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stephaniemcuervo's review
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Death, and Alcohol
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Infertility and Vomit
steffiraquel's review against another edition
3.0
She reminds me of me when I was a teenager
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, and Gun violence
Minor: Alcoholism, Torture, Bullying, and Suicide
jenna36's review against another edition
This book is really for the younger age range of YA. I was not the target audience for this, so I don't want to judge it too harshly. I also really disliked the main character. She was shallow, judgy, and entirely too full of herself. The phrase "that's how I always got what I wanted" was used entirely too much for her to be likeable on any level. I'm sure she would have had a little development, but she was just such an awful person to start that I was actively rooting against her. I actually cheered in my mind every time someone put her in her place for acting entitled. The plot was fairly predictable as well. Some interesting things were starting to happen at around 40%, but I just wasn't invested enough to care to finish the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, and Death
betweentheshelves's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Eh...this was okay. Set in a world where magic is forbidden, Josslyn accidently comes in direct contact with magic when she stumbles upon a robbery. In order to get rid of the magic and back to her somewhat normal life, she has to trust the man who took part in the robbery, Jericho. They make a deal, but as Josslyn learns more about magic and her past, the more she realizes she's missing a lot of the story.
One of my first issues with this was the world building. It's like a modern world, but it didn't feel like one? Like, I would be vibing with the magical system and the class system, but then random technology would be thrown in, like phones. While yes, a good majority of the novel takes place in an area without electricity (which is a whole other thing), I just felt the world building itself was inconsistent and hard to get a handle on. Which make it difficult for me to get fully immersed in the story itself.
This also makes use of a lot of typical YA fantasy tropes, and doesn't really turn much on its head. Do I read more than the average person? Yes. So, that might partly contribute to it. But I wanted Rhodes to do something different with our expectations, and I just didn't find that she did. This is the first in a series, so there might be hope for future books. But I didn't find that I was invested enough to find out.
Finally, the characters. Josslyn was...fine. Jericho was fine. Most of the characters were just fine. Most of them fell flat to me, and I just wanted a bit more of a spark. Something that took them out of the general fantasy tropes they were fufilling. Something that made them leap off the page. Just something more overall!
Overall, if you don't mind YA fantasy where you don't really have to think a lot, you'd probably enjoy this book. But it was a bit of a miss for me.
One of my first issues with this was the world building. It's like a modern world, but it didn't feel like one? Like, I would be vibing with the magical system and the class system, but then random technology would be thrown in, like phones. While yes, a good majority of the novel takes place in an area without electricity (which is a whole other thing), I just felt the world building itself was inconsistent and hard to get a handle on. Which make it difficult for me to get fully immersed in the story itself.
This also makes use of a lot of typical YA fantasy tropes, and doesn't really turn much on its head. Do I read more than the average person? Yes. So, that might partly contribute to it. But I wanted Rhodes to do something different with our expectations, and I just didn't find that she did. This is the first in a series, so there might be hope for future books. But I didn't find that I was invested enough to find out.
Finally, the characters. Josslyn was...fine. Jericho was fine. Most of the characters were just fine. Most of them fell flat to me, and I just wanted a bit more of a spark. Something that took them out of the general fantasy tropes they were fufilling. Something that made them leap off the page. Just something more overall!
Overall, if you don't mind YA fantasy where you don't really have to think a lot, you'd probably enjoy this book. But it was a bit of a miss for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Torture, Violence, and Alcoholism
Minor: Bullying, Grief, and Kidnapping
maidmarianlib's review
adventurous
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? It's complicated
4.0
Unique new world, has a mix of modern and magic, the hero is a very interesting character, I'm looking forward to seeing how the series progresses.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, and Kidnapping
p_gonza2's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
natmhm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Murder
Minor: Bullying
thecarefreenook's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I think I'd be a fan of anything Morgan Rhodes writes at this point, but she still manages to make me fall in love with her characters more and more. She is the queen of writing my favorite slow-burn enemies/reluctant allies to lovers as well as perfect banter. I absolutely cannot wait to have the sequel in my hands.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
thenovelmaura's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
I'd like to talk Penguin Teen for the opportunity to read an eARC of this upcoming release! Sadly, this one was a huge disappointment to me; I thought about DNFing it at around the 40% mark, and I honestly should have.
This was the worst world-building in a fantasy book that I've read in months. Now, I don't know if the people shelving this book as "high fantasy" have actually read it or if they're going off the misleading description. This is a weird, contemporary fantasy that takes places in the modern world... sort of. By that I mean there are cellphones, paparazzi, a mysterious state-controlled "newsfeed" that is frequently mentioned but never explained, helicopters, cars, boutiques filled with designer clothes, and guns. However, there is also a queen who is the ultimate ruler over an empire of 2 billion people (apparently she and/or her predecessors conquered many lands to create this empire, but shocker, everyone in the book is white). She throws balls and makes aspiring members of her Queensguard compete in the Queensgames, which are duels fought with swords. So yes, in order to be part of her modern-day army, who use guns, you need to prove your skills with a sword.
