This one was a little hard for me to get into initially. The persistent mentions of the pandemic were one reason: while this is an urban fantasy series, I don’t feel like the story of this type requires this much grounding in reality. Moreover, New Atlantis is such a separate location. While it has humans living alongside magic beings, it’s pretty disconnected from the rest of the world, and its residents have wards, healing spells, rejuvenation technologies, and the ability to use infectious diseases to fuel magic. It just doesn’t make sense they would be affected by the pandemic the same way we were, so it took me out of the story a bit early on. There was also a bit of a disjointed sense to the start. There was the plot with the attack on the rejuvenation clinic and something big and dangerous brewing that Rune was being excluded from, there was the build-up to Rune’s coronation, and for the first few chapters, those felt like separate plots that were distracting from each other.

However, pretty soon the two storylines coalesced into one absolutely glorious, higher-stakes-than-ever whole, and I couldn’t tear myself away from the book. It was an absolutely wild, exciting, and heartbreaking ride. I’m in awe of how well all the time-travel weirdness was executed: just enough of a mindfuck to keep me from getting too confused, with the foreshadowing and reveals balanced just right. So many small plot threads from all over the previous books got continued, all the characters got amazing development, there were scenes that had me outright sobbing as well as banter that had me laughing out loud. 

I very much appreciate how diverse the series is becoming. The author is very much making up for the earlier absence of interesting female characters. And just honestly, all the new and returning members have so much depth, just like all the continuously developing relationships between them! I’m just so in love with everyone in this book, and with how intricately the character arcs and the plot challenges are balanced. It was awesome to get immersed into the Arcana politics, to get to know more about Ciaran, to realize that somewhere along the way I’ve become a fan of Lord Tower (insert a spring of incoherent mega-spoilerific emotions here, because that one plot point, how am I supposed to even live with it, please undo it, arghhhh). Rune, Bran, and Addam continue to be the sunshine of my existence, whether it’s all three of them on the page together or any two of them.

Certain reveals from the past still have me shaking, and so do certain hits at what’s to come in the future. It’s so hard to talk about this book without spoilers, tbh! This entire series is so going on my list of the 2024 best reads. From what I know, the author is still in the process of writing book 4, and I’m wishing him all sorts of success and zero writing block, because I can’t wait. Meanwhile, I guess I’ll go buy the first book from the side series about the younger generation.

This sure was a wild ride! I can’t quite remember the last time I read a story with a protagonist so thoroughly unlikable and, for the most part, had fun following it. Although at some point, the way Juniper reacted to yet another instance of her tower of lies crumbling underneath her did have me skimming more than reading for about a chapter, because I was absolutely dying from… secondhand embarrassment, I guess? Like, how can someone be so unapologetic and righteous in their mundane villainy, OMG. So yeah, June came very close to being too insufferable, and yet I was kept engaged by the promise of her getting her due in the end combined with the occasional moments of sudden relatability when she talked about the non-plagiarism-related parts of the writing process.

The one thing I loved about the book is that the protagonist isn’t at all a mastermind. Her not-so-perfect crime is based on luck and privilege entirely. I was shaking my head at how little thought she put into the manuscript theft, how many very obvious loose threads that threatened to unravel the whole scheme she had to rush to clean up once she was made aware of them rather than trying to anticipate, well, anything. That approach coalesced really well with the overall theme.

It was also darkly entertaining to see how June kept rewriting the narrative in her own head, sometimes in a matter of a couple of paragraphs. “The evil Twitter people are saying that using these words in the book makes me racist? But they aren’t mine, they’re Athena’s! Now they’re saying they’ve compared this novel with Athena’s earlier work via some script and found a stunning amount of overlap in vocabularies? Fuck them, the words they found are all stuff like pronouns and ‘said,’ I put so much work into making it mine, it’s MY writing!“ 

Another darkly funny things was the depiction of the Twitter discourse—not just around June’s lies specifically, but all the mentions of other stuff springing up. I think I may have recognized the inspirations for some of those... Maybe I spent too much time following some of the writerly hashtag in the very same network, oops. 

