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tamzsyn_'s review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this one though I do feel that the plot took a bit of a back burn to develop the character relationships more however since it's a series I don't think that's a terrible thing. The plot getting wrapped up in the last 15% and not leaving on a cliff hanger for the next book like I thought it would was interesting as this seems like it can be read as a standalone for now.
I am excited for the next book to come out and to follow the characters again, while reading it felt like a lot of the same vibes olivie Blake puts into her books especially masters of death and I had the same feelings reading that book as I did this one. The character studies and witchy paranormal themes make it feel similar enough but obviously both are very different, as someone who loved masters of death I enjoyed feeling the same about this one.
A dowry of blood is one of my 6 star books so I knew going into this it wouldn't live up to it but I was optimistic and I definitely had a good time reading it.
I am excited for the next book to come out and to follow the characters again, while reading it felt like a lot of the same vibes olivie Blake puts into her books especially masters of death and I had the same feelings reading that book as I did this one. The character studies and witchy paranormal themes make it feel similar enough but obviously both are very different, as someone who loved masters of death I enjoyed feeling the same about this one.
A dowry of blood is one of my 6 star books so I knew going into this it wouldn't live up to it but I was optimistic and I definitely had a good time reading it.
andreaw's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
4.0
kitty_reads_'s review against another edition
3.75
Im unsure on the rated maybe a 3.75… I wanted to LOVE this book, but it was just a good read. I really enjoyed the beginning, but I expected a bit more magic. This book really just focused on the relationships, which I did enjoy.. but it wasn’t what I was in the mood to read.
However I did love the characters, they felt SO real! I also loved the magic bits we did get. S.T. Gibson either did really good research, or is into spiritualsm.magic/occultism (whatever you want to call it) herself bc all the information seemed accurate! I’m not an occultist, but I like researching those topics. It was fun to read a magical book with actual magical beliefs!
However I did love the characters, they felt SO real! I also loved the magic bits we did get. S.T. Gibson either did really good research, or is into spiritualsm.magic/occultism (whatever you want to call it) herself bc all the information seemed accurate! I’m not an occultist, but I like researching those topics. It was fun to read a magical book with actual magical beliefs!
yazaleea's review against another edition
2.0
I don’t know how to rate this, I liked some things, hated others, and got so angry. I have read a lot of reviews that convey perfectly my feelings and my issues with this book, but I'll try to write them here anyway. After loving [b:A Dowry of Blood|60521937|A Dowry of Blood (A Dowry of Blood, #1)|S.T. Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1663707732l/60521937._SY75_.jpg|86379250], I decided to read more from this author because I love the way she write, and the cover of this book was so gorgeous I had to read it. Evocation had everything, the raw potential to be amazing, and I HATE that I didn't like it.
Warning: angry rant incoming, I'm so disappointed and mad i need to let it out oops
The story takes place in Boston, amidst secret society, occult rituals and other magical happenings. David Aristarkhov is a prosecutor by day, and a genius medium by night, but after an odd séance, he thinks he is being possessed by a demon. He turns to his ex-boyfriend and occult rival, Rhys and Rhys' wife Moira. They don't exactly get along, but with the right incentive, they accept to help David and cure him from this mysterious and dangerous illness.
Before starting this, I had quickly read the prequel, [b:Odd Spirits|41123702|Odd Spirits|S.T. Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534036437l/41123702._SY75_.jpg|63022710] and I did not like it. I didn't even know Evocation was the sequel and at first I was like oh no. I hated all three of them in Odd Spirits, especially Moira and her biphobia. So it wasn't really a great start. But I decided to give this a chance, despite having read that there was cheating in this book. And surprisingly, the things I didn't like were not the ones I expected.
