I swear to follow the will of Dalinar Kholin. This is my oath.

Unfortunately this did not live up to my expectations or caliber of the first book. 

My main gripe with the first book was that the lore behind the gods wasn’t explained basically at all, but I was able to forgive that a bit because it was more focused on the romance. But because of the lack of worldbuilding in book one, there was a lot of catch up to on in this book in building a foundation to stand on for this war and the sides. And despite this, the beginning of this book is sooo slow. I think there was far too much time spent on everything that happens in the first probably half of the book that could have been condensed down. At 85% in we were still getting new lore which is just not the time to be introducing new things. Ultimately I didn't think the villain was all that scary, I did not even truly understand WHY the war was even happening besides: gods on opposing sides. All the issues and obstacles were very easily solved, nothing felt earned. I truly didn't even really understand the WHY of certain outcomes in the book.

On top of all that I dislike the “two MC/lovers are separated” trope and while it makes some sense here, it also felt like that was the only way to build romantic tension again.

I had no idea what to expect going into this book, but I had a blast! A great job is done immediately investing the reader in Wren's story by having her exiled (and treated horribly by her family, seriously someone come get them!). Wren is a flawed MC, but also snarky and fun to read.
The lore/world building is cool and unique enough to be interesting to read about. There's a ton of secrecy and things definitely not seeming as they are. Plus a little political intrigue too! I liked the inclusion of multiple povs and that really helped round out the character building. I feel like I'm not doing it justice, but seriously if you read the synopsis and it sounds interesting give it a go!
I'm super excited to read the sequel when it comes out! and happy it's a planned duology!

This leans a little more literary than a typical romance, but I didn't mind that. All of Ashley's books weave a little magic into them. This is a little slice of life in a small town that exists in a book series that our MC stumbles into. It felt a little slow at parts and I kept reading because of the big reveal I knew was coming. But I did really like the ending! I like a lot of the themes in this book: about how books change us and connect to us and the importance of community. I really related to forming close connections in a book club <3

I really enjoyed the combination of memoir style writing infused with nature writing providing lots of interesting info. The writing is beautifully descriptive and moving. As someone who grew up in the area (outside Syracuse) she writes about a lot, there was a nostalgic factor for me as well.

My one qualm (and this could be indicative of this being published a decade ago) is I think Wall Kimmerer shies away a bit from giving any real solutions besides to become "closer to nature" which reads a bit naive considering where we are as a world right now. Unfortunately we are just so far past the way indigenous people used to live that I struggle to see a path that leads anywhere near back there.  

Pros: stutter and demisexual representation in Callum - Callum in general was a pro, he was so sweet. I like the becoming friends first into romance (a slower burn). I bet if they got the right narrators this would be good on audio (to hear Callum's accent).

Cons: My biggest issue with this book was Lark's coworker enemy who is quite possibly one of my most hated book characters ever (so I guess props for writing a villain so well?). I just don't really feel the need for a villain in a romance (unless they turn into the romantic interest!). Maybe it's just my past experiences with shitty men at work that it really just made me mad and even tho I suppose he gets what he deserves in the end (kinda he's still an ass), it just really took away overall enjoyment of this book.
This has the beginnings of marriage of convenience trope, but ended up being a slow burn so the 'reasons' Callum has to get married ultimately become a barrier to their romance (perhaps maybe that just wasn't what I expected from the first few chapters).
While I understand Lark's qualms with moving on after the death of her husband, it did feel a bit repetitive to continue hearing about it without much development (until the end).
Something about the writing style and pacing also felt a bit awkward at parts.

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I just read this book in one day and I could seriously immediately start it over again. Alex and Poppy are everything. I laughed. I cried. Truly don’t know how Emily does it - nothing hits like her books. 

I truly wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did. You have to be down to read about a truly awful person and really be in her thoughts with no escape while basically nothing else happens. So if that's not your vibe then this book isn't for you!

I loved the descriptions of the art world, art bros etc, they were spot on. I was absolutely screaming in laughter and had to read them to my friends!
It's funny because I too quit my corporate (somewhat art related) job a few years ago to really reassess my life, however for me personally I was depressed being in that job and quitting (and processing in therapy) is what helped me. I also recognize this book is set over 20 years ago and it was just a completely different world. I deeply felt for the character when she says:

This is definitely a commentary about mental health/depression and also of course on our society's focus on pharmaceutical patches vs actual mental health care. Her psychiatrist was wild to read, just how absurd she was - really a caricature of a person. Actually come to think of it pretty much every single side character in this book is also kind of awful. Especially her ex-whatever-boyfriend is disgusting. 

There's a point at which the lengthy descriptions about drug use and waking up not remembering what she's done got a bit repetitive. This was likely a choice by the author to really beat us over the head. I wasn't expecting the ending

to be so positive for our MC! I guess I just kinda thought she would continue to fuck up her life beyond repair? and I'm not saying I was unsatisfied with the ending, but it was unexpected to me.

This is a hard one to really form coherent thoughts on, but I'll definitely be thinking about this book for a while. And likely would reread it at some point!

If you're a musician especially if you ever played strings, this is a must read. Truly the scenes of them playing music together are SO HOT. If you get it you get it...

Julie truly can write a 'down bad' man... Alex is *chefs kiss* I wish we got more POVs from him, there were only a few throughout. I just prefer more balance in multiple pov romances, like if you're gonna give me both then I want a more equal amount. Sometimes it was a lot to be in Gwen's head almost the whole book. What also kinda took the wind out of my sails was how AWFUL every man in this book (except for Alex) is. Like truly can egotistical greedy men just go the f away!? [though I did find the comparisons to a certain scooter quite hilarious] Any conflict in this book really stems from them and basically they were f'ing up everything.

Anyway yeah I think I liked Forget Me Not slightly more, but Julie is becoming an autobuy romance author for me!

Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy!

Ok here's the thing about this series: the worldbuilding and characters are FANTASTIC, but there were too many things going on and I think it got away from the author. Therefore the conclusion of this series didn't stick the landing, and I definitely feel like there are things left unresolved (which is not really where you want to be after 600 pages). It felt like the world got too big and unruly. There were too many threads to follow and tie back together (and then introducing new things in the third book when things need to be wrapping up!?). So we spend too much time lost in descriptions and court politics that don't actually amount to anything (like ultimately did the sky clans even matter when it just comes down to a few people playing god?! and the coyote clan was just completely abandoned after book 2).

The plot pacing in most of this series is just not great - there are so many large sections of especially books 2 and 3 where nothing important is happening, but questions also aren't being answered. Like halfway through this third book I did not understand WHY these different groups were even going to war, and that's because it wasn't explained yet! Was there a reason the Teek lost their song and Xiala was the only one? or was that just to make her more powerful? I love a prophecy plotline, but I also feel like if that's going to be introduced (for a second time in this series) then there needs to be a reason besides: Serapio needs something to do.

ALSO WTF was the point of Serapio and Okoa reconciling if he was gonna be killed for literally WHAT reason? Make it make sense! It felt like some character needed to die so he was randomly chosen. And the other 4 main characters couldn't die because their stories are all left unresolved: esp Naranpa, like wtf she ends the series just basically in a coma??

Naranpa deserved better than this ending, and honestly I felt she was the most underutilized character after so much character development from book 1! Like yes the things she's doing in this book are cool, but she's also completely separated from the main world and everything going on. Also please explain to me why we had that whole big thing between her and Serapio  at the end of book two and then she never even sees/speaks to him again...

Xiala and Serapio you will always be famous! Honestly I'm being generous with my rating because I love these characters so much and that's partially why I wanted a better written ending for them!!!