I did feel there could be some better lead-ups to that absolutely unhinged and very entertaining finale, and that certain aspects of the message could be delivered in a less heavy-handed way. But ultimately, I enjoyed this a lot.

I expected something fairly lighthearted from this book, but I ended up spending most of it feeling upset and worried for the characters. I'm not saying this as a bad thing; if anything, it means that I cared for these fictional people. Just a case of misplaced expectations, I guess? I should really stop trusting the packaging and pay more attention to reviews. Especially, apparently, when it comes to romcoms. I swear some of the most nerve-wrecking books I've read were marketed as romcoms.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the mental health representation here. Both Charlie's anxiety and Dev's depression were described in a way that I found really relatable, as well as their respective journeys to getting better. There was so much attention put into how certain things appear on the outside and how they actually feel when your brain is actively working against you. Despite being intimately familiar with depression, I was kind of tricked with Dev when it came to the portrayal of this dichotomy. I was genuinely growing frustrated with him for a big chunk of the book for his dedication to orchestrating the reality show love stories. How could he be directly involved in all the staging and framing and nudging people toward specific actions and outcomes, and still believe in those happily ever afters? And then it was revealed just how depressed he was, and it all clicked. Like, oh. Of course. He's not so much ignoring what's right in front of him, he's avoiding what's *inside* of him, until it becomes too personal to go on. To make it clear, I liked this effect a lot.

All the inner workings of the dating show were fun to read about, too, in that somewhat darkly entertaining way. There was exactly as much cynicism and manipulation as I expected, but there were also some sweet moments amidst it all between the core group, as well as some witty dialogue that made me smirk.

I'm not sure I bought Charlie and Dev as a couple by the end of the book, though. They're both wonderful characters, but I feel like Charlie put it best right before the ending:

perhaps they were meant to enter each other's lives for a while, and that didn't make what they shared any less real or important.

Or maybe, upon further thinking, I would prefer it if they ended this specific part of their story separately, yet got a sequel where they could reestablish their connection a few years later, after figuring themselves out more, getting more therapy, and without any cameras watching them or crews looking to splice their narrative in a way that would be palatable to all the people watching at home. I honestly didn't like

that whole part where Ever After was this big part of them getting together in the end. On one hand, yay for the show changing to the better, I guess. On the other hand, It felt like the narrative was hastily shoehorned into the romcom mold.

In many ways, this story reminded me of Alexis Hall's Winner Bakes All books that are also marketed as romcoms and are very much not. Great books, all of them! Just. Misleading packaging.

I very much loved the prose and the vibes here. In many ways, it's like the ultimate cozy/cottagecore book, with so many descriptions that really pulled me in. All the scenes involving cooking, gardening, just hanging out in the lighthouse during storms, going to town on errands, and such were so immersive and character-focused and didn't feel like fluff at all. 

I also loved the witchiness that permeated every part of the story—even the ones that weren't centered around resurrection spells or healing salves. And speaking of those actual magic scenes, they were so well done! I particularly enjoyed how the beginning was at once all "yes, witchcraft and necromancy are absolutely real" and somewhat ambiguous. Ethan certainly brought the seal back to life, but is Ethan correct believing the resurrected seal is a selkie? Or is Peter correct in assuming it's merely an animal? Even with the blurb making it clear that yes, there's a selkie here, that ambiguity was still very strong and I loved what it added to the story.

Unfortunately, when it came to the romance—the thing I was reading for—I felt somewhat let down. I came in expecting a poly love story, and what I got didn't fully read like one. Before Nico even joined the narrative properly, there was so much focus on Ethan and Peter's "marriage in crisis" situation that I was already reading it as a "marriage in crisis" romance, rooting for them to figure things out and reaffirm their bond. And Nico, eventually, just felt like a tool they were using to bring back the spark, and not a full person of his own and a full participant of the relationship. Part of it came from this pacing issue I've mentioned, part of it, simply from how a lot of the early-ish interactions between of them were handled and how much everything was about Ethan and Peter and their family. I felt like the narrative tried to switch gears closer to the end, but it was too late in the story for me to truly buy it.

