thaisasaurusrekt's Reviews (115)

Instead of a rich ocean of content I was met with a very shallow pool. While the story was predictable but  entertaining enough despite a lot of missing consistency, I could not get over the lack of interesting characters and connection between them. There was a lot of repetition, falling in love without any chemistry, and lots of world building that was started but never used in an interesting way. I had high hopes for the book that it simply never met. And I guess the jokes on me for expecting a siren to have a tail, like the one that’s shown on the cover, which I think I was the most disappointed by cuz I’m a sucker for mermaids.

The phoenix keeper really tapped into the inherent coziness I experience when I head to the zoo. Seeing animals in their natural habitat, experiencing different flora and fauna in their home environments (I especially love it when they’ve matched the temperature and humidity so that you can feel it) and just experiencing a relaxing stroll during all of it. It’s one of the few times I can really take in the sights without thinking of much else.

Having grown up with a grandpa who worked at a zoo and always had exotic animals at home that I’d help take care of, it made me think fondly on odd things such as getting frozen chicks from the freezer (where the bread was also located) and to chop them up to feed to the owls and buzzard in the backyard, or holding a bunch of snakes around my neck while watching a tv show on the couch while grandpa was cleaning their tank. Im glad it took me on a trip down memory lane. 

So the book scores 100% on that cozy feeling. And another 100% on passion for animals, especially from a conservationist standpoint. Ailes excitement and passion for contributing to bringing more phoenixes into the world to help eventually reintroduce them into the wild is a noble cause and quite infectious. Seeing her grow to care about more then them, over her rivalry with her former crush, and over her fear of public speaking was a nice arc, and the bit of tension with fear of losing it all at the end before the fairytale ending brought the book to a nice close. 

I enjoyed the book alot and I too would like some phoenix merch now.

I find this a complicated book to review. On the one hand I love the eeriness of the setting. The sea being something to fear, water eroding at every living being, the sea taking everyone’s life in the end, but the rotting and decay being the true enemy. The talk of drowning, both as a person and of the land. The mentioned of a huge drowning taking entire towns and thousands of people with it hundreds of years ago, leaving scars on both the peoples and the land. The atmosphere was always tense in that way, and the poems and tidbits from both the book Angharad added onto that lore. The magic of the foreboding fairy king, the saints and the sleepers made Llirya to be a place of forgotten magic and superstition, but for the believers it was always something ever present, just beyond the corner of your eye, a natural part of life.

Sadly beyond the lore we have a story about a girl who’s been mistreated and misused by men, made to feel like it’s all her fault by a mysoginistic academic setting, where she’s seen as a woman when she’s to blame but a girl when she’s to be taken advantage of. And a story about an a boy who wants to find the truth. I still don’t get why he was so focused on this specific truth though. 

There was a bit of a mismatch between my expectations for the story and the so called relationship between the lovers. Effy seemed like a very frightened and careful girl in the first parts of the book with no wish for any companionship, until she happens to meet Preston. It just seemed like a shoe horned in love story, which affected much of the pacing since the ‘urgency’ was lost quite a few times due to them being forced into proximity. Personally I just never saw a spark between them and lamented the fact that we were spending time on the romance at all since that could’ve been more time we could have spent in lore.

I’m still saddened by the fact that we were promised some sort of transformation in relation to the waters, but I suppose rather then it happening physically we got a personality change. I just wanted to see some gills and fins.

All in all, the book had an amazingly creepy atmosphere, but mediocre characters and story development and much less magic then I expected and wanted. I filled in a lot of blank gaps myself, which was also an entertaining time, though I’m not sure if it’s what should have been needed for this book.

I had a great time with this book, although I notified it was a reylo fanfic the first few pages in. It was hard to keep a serious face with the transformation from space ships to actual wooden ships that could fly at first, but the author actually managed to rewrite a lot of the Star Wars stuff like the force, lightsabers and death stars quite well, creating an interesting magic system that thrives on opposites, much like our two main characters.

The enemies to lovers dynamic between Kylo and Rey never disappoints, and the same can be said for Talasyn and Alaric. The struggle of power between their familial elders and rulers made for quite some tense politics, having them be wedged between their duty to their countries and peoples and their own choices in the illusion of freedom that they have.

 The tension kept building up, both during the war fought in the battlefield, the worlds state, and between our two totally not lovers. ‘Hate and passion are two sides of the same coin’ was a quote that was very well placed, and having them navigate their new forced marriage to eachother while simultaneously trying to (and on some parts failing) to stay true to their ideals and hatred for eachother made for quite the read. 

I enjoyed this book very much, and the stunning fairyloot edition sitting on my shelves isn’t going anywhere any time soon. I look forward to the sequel, and perhaps to reading the original fanfiction if I can find it.

Nice read, though I think maybe my nostalgia for the story of the swan princess helped me along the way. The plot wasn't always very clear, it was very much a vibes book. And while i did like the Idea of the fae in their magically beautiful yet cruel world, the main character just didn't interact with any of the other characters, be it fae or human, in a very engaging way. Perhaps this is due to her closing herself off from being loved, for good reasons, but i i'm not sure i'd be interesting in reading about her journey any further. 

This novella reminded me why I love fantasy again. It was a very small and contained story with just a few characters, but the bond between a girl and her bird was written beautifully. Her simultaneously reaching her life long goal but losing the means she achieved it by was heartbreaking, and yet just like her I’m hopeful for her future. The story was perfect, and I truly enjoyed what little time I spent in there.

This book was the perfect cozy cottagecore read you’d enjoy with a mug of tea, sitting outside and listening to the birds. The themes of bittersweet grief and forbidden love that triumphs were well written, and I had a good time reading about how Mari can come to rest within nature, and the chosen loneliness that followed.

 I also thought that it being set in the regency era was a fun bonus since I’m currently on the bridgerton hype train, and not having gender be something that matters much in who you love and marry is something I really appreciated. 

If anything this book served as inspiration for my next dnd character, where I’m hoping to replicate the bees and the coziness of this story. 

Fun light hearted read about a woman going on a journey to kill a false god who enslaved a people and falling in love with a dragon along the way with way too many literal spice jokes.