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shellsywellsy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Loved the historical setting. This was a bit of a slow burn, and it’s definitely a book I had to concentrate on to read. I’ve found this with her other books—just a little too dense in parts. But overall, I enjoyed the magic the book set up, the characters, and the conclusion.
zeebookmoth's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
aleexe's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
meghan74's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
greydaze's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
camialegre's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
areen's review against another edition
3.25
while I won't say this was a bad book or story, I struggled to connect with the characters. there's a lot going on and everything felt just a bit lacking for me to be immersed in the world. I think if this was either a duology or written in the characters pov, it would've helped a lot.
luzia's feelings as a servant, hualit's hatred towards men and the general struggle of the women in this book, the romance between our main couple... it all didn't have much of an impact on me. it was just ok. ig there's more tell, not show. also as someone who doesn't understand any Spanish, I struggled to recall or remember the characters or their titles at times lol.
luzia's feelings as a servant, hualit's hatred towards men and the general struggle of the women in this book, the romance between our main couple... it all didn't have much of an impact on me. it was just ok. ig there's more tell, not show. also as someone who doesn't understand any Spanish, I struggled to recall or remember the characters or their titles at times lol.
nat_craig's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
irishejm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I liked this but didn't love it, it didn't have the *vibe* that grabbed me with some of Leigh's other works. Particularly the romance felt quite rushed, seriously 0 to lets die for each other in no time at all.
debchan's review against another edition
3.25
edit: i did see what leigh bardugo said about palestine and am extremely disappointed. she chose to say nothing despite writing this entire book about oppression and colonial systems. i know she has a contract for several books but that shouldn't trump her humanity. i think if you do choose to read this book, just keep this in mind.
i really wanted to like this more than i did.
so it wasn't bad per se, in fact, had anyone else other than leigh bardugo written this, i would've been like wow! i just think i expected more from her in terms of plot, pacing, character development, and the ending. maybe it's because she only had one book to expand and explore, but it wasn't like the plot required multiple books.
plot
i saw people complain about the pacing and i'm right there with them. i was flipping pages at first genuinely thinking to myself like what am i even reading? where is the excitement? it hit about 150-200 pages in? at least, that's when the tournament happened and there were occasional scenes that were super engaging while the rest fell flat in excitement and generally things happening. i think the way luzia uses her magic was so cool though. her "spells" reminds me of Carry On and how simon casts his spells. except luzia's is delivered to her through snippets from abroad and is really tied in to the general vibe of the setting.
characters
luzia: i love all of leigh bardugo's characters. they usually start off as nobodies who quite literally have nothing in life. then they're presented with an opportunity, and luzia snatches at it. she doesn't want to be a servant anymore, she wants money, wants power, wants so many things. and she's stubborn. i do love a stubborn main character when it comes to their own survival. because she's going to survive no matter what. she was just so likeable and easy to root for.
santangel: ok sorry but the way his name is spelled, every time i saw it on the page, my brain would say santander... LIKE THE BANK. rip :/ idk how luzia did it because i felt nothing for this man? ok sad backstory, ok he's Sad and Dead Inside, ok she made him feel alive for the first time in centuries. great for luzia but as the reader maybe it just wasn't enough time to make him feel worth liking and getting to know. i like that he was competent though.
valentina: i think she deserves her own section. another name confusion, everytime i saw her name, all i could hear was the tiktok sound "and this is my best friend valentina. talk, valentina." "ally!" and also the vine "lipstick??? in my valentino white bag???" but moving on, i never hated her. yeah she was annoying and is the reason everything happened. but that's bc it's all she was brought up to do, all she knows. i know leigh bardugo wrote this before chappell roan released good luck, babe but wow does that bridge describe her perfectly. "when you wake up next to him in the middle of the night // with your head in your hands you're nothing more than his wife" except she GOT OUT! she found herself and enjoyed her life with quiteria! what an amazing character arc.
the side characters were so good too because each really felt like they had their own personality.