So I expected a polyamory romance, and in my mind, it involves all the parties being in love with each other, maybe I'm ignorant or naïve, but I just don't like reading about V relationships, where two people love the same third person. It's not for me. So this was my biggest disappointment with this book. I get that platonic friendship /queerplatonic relationships are just as important as romantic and sexual bonds, but I felt like the writing of the relationships were uninteresting and unbalanced. And the source of all my anger was the center of the relationship: Rhys. I fucking hate that guy. I'll get into more details later but I'll first start with the different relationships:
Rhys-Moira: They're the established, married couple. Odd Spirits showed them having serious couple issues, resentment and communication problems. They seem to have resolved them mostly by the start of Evocation. I originally really liked them, because of how sweet Rhys is to her, him calling her "Little Goddess" is everything, that remains true even if I dislike the guy. But in the end, their relationship felt so shallow? It felt like a LOT of telling and very little showing. SHe is supposedly the center of his universe, his everything, but I never felt any of this from the moments they shared, the way he treated her. Her devotion was there, but the fact that he was involved in a growing/reviving romantic relationship with another guy just fucked the balance. He TELLS us that she is so important, but what I FELT as a reader was that Moira was being pushed to the sides of her own marriage. The reviews I'd read had mentioned cheating andI had been bracing for the worse and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, but it was still icky for me. They'd barely brushed the idea of opening their marriage, that Rhys was already out kissing David. Rhys refused to acknowledge his feelings, and hurt everyone in the process. Everyone had to always twist themselves to accomodate his needs and his wants and that pissed me OFF. Moira is the one who offers to open their relationship because she sees his feelings for David, I'm not entirely convinced she did it because she wanted to explore other relationships, but because she wanted to make him happy. I don't know, I just don't like what the story reduced Moira to, even though she developed into a loveable character. The cheating adjacent trope and her looking in to her husband's new romance and being there to enable the romance between two white guys just felt wrong. If the story was going to make her so dirty, I wish she'd been part of the romantic polycule instead, or if she'd been removed from the romance altogether, because her place in the romance just felt forced and wrong and I hate to say that because she genuinely grew into a character I liked.
Rhys - David: I love second chance romances, I love friends to lovers to exes to rivals to lovers i LOVE it. But Rhys was so toxic and not in a sexy way, that I jut wanted David to run away. So David is financially privileged, he comes from a LOT of money. If you listened to Rhys or anyone in this book, they act like David is a war criminal, the worst human to have ever graced the Earth. The man's just a little prickly and very arrogant and sarcastic. We also quickly learn that he has had a very abusive childhood, both physically and emotionally and that explains his protective mechanisms (doesn't excuse them, he acts like an asshole sometimes, but it really helped put things in perspective). As another review put it very eloquently, every exchange between these two felt transactional. It was favours exchanged, and set boundaries, and agreed-upon rules. And that was all coming from Rhys. He was the one controlling their interactions, putting conditions on every actions. He is the one who is always there, ready to monitor everyone of David's misteps and make a whole issue out of nothing. David's attitude, his alcoholism, everything is a potential source of conflict and it is exhausting. The worst is when David relapses and gets drunk after Rhys is nominated for the High Priest position in their Society that they'd both been vying for. They kiss, and the moment Rhys realises Davud is drunk, he explodes in a fit of rage and VIOLENTLY pushed David who bangs his head. He threatens physical violence. He tells David not to make Rhys's night about himself. I was so fucking angry. How do you claim loving someone, considering them your oldest friend, knowing their darkest most shameful secrets, and act like this. Shame them for a DISEASE (alcoholism is a disease!), be violent with a survivor of physical abuse?? AND NOT APOLOGISE FOR ANY OF IT. Because no, Rhys does not apologise. He shames and whines, and paints himself as a victim, but he never apologises. But then, I guess he realises how much he loves David and he saves him from his family curse, and then graciously allows him into a romantic relationship at the very end. It just feels like he is leading David on, taking advantage of his weakness and his feelings for his own needs. I love a little bit of kinky, but it is mentioned how he and Moira do not have rough sex, and after spending the books assuring Moira and the reader that she is Rhys' number one, and that David would never compare, them jumping into a bout of domineering sex sends a weird message. Rhys is just so fucking weird, man, he is like Oh Moira is everything to me, and then will tell David they should have never broken up (which means he'd never have married Moira). This is a clusterfuck and I hate Rhys for his kinda abusive behaviour towards a guy who is lonely and in pain. Like, no David is not perfect, but I don't think he deserved the way Rhys treats him. I just hate the way his alcoholism is handled by the narrative, and how it's mostly just another way to shift the blame and the shame on him, and a way for Rhys to make him feel inadequate, a failure and a burden. This was just plain awful. Also, they just read as so much older than their 25-29, even though Rhys has the emotional maturity of a child.