Still, loved the vibes, loved the trans rep, loved the little coastal town and all the tiny subplots about its residents. Definitely interested in checking out the author's other works!

For some reason, this one took me a lot longer to get into than the first installment. When I read the first book, I was instantly enchanted by Ljosland and pulled in by Emily's starting situation: a grumpy, possibly neurodivergent scholar just trying to get locals to help her gather information for her book. From there on, everything else just added to the enchantment. Here, Emily's surrounded by a small team of characters from the get-go, the new locations are often charming but just don't hit all the right buttons for me like Ljosland did, and just like the first time, the journaling format isn't very easy for me to handle when there's so much dialogue. 

Still, after a slow start, I appreciated many things about this book and will definitely read on when the journey continues. Wendell was absolutely my favorite here—I enjoyed learning more about him, both as a person and in terms of all his fae mysteries. I liked the way his and Emily's relationship developed, too, with how they grew closer and closer while still retaining that fun snarkiness they inspire in each other. I also loved the inclusion of Emily's niece Ariadne as Emily's assistance and how their relationship changed gradually throughout the book. Also, Ljosland with its old familiar faces, human and fae alike, wasn't entirely absent from the story, yay for that.

And then, of course, all the fairies! New types of them, new secrets of their realms, all of that was incredibly fascinating. There's still that blend of the Fair Folk being pretty scary in a dark fairy-talish way and the general coziness of the story, and I'm so here for it.

Wow. This was dark as fuck and twice as awesome. Even more exciting and engrossing than the first book. I absolutely loved how the story's constructed: the stakes and the tension rising steadily from start to finish, the clues planted at exactly the right moments, the build-up to the showdown with the genuinely terrifying villain. Never a dull moment, quite literally.

The characters, again, are where the book absolutely shines. This slowly growing found family has my heart. Brand remains my absolute favorite (in Rune's own words, everybody should have a Brand), and his and Rune's exceptionally close-knit, ride-or-die relationship remains so special. And also the way Addam fits into it! While I really liked his one-on-one boyfriendly scenes with Rune, I loved that one moment when Rune and Brand were having a misunderstanding and I fully expected them to sort it out eventually. But then Addam stepped in, found the right words for each of them, made them sort it out way faster and with no collateral damage, and then gave them space to have a moment. Also, some of Addam's dialogues with Brand, as well as the comments he provoked out of Brand simply by leading his usual life? Absolutely priceless. Oops, I think I've found my new part romantic, part queerplatonic OT3...

It was also cool to see some female characters show up and become an important part of the plot. Corinne and Anna are both badass and interesting and I hope to keep getting to know them in the future installments. I guess Anna's powers are the one thing in the book I'm not 100% sure I like in terms of scope/execution, but I felt the same about Quinn's gift in the previous book, and in this one all the issues I had were addressed and turned into features. So I'm pretty hopeful that Anna's situation will get a similar treatment. 

As if exciting plot, dialogue that had me snorting even at the darkest moments, and amazing characters aren't enough, the worldbuilding here remains so compelling, too. The setting keeps growing in all directions: more history revealed, more details added, more layers explored. This is a world/society that is definitely in urgent need of bettering, and I get the feeling this is the direction the story is headed. Can't wait to see what happens next!

This was a pretty epic read. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding with all of its different magic systems and the gradually unveiled secrets. Also, I found the overall concept of the story super interesting. There are lots of stories where overthrowing a king who's been harming the kingdom is the goal; here, it's an inciting incident. The story is about what happens after that one big change, and all the small changes that needs to be done, and the not-so-nice-and-shiny decisions that need to be made, and the payoff of the risks that had been taken, and all sorts of previously unknown information coming to light a little too late for contingency plans. I drew a lot of parallels with the real world events as I read, both from the faraway past and the recent history, and generally found this portrayal of a changing country compelling.

