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annelienvan's review against another edition
3.0
third installment in the series, and you do notice it. The plotlines grow a bit thin, and the characters grow a bit rigid. The newly introduced characters are, to me, not as likeable as the previous ones.
I had a few annoyances throughout the book:
- people don't seem to change much.
- everyone is deeply in love with someone. I know it's a YA novel and that to a YA it seems very important, but to me all the different pairings and the tensions got a bit much.
- Dr Dethridge, again. we know he speaks in an older kindof language, but the way it's written is just very difficult to read and rather annoying.
The plot was nice, exciting and interesting. I liked the way it all came together, but there could have been fewer pages. it was nicely written though, really takes you along to Talia/italy and you can feel that the other loves it all herself.
i'd give this 3.5 if i could!
book: 4/50
pages: 1200
I had a few annoyances throughout the book:
- people don't seem to change much.
- everyone is deeply in love with someone. I know it's a YA novel and that to a YA it seems very important, but to me all the different pairings and the tensions got a bit much.
- Dr Dethridge, again. we know he speaks in an older kindof language, but the way it's written is just very difficult to read and rather annoying.
The plot was nice, exciting and interesting. I liked the way it all came together, but there could have been fewer pages. it was nicely written though, really takes you along to Talia/italy and you can feel that the other loves it all herself.
i'd give this 3.5 if i could!
book: 4/50
pages: 1200
aotora's review against another edition
2.0
This one was my least favourite of the first three in the series. It wasn't bad... but it wasn't good either. The story was good and there were some parts that I really enjoyed like the duel between the Duke and Luciano and the slaughter during the weddings - but then there were also parts that seemed to go by way too fast.
After the slaughter we don't know if Gaetano will live or not .... for a few pages than he is suddenly alive and well and able to walk.
I also didn't care for most of the characters in this one aside from Sandro, I almost wish that Sandro was the focus instead of Sky because his story was more interesting than Sky's. We had Luciano that had cancer and was dying, we had Georgia who was relentlessly bullied by her step brother and used Talia as an escape from that - then we get Sky... who has a sick mother and a father he doesn't know - which would've been fine if his mother didn't get well and good really fast- I wish that she remained sick through most of the book and get better at the end, that would've made Sky a little bit more interesting and a better protagonist.
I loved Luciano and Arianna in the previous book - but I didn't like Arianna in this one- and I hated their side plot in this book. They are in love, they don't say it to each other, they get engaged at the end- I was waiting for them to finally get together and married and that took way too long.
Some of the book really dragged on and it took me way too long to finish this one when I flew through the previous two. It's not a bad book but it's missing something compared to the other two.
Here's hoping that the next three are better.
After the slaughter we don't know if Gaetano will live or not .... for a few pages than he is suddenly alive and well and able to walk.
I also didn't care for most of the characters in this one aside from Sandro, I almost wish that Sandro was the focus instead of Sky because his story was more interesting than Sky's. We had Luciano that had cancer and was dying, we had Georgia who was relentlessly bullied by her step brother and used Talia as an escape from that - then we get Sky... who has a sick mother and a father he doesn't know - which would've been fine if his mother didn't get well and good really fast- I wish that she remained sick through most of the book and get better at the end, that would've made Sky a little bit more interesting and a better protagonist.
I loved Luciano and Arianna in the previous book - but I didn't like Arianna in this one- and I hated their side plot in this book. They are in love, they don't say it to each other, they get engaged at the end- I was waiting for them to finally get together and married and that took way too long.
Some of the book really dragged on and it took me way too long to finish this one when I flew through the previous two. It's not a bad book but it's missing something compared to the other two.
Here's hoping that the next three are better.
m3l89's review against another edition
3.0
Everything seemed to come together in this novel, plots and suspense that had been building in books 1 and 2.
No matter how long I sat down and read this for I never seemed to get nearer the end, which I found boring and a little laborious as the book dragged on.
No matter how long I sat down and read this for I never seemed to get nearer the end, which I found boring and a little laborious as the book dragged on.
monicakessler's review against another edition
5.0
Gosh, I really love the Stravaganza sequence, and I can really tell why this was my favourite series as a teen.
What other author in the early noughties was writing YA fantasy featuring a mixed race, child carer protagonist?? What other YA author was setting their stories in magical Renaissance Italy?? And what other YA author focuses on love hexagons rather than love triangles in their stories (although that was more in City of Stars)??? All with a wonderful cast of main characters?? Mary Hoffman was really feeding me the goods.