David - Moira: My actual favourite relationship in this book, no contest the one thing that I truly enjoyed. Moira's character started off as abrasive and that was annoying to me, and then at some point she did an entire 180 and became the sweetest kindest soul. I found the change very sudden and odd, but I ended up liking her a lot. Her and David start off on the wrong foot, but their friendship is so precious, every crumb of them caring for each other was so sweet and wholesome, and it was the most interesting relationship in the book because it felt so genuine and healing to both of them. She gave David exactly what he needed, which is uncondtional love and understanding and touch to soothe his loneliness. Them dancing together and hugging and just being platonic soulmates was everything. I don't think their relationship turning romantic would have made this book a better reading experience for me, because my issues revolve mostly around the way Rhys treated both of them. I wish Moira hadn't been pushed to the sidelines, but their friendship was everything. David made a way better job at apologising for kissing Rhys and "cheating" and hurting Moira than Rhys ever tried. I hate Rhys. I love Moira and David. I did think Rhys calling them his sun and moon was adorable and I do think that Moira is the one who makes a relationship between Rhys and David possible, especially because their both so destructive to each other.
I love a bit of messy and a bit of toxic, but this just didn't work for me. Rhys was too unlikeable for me, I didn't like the way the story treated Moira in the polyamory, and I despised the way the story treated David as a character. Yes he is an arrogant asshole, but I grew to like him so much he was the most interesting character to me. I just wish he'd been treated with more compassion and care, because that's what he deserved instead of Rhys' abusive and manipulative, conditional affection. I just hate the message it sends to people who are in pain, that they must change their entire self and hide the ugly, suffering parts of themselves to be worthy. I think that's not what the author meant to convey, but that's the story that I read.
I think that no matter how much this pissed me off, I'll read the next book (there is one book for Rhys, one book for Moira and one book for Leda, David's chaos sister). I love the author's prose, and I liked the occult setting. Reminded me of [b:Ninth House|43263680|Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553102141l/43263680._SY75_.jpg|53348200] but more palatable in its lore and obnoxious mysogynistic secret societies lol. And I did get attached. Honestly I'll read more because I want to see David and Moira be happy. I swear, at some point I just wished for them two to kick Rhys out and live their best platonic soulmate life together.
Anyway, fuck Rhys, David and Moira deserve better and I'll be there to make sure they get the happy ending I need them to reach. It's criminal Moira's not a lesbian actually give her a girlfriend so she can ditch these dumbass men.
Warning: angry rant incoming, I'm so disappointed and mad i need to let it out oops
The story takes place in Boston, amidst secret society, occult rituals and other magical happenings. David Aristarkhov is a prosecutor by day, and a genius medium by night, but after an odd séance, he thinks he is being possessed by a demon. He turns to his ex-boyfriend and occult rival, Rhys and Rhys' wife Moira. They don't exactly get along, but with the right incentive, they accept to help David and cure him from this mysterious and dangerous illness.
