kisthebook's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
nutmegqueen's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
arberry's review
3.0
3.5 rounded down.
I thought I hadn’t read this one, but certain elements of it felt very familiar to me. Whether I really had read it and not logged it in the past or whether this series has started to rehash itself a little is up in the air.
Widdershins can veer pretty heavily into “Mary Sue” territory at times, although given that she has a literal god in her head and still isn’t perfect at everything is much more forgivable than say one of SJM’s many infallible cookie cutter protagonists. She’s an interesting character at least, again far more than I can say for Feyre or Celaena, although not always as clever as she thinks. The constant elaborate back and forths can get a bit grating, and make these books feel longer than they are even though none of them have yet passed 300 pages iirc. Maybe I need to take a break before finishing the series.
There’s a lot I really love about this world and these characters, and truly some of the most interesting concepts I’ve seen in fantasy books are explored here, but the weaknesses in these books have become more obvious to me with each passing installment, in spite of my continuing enjoyment (yes I know that was a really long run on sentence)
I thought I hadn’t read this one, but certain elements of it felt very familiar to me. Whether I really had read it and not logged it in the past or whether this series has started to rehash itself a little is up in the air.
Widdershins can veer pretty heavily into “Mary Sue” territory at times, although given that she has a literal god in her head and still isn’t perfect at everything is much more forgivable than say one of SJM’s many infallible cookie cutter protagonists. She’s an interesting character at least, again far more than I can say for Feyre or Celaena, although not always as clever as she thinks. The constant elaborate back and forths can get a bit grating, and make these books feel longer than they are even though none of them have yet passed 300 pages iirc. Maybe I need to take a break before finishing the series.
There’s a lot I really love about this world and these characters, and truly some of the most interesting concepts I’ve seen in fantasy books are explored here, but the weaknesses in these books have become more obvious to me with each passing installment, in spite of my continuing enjoyment (yes I know that was a really long run on sentence)
dtaylorbooks's review
3.0
How did we end up here
I read the first two titles in the series thanks to Pyr. Why not the third?
Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!
Enter same plucky style as its predecessors, same quick jump into action and same anticipation level that got me through the last two books and fifty pages is nothing. Blew through those like tissues.
What worked . . .
Marmell is never afraid to go THERE when the plot requires him to do so. While there was far less gore in LOST COVENANT and it was really more about relationships than anything else when things needed to get done, THEY GOT DONE. And, of course, the person I am, I’m constantly second-guessing an author even though I should know better and Marmell blew my socks off at the conclusion. In one scene anyway when he went all Raiders of the Lost Ark on some of the characters, just minus the god-powered light. Loved it.
Despite it wearing thin the language still coaxed me along the pages. While it came to grate on me I can’t help but applause the level of quirk and wit that Marmell puts into his words and have them come out so effortlessly. It still makes me jealous.
What didn't work . . .
Well, I got to about 100 pages and realized that nothing much had happened and I was duped by the pretty language. It saddened me. It really did. Regardless of how jealous the words make me they were totally used as filler to fluff up a thin plot, filled with hyperbole and superfluous meandering that showed the awesomeness of the author without doing much for the story. Add in the excessive confirmation of statements, yes? That really started to get on my nerves because they were used excessively, yes? And stood out something awful, yes? And was not something I noticed in the prior books, yes? So I don’t know why this style was being used here, yes? Not fun, no.
Olgun, to me, has over-stayed his welcome and has successfully pushed himself into the realm of deus ex machina and it was never more prevalent for me than in LOST COVENANT. Maybe because the writing was wearing thin on me and there wasn’t much going on in the story to keep my attention but my, isn’t he a handy little god, going around and saving Widdershins’s ass every time she needs it.
And, well, not much happened. Someone was poisoning some crops and Widdershins solved the case. The end. Meanwhile, back in Davillon, horrible things are happening to good people and you only get maybe three brief glimpses of this and then the book ends while resolving the unnecessary and thinly related plot you probably don’t care about and leaves the plot you’ve cared about for the last two books hanging with its dick in the breeze. Annoying.
