Reviews

My feelings are conflicted over this book. The last 30% was interesting in the way the plot was played out but at the same time I feel like I wasn't shown enough of why I should care about the last 30% and all the new characters brought into the forefront. The last part of the story was interesting and I just wish that had been pushed to the forefront more.

I just feel like there were plot points that were dropped or maybe I just had high expectations that the story would lead to more political court intrigue but there wasn't much of that. There were interesting plot points throughout the beginning but then they didn't really lead to anywhere super interesting.

At first I thought we'd get a book with political intrigue connected to the mortal realm but then we got only a little bit of political intrigue from the Celestial court. But the best part of the story was sidelined and a minor character felt like he should have been the main character...

The book had creative ideas and I liked the Interuludes throughout the book that showed us a legend or a passage of a book from the world the character was from. Hmm...maybe the Prelude is what made me think we would have a different story too. The book had intriguing plot points but looking at the way everything was tied together...I feel like it didn't really work that well.

udisha79's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Really enjoyed the book. <3

himalaya's review

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3.5

this is okay. it’s pretty slow paced but then also has a lot happening at the end. I found some of the pacing weird like: the first chapter just explaining the MC’s life up until now, when they travel for 3 weeks ‘and get to know each other and often sleep on the side of the road’ - damn that’s so different from her life experience up until now and you’re not gonna expand on that???. and overall a lot of their relationship is told to us like “and then we had a really long conversation about x”. I’m not sure I super cared about them or their relationship. plus yknow, teen x immortal man

I read this because I saw the author say that she wrote the MC as demi - which I guess I can see if I’m looking for it, but it’s basically just in the sense of she’s not immediately attracted to the love interest and has never had the chance to think about any of that stuff before. To be fair the author’s mentioned it more in an offhand way rather than actively promoting it as being demi so I’ll accept that - not really a criticism, just a comment if anyone else is wondering how in depth that is.

I did enjoy the descriptions of the monsters and some of the celestials! that was cool! I wanted more of it. I also appreciated the casual queer side characters, and the way that queerness was normalised in the human world (but the gods are weird about it - I feel like more often fantasy is the opposite)

also the tragedy of having a MC with a significant scar across her face and then not showing that on the cover….. it is lovely art otherwise though (and I doubt that's the cover artists' fault that it was left out)

justfenec's review

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adventurous inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Well that was sad and not at all how I was expecting it to end 😭 some of the twists were predictable but enjoyable nonetheless. I feel like most of the book was paced well but then we got to the ending and it was just one thing after another and it just kept going. I like where it went but it was a little hard for me to follow sometimes. I really liked the characters and wished we got more time with some of the side characters. Not sure if this will be a series but I hope it is because I need more Xue and Jinglang

sumnoah's review

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emotional mysterious relaxing slow-paced

3.25

the_nook_of_tomes's review

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adventurous emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

havensrose's review against another edition

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mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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