Before starting this, I had quickly read the prequel, [b:Odd Spirits|41123702|Odd Spirits|S.T. Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534036437l/41123702._SY75_.jpg|63022710] and I did not like it. I didn't even know Evocation was the sequel and at first I was like oh no. I hated all three of them in Odd Spirits, especially Moira and her biphobia. So it wasn't really a great start. But I decided to give this a chance, despite having read that there was cheating in this book. And surprisingly, the things I didn't like were not the ones I expected.
So I expected a polyamory romance, and in my mind, it involves all the parties being in love with each other, maybe I'm ignorant or naïve, but I just don't like reading about V relationships, where two people love the same third person. It's not for me. So this was my biggest disappointment with this book. I get that platonic friendship /queerplatonic relationships are just as important as romantic and sexual bonds, but I felt like the writing of the relationships were uninteresting and unbalanced. And the source of all my anger was the center of the relationship: Rhys. I fucking hate that guy. I'll get into more details later but I'll first start with the different relationships:
Rhys-Moira: They're the established, married couple. Odd Spirits showed them having serious couple issues, resentment and communication problems. They seem to have resolved them mostly by the start of Evocation. I originally really liked them, because of how sweet Rhys is to her, him calling her "Little Goddess" is everything, that remains true even if I dislike the guy. But in the end, their relationship felt so shallow? It felt like a LOT of telling and very little showing. SHe is supposedly the center of his universe, his everything, but I never felt any of this from the moments they shared, the way he treated her. Her devotion was there, but the fact that he was involved in a growing/reviving romantic relationship with another guy just fucked the balance. He TELLS us that she is so important, but what I FELT as a reader was that Moira was being pushed to the sides of her own marriage. The reviews I'd read had mentioned cheating andI had been bracing for the worse and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, but it was still icky for me. They'd barely brushed the idea of opening their marriage, that Rhys was already out kissing David. Rhys refused to acknowledge his feelings, and hurt everyone in the process. Everyone had to always twist themselves to accomodate his needs and his wants and that pissed me OFF. Moira is the one who offers to open their relationship because she sees his feelings for David, I'm not entirely convinced she did it because she wanted to explore other relationships, but because she wanted to make him happy. I don't know, I just don't like what the story reduced Moira to, even though she developed into a loveable character. The cheating adjacent trope and her looking in to her husband's new romance and being there to enable the romance between two white guys just felt wrong. If the story was going to make her so dirty, I wish she'd been part of the romantic polycule instead, or if she'd been removed from the romance altogether, because her place in the romance just felt forced and wrong and I hate to say that because she genuinely grew into a character I liked.
Rhys - David: I love second chance romances, I love friends to lovers to exes to rivals to lovers i LOVE it. But Rhys was so toxic and not in a sexy way, that I jut wanted David to run away. So David is financially privileged, he comes from a LOT of money. If you listened to Rhys or anyone in this book, they act like David is a war criminal, the worst human to have ever graced the Earth. The man's just a little prickly and very arrogant and sarcastic. We also quickly learn that he has had a very abusive childhood, both physically and emotionally and that explains his protective mechanisms (doesn't excuse them, he acts like an asshole sometimes, but it really helped put things in perspective). As another review put it very eloquently, every exchange between these two felt transactional. It was favours exchanged, and set boundaries, and agreed-upon rules. And that was all coming from Rhys. He was the one controlling their interactions, putting conditions on every actions. He is the one who is always there, ready to monitor everyone of David's misteps and make a whole issue out of nothing. David's attitude, his alcoholism, everything is a potential source of conflict and it is exhausting. The worst is when David relapses and gets drunk after Rhys is nominated for the High Priest position in their Society that they'd both been vying for. They kiss, and