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fireandfables's review against another edition
5.0
Read It! Read It! Read It!
I don't have time for the full review that I want to give this amazing book so just trust me.
I don't have time for the full review that I want to give this amazing book so just trust me.
pinkpicklez's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
luizascoco's review
3.0
I was fighting for my life for half of this book. The writing style is pretty bad and I had to reread things a bunch of times to fully understand some sentences. However!!!! The story line is really fun and interesting (even with the plot holes
longy207's review
4.0
I was thoroughly surprised by this book; I loved the first book in this series and I'm always nervous about reading the second book in the series in case it doesn't live up to my inner hype. This book was a very worthy follow on from the last book with a hell of a twist ending that makes me desperate to read the next book in the series.
The main character is Elena, and in this book she is facing the fact that an evil king may just rise from the grave and bring death and destruction with him. She is facing issues with her boyfriend and his brother and she finds out that she is a dragon.
There are still a lot of secondary characters in this book but they played pretty minor parts in comparison to Elena.
The storyline is good and the ending had me on the edge of my seat, the pacing in this book however is a little slow. I look forward to reading the next book in the series after a little break.
4 stars
The main character is Elena, and in this book she is facing the fact that an evil king may just rise from the grave and bring death and destruction with him. She is facing issues with her boyfriend and his brother and she finds out that she is a dragon.
There are still a lot of secondary characters in this book but they played pretty minor parts in comparison to Elena.
The storyline is good and the ending had me on the edge of my seat, the pacing in this book however is a little slow. I look forward to reading the next book in the series after a little break.
4 stars
lunelis's review
2.0
Thunderlight is an improvement over Firebolt in some regards, but not in others.
It's better in the sense that this book actually has a good amount of plot; where the first book was just magic school lessons and "omg dragons this is so new and different" with a little heroic endeavor in the third act, this one feels more like it has a clear idea of what's going to happen in the overall story. Reading it now after having read the whole series, details that later become relevant are established here, characters that mean something are introduced, events that need building get a foundation in place, we have twists and turns, etc. which is definitely a positive and has made the story a lot more dynamic and interesting.
As I said before, the author's clear passion for her world and characters and story is evident in the amount of building and detail work and weaving of plot threads that she does. It's really the only thing keeping me here.
However, many of the issues from book one do, sadly, carry over. The same awkward grammar, the same lack of content editing, the same tendency to repeat things and contradict itself, etc. The writing is improved, yes, but it's still really clear how rough this story is despite several reedits and editions.
A few examples of some problems:
- “normal people are lucky they made it through the magic wall and went insane. I was lucky to not go insane” <--a contradiction
- Incorrect use of “Your Highness.” Any sort of address used for a monarch/noble is always capitalized. His Highness, Her Majesty, Your Grace, etc.
- Improper use of the world “twirled.” You can’t twirl your legs around someone, you wrap them. Twirl means to spin/rotate, not wrap. Author does this constantly and also overuses the “guy picks up girl and she wraps legs around waist as he holds her” scene. Like, how short is Elena supposed to be that every kiss is her being held up that high on a guy’s hip bones???
- Awkward dialogue that clearly no one took the time to read over again: "Her eyes were as big and the water inside the glass spilled around the edges" and "That boy is awesome just by breathing."
I also found Elena's character both improved and worsened. Like, in this book she's prone to hyperbole (exaggerating things and overreacting), she has bratty tantrums when she's told things she doesn't want to hear (Cheng, for example, is skeptical that Lucian's mission will benefit him claiming Blake and Elena just gets so mad at him for not just blindly believing what she blindly believes), and she often seems to lack two brain cells because she doesn't learn or retain information to use in processing thoughts. For example, she knows that 1) Goran can't cross the creepers 2) he's a powerful wizard that can control people. Yet, what does she do anytime she thinks Goran is up to something? "Omg he's here, he escaped!" She does this like five times as if she doesn't already know that he was probably using magic from a distance.
Also, when she's handed an egg for a baby dragon, she's like "Huh, don't know what this is it's not important even though Paul just handed it to me and probably has a reason for doing so" and fucking just decides to throw it. Like what a dumb ass, brainless bitch. She doesn't think to ask "why did you hand me a rock?" she just fucking, punts it over her shoulder as soon as she registers that she doesn't know what it is. A classic reaction. Anytime I'm handed something unfamiliar by someone I know my reaction is to throw it over my shoulder and dispose of it.
