was ABSOLUTELY all the power development/reveals/changes. I'm obsessed with everything surrounding Max

This series is legitimately amazing and so underhyped! The show could be so damn cool and there is some potential for another book (whether or not that ever happens). I loved getting to keep the main character pov from The Rook and her being used as a side character while the main pov changed to Odessa. Their whole dynamic was awesome! ALSO, loved LOVED LOVEDDDDDDDDD the ending of this book. It's so weird and wonderful from start to finish

I somehow loved this book even more the second time around! Is it particularly original? Naw. It's a solid YA fantasy that uses some of my favourite tropes (love triangle with a brother *cough*) and has a Mc who is a librarian so....like it's only missing time travel and it would then be perfect. Plus the covers of this series are insane.

4.75 / 5 stars

Holy crap! This book took elements from like EVERY ya fantasy series that I love and then made them work and focused on the sisters and their relationships instead of the romances (can I get a damn amen?!). The pacing was great, the characters were really well defined and I loved all of the influences/parallels of real world colonisation infused (the opium wars, for one). My only criticism is that the magic system and paranormal aspects need to be more fleshed out and explained because it really lacked structure

Oph. Had to force myself to finish it. OMG NOTHING HAPPENS! What was the actual point of this?! This was a beyond boring book. The summary sounded so amazing and then...this was the actual book? But on the bright side, I don't have to put a whole new series on my TBR

3.5/5

Huh...so the first half was like 2-stars but the second half was like 4-stars. I DETEST how much of a pushover the main character is. Her brother's a piece of garbage and she just lets him abuse her! She finally grew a bit of a backbone but the author didn't ever redeem him well enough. He's just trash. I liked the politics and the romance and the magic though!

Okay this had the potential to be dreadfully dull but it ended being insanely interesting. The author made it more of a narration of the Doctor and his colleagues lives rather than just bullet points and use of very scientific language. Also, I will never be afraid of my own doctors now. The absolute lack of basic hand washing! Ugh *shivers grossed out*

So I actually REALLY enjoyed this. I was kind of hesitant because it is originally a WattPad story but the writing wasn't an issue. The main character has a lot of baggage and we slowly start unpacking and challenging it which I really appreciated as the book is clearly semi-autobiographical. The world was given a little bit of structure and detached a bit from the human world without too much worldbuilding which I think would've distracted from the character development.