the moment Rhys realises Davud is drunk, he explodes in a fit of rage and VIOLENTLY pushed David who bangs his head. He threatens physical violence. He tells David not to make Rhys's night about himself. I was so fucking angry. How do you claim loving someone, considering them your oldest friend, knowing their darkest most shameful secrets, and act like this. Shame them for a DISEASE (alcoholism is a disease!), be violent with a survivor of physical abuse?? AND NOT APOLOGISE FOR ANY OF IT. Because no, Rhys does not apologise. He shames and whines, and paints himself as a victim, but he never apologises. But then, I guess he realises how much he loves David and he saves him from his family curse, and then graciously allows him into a romantic relationship at the very end. It just feels like he is leading David on, taking advantage of his weakness and his feelings for his own needs. I love a little bit of kinky, but it is mentioned how he and Moira do not have rough sex, and after spending the books assuring Moira and the reader that she is Rhys' number one, and that David would never compare, them jumping into a bout of domineering sex sends a weird message. Rhys is just so fucking weird, man, he is like Oh Moira is everything to me, and then will tell David they should have never broken up (which means he'd never have married Moira). This is a clusterfuck and I hate Rhys for his kinda abusive behaviour towards a guy who is lonely and in pain. Like, no David is not perfect, but I don't think he deserved the way Rhys treats him. I just hate the way his alcoholism is handled by the narrative, and how it's mostly just another way to shift the blame and the shame on him, and a way for Rhys to make him feel inadequate, a failure and a burden. This was just plain awful. Also, they just read as so much older than their 25-29, even though Rhys has the emotional maturity of a child.
David - Moira: My actual favourite relationship in this book, no contest the one thing that I truly enjoyed. Moira's character started off as abrasive and that was annoying to me, and then at some point she did an entire 180 and became the sweetest kindest soul. I found the change very sudden and odd, but I ended up liking her a lot. Her and David start off on the wrong foot, but their friendship is so precious, every crumb of them caring for each other was so sweet and wholesome, and it was the most interesting relationship in the book because it felt so genuine and healing to both of them. She gave David exactly what he needed, which is uncondtional love and understanding and touch to soothe his loneliness. Them dancing together and hugging and just being platonic soulmates was everything. I don't think their relationship turning romantic would have made this book a better reading experience for me, because my issues revolve mostly around the way Rhys treated both of them. I wish Moira hadn't been pushed to the sidelines, but their friendship was everything. David made a way better job at apologising for kissing Rhys and "cheating" and hurting Moira than Rhys ever tried. I hate Rhys. I love Moira and David. I did think Rhys calling them his sun and moon was adorable and I do think that Moira is the one who makes a relationship between Rhys and David possible, especially because their both so destructive to each other.
I love a bit of messy and a bit of toxic, but this just didn't work for me. Rhys was too unlikeable for me, I didn't like the way the story treated Moira in the polyamory, and I despised the way the story treated David as a character. Yes he is an arrogant asshole, but I grew to like him so much he was the most interesting character to me. I just wish he'd been treated with more compassion and care, because that's what he deserved instead of Rhys' abusive and manipulative, conditional affection. I just hate the message it sends to people who are in pain, that they must change their entire self and hide the ugly, suffering parts of themselves to be worthy. I think that's not what the author meant to convey, but that's the story that I read.
I think that no matter how much this pissed me off, I'll read the next book (there is one book for Rhys, one book for Moira and one book for Leda, David's chaos sister). I love the author's prose, and I liked the occult setting. Reminded me of [b:Ninth House|43263680|Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553102141l/43263680._SY75_.jpg|53348200] but more palatable in its lore and obnoxious mysogynistic secret societies lol. And I did get attached. Honestly I'll read more because I want to see David and Moira be happy. I swear, at some point I just wished for them two to kick Rhys out and live their best platonic soulmate life together.
