ssung's review
3.0
Whoa, this had all the tropes of Chinese light novel do-over time travel & revenge plot baked right into it... and thank god did not follow all the way through with them and instead became much better for it. Some tropes stay the same (e.g., evil and petty people being just utterly one dimensionally evil and petty) but everything else does pick up pretty nicely, and wraps up in one volume.
izziede's review
Time travel second chance romance without the second chance per se.
The heroine, Eliana, goes back in time with the use of an amulet as she is dying in her first life to a point before her troubles began.
She tries to avoid the events that led to her unhappiness in her previous life and prevent her death. It must be said she does this mostly unsuccessfully. Her life before is miserable and even with the insights in to seeing her half sister's actions and motives she still does not manage to avoid most of the unhappiness.
She changes events but they the end result is the same, marrying her horrid hubby as an example.
I found the story a bit depressing because of this, I wouldn't re-read but in other reviews the second book is said to be different so I am going to try it.
The heroine, Eliana, goes back in time with the use of an amulet as she is dying in her first life to a point before her troubles began.
She tries to avoid the events that led to her unhappiness in her previous life and prevent her death. It must be said she does this mostly unsuccessfully. Her life before is miserable and even with the insights in to seeing her half sister's actions and motives she still does not manage to avoid most of the unhappiness.
She changes events but they the end result is the same, marrying her horrid hubby as an example.
I found the story a bit depressing because of this, I wouldn't re-read but in other reviews the second book is said to be different so I am going to try it.
bookcheshirecat's review
1.0
I’d like to Thank Netgallery for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for a honest Review.
CW's: Graphic Miscarriage, Violence, Rape
This book turned out to not work for me at all, which means that it could still work for you, if you’re into romance adult books with a bit of fantasy (in this case: time travel). However, I personally had not many things that I enjoyed in this novel, which leaves me with no other choice than to give it only 1 star. This does not mean that I totally hated the book, I just did not like the elements and aspects of the story.
Things that I liked
• The Time Travel aspect was what caught my eye. I love books about Time Travel and always have a need to read more, since I haven’t read enough. So when I saw that this book featured time travel I was immediately captured and decided to request it. I still really liked that aspect going into the story, as we were going back in time a few years, with the chance for the main character to change the course of her life, which brings me to my second point.
• The entire “Second Chance” aspect was really gripping. Elaina has the chance to change things the second time around and it’s interesting to see how she can influence what is happening and shape her future, while still encountering different, new problems that threaten to bring her back to her old fate anyway. It really added suspense to the story and made for a great premise.
• There was a lot of potential after all. I really mean it, this could’ve been a good story, if the worldbuilding would’ve been expanded and if the character dynamics had been more convincing. The entire illegitimate vs. legitimate daughter conflict could’ve made for a great storyline.
Things that didn’t work for me
• The worldbuilding didn’t convince me at all. It felt rather flat and not complex enough. I was honestly expecting more magic, as this was labeled as Fantasy, but apart from the Time Traveling I did not see much of it, which made me rather sad. The Houses were a nice concept, but I had no idea what the differences between them were and why they acted a certain way. There was no backstory on what they did to become important and how they interact with other houses. In general, the worldbuilding didn’t feel remarkable and did not have a clear line
• I also wasn’t a fan of the sexism depicted in the world. Some aspects struck me as rather bizarre. Like how you had to marry someone when you touched them in public. It made me blink at the screen confused, because I did not see any common sense behind that law and it felt really weird. I’ve said before that I’m personally tired of sexist fictional worlds. This was one more example of it. The girls - despite being noble - were destined to become housewives and the main character was shamed by a “suitor” as a bore which made her self conscious. I didn’t like how the girls could become “disgraced” for literally everything, which made my blood boil, because I found this all pretty much unnecessarily sexist. Why do fictional worlds have to be full of dozen laws that determine the “disgrace” of a woman?