IIRC, City of Flowers was my favourite of the original trilogy, and I can see why. Dramatic scenes, an amazing large and colourful cast of characters, etc. But reading with an adult's eye, I can also see why City of Stars is commonly considered the best in the series - Stars is a better book. While the politics and fantasy elements expand a bit in Flowers, Stars focuses on telling a very well-structured story with the absolute best resolution. Even though Flowers had both incredible and important scenes, the actual arc of the story was far less strong - down to the detail of the fantasy elements, which were incredibly hazy at best and about as unexplored as possible, as well as the story being a little less compact than it perhaps should have been. I don't know what would have been cut, but some things felt like they should have been tightened, and pacing and events smoothed into each other a little better. You can tell that this book is the editor/agent (I forget which)'s favourite book because it feels like it's been through the least before publication, because everyone liked it so much. And let's be real - I'm one of those people. I love it. But mainly for the characters and perhaps events 3/4 of the way through - not for the whole story arc, or Sky's big conclusion, which was definitely the weakest of the three books so far, even if it was significant to the macro plot.
I just love this cast of characters so much, and definitely this one in particular felt the most like a book that would make a great TV series - much more so than the previous two. In contrast, City of Masks would be the most disappointing to adapt of all three so far imho.
I now look forward to delving into the second trilogy of this series. I am hopeful for recurrence of the main characters; I know Luciano will always be there, but fingers crossed for Georgia, Sky, and Nick too.
On a last note, I've always wondered why I've been impervious to people saying, "such and such a book is AMAZING because it's got really good morally grey characters". I've since realised it's because I've been reading about the best morally grey characters in fiction like Stravaganza and His Dark Materials since I was in double digits. And I threw aside comments of, "bookworm readers pick a character and steal their personality traits," thinking that didn't apply to me. Well upon re-read, I realised how much I had been trying to emulate the traits of the amazing Sky Meadows. We live and we learn.
4.75*
What other author in the early noughties was writing YA fantasy featuring a mixed race, child carer protagonist?? What other YA author was setting their stories in magical Renaissance Italy?? And what other YA author focuses on love hexagons rather than love triangles in their stories (although that was more in City of Stars)??? All with a wonderful cast of main characters?? Mary Hoffman was really feeding me the goods.
IIRC, City of Flowers was my favourite of the original trilogy, and I can see why. Dramatic scenes, an amazing large and colourful cast of characters, etc. But reading with an adult's eye, I can also see why City of Stars is commonly considered the best in the series - Stars is a better book. While the politics and fantasy elements expand a bit in Flowers, Stars focuses on telling a very well-structured story with the absolute best resolution. Even though Flowers had both incredible and important scenes, the actual arc of the story was far less strong - down to the detail of the fantasy elements, which were incredibly hazy at best and about as unexplored as possible, as well as the story being a little less compact than it perhaps should have been. I don't know what would have been cut, but some things felt like they should have been tightened, and pacing and events smoothed into each other a little better. You can tell that this book is the editor/agent (I forget which)'s favourite book because it feels like it's been through the least before publication, because everyone liked it so much. And let's be real - I'm one of those people. I love it. But mainly for the characters and perhaps events 3/4 of the way through - not for the whole story arc, or Sky's big conclusion, which was definitely the weakest of the three books so far, even if it was significant to the macro plot.
I just love this cast of characters so much, and definitely this one in particular felt the most like a book that would make a great TV series - much more so than the previous two. In contrast, City of Masks would be the most disappointing to adapt of all three so far imho.
I now look forward to delving into the second trilogy of this series. I am hopeful for recurrence of the main characters; I know Luciano will always be there, but fingers crossed for Georgia, Sky, and Nick too.
On a last note, I've always wondered why I've been impervious to people saying, "such and such a book is AMAZING because it's got really good morally grey characters". I've since realised it's because I've been reading about the best morally grey characters in fiction like Stravaganza and His Dark Materials since I was in double digits. And I threw aside comments of, "bookworm readers pick a character and steal their personality traits," thinking that didn't apply to me. Well upon re-read, I realised how much I had been trying to emulate the traits of the amazing Sky Meadows. We live and we learn.
4.75*
manonh90's review against another edition
4.0
Mooi verhaal, goede personages en zeker spannend. Het zou alleen handig zijn geweest als de lijst met personages voorin had gezeten. Een goed einde van een trilogie die uiteindelijk geen trilogie bleef.
mr_basement's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
sad
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? Yes
3.75
fictionalmandy's review
adventurous
tense
fast-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
3.5
booksthatburn's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Sky’s mother, Rosalind, has ME and he’s her caregiver. She's a single parent because Sky's father is a popular musician whom she met at one of his concerts and they were only together one time. This is relevant because it means Sky hasn't had his father, but has been able to know what he's up to in public through magazines and gossip.
I like Sky and Sulien as characters and I generally like the Talien half of this book’s plot. However, I have two big problems with this book: how Sky is treated in the narrative generally; and how he and the other few Black characters are handled.