For the most part, I liked how the multiple POVs worked here, though sometimes I felt the need for some extra points of view. In particular, I'm sad that we never got into Ka-poel's head; I loved her so much. There were also times I wished the narration lingered more in a particular POV before the imminent switch to another one, or simply went deeper. That is mostly like a case of "it's not you, and me"; while objectively the characterization in general is pretty good here and the depth of character building is 100% appropriate for a more setting and plot focused story like this, subjectively I enjoy a slightly more character-driven approach. 

This series has been recommended to me more times than I can count, but I've shied away from it because of the trigger warnings. I cracked open the Amazon sample once, and the way Rune's past trauma was mentioned/handled at the very beginning didn't sit well with me. But the recs kept coming, so I eventually caved, and wow, I don't regret it one bit! There were some aspects of the trauma narrative I remained slightly put out by until the end, I admit, but there were also scenes where I liked the handling of it, and anyway, there is just SO MUCH MORE to this book.

I really loved the worldbuilding and how it was delivered. The author uses my absolute favorite approach: just plunge the reader in the middle of things, throw in a bunch of stuff that is completely natural to the POV character so he doesn't dwell on every detail and just experiences things instead of actively explaining them, and wait until it all makes sense. A tad overwhelming at first, but by the end of first act I felt like I had a strong grasp on the basics of the setting, and then more exciting stuff kept getting added throughout the book, making for a super exciting kitchen-sink-type urban fantasy setting with complex political relations between the Tarot-inspred courts and an interesting take on the Vancian magic system. And it's not just the worldbuilding info that's delivered this way: Rune definitely keeps secrets from the reader that he alludes to periodically—or rather, it's not that he actively keeps secrets, it's that he only narrates what is immediately relevant. So I'm very excited to keep reading and learning more about all the things that's been hinted at.

The character dynamics are a huge strength of the story. There's a big web of relationships growing around Rune, each of them unique and compelling. I particularly adored the relationship he has with Brand, and how most of their interactions consist of sniping at each other in fluent sarcasm, but when it matters, they're always able to brush it aside and have an honest, vulnerable conversation. I also liked the budding relationship between Rune and Addam, and Rune's interactions with Lord Tower, and so many more connections. Also, the banter is absolutely to die for. I may have burst out into loud laughter at least four times. I also found myself a huge fan of action scenes here. A lot of them are long, but they never feel drown out and are always exciting in more ways than one, slipping in plenty of character development and worldbuilding info between all the tension. 

The plotting overall is solid, both in terms of delivering a self-contained adventure and setting up the foundations for an overarching plot. I was, however, a bit annoyed by the number of times the characters were backed into a corner and then saved by a happy accident. Though this kind of thing was easier to stomach when I remembered that

a lot of these 'accidents' were actually set up by a teenage Seer with more good intentions than common sense

. And speaking of things that miffed me, I didn't love how few female characters there were. The ones we do meet all seem interesting but get so little page time. 

Finally, a shoutout to Josh Hurley who's 100% one of the best audiobook narrators I've come across. Such an amazing job making every character feel distinct and maintaining the mood throughout!

For context, the first book in this series frustrated me a lot with many of its aspects, and the second book was an outright disappointment. So I was rather uncertain whether I wanted to read this one at all, but the worldbuilding and the big overarching political plots compelled me. Happily, this time I more or less enjoyed myself!

It was interesting to learn more about the setting, especially since we finally get a trans MC here and a lot of the things about the way trans people are seen/treated get spelled out more clearly. And it's such a refreshing approach. Basically, everyone is just taken at their word when it comes to their gender. A child figures themself out and tells people whether they're a boy or a girl (or, I assume, whether they're neither, though I would appreciate it if it was made clearer how nonbinary people fare), and that's it, that's who they are in the eyes of literally everybody. You can't ever assume anyone's gender based on their body and their relationship with it and whether they give birth to children etc—cis is not the default at all. 