And in the end . . .
LOST COVENANT is a bridge book. Plain and simple. There’s going to be another book. The ‘Meanwhile, in Davillon . . .’ subplot wasn’t set up for nothing and all it did was give Shins an aside to have shenanigans in another city that’s so thinly related to the grander plot that you’ll end up forgetting how it’s all connected before she even finishes her sentence of explanation. It’s fluffed up with pretty, witty, distracting words that do their job in distracting you and then just rub you the wrong way when you realize what’s really going on. I’m rather disappointed that this escapade was given its own book. Cut out the fat, make it a 2.5 and be done with it. Get me back to Davillon where I belong so I can get back to the plot that I actually care about instead of solving the mystery of the festering textile crops. My faith has been damaged a little and it’s going to make me hesitant to read the next book. I probably will because who am I kidding? But I won’t be all starry-eyed going in like I was here. I have learned that the presence of Shins alone does not drive the story. In fact, her alone gets rather annoying. I need more.
I read the first two titles in the series thanks to Pyr. Why not the third?
Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!
Enter same plucky style as its predecessors, same quick jump into action and same anticipation level that got me through the last two books and fifty pages is nothing. Blew through those like tissues.
What worked . . .
Marmell is never afraid to go THERE when the plot requires him to do so. While there was far less gore in LOST COVENANT and it was really more about relationships than anything else when things needed to get done, THEY GOT DONE. And, of course, the person I am, I’m constantly second-guessing an author even though I should know better and Marmell blew my socks off at the conclusion. In one scene anyway when he went all Raiders of the Lost Ark on some of the characters, just minus the god-powered light. Loved it.
Despite it wearing thin the language still coaxed me along the pages. While it came to grate on me I can’t help but applause the level of quirk and wit that Marmell puts into his words and have them come out so effortlessly. It still makes me jealous.
What didn't work . . .
Well, I got to about 100 pages and realized that nothing much had happened and I was duped by the pretty language. It saddened me. It really did. Regardless of how jealous the words make me they were totally used as filler to fluff up a thin plot, filled with hyperbole and superfluous meandering that showed the awesomeness of the author without doing much for the story. Add in the excessive confirmation of statements, yes? That really started to get on my nerves because they were used excessively, yes? And stood out something awful, yes? And was not something I noticed in the prior books, yes? So I don’t know why this style was being used here, yes? Not fun, no.
Olgun, to me, has over-stayed his welcome and has successfully pushed himself into the realm of deus ex machina and it was never more prevalent for me than in LOST COVENANT. Maybe because the writing was wearing thin on me and there wasn’t much going on in the story to keep my attention but my, isn’t he a handy little god, going around and saving Widdershins’s ass every time she needs it.
And, well, not much happened. Someone was poisoning some crops and Widdershins solved the case. The end. Meanwhile, back in Davillon, horrible things are happening to good people and you only get maybe three brief glimpses of this and then the book ends while resolving the unnecessary and thinly related plot you probably don’t care about and leaves the plot you’ve cared about for the last two books hanging with its dick in the breeze. Annoying.
And in the end . . .
LOST COVENANT is a bridge book. Plain and simple. There’s going to be another book. The ‘Meanwhile, in Davillon . . .’ subplot wasn’t set up for nothing and all it did was give Shins an aside to have shenanigans in another city that’s so thinly related to the grander plot that you’ll end up forgetting how it’s all connected before she even finishes her sentence of explanation. It’s fluffed up with pretty, witty, distracting words that do their job in distracting you and then just rub you the wrong way when you realize what’s really going on. I’m rather disappointed that this escapade was given its own book. Cut out the fat, make it a 2.5 and be done with it. Get me back to Davillon where I belong so I can get back to the plot that I actually care about instead of solving the mystery of the festering textile crops. My faith has been damaged a little and it’s going to make me hesitant to read the next book. I probably will because who am I kidding? But I won’t be all starry-eyed going in like I was here. I have learned that the presence of Shins alone does not drive the story. In fact, her alone gets rather annoying. I need more.
chaosqueen's review
3.0
I don't like giving a "meh" rating to a Widdershins book, especially after the fantastic first two. At the same time, I just didn't enjoy this book that much. While I shipped Faustine and Robin, I didn't like how this was basically a filler book with lots of Lissette traipsing around Davillon, doing her evil thing with her obvious godly assistance. It was basically setting up for an obvious final battle in the final book. I also was bored, frankly, with Shins helping Alexandre's family in this other city. I didn't care for the new characters.