Sky's problems are that his mother is sick and his father is absent, having never been a part of his life, except for an early gift of money. His mother's illness is chronic and not well understood, and it suddenly starts getting better once he begins travelling to Talia. Even Brother Sulien doesn't try to claim that his visits and her sudden recovery are linked when Sky asks him about a connection. Sky is in Talia to help with what ends up being a disaster so tremendous that eight Stravagante aren't able to avert it. Even in the dramatic moment of rescuing much-needed medicines from a flooded building, the actual heroics are done by Sandro, a street kid he befriended. In CITY OF MASKS, Luciano saved the Duchessa's life. In CITY OF STARS, Georgia was the jockey who rode to victory for the Ram. In CITY OF FLOWERS, Sky is nearby helping, being one more person with a body who can help in a local disaster. In some ways, it feels like Nicholas, Georgia, and Luciano have bigger roles even though it's supposed to be Sky's book.
The way Sky is sidelined in his own book starts to feel even worse when placed in context with how his blackness is treated. In the first two books, the characters received general physical descriptions consistent with whiteness but no one was explicitly identified as white (as far as I can recall). Since most of the narrative in each book takes place in an alternate version of 16th century Italy, the concept of "whiteness" doesn't map neatly and is highly anachronistic for the Talian characters, but generally applicable to the 21st century English ones. Regardless of their actual ethnicities, I'm inferring that they are not Black because of how some brand new characters in CITY OF FLOWERS are handled. Brother Sulien is the first Black character in the series, appearing in the prologue as the Stravagante who supplies Sky's talisman. Sky is Black, with a white mother and an (absent) Black father whose stage name is Rainbow Warrior (real name Colin). That wouldn't have to be racist characterization, except that Sky's father is not only absent, but by the time Sky is seventeen his father is on his fourth marriage, had some unspecified number of girlfriends, and has at least eight kids (that he knows of) with various women, in addition to his more secret son Sky. He gave money to Rosalind when Sky was first born, and she sends him a photo of Sky every year, but he doesn't try to have any additional contact until after Sky begins visiting Talia. The idea of a deadbeat dad with many children and a line of exes feeds into a long history of racist stereotypes about Black men. Rainbow is also portrayed as hypersexual (another racist stereotype) when, in the final chapter, he's present while Nicholas, Georgia, and Sky come out of the same bedroom having secretly spent the night Stravagating. He makes a serious of strange and not very funny comments insinuating that they were having sex, including but not limited to congratulating Sky on having a threesome (a thing which did not happen). The other characters are very uncomfortable and largely ignore him, which means his main contribution to the scene is to make an ass of himself. Sulien is treated a bit better, but because he's the only Black friar at his church and he's the one who introduces Sky to Talia, Sandro and a few other characters suspect that Sky is Sulien's secret son. Somehow, the idea that Sulien the friar secretly has a son makes more sense to several characters than the truth that the two Black people aren't related even though they are spending time together. Towards the end of the book Sky and his father visit his grandmother briefly, meaning that of four Black characters in the book, three of them are related. Sky also doesn't feel connected to this new grandmother. It feels like Sky is buried under a pile of stereotypes and diminished in his own book.
As a sequel, this wraps up several things left hanging from previous books. Luciano and Arianna's relationship progresses, Georgia comes to terms with that reality, and Nicholas starts to move on with his new life. The new storyline involving Sky's background isn't well developed, and the main Talian storyline involving the di Chimici weddings was set up at the end of CITY OF STARS. This wraps up so many hanging plot threads that I used to think this was the conclusion of a trilogy, but the di Chimici's have more plans and there are more cities for the Stravagante to protect from their creeping influence. Sky is a new narrator and his voice is different from Luciano and Georgia, but it doesn't feel particularly distinctive. It likely wouldn't make sense to start with this book because it heavily relies on a lot of things set up in the first two books. This is mitigated slightly by how new everything is to Sky.
This book is important to the series, but I'm unhappy with how it treats Sky and I don't recommend it unless you're planning to read the rest of the series afterwards.
I like Sky and Sulien as characters and I generally like the Talien half of this book’s plot. However, I have two big problems with this book: how Sky is treated in the narrative generally; and how he and the other few Black characters are handled.
Sky's problems are that his mother is sick and his father is absent, having never been a part of his life, except for an early gift of money. His mother's illness is chronic and not well understood, and it suddenly starts getting better once he begins travelling to Talia. Even Brother Sulien doesn't try to claim that his visits and her sudden recovery are linked when Sky asks him about a connection. Sky is in Talia to help with what ends up being a disaster so tremendous that eight Stravagante aren't able to avert it. Even in the dramatic moment of rescuing much-needed medicines from a flooded building, the actual heroics are done by Sandro, a street kid he befriended. In CITY OF MASKS, Luciano saved the Duchessa's life. In CITY OF STARS, Georgia was the jockey who rode to victory for the Ram. In CITY OF FLOWERS, Sky is nearby helping, being one more person with a body who can help in a local disaster. In some ways, it feels like Nicholas, Georgia, and Luciano have bigger roles even though it's supposed to be Sky's book.