victor was convincingly menacing and he wasn't the mwahaha supervillain but the way he held power over others was so realistic it was villainous. him promising to release santangel as a little boy reminds me of alex from the sandman show doing the same to dream but then keeping him forever as he grew up. another character i wanted more of was antonio perez. because the way bardugo wrote about him, i was so ready for this larger than life, desperate, unhinged man to do anything to find the right person to get back into the king's good graces. and yet, his ending was anticlimactic. i know it's similar to what happened in real life, but the way it was written was like why were we so afraid of this guy the whole time if that's what he was planning?
the prose though. *chef's kiss* leigh bardugo managed to make everything come to life and feel so read, it was like i was right there experiencing everything. she's so good at making a scene come to life.
that ending though... again it felt anticlimactic. like we read the entire thing and that's how it ends? that's the story you chose to tell? maybe i'm just not a romantic but it felt like the ending was missing something with a bit of oomph to it. of course the ending didn't make the entire book bad, but it was sort of like a huh moment looking back. bc what was the point? i will say i like the concept of santangel dissolving into dust every night and being resurrected by luzia every morning. on the other hand, that kind of power seems like a huge leap from fixing broken glass and burnt bread.
so i didn't feel the romance, wasn't a fan. and i finally understood why. personally, i have found that all of leigh bardugo's romances are copy + paste of each other. there's a relative nobody but suddenly she finds herself to be more powerful than she knows! and lo and behold there just so happens to be this angsty powerful man who takes her in and becomes sort of a mentor while being kinda mean and harsh. and the reason it works is because he's not like those ACOTAR men who have muscles and growl and chuckle and are generally just sex machines, all these guys fall in love with the girl in a soft, all-consuming kind of way. it gets the reader to soften like oh he'll listen to you and care for you without just wanting to sleep with you. the darkling with alina, kaz with inej, darlington with alex, now santangel with luzia. (it only really worked with me for kaz and that's because i read it so long ago and he's a bit different than the rest of them). but really, the names santangel, darlington, and the darkling are so fanciful and remind me of violet sorrengail from Fourth Wing like gee i wonder what you're supposed to be.
i'm not overly thrilled about the fact that santangel is also hundreds of years old... i know luzia isn't a teenager but she's still quite young and that dynamic of immortal/mortal who's under like 25 will always give me pause before fully supporting.
i have something that's nitpicky and maybe i shouldn't even bring it up. bardugo in her ending note does say that if luzia can access her magical phrases across space, then part of the book's logistics was allowing her to use those across time as well. but there was a point where a character used the phrase "to stand on ceremony." and considering king philip died in 1598 which is around when i assume the events took place, shakespeare uses this phrase for the first time in 1599 in julius caesar. of course "stand on ____" was common for a similar meaning and maybe it was spoken regularly in england, but to have it used in spain before the phrase was first officially recorded was interesting! (thanks horrible histories).
but overall, it was a pretty good book. i'm not sure i was ever frantically turning pages to see what would happen next bc personally the stakes weren't framed in an urgent light. but the characters were interesting enough and the writing was absolutely gorgeous. maybe my expectations were just too high and that's on me. bardugo has written a book that transports you back in time and confronts the reader to the realities of the colonial system and discrimination that ran rampart.
i really wanted to like this more than i did.
so it wasn't bad per se, in fact, had anyone else other than leigh bardugo written this, i would've been like wow! i just think i expected more from her in terms of plot, pacing, character development, and the ending. maybe it's because she only had one book to expand and explore, but it wasn't like the plot required multiple books.
plot
i saw people complain about the pacing and i'm right there with them. i was flipping pages at first genuinely thinking to myself like what am i even reading? where is the excitement? it hit about 150-200 pages in? at least, that's when the tournament happened and there were occasional scenes that were super engaging while the rest fell flat in excitement and generally things happening. i think the way luzia uses her magic was so cool though. her "spells" reminds me of Carry On and how simon casts his spells. except luzia's is delivered to her through snippets from abroad and is really tied in to the general vibe of the setting.
characters
luzia: i love all of leigh bardugo's characters. they usually start off as nobodies who quite literally have nothing in life. then they're presented with an opportunity, and luzia snatches at it. she doesn't want to be a servant anymore, she wants money, wants power, wants so many things. and she's stubborn. i do love a stubborn main character when it comes to their own survival. because she's going to survive no matter what. she was just so likeable and easy to root for.