I fast forwarded to the end, and the one thing that really got me (besides the slight shipping) was that Renard is dead! I hope to fuck that he is somehow not. Please do not let him be dead. Please.
I fast forwarded to the end, and the one thing that really got me (besides the slight shipping) was that Renard is dead! I hope to fuck that he is somehow not. Please do not let him be dead. Please.
spellingbat's review
4.0
Pretty much the same in tone and content as the first one, continuing the adventures of Widdershins and her personal god Olgun. This one alternates between what Widdershins is up to now that she's left Davillon for a while to recover from so many losses (she saves the last living family of the man she owes her life to...well, the first man she owes her life to, at least), and what is happening in her home city while she is gone, as an old enemy and a newer enemy team up and start quietly wreaking havoc among Shin's friends and contacts as well as highly-placed people in order to exact revenge. Once story is brought to a finish while the interludes in Davillon set up the fourth book.
Entertaining, definitely written for a YA audience, they are refreshing in that they don't require romance but offer tinges of it. The occasional modern slang took me out of the quasi-Renaissance world, but not enough to make me not want to finish the series.
Entertaining, definitely written for a YA audience, they are refreshing in that they don't require romance but offer tinges of it. The occasional modern slang took me out of the quasi-Renaissance world, but not enough to make me not want to finish the series.
liz1004's review
4.0
This wasn't quite my favorite of the Widdershins books, but that's like saying my least favorite delicious chocolate brownie. I still loved it.
I think the reason is that Shins left home and all the other characters that I adore and is helping someone figure out what's going on in a different city. Don't get me wrong. The story was interesting, I loved the new characters (Cyrille!) and there was tons of the Shins humor that I've come to expect. It just wasn't home. I missed Renard and Robin.
I'm bittersweet about reading the next one because it's last, and I'm just going to miss this world and these characters SO MUCH.
All in all, an excellent choice for first book of 2016!
I think the reason is that Shins left home and all the other characters that I adore and is helping someone figure out what's going on in a different city. Don't get me wrong. The story was interesting, I loved the new characters (Cyrille!) and there was tons of the Shins humor that I've come to expect. It just wasn't home. I missed Renard and Robin.
I'm bittersweet about reading the next one because it's last, and I'm just going to miss this world and these characters SO MUCH.
All in all, an excellent choice for first book of 2016!
jenmiller253's review
This series is just a little too dark for me. The good characters die and the bad guys come back. I need just a little more hope in stories.
blodeuedd's review
4.0
This ia YA, light and dark at the same time. She never has it easy and people always die in this series.
Yes poor Widdershins, she can't seem to be able to just be happy and do what she want. She is also very very angry and on the run. We do get glimpses if Davillion and the life she left behind. Something is brewing there and will set the game plan for book 4. But that is that book and this is this book.
The book takes place in a smaller city where she at once comes across something fishy. Loyal as she is she sets out to investiage. The local thieves, nobles, yes she always finds the truth and she always gets in trouble.
Widdershins is a great kick-ass YA heroine. The pace is fast, there is fighting, running and evil afoot.
I look forward to reading more.
Yes poor Widdershins, she can't seem to be able to just be happy and do what she want. She is also very very angry and on the run. We do get glimpses if Davillion and the life she left behind. Something is brewing there and will set the game plan for book 4. But that is that book and this is this book.
The book takes place in a smaller city where she at once comes across something fishy. Loyal as she is she sets out to investiage. The local thieves, nobles, yes she always finds the truth and she always gets in trouble.
Widdershins is a great kick-ass YA heroine. The pace is fast, there is fighting, running and evil afoot.
I look forward to reading more.
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