Anyway, fuck Rhys, David and Moira deserve better and I'll be there to make sure they get the happy ending I need them to reach. It's criminal Moira's not a lesbian actually give her a girlfriend so she can ditch these dumbass men.
vinicarus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
2.5
i understand that this book is mainly just a character study, but we don’t get a lot of information about the characters and their relationships before things kick off that gave me enough time to invest in their relationships.
and the whole “mystery” of the book kind of being thrown together near act 3 wasn’t super fun. i wish we had more actual time spent figuring the stuff out rather than going through the motions superficially and just telling us that “oh the research has been hard.” show 👏 us 👏 the 👏 research!!
this could have been split up into several books - book one we learn the characters history and right at the end find out the possession, book two we research a solution and they all fall in love along the way. it being shoved all together in a 300 page book without and preamble to make us care about certain things it wanted us to care about was just boring.
and the whole “mystery” of the book kind of being thrown together near act 3 wasn’t super fun. i wish we had more actual time spent figuring the stuff out rather than going through the motions superficially and just telling us that “oh the research has been hard.” show 👏 us 👏 the 👏 research!!
this could have been split up into several books - book one we learn the characters history and right at the end find out the possession, book two we research a solution and they all fall in love along the way. it being shoved all together in a 300 page book without and preamble to make us care about certain things it wanted us to care about was just boring.
paulablanc's review against another edition
2.0
Gracias a Angry Robot Books y a S.T.Gibson por darme un arc de Evocation.
La verdad no se qué decir de este libro, estuve un mes leyéndolo por lo mucho que me costaba avanzar. Me parece que la idea está muy buena, pero la manera en la que está escrito no me terminó de atrapar.
No quiero decir mucho porque el libro todavía no salió, pero todo el tema de la maldición parecía que tenía bastante potencial y quedó todo muy secundario y resuelto así nomas, hasta te diría que por eso este libro no tiene mucha trama que digamos.
Con el tema romance, no compré este poliamor, me dio más vibras a pareja abierta jdkdk además siento que una de esas partes era mucho más interesante de leer y la misma autora cayó en ello, no me dio para que me emocionen por igual los dos vínculos. Los exes to lovers ganan por goleada, igual Moria me gustó y adoré su vínculo tipo platónico con David, pero su relación con Rhys no me daba la misma emoción que la de Rhys con David y tiene SENTIDO, porque ellos eran un matrimonio tranqui ahí y después con los otros dos tenias peleas, eran exs, tensión, angst, etc.
Tenia mucha emoción de leer el libro porque a dowry of blood fue de mis lecturas favoritas del año pasado, pero este no cumplió mis expectativas. Para destacar, mi personaje favorito fue David! me pareció maravilloso y creo que va a ser lo que más voy a recordar de este libro, aunque no me fascinó, puede que él quede bastante en mi.
La verdad no se qué decir de este libro, estuve un mes leyéndolo por lo mucho que me costaba avanzar. Me parece que la idea está muy buena, pero la manera en la que está escrito no me terminó de atrapar.
No quiero decir mucho porque el libro todavía no salió, pero todo el tema de la maldición parecía que tenía bastante potencial y quedó todo muy secundario y resuelto así nomas, hasta te diría que por eso este libro no tiene mucha trama que digamos.
Con el tema romance, no compré este poliamor, me dio más vibras a pareja abierta jdkdk además siento que una de esas partes era mucho más interesante de leer y la misma autora cayó en ello, no me dio para que me emocionen por igual los dos vínculos. Los exes to lovers ganan por goleada, igual Moria me gustó y adoré su vínculo tipo platónico con David, pero su relación con Rhys no me daba la misma emoción que la de Rhys con David y tiene SENTIDO, porque ellos eran un matrimonio tranqui ahí y después con los otros dos tenias peleas, eran exs, tensión, angst, etc.
Tenia mucha emoción de leer el libro porque a dowry of blood fue de mis lecturas favoritas del año pasado, pero este no cumplió mis expectativas. Para destacar, mi personaje favorito fue David! me pareció maravilloso y creo que va a ser lo que más voy a recordar de este libro, aunque no me fascinó, puede que él quede bastante en mi.
keeley_and_zuko's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
thebookishnic's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
3.5
mabon's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? Yes
4.0