The way Sky is sidelined in his own book starts to feel even worse when placed in context with how his blackness is treated. In the first two books, the characters received general physical descriptions consistent with whiteness but no one was explicitly identified as white (as far as I can recall). Since most of the narrative in each book takes place in an alternate version of 16th century Italy, the concept of "whiteness" doesn't map neatly and is highly anachronistic for the Talian characters, but generally applicable to the 21st century English ones. Regardless of their actual ethnicities, I'm inferring that they are not Black because of how some brand new characters in CITY OF FLOWERS are handled. Brother Sulien is the first Black character in the series, appearing in the prologue as the Stravagante who supplies Sky's talisman. Sky is Black, with a white mother and an (absent) Black father whose stage name is Rainbow Warrior (real name Colin). That wouldn't have to be racist characterization, except that Sky's father is not only absent, but by the time Sky is seventeen his father is on his fourth marriage, had some unspecified number of girlfriends, and has at least eight kids (that he knows of) with various women, in addition to his more secret son Sky. He gave money to Rosalind when Sky was first born, and she sends him a photo of Sky every year, but he doesn't try to have any additional contact until after Sky begins visiting Talia. The idea of a deadbeat dad with many children and a line of exes feeds into a long history of racist stereotypes about Black men. Rainbow is also portrayed as hypersexual (another racist stereotype) when, in the final chapter, he's present while Nicholas, Georgia, and Sky come out of the same bedroom having secretly spent the night Stravagating. He makes a serious of strange and not very funny comments insinuating that they were having sex, including but not limited to congratulating Sky on having a threesome (a thing which did not happen). The other characters are very uncomfortable and largely ignore him, which means his main contribution to the scene is to make an ass of himself. Sulien is treated a bit better, but because he's the only Black friar at his church and he's the one who introduces Sky to Talia, Sandro and a few other characters suspect that Sky is Sulien's secret son. Somehow, the idea that Sulien the friar secretly has a son makes more sense to several characters than the truth that the two Black people aren't related even though they are spending time together. Towards the end of the book Sky and his father visit his grandmother briefly, meaning that of four Black characters in the book, three of them are related. Sky also doesn't feel connected to this new grandmother. It feels like Sky is buried under a pile of stereotypes and diminished in his own book.
As a sequel, this wraps up several things left hanging from previous books. Luciano and Arianna's relationship progresses, Georgia comes to terms with that reality, and Nicholas starts to move on with his new life. The new storyline involving Sky's background isn't well developed, and the main Talian storyline involving the di Chimici weddings was set up at the end of CITY OF STARS. This wraps up so many hanging plot threads that I used to think this was the conclusion of a trilogy, but the di Chimici's have more plans and there are more cities for the Stravagante to protect from their creeping influence. Sky is a new narrator and his voice is different from Luciano and Georgia, but it doesn't feel particularly distinctive. It likely wouldn't make sense to start with this book because it heavily relies on a lot of things set up in the first two books. This is mitigated slightly by how new everything is to Sky.
This book is important to the series, but I'm unhappy with how it treats Sky and I don't recommend it unless you're planning to read the rest of the series afterwards.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Car accident, and Abortion
urlphantomhive's review against another edition
5.0
READ IN DUTCH
In this third book, as the story moves again to Giglia, the story turns grim building up for the grand series finale (or is it?)
The story in this book is even more action packed than the first two book. The growing number of characters all make appearance in this book. This always was my favourite book in the series.
This was planned to be the last book in the trilogy, but for some reasons (money most likely) Mary Hoffman decided to create three more books (perhaps there will be even more book, who knows?). But sometimes it's better to leave it at a trilogy, because the story was really finished now after the three books. (And besides, the people who this book is aimed at (I guess about 12 years) are now so much older, that they like the books less (or, that happened to me).
Thinking about these books, I noticed the resemblances to Game of Thrones (the political power struggle intrigue part), there even is a wedding ending in a bloody disaster?!
In this third book, as the story moves again to Giglia, the story turns grim building up for the grand series finale (or is it?)
The story in this book is even more action packed than the first two book. The growing number of characters all make appearance in this book. This always was my favourite book in the series.
This was planned to be the last book in the trilogy, but for some reasons (money most likely) Mary Hoffman decided to create three more books (perhaps there will be even more book, who knows?). But sometimes it's better to leave it at a trilogy, because the story was really finished now after the three books. (And besides, the people who this book is aimed at (I guess about 12 years) are now so much older, that they like the books less (or, that happened to me).
Thinking about these books, I noticed the resemblances to Game of Thrones (the political power struggle intrigue part), there even is a wedding ending in a bloody disaster?!
bffwnho's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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
3.75