ohhh I liked this! I'm new delving into the realm of contemporary romances and this is actually the first I've read that doesn't have explicit sex in it. Now I definitely preferred the two Helen Hoang books I read recently, this was still good.

I'm a pretty big fan of the enemies to lovers trope. I REALLY loved Olive. She's such a likable and relate able main character who has absolutely zero of her shit together. I was rooting for her the whole book and wanted to snap on some people near the end when people think she's lying and just dump all over her. The ending was beautiful. (please imagine me doing that stereotypical Italian kissing finger thing). Ugh, I am TRASH for that ending. The epilogue was cute too since it was a shift in POV.

Okay so I had a friend read this and she didn't end up loving it even though she was so hyped for it. That made me pretty hesitant to pick it up but BOY OH BOY WAS SHE WRONG! I freaking loved this! I think it dragged and I felt bored a few times (also could have done with a bit more world building) but the characters were solid (I adore Min so much) and the mystery kept me guessing. I loved getting Korean mythology interwoven (shout out to the damn prime example of an ally: Rick Riordan) into a sci-fi. It really did help make the book and the magic different.

RTC

I received an ARC through my library job

This was an insanely fast read! If you're also scared of everything around Halloween time (clowns are the devil) but also want to read something a bit creepy, this would be a REALLY good option. This is a pretty satisfying stand alone. It's got a solid pace and two really likable main characters as well as a solid wrap up and unlikable villain.

Ryn and Ellis are pretty well developed characters but I felt Ryn's siblings were kind of just thrown in and forgotten after Ryn and Ellis went into the forest to start adventuring. I really loved how Lloyd-Jones wrote the parents of Ryn (and her siblings) and Ellis. Even though they aren't present for like 99% of the book, I felt an ache in my heart.

My beef with this book was the romance. I can't figure out why it was in here. It just suddenly makes an appearance in the last third of the book and contributed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the plot or characters. I was THRILLED that the characters were going to be just friend and then all of a sudden a random kiss is thrown in. Either the romance build up/tension was really badly written in the first two thirds and suddenly changed in the last third OR it was originally just a friendship and then the publisher told the author it needed a romance so she changed what she could. In the end, it was just completely unnecessary.

Anyways, Bone Houses is probably the coolest name ever for skeleton zombie things. Just sayin'.

Reread August 23, 2019: nope. yep. this ending still hurt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OH MY GAWD!...WHAT JUST-...I DONT UNDERSTAND--...OH MY GAWD!

Oh my goodness, my heart is pounding. I just reread that last paragraph five times because I thought I like blacked out or something... *jaw dropped thinking*

firstly, I'm concerning about my love of how aggressive this series is. This book is even more graphic when it comes to the sex and violence and I LOVE IT! I can't figure out what in the hell is happening cause I get so hyped up by the present events.

You'd think with how easy it is to poison people that they'd be more careful about what they drink and eat and be prepared with antidotes but no.

oh jesus, the next book is...I don't know what's gonna happen after that ending!

This book also taught me to never read Jay Kristoff in public cause...sexy time happened without any warning and it is graphic! I kept giggling and looking at the people around me.

I'm so interested to see what happens with the shadows and Mia's family! like what is the point of half her anger if this--...

OH MY GAWD!

3.5/5

RTC

2.5/5

This was just a weird book. The structure was weird. The sort of romance was weird. The pacing was weird. The magic was weird. The relationships were weird. The heist was weird.

There's a lot of elements that I liked but they were just so oddly combined and it didn't work for me. The characters were all flat, the plot was flimsy, the pacing was oddly slow. I don't know how to explain it other than I felt uncomfortable for a lot of the book.

It's definitely set up for a sequel but I don't see myself continuing on.

I REALLY jived with this book and it's quite a quick read. It brings forth this weird era where women were seeing other women being independent yet it wasn't totally socially "appropriate" to do so (especially coming from money) at the time. I love reading books set in the Prohibition era. It's just utterly fascinating to see the period or rebellion and transition.

I was concerned at first that a cast of 12 would just be too much for me to keep straight bit other than Josephine and Louise, they mostly are just mentioned or are the driving force behind a decision. When they are brought up, it's continuously emphasized which of the siblings they are so it really didn't end up being a headache. Jo's a weirdly likeable and unlikeable character and sister which the author not only verbalized through dialogue but also showed through actions (a pet peeve of mine is when an author just TELLS you about who a character is and never shows you).

I also love that the plot is basically: we're gonna outlive our ancient sexist twat of a father. And BREAK!

I received an ARC from the author

It's like The Valiant had a baby with Aladdin but Jasmine becomes the street rat kinda...

This was really cool and honestly a little darker than I was expecting. I am really impressed with how well the battle/combat scenes at the end were written. Only complaint was the epilogue seemed very short and rushed and it just confirmed things I assumed would happen. Also don't think the romance was needed (I feel like I'm saying this on repeat now but don't just add a romance because).

Now I need to go reread the original short story