themoonwholistens's Reviews (698)

Thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC to review

⟹ MY BLOG ⟸
⟹ SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI ⟸
*All of my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible unless states otherwise*

1/21/19
I am so beyond excited to have an ARC of this y'all have no idea. I literally jumped in joy when I saw this on my Netgalley.

1/29/19
It is very rare to find poetry books that do not make me cringe and I relate to mostly. This is one of those rare ones. Amanda Lovelace and her feminist poetry collections is one of my favorite collections ever to had stumbled upon. They were easy to read for me and easy to understand, but they really sunk deep. There is not much to say aside from this was also my favorite out of her Women Are Some Kind of Magic series. This was the least cliche, it was cohesive, and ultimately the one that made me feel the most nostalgic while sticking to me long after I have read the passage.

i wrote this review in 2017, it's cringey, sorry

------------
Devasting, Heartbreaking and Heartwarming.

I cannot get enough of Inej and Kaz, Matthias and Nina, and Jesper and Wylan.

I want and need more Sturmhond cause I miss Prince (now king!!!!! [sounds so weird, unusual and pleasant at the same time]) Nikolai Lantsov so much. This triggers all my Grishaverse thrills and feelings thatI locked away that it makes writhe.

The ending destroyed me though but I just have to say that this will always be one of my favorite bookverse ever.

I think a reason a lot of people (including myself) didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one is that it didn't really feel like it brought anything new for the majority of the book, the first half felt like we were getting a darker version of Spin the Dawn. With the court and the secrecy, it just left like she had another secret to keep when I thought it would turn into an adventure of some sort. Just like book one, I would have given the first half and the second half of this book different ratings —

First half rating: 3.5
Second half rating: 2.0

— overall thoughts: 2.5 —
⇢ content warnings//

Spoiler

Physical Violence, Blood, Disfiguration, Torture, Lashing

I still think that the elegant and rich descriptions is the strong suit but other than that, I wasn't that interested in much of anything. Furthermore, the tone actually turned darker than Spin the Dawn which I don’t think matched the beginning of the first book and was what I was initially reading the story for. Both books in this series started off strong and intriguing but it fails to build up from there in my opinion.

This series does still have good themes about family, destiny, with a rich culture in it's background but I don't think it was executed to make the most interesting story. It doesn't help that I wasn't as invested in the romance as much as other people were. I wasn't sold on how the main couple got together in the first book, so given that Edan wasn't really present for a huge part of this one, nothing really helped mend that for me.

Spoiler

The fact that he suddenly just decides to come back for whatever reason that we don’t see or experience was off to me because it was treated like he could have returned at any time but we know that wasn't the case.

I found a lot of inconsistencies in the plot and the build up, which I think were missed opportunities.

I expected that we were going to get more of the world building but it wasn't as in depth as I would have thought it could have gone. The plot went down a road that made me feel very underwhelmed given else could have been possible. The writing was still rich and descriptive, which might have been my favorite part. There were parts when the narrative/dialogue felt more modern than the traditional setting.

Maia wasn't my favorite person to follow though in this story for the same reason that it didn't feel like we were getting to know her more. You do get to see her internal struggles which was a nice touch but there was just something about the setting that didn't sell it for me. I don’t think I can say the pacing was slow, but it took so long for the narrative to get to the point. If I was invested enough in the character relationships, I normally would not have cared.

I did like the ending (yes, it's a happily ever after) for how it was written with the touching family moments. All that said, I still really loved Elizabeth Lim’s writing for what it is, I just was not a fan of a lot of choices in the plot and flow.

↣ This was an underwhelming sequel for me and I had high hopes. If you liked the writing in the first book, it's still prevalent here and I think people could still love this if you're sold on the romantic chemistry. ↢

“...stories can make someone immortal as long as someone else is willing to listen.”

I finally got past my emotions and arrived to some realizations.

1. I realized that the reason this book can cause such an impact is because, a number of the readers who started reading this subconsciously expected there to be a different ending. If you are like me who is a hardcore fantasy reader and this being your first Adam Silvera book, then we are probably feeling somewhat the same emotions.

2. Adam Silvera put cliche characters, in a very-not-cliche plot.

3. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the fact that foster homes were not written out to be some cage that always kept characters trapped until they could get out. They found a family within that foster home and the parents of the home weren't even that cliche couple who hated what they were doing and were only doing it for the money. At the very least, they actually cared about the kids that were put in their care. It's refreshing because I never liked the fact foster homes were generally given a bad image.

4. They never really explained how the system works. Which gives it a sense of mystery that is very appropriate for the book.

"Therefore, birthdays were futile. Birthdays only got a person closer to their death and death was certainly nothing to celebrate and neither was another ordinary day closer to it, cake or not."



This is my favorite short story of all time. I re-read maybe 7 times and I loved it more every time. It's been atleast a year since the last time I opened wattpad but this story is one that I will always remember.