That said, as much as I like the approach, I did feel that the actual romance was kind of... cis-coded? The romance leads here spend a large part of the story physically separated, and Kamir, a trans man, largely has to deal with plot threads like "doting on his kids and making sure he can continue being a good caretaker," "evading an abusive ex-husband," "dealing with abusive parents who insists he gets married to someone they approve of for the sake of the family," "dealing with a surprise pregnancy," and "taking care of the other MC's estate/household." All the while Jader, who's cis, is away adventuring, exploring, and solving political conundrums. On one hand, this does feel natural enough for the word that just doesn't have gender norms the way ours does, but on the other hand, Idk, I would just appreciate it if, taken out of context of the setting, it didn't make it seem like Kamir's being indulged by being called by the right pronouns but otherwise plays a traditionally feminine role to the fullest.

Outside of that, I actually liked the development of the relationship via letters and how slow-burn it feels despite the characters getting intimate early in the plot. I also loved how Kamir's kids are such a big part of his life and how Jader makes sure to interact with them. In the first book of the series, Sarrica was supposed to be this doting farther who judged Allen, among other things, on his ability to be good for his children, but that was something we were told and never shown. Here, parenthood is definitely a big theme. 

I also enjoyed the foray into other cultures through Jader, and generally was intrigued all the while with his overall situation. He was raised as an Islander, then ended up making a career at the High King's court, which already has him stuck in the juxtaposition of two different societies, and then he is accidentally found by his birth family who belong to a whole third country with a whole different set of norms. All of that made for a lot of interesting developments and gave him a unique perspective. 

Things that frustrated me: where the previous book was too rushed, this one moves incredibly slow and has about ten infodumps too many. Though on the other hand, this increased page count does let us delve deeper into the main characters, exploring their personalities, hobbies, and aspirations. Also, if I never had to meet Sarrica again (impossible, I know, he's the king after all), it would be too soon. I also didn't really appreciate the type of political masterminding Allen now gets up to. And I didn't really like how the bad guys are just out there being bad with no real justification beyond "that's how they are." Though a baddie from the first book shows up briefly to reveal hidden depth, so who knows, maybe there'll be more reveals through the overarching plot further down the line?

This reminded me of She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick. The characters are younger and overall pretty different, the premise is almost the polar opposite, but something about the execution of the "opposites attract" trope and the overall vibe makes me want to put the books on the same shelf. I think if you (dis)liked one of these books, you are super likely to feel the same way about the other.

Speaking of tropes, I'm kind of surprised I've often seen this mentioned as "enemies to lovers," because like... I didn't notice a trace of that? Hani and Ishu are neither enemies nor rivals, they're simply not friends (until they are). They show up at the same Bengali gatherings and go to the same school, but they don't really know each other. Until, of course, roughly at the same time, each of them tells a spur-of-the-moment lie that snowballs into more lies in the form of a tenuous fake dating plan. It's slightly ridiculous from the get-go, but with the way it's presented, I found it weirdly relatable in that "teens meandering through life dramatically as teens do" way. I really liked watching these two get closer and catch genuine feelings, and I loved learning more about the Bengali culture along the way. The book actually prompted me to go look up a bunch of things for better understanding.

I also really liked the way the plotlines that prompted the girls to come up with that plan play out: Hani's relationship with her friends, Ishu's with her parents.

I've seen other reviews mention that those plotlines seemed unresolved at the end, but for me, that was kind of the point? Part of growing up is realizing that sometimes, you just can't make other people change, see things your way, etc. But you can change how you react to the situations and choices others present you with.

  Also, I absolutely loved the development of Ishu's relationship with her sister.

There were things that took a bit from my enjoyment, though. Such as the weird accidentally shared google doc plotline (how was that even supposed to happen?). Or how it was never quite explained why Hani kept clinging to her toxic friends for so long. Around absolutely everyone else, she doesn't seem like such a complete people-pleaser, but with those girls, she just let them stomp all over the things that were important to her—her culture, her religion, her family, her values—and constantly justified it with "but they're my friends, but we have fun together." Whereas never once in the entire book were Aisling and Dee shown as someone acting non-maliciously friendly or being fun to be around. Perhaps it's their portrayal that's the issue, actually. If there was more nuance to their behavior around Hani, this entire plotline would be more complex and interesting.