Though seeing as Lucien has a moment of losing the brain cell and is like "I can't tell you about my sister's murder by a wyvern because you'll leave me" (like, wtf? How does that have any bearing on whether she'll want to leave you or not? It has nothing to do with her? What kind of brain dead reasoning is that? The entire conflict is dumb because Lucien didn't think that one out) I can't much say that there's any single character that doesn't say or do something atrociously thoughtless and dumb in this book.
The book starts with an epitome, which, sounds awkward and seems unnecessary since book one has a very simple plot. The thing, however, that really gets me is that this book has a 70 page novella that includes events references randomly in this book and aren't well incorporated because the author all but makes it mandatory to read. Like, the little novella, Venom or whatever, has character moments between Elena and Blake that are references at least 5 or 6 times, yet, because the author chose to put importance on these events and then not include them in the next major series installment, they just sound out of left field. "Yeah, Blake hits on me when he's drunk." Like, we never see this, we're just told. Adding 70 pages to the start to chronicle Elena and Blake's interactions to develop their relationship a little more would have been great and not added that much bulk to the story.
Yet here we are, being told in a catch-up kind of a way about important stuff that we needed to have purchased and read a novella to have really experienced. Novella content should always be optional, in my opinion, and only ever expand on what was already developed. Anything major or relevant should be in a major work and explored upon there, otherwise the book is lacking and will suffer as a result of someone not knowing between book 1 and 2 there's 70 pages missing they gotta hunt down first. It was a bad choice for the author. Bad, bad. Hurts the story.
Now, for some content problems:
- The approach to good and evil in this series is odd. Chromatic dragons are evil yet not, yet wyverns are just evil and that’s that and the way we address it it's like the author's message is "prejudice and bigotry are there because we learn lessons and change is an illusion" or something because she has Paul turn into kind of a stereotypical mustache twirling 180 degree bad guy, making him kind of a bad villain in how quickly and completely he turns on Elena and monologues. Then it’s like Elena is basically punished for wanting to see the good in someone after at first being hesitant and then that person goes so hard out of their way to trick them, but like, yeah no, blame the victim. Like, what’s the moral, trust nothing? Prejudices are ultimately a good thing? I don’t know. It felt weird.
- There's a part where the author shames women who get plastic surgery (though at least she shames them also for creeping on teenage boys).
- She does use the slur "slut"
- We learn that Blake beats Tabitha and everyone just looks the other way because Blake is turning dark and needs to be claimed because Rubicon. Like damn he gets away with a lot of shit because he magically just gets to be dark and evil and it's never his fault but it's also his fault but then it's not? Like we'll get to how wishy-washy we are in regards to Blake in future books but we're starting to see it emerge here that Blake is held to different standards.
- Other stuff probably. I tried real hard to take notes but this book took a lot out of me.
I also want to mention that I really never bought Elena and Lucien's relationship/romance and ultimately didn't care about it. It felt hallow and too much like a rapid-fire fantasy story written by an 11 year old who just thinks like "and then they were in love and then they married and then they kissed and then happily ever after" without the necessary development in between the events to establish things properly. I think she does a much better job with Blake and Elena's relationship (the missing information of that novella not withstanding) and that she can pull emotional beats, but Lucien... woof. The ball was dropped there.
I think that about sums it up.
It's better in the sense that this book actually has a good amount of plot; where the first book was just magic school lessons and "omg dragons this is so new and different" with a little heroic endeavor in the third act, this one feels more like it has a clear idea of what's going to happen in the overall story. Reading it now after having read the whole series, details that later become relevant are established here, characters that mean something are introduced, events that need building get a foundation in place, we have twists and turns, etc. which is definitely a positive and has made the story a lot more dynamic and interesting.
As I said before, the author's clear passion for her world and characters and story is evident in the amount of building and detail work and weaving of plot threads that she does. It's really the only thing keeping me here.
However, many of the issues from book one do, sadly, carry over. The same awkward grammar, the same lack of content editing, the same tendency to repeat things and contradict itself, etc. The writing is improved, yes, but it's still really clear how rough this story is despite several reedits and editions.
