Reviews

Somehow Stephanie Garber managed to write a sequel that was even better than the amazing first book in the series. I loved this book even more than the first.

I was captured in their whimsical, magical, mysterious world, and every page had me enraptured in it. Even when I was not reading, my mind remained fixated on these characters, the plot, and the wondrous, dangerous world they live in.

Stephanie Garber has officially become an instant buy author for me and most likely my favorite author. I cannot wait to read the finale (and then I need to read Once Upon A Broken Heart again).

The love triangles, the characters, all of it, was immaculately done. Gosh I don’t even want to end the review. It was just brilliant and amazing, and I wish I could crawl inside this book and stay here.

Legend

stellarluna's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

3.5 Stars. I’m so torn with this book. Do I hate it? No. Did I like it more than book 1? No. Did I mostly enjoy myself? Yes. Would I re-read this? I may skim through but not really read it again.

This is the second book in the Caraval series and follows the second sister, Tella the days after the first Caraval.

Things I liked:

I enjoyed the poetic writing style that isn’t overly verbose of the author. I also felt like there was a little bit more world building in this book that extended outside of Caraval itself. Additionally, the complex portrayal of her relationship between child and parent that goes back-and-forth between love and disdain were very well portrayed in this book. Of course, one of the things I enjoyed the most, was getting to know, one of the most mysterious characters in the whole series, Legend.

Things I didn’t like:

I felt a lot of things conveniently happened, because of “plot.” For example, Caraval, a game that only happens once a year, or once in a blue moon, I already forgot, suddenly, and very conveniently, was taking place again in just a couple weeks. Because of this, some of the magic I felt from the first book, sort of faded. It didn’t feel it as much. It felt like we were just on another goose chase. While I liked how the author used Scarlet’s dress descriptions in the first book to convey a feeling. It felt like in this book, she just wanted to describe as many dresses and clothes, as she could possibly do without really having an impact on the story, unlike book one. Lastly, a lot of characters just fell into the background that we’re on for one. They were mentioned, however, nothing else happened other than being mentioned, or them having an interaction with Donatella. On like the first book where side characters were mention for purpose.

Here are my thoughts, wrapped up:

I gave it 3 1/2 stars because while I was entertained and somewhat enjoyed the book, it didn’t make me scream at it. It didn’t fully pull me in into the story unlike other books. I really wanted to absolutely love it like I did Caraval. Unfortunately, I feel like this book is suffering from that middle-book syndrome.

Would I recommend somebody to read this? I would.

Because I am still hoping that the third book is going to wrap up the entire story. And after all this book is not horrible it just needed more content and richness that you can find in the first book. I rated the first book 5 stars, if people have read the first book, I highly suggest them to read this book just so we know what happens at the end.