Reviews

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand

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anyag's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

3.75

rosemariereads's review against another edition

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3.0

Bullet point review!!

- I’ve seen a lot of reviews where they mention the MC being insufferable and annoying/whiny self centered & while I don’t disagree, I don’t personally think that’s a fair complete character analysis of Gemma.

- I think Claire Legrand makes it very obvious that we are not supposed to think of Gemma as a good person, & the things she says/does are very (VERY) unhinged. I think she borderlines delusional ahaha, but I like her. I think she was an incredibly entertaining MC to read about & you do start to realize why she acts like this as the story progresses. I do see why people would still not like the way it’s executed, but I did enjoy it!!

- Gemma, I would argue, is a strong MC. She suffers from chronic illness and regardless of what she says, she thinks very little of herself. She was very different from other characters I’ve read and most similarly compared to Rielle from Furyborn. Gemma is also a hopeless romantic which makes her really funny.

- Overall I enjoyed this read, it was entertaining and did not go the way I thought it was going to go! I’m excited to see where this series will end up!

- It does not end on a cliffhanger btw

viickyreads's review against another edition

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4.0

This follows Gemma Ashbourne, a beautiful and rich daughter of her family. However, she has a body that reacts negatively to magic, constantly fighting pain and being ill unlike her sisters who have amazing abilities with no pain. Not only that, her relationship with her father is not great, her mother had abandoned them, and her sisters has their own situations to deal with.

She also meets Talan d'Astier, an attractive person who she works with to destroy the Basks, whom their family has a blood feud with.

Throughout the novel, secrets gets uncovered, lies discovered, a romance that grows, and curses that unravel in the storyline and plot.

Overall, the beginning was slow paced but then it started picking up speed. There were a lot of twists and turns that made me wonder what else will be revealed. It was interesting to know more about Gemma's illness towards magic since I was looking for more answers to that as well. I did not like Talan much though so I am hoping there would be a good character development for him.

cassandrekrier's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

2.5

There has never been a more unlikeable and unreliable narrator quite like the FMC, Gemma, in this book. Like woof. The first third of this book is absolutely disgusting and stereotypical in a way that makes it extremely confusing for the reader. She essentially just reiterates how beautiful she is, and then proceeds to do nothing with it. No charm, nothing. Then by the middle and last half of the book, all that narcissism vanishes and she loses herself in the MMC. It’s just like? If you’re going to be narcissistic, then babygirl be narcissistic enough to grab your magic back in anyway that you can and expect others to step up around you instead of blubbering on about how scared you are. I guess that’s how Legrand wanted to make her multi-dimensional but it felt awkward.

More in that same vein, this book needed some hefty editing that was clearly incomplete. For a first book in a trilogy, i assume that we are to be given a lot of world building and are focused on a lighter narrative to build intrigue. The world building felt woefully missing, and certain words or countries would pop up with no follow up or explanation which got tedious. Additionally, there’s so many side characters with their own side plots going on that Gemma’s plot points seem so dumb in comparison. The plot moved at a glacial pace as well. Somehow enough content for two books went into this one, and yet I can’t remember what happened at the start and it took me ages to get to the end. I just??? Can you feel my general confusion and disappointment already???

Lastly, the love story in this was fine. MUCH IMPROVED FROM FURYBORN!! But they also

decide to lala land the ending and split up? the fuck! i read 500+ pages for you two to GO SEPARATE WAYS?!

Overall, I think Legrand’s goal of writing a Bridgerton-esque horror novel set in a fantasy world needed a couple of more drafts before publishing. It was okay, but I probably won’t reread and hope that the next book is more streamlined and that we get out of Gemma’s ugly head.

carolynlee21's review against another edition

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Literally almost finished it, but I haven’t touched it in months and I don’t remember anything so it’s too hard to just pick back up and begin reading again. Maybe I’ll pick it up again we’ll see, not a bad book by any means, just lost interest.