• Sonia and Elaina’s hatred felt one dimensional and purely vicious without much complexity. I get why they were enemies, but their relationships should’ve been complex, a hate-love thing, because Elaina originally really loved her, but they were nothing but mean and full of provenance. What also didn’t make sense was how Elaina suddenly cut her off when she came back into the past and Sonia never questioned that. Like Elaina may know her intentions now but Past-Sonia didn’t know that but still went with her odd behavior? (going from being like a sister to her, to cutting her off) I also thought that Sonia wasn’t a very complex villain.
• The book just didn’t work for me at all and the rape scenes made me really uncomfortable as did the way women were treated. The book and I aren’t going to be friends. The rape scene and the guy who’s all obsessive was what really put me off. Just no.
IN CONCLUSION: While this book had a great premise it didn’t work for me at all and left me rather unsatisfied. The sexism in the worldbuilding made me not enjoy the book and many aspects of the novel felt unfinished and not complex enough to make me care about characters and story.
CW's: Graphic Miscarriage, Violence, Rape
This book turned out to not work for me at all, which means that it could still work for you, if you’re into romance adult books with a bit of fantasy (in this case: time travel). However, I personally had not many things that I enjoyed in this novel, which leaves me with no other choice than to give it only 1 star. This does not mean that I totally hated the book, I just did not like the elements and aspects of the story.
Things that I liked
• The Time Travel aspect was what caught my eye. I love books about Time Travel and always have a need to read more, since I haven’t read enough. So when I saw that this book featured time travel I was immediately captured and decided to request it. I still really liked that aspect going into the story, as we were going back in time a few years, with the chance for the main character to change the course of her life, which brings me to my second point.
• The entire “Second Chance” aspect was really gripping. Elaina has the chance to change things the second time around and it’s interesting to see how she can influence what is happening and shape her future, while still encountering different, new problems that threaten to bring her back to her old fate anyway. It really added suspense to the story and made for a great premise.
• There was a lot of potential after all. I really mean it, this could’ve been a good story, if the worldbuilding would’ve been expanded and if the character dynamics had been more convincing. The entire illegitimate vs. legitimate daughter conflict could’ve made for a great storyline.
Things that didn’t work for me
• The worldbuilding didn’t convince me at all. It felt rather flat and not complex enough. I was honestly expecting more magic, as this was labeled as Fantasy, but apart from the Time Traveling I did not see much of it, which made me rather sad. The Houses were a nice concept, but I had no idea what the differences between them were and why they acted a certain way. There was no backstory on what they did to become important and how they interact with other houses. In general, the worldbuilding didn’t feel remarkable and did not have a clear line
• I also wasn’t a fan of the sexism depicted in the world. Some aspects struck me as rather bizarre. Like how you had to marry someone when you touched them in public. It made me blink at the screen confused, because I did not see any common sense behind that law and it felt really weird. I’ve said before that I’m personally tired of sexist fictional worlds. This was one more example of it. The girls - despite being noble - were destined to become housewives and the main character was shamed by a “suitor” as a bore which made her self conscious. I didn’t like how the girls could become “disgraced” for literally everything, which made my blood boil, because I found this all pretty much unnecessarily sexist. Why do fictional worlds have to be full of dozen laws that determine the “disgrace” of a woman?
• Sonia and Elaina’s hatred felt one dimensional and purely vicious without much complexity. I get why they were enemies, but their relationships should’ve been complex, a hate-love thing, because Elaina originally really loved her, but they were nothing but mean and full of provenance. What also didn’t make sense was how Elaina suddenly cut her off when she came back into the past and Sonia never questioned that. Like Elaina may know her intentions now but Past-Sonia didn’t know that but still went with her odd behavior? (going from being like a sister to her, to cutting her off) I also thought that Sonia wasn’t a very complex villain.
• The book just didn’t work for me at all and the rape scenes made me really uncomfortable as did the way women were treated. The book and I aren’t going to be friends. The rape scene and the guy who’s all obsessive was what really put me off. Just no.
IN CONCLUSION: While this book had a great premise it didn’t work for me at all and left me rather unsatisfied. The sexism in the worldbuilding made me not enjoy the book and many aspects of the novel felt unfinished and not complex enough to make me care about characters and story.
smilioso's review
5.0
" I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review"
* review will be up on Friday*
* review will be up on Friday*
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