shane_the_reading_rat's Reviews (1.21k)

i think the description of this books really doesn’t describe it accurately. description makes it sound like a fast-paced thriller, whereas when you’re reading it’s a slow-paced, more character-focused novel (not a bad thing of course!! just different than what i expected). i loved the beginning of the book, where it talks about Ivy’s childhood and her trip to China. after she came into contact with the Speyer family, it really began to drag for me (you can really tell by how long it took me to finish this audiobook. sped through the first 3 or 4 hours in a couple days, then took me a solid ten days to finish the rest). also the ending felt… extremely abrupt? just seemed like it came completely out of left field and really needed to be hinted at more.

also, i just feel weird about the final twist being “wait gideon is actually gay”. it just.. felt odd. extremely sudden. gave me some pretty uncomfortable vibes that THAT was the twist and it was an unfortunate note to end on.

 
over-all, interesting book!! just not at all what i expected.

this is now one of my favorite books of all time. the characters all felt so raw and real (my personal favorite was Nostagia Nalan), and of course Leila especially was one of the best main characters i have ever read. there are a few things i could see bothering some readers (strange pacing, much more focus on some characters rather than others), but personally those worked for me.