Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - A Crown of Ivy and Glass

We love to see representation! Our FMC has chronic pain and panic attacks and unaliving ideations, and she’s also a badass!! Girly doesn’t have magic, in fact, magic hurts her and makes her sick, but her whole damn family does. One night at a ball, she meets a new potential ally of her father who is dead set on killing a rival family, the Basks. This stranger, Talan, is the most beautiful man she’s ever seen, and they embark to solve a mystery, stealing all of her focus away from the rest of the world. Many secrets and lies get revealed and the sisters are off on a trek to hopefully save Talan and the rest of the realms from someone very powerful. This has left a lot of questions to explore in the next books and has also wrapped Imogen’s story pretty well for now, but I’m excited to dig into Farrin’s brain space! I hope they collectively punch their dad in the face tho.

Content Warnings

loveat1stwrite's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

aturb92's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

For this book being marketed as a Romantasy I was delighted by the amount of plot! I love the lore, and feel like there is so much to be explored in this world.

Content Warnings

goofypisces_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

izzyreadswhilequilting's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

emeraldrina's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. At first Gemma is a very unloveable character, but as you learn more about her and her family you begin to sympathize with her. I’m not completely sold on her character development though - the switch from selfish to self-sacrificing was a bit abrupt. But her pain and panic attacks and self-harm were more believably dealt with.

I really enjoyed the world building and magic system. The mystery about the family heritage is interesting enough to make me want to read more. Although I figured out both “twists” before they were revealed, there were enough questions about them that the reveals were still intriguing.

The romance was the weakest part for me. Especially given the twist, it makes little sense to me how they fell in love so fast. And there are several points where Gemma is way too instantly forgiving. It felt like there was conflict stirred up then rapidly waved aside. Talan is also a bit bland, weirdly. He should be the most flawed and contradictory character, but instead he’s just whatever Gemma needs him to be. More real flaws and conflict would’ve made the romance more believable and interesting.

Content Warnings

More...