ndiganci's review against another edition
1.0
Where do I start with why I DNF’d this book so soon after starting it?
This definitely needed another passthrough by an editor. Sentences were clunky, awkward, or poorly phrased. Extra punctuation in places. Too much harping by Blair in her shitty childhood.
I got serious Dresden Files vibes when I started it: electronics shorting out when she’s near. The brief mention of a Soulgaze. I understand these aren’t proprietary to Butcher, but it just seemed so close to his work as to feel like lazy storytelling.
Her constantly describing smoking. As a longtime smoker now quit, after awhile you don’t feel “the rush of nicotine soothe the tense muscles of [your] back. It’s just another cigarette each time when you’ve been smoking long enough.
The dialogue felt forced and clunky. None of it sounded natural to my ears, especially the dialogue between Blair and the men at the bar at the beginning.
This definitely needed another passthrough by an editor. Sentences were clunky, awkward, or poorly phrased. Extra punctuation in places. Too much harping by Blair in her shitty childhood.
I got serious Dresden Files vibes when I started it: electronics shorting out when she’s near. The brief mention of a Soulgaze. I understand these aren’t proprietary to Butcher, but it just seemed so close to his work as to feel like lazy storytelling.
Her constantly describing smoking. As a longtime smoker now quit, after awhile you don’t feel “the rush of nicotine soothe the tense muscles of [your] back. It’s just another cigarette each time when you’ve been smoking long enough.
The dialogue felt forced and clunky. None of it sounded natural to my ears, especially the dialogue between Blair and the men at the bar at the beginning.
aly36's review against another edition
5.0
Blair Sheach, is a girl that does not know she has magic or can be more than a poor girl that grew up in the foster care system. She finds she has many new powers and a few new friends help along a journey she didn't know she was taking. The books has necromancers, vampires, demons, and so much more. I am excited to find this series and I do look forward to reading the next book.
kaziteega's review against another edition
2.0
This is not a series I will keep up with. It was a good story line, but for me the writing was not as well written as I would have liked. The author repeated things several times, I don't know if this is because she thought the reader forgot, or because she forgot she put it in there. It was hard for me to get through because it was a slow read for me. Like i said the story line was a good story just the writing was not up to par.
tanyad74's review against another edition
3.0
Grave Mistake by Izzy Shows was a short and exciting listen. It seems the story is packed full with Blair running on full steam from problem to problem trying to catch the necromancer that is raising the dead to try and take over London.
I found Blair extremely hard on herself. Out on her own believing that no one cared and she didn't have any friends. Now, however, her relationship with Fin is a closer friendship than she really wants and Aedon, the man that discovered Blair's powers and wants to develop them is around. Many more people than she's used to.
For the first little bit, I thought that we were starting out with a private investigator story for Blair. But with the evidence piling up about the city being taken over, we switched to concentrating on saving the city. I'm not sure why I didn't put 2 and 2 together to realize this was going to work out to one storyline.
As the book goes along and with a little help from Aedon, Blair discovers her powers. Powers that she can't let the council know she has for fear of being killed. With the way the confrontation goes down, I really worried if Blair knew enough to save herself. Fortunately with the adrenaline rush of being attacked helps bring powers that Blair didn't realize she had.
Grave Mistake was a quick listen with some good excitement as Blair chases down the necromancer and she tries to stop the necromancer's attempts to take the city. The storyline was packed, running from problem to problem without a lot of fluff to spread the story out. I was disturbed by Blair's attitude towards herself. I hope she works on that in the future. It always made me feel bad for her, but then it got to a point that it annoyed me.
This was my first listen with all English accents, and I found it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I think the voice for Blair was really well done portraying her attitude.
Grave Mistake is good for when you want something with some excitement but don't want to get invested in a long, drawn out storyline. There was no need for a lot of world building, etc., which I think helped keep it short.This review was originally posted on Rantings of a Reading Addict
I found Blair extremely hard on herself. Out on her own believing that no one cared and she didn't have any friends. Now, however, her relationship with Fin is a closer friendship than she really wants and Aedon, the man that discovered Blair's powers and wants to develop them is around. Many more people than she's used to.
For the first little bit, I thought that we were starting out with a private investigator story for Blair. But with the evidence piling up about the city being taken over, we switched to concentrating on saving the city. I'm not sure why I didn't put 2 and 2 together to realize this was going to work out to one storyline.
As the book goes along and with a little help from Aedon, Blair discovers her powers. Powers that she can't let the council know she has for fear of being killed. With the way the confrontation goes down, I really worried if Blair knew enough to save herself. Fortunately with the adrenaline rush of being attacked helps bring powers that Blair didn't realize she had.
Grave Mistake was a quick listen with some good excitement as Blair chases down the necromancer and she tries to stop the necromancer's attempts to take the city. The storyline was packed, running from problem to problem without a lot of fluff to spread the story out. I was disturbed by Blair's attitude towards herself. I hope she works on that in the future. It always made me feel bad for her, but then it got to a point that it annoyed me.
This was my first listen with all English accents, and I found it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I think the voice for Blair was really well done portraying her attitude.
Grave Mistake is good for when you want something with some excitement but don't want to get invested in a long, drawn out storyline. There was no need for a lot of world building, etc., which I think helped keep it short.This review was originally posted on Rantings of a Reading Addict
hellegade's review against another edition
5.0
Well hello Blair Seach. She's one kick butt heroine. The author takes you in from page one of the awesome world of Blair Seach. Magic and action runs rampant through this book. I was very entertained and could hardly put the book down.
I highly recommend The Codex Blair series.
I highly recommend The Codex Blair series.
jennyninnymuggins's review
2.0
I didn't hate this book. For the most part it was enjoyable. But, it also read like Harry Dresden fan fiction, where Aidan was a somewhat less heroic Harry. Our main character was almost likeable, until she interacted with other people and became naive, immature and illogical. How she could so quickly go from trusting NO ONE her entire life to trusting strangers even after they have illustrated how untrustworthy they are...it made it very difficult for my to sympathise. Add to that her meteoric rise to power and the massive gaps in the story and you have a significantly flawed book.
I can't say I'll pick up the next in the series, but I wouldn't judge anyone for enjoying this book, especially if they were curious about Dresden fan fiction.
I can't say I'll pick up the next in the series, but I wouldn't judge anyone for enjoying this book, especially if they were curious about Dresden fan fiction.
avoraciousreader68's review
1.0
DNF @68%
Book source ~ Kindle Lending Library
Blair Sheach is a loner. After reading about her I can understand why. What a whiny completely unlikeable TSTL character. I slogged through 68% hoping that this story would get better. It didn’t. Blair is a twatwaffle. The other characters are assholes. Not even a mildly interesting paranormal element could raise this up. When does magic not make things interesting? In this story. Right here. Writing sucks, plot sucks, characters suck, and there's little to no world building. Skip it. For the love of books, skip it. I’m going to pretend she dies. Yay! A HEA. The end.
Book source ~ Kindle Lending Library
Blair Sheach is a loner. After reading about her I can understand why. What a whiny completely unlikeable TSTL character. I slogged through 68% hoping that this story would get better. It didn’t. Blair is a twatwaffle. The other characters are assholes. Not even a mildly interesting paranormal element could raise this up. When does magic not make things interesting? In this story. Right here. Writing sucks, plot sucks, characters suck, and there's little to no world building. Skip it. For the love of books, skip it. I’m going to pretend she dies. Yay! A HEA. The end.
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