santangel: ok sorry but the way his name is spelled, every time i saw it on the page, my brain would say santander... LIKE THE BANK. rip :/ idk how luzia did it because i felt nothing for this man? ok sad backstory, ok he's Sad and Dead Inside, ok she made him feel alive for the first time in centuries. great for luzia but as the reader maybe it just wasn't enough time to make him feel worth liking and getting to know. i like that he was competent though.
valentina: i think she deserves her own section. another name confusion, everytime i saw her name, all i could hear was the tiktok sound "and this is my best friend valentina. talk, valentina." "ally!" and also the vine "lipstick??? in my valentino white bag???" but moving on, i never hated her. yeah she was annoying and is the reason everything happened. but that's bc it's all she was brought up to do, all she knows. i know leigh bardugo wrote this before chappell roan released good luck, babe but wow does that bridge describe her perfectly. "when you wake up next to him in the middle of the night // with your head in your hands you're nothing more than his wife" except she GOT OUT! she found herself and enjoyed her life with quiteria! what an amazing character arc.
the side characters were so good too because each really felt like they had their own personality.
victor was convincingly menacing and he wasn't the mwahaha supervillain but the way he held power over others was so realistic it was villainous. him promising to release santangel as a little boy reminds me of alex from the sandman show doing the same to dream but then keeping him forever as he grew up. another character i wanted more of was antonio perez. because the way bardugo wrote about him, i was so ready for this larger than life, desperate, unhinged man to do anything to find the right person to get back into the king's good graces. and yet, his ending was anticlimactic. i know it's similar to what happened in real life, but the way it was written was like why were we so afraid of this guy the whole time if that's what he was planning?
the prose though. *chef's kiss* leigh bardugo managed to make everything come to life and feel so read, it was like i was right there experiencing everything. she's so good at making a scene come to life.
that ending though... again it felt anticlimactic. like we read the entire thing and that's how it ends? that's the story you chose to tell? maybe i'm just not a romantic but it felt like the ending was missing something with a bit of oomph to it. of course the ending didn't make the entire book bad, but it was sort of like a huh moment looking back. bc what was the point?
so i didn't feel the romance, wasn't a fan. and i finally understood why. personally, i have found that all of leigh bardugo's romances are copy + paste of each other. there's a relative nobody but suddenly she finds herself to be more powerful than she knows! and lo and behold there just so happens to be this angsty powerful man who takes her in and becomes sort of a mentor while being kinda mean and harsh. and the reason it works is because he's not like those ACOTAR men who have muscles and growl and chuckle and are generally just sex machines, all these guys fall in love with the girl in a soft, all-consuming kind of way. it gets the reader to soften like oh he'll listen to you and care for you without just wanting to sleep with you. the darkling with alina, kaz with inej, darlington with alex, now santangel with luzia. (it only really worked with me for kaz and that's because i read it so long ago and he's a bit different than the rest of them). but really, the names santangel, darlington, and the darkling are so fanciful and remind me of violet sorrengail from Fourth Wing like gee i wonder what you're supposed to be.
i'm not overly thrilled about the fact that santangel is also hundreds of years old... i know luzia isn't a teenager but she's still quite young and that dynamic of immortal/mortal who's under like 25 will always give me pause before fully supporting.
i have something that's nitpicky and maybe i shouldn't even bring it up. bardugo in her ending note does say that if luzia can access her magical phrases across space, then part of the book's logistics was allowing her to use those across time as well. but there was a point where a character used the phrase "to stand on ceremony." and considering king philip died in 1598 which is around when i assume the events took place, shakespeare uses this phrase for the first time in 1599 in julius caesar. of course "stand on ____" was common for a similar meaning and maybe it was spoken regularly in england, but to have it used in spain before the phrase was first officially recorded was interesting! (thanks horrible histories).
but overall, it was a pretty good book. i'm not sure i was ever frantically turning pages to see what would happen next bc personally the stakes weren't framed in an urgent light. but the characters were interesting enough and the writing was absolutely gorgeous. maybe my expectations were just too high and that's on me. bardugo has written a book that transports you back in time and confronts the reader to the realities of the colonial system and discrimination that ran rampart.