The elements that makes this seem like it might be a medieval fantasy setting are introduced in the first few pages and the modern elements come in later, which means you spend the first 20% of the book trying to figure out what the heck is happening here and what time period this story is set in. I can't tell you anything else about this empire because nothing else was explained. The magic system is the standard one with four elements - water, earth, fire, and air - and the only information we get about that is that earth magic can heal and fire magic sets things on fire.
I could forgive some of this poor world-building if the characters were interesting, but they were all annoying and exchanged a lot of stilted dialogue filled with "snarky" comebacks instead of actually communicating with each other. I was actually happy that Joss was interested in fashion and gossip instead of being "not like other girls" at the beginning of the book; unfortunately her only other personality traits were being a blabbermouth and a borderline alcoholic. The amount of times we were told that her greatest asset was her charming personality was astonishing, considering the fact that I'm hard-pressed to think of one character in this story who actually liked her. Besides the love interest, of course, a handsome rogue who spends the entire book being a total jerk to her until she falls for him. Seriously, these two had zero chemistry and the standard "distracted by the other person's mouth" scenes get old fast.
To sum it all up, the plot, relationships, characters, and magic system for this one were straight out of 2008. I also had high expectations for Morgan Rhodes, but you can save yourself some time and skip this duology.
This was the worst world-building in a fantasy book that I've read in months. Now, I don't know if the people shelving this book as "high fantasy" have actually read it or if they're going off the misleading description. This is a weird, contemporary fantasy that takes places in the modern world... sort of. By that I mean there are cellphones, paparazzi, a mysterious state-controlled "newsfeed" that is frequently mentioned but never explained, helicopters, cars, boutiques filled with designer clothes, and guns. However, there is also a queen who is the ultimate ruler over an empire of 2 billion people (apparently she and/or her predecessors conquered many lands to create this empire, but shocker, everyone in the book is white). She throws balls and makes aspiring members of her Queensguard compete in the Queensgames, which are duels fought with swords. So yes, in order to be part of her modern-day army, who use guns, you need to prove your skills with a sword.
The elements that makes this seem like it might be a medieval fantasy setting are introduced in the first few pages and the modern elements come in later, which means you spend the first 20% of the book trying to figure out what the heck is happening here and what time period this story is set in. I can't tell you anything else about this empire because nothing else was explained. The magic system is the standard one with four elements - water, earth, fire, and air - and the only information we get about that is that earth magic can heal and fire magic sets things on fire.
I could forgive some of this poor world-building if the characters were interesting, but they were all annoying and exchanged a lot of stilted dialogue filled with "snarky" comebacks instead of actually communicating with each other. I was actually happy that Joss was interested in fashion and gossip instead of being "not like other girls" at the beginning of the book; unfortunately her only other personality traits were being a blabbermouth and a borderline alcoholic. The amount of times we were told that her greatest asset was her charming personality was astonishing, considering the fact that I'm hard-pressed to think of one character in this story who actually liked her. Besides the love interest, of course, a handsome rogue who spends the entire book being a total jerk to her until she falls for him. Seriously, these two had zero chemistry and the standard "distracted by the other person's mouth" scenes get old fast.
To sum it all up, the plot, relationships, characters, and magic system for this one were straight out of 2008. I also had high expectations for Morgan Rhodes, but you can save yourself some time and skip this duology.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Torture
therese_nook68's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
The concept sounded really interesting, but the execution just... wasn’t it.
I was excited to read about the character, she seemed like a spoiled, close-minded brat that had a lot of room for growth. But as the book progressed, she stayed pretty much close-minded and bratty and spoiled throughout the entire book and the only way she started to open up , was because of a single girl in the prison who, she basically says is the nicest person ever and that’s the only way she managed to humanize the people who could do magic. The only way. I personally didn’t see a lot of growth with the character considering that this entire storyline hinged on her going through this change.
I felt like it was hard to conceptualize the magic system, I couldn’t see the gives and takes and see how it worked. The world-building also felt too grand and large and it was hard to visualize how the world was supposed to look and function. I felt like I was just being shown scenes but everything else around them was just a blank canvas rather than them moving from spot to spot and seeing the world.
The romance also lacked chemistry and just felt forced and somehow... random despite there being so many hints and build up to the relationship? Like I can’t see why the two characters are interested in one another outside for maybe a physical attraction.
Felt like the book just needed to be better fleshed and planned out for it to feel cohesive.
I was excited to read about the character, she seemed like a spoiled, close-minded brat that had a lot of room for growth. But as the book progressed, she stayed pretty much close-minded and bratty and spoiled throughout the entire book and the only way she started to open up , was because of a single girl in the prison who, she basically says is the nicest person ever and that’s the only way she managed to humanize the people who could do magic. The only way. I personally didn’t see a lot of growth with the character considering that this entire storyline hinged on her going through this change.
I felt like it was hard to conceptualize the magic system, I couldn’t see the gives and takes and see how it worked. The world-building also felt too grand and large and it was hard to visualize how the world was supposed to look and function. I felt like I was just being shown scenes but everything else around them was just a blank canvas rather than them moving from spot to spot and seeing the world.
The romance also lacked chemistry and just felt forced and somehow... random despite there being so many hints and build up to the relationship? Like I can’t see why the two characters are interested in one another outside for maybe a physical attraction.
Felt like the book just needed to be better fleshed and planned out for it to feel cohesive.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Murder
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