A few examples of some problems:
- “normal people are lucky they made it through the magic wall and went insane. I was lucky to not go insane” <--a contradiction
- Incorrect use of “Your Highness.” Any sort of address used for a monarch/noble is always capitalized. His Highness, Her Majesty, Your Grace, etc.
- Improper use of the world “twirled.” You can’t twirl your legs around someone, you wrap them. Twirl means to spin/rotate, not wrap. Author does this constantly and also overuses the “guy picks up girl and she wraps legs around waist as he holds her” scene. Like, how short is Elena supposed to be that every kiss is her being held up that high on a guy’s hip bones???
- Awkward dialogue that clearly no one took the time to read over again: "Her eyes were as big and the water inside the glass spilled around the edges" and "That boy is awesome just by breathing."
I also found Elena's character both improved and worsened. Like, in this book she's prone to hyperbole (exaggerating things and overreacting), she has bratty tantrums when she's told things she doesn't want to hear (Cheng, for example, is skeptical that Lucian's mission will benefit him claiming Blake and Elena just gets so mad at him for not just blindly believing what she blindly believes), and she often seems to lack two brain cells because she doesn't learn or retain information to use in processing thoughts. For example, she knows that 1) Goran can't cross the creepers 2) he's a powerful wizard that can control people. Yet, what does she do anytime she thinks Goran is up to something? "Omg he's here, he escaped!" She does this like five times as if she doesn't already know that he was probably using magic from a distance.
Also, when she's handed an egg for a baby dragon, she's like "Huh, don't know what this is it's not important even though Paul just handed it to me and probably has a reason for doing so" and fucking just decides to throw it. Like what a dumb ass, brainless bitch. She doesn't think to ask "why did you hand me a rock?" she just fucking, punts it over her shoulder as soon as she registers that she doesn't know what it is. A classic reaction. Anytime I'm handed something unfamiliar by someone I know my reaction is to throw it over my shoulder and dispose of it.
Though seeing as Lucien has a moment of losing the brain cell and is like "I can't tell you about my sister's murder by a wyvern because you'll leave me" (like, wtf? How does that have any bearing on whether she'll want to leave you or not? It has nothing to do with her? What kind of brain dead reasoning is that? The entire conflict is dumb because Lucien didn't think that one out) I can't much say that there's any single character that doesn't say or do something atrociously thoughtless and dumb in this book.
The book starts with an epitome, which, sounds awkward and seems unnecessary since book one has a very simple plot. The thing, however, that really gets me is that this book has a 70 page novella that includes events references randomly in this book and aren't well incorporated because the author all but makes it mandatory to read. Like, the little novella, Venom or whatever, has character moments between Elena and Blake that are references at least 5 or 6 times, yet, because the author chose to put importance on these events and then not include them in the next major series installment, they just sound out of left field. "Yeah, Blake hits on me when he's drunk." Like, we never see this, we're just told. Adding 70 pages to the start to chronicle Elena and Blake's interactions to develop their relationship a little more would have been great and not added that much bulk to the story.
Yet here we are, being told in a catch-up kind of a way about important stuff that we needed to have purchased and read a novella to have really experienced. Novella content should always be optional, in my opinion, and only ever expand on what was already developed. Anything major or relevant should be in a major work and explored upon there, otherwise the book is lacking and will suffer as a result of someone not knowing between book 1 and 2 there's 70 pages missing they gotta hunt down first. It was a bad choice for the author. Bad, bad. Hurts the story.
Now, for some content problems:
- The approach to good and evil in this series is odd. Chromatic dragons are evil yet not, yet wyverns are just evil and that’s that and the way we address it it's like the author's message is "prejudice and bigotry are there because we learn lessons and change is an illusion" or something because she has Paul turn into kind of a stereotypical mustache twirling 180 degree bad guy, making him kind of a bad villain in how quickly and completely he turns on Elena and monologues. Then it’s like Elena is basically punished for wanting to see the good in someone after at first being hesitant and then that person goes so hard out of their way to trick them, but like, yeah no, blame the victim. Like, what’s the moral, trust nothing? Prejudices are ultimately a good thing? I don’t know. It felt weird.
- There's a part where the author shames women who get plastic surgery (though at least she shames them also for creeping on teenage boys).
- She does use the slur "slut"
- We learn that Blake beats Tabitha and everyone just looks the other way because Blake is turning dark and needs to be claimed because Rubicon. Like damn he gets away with a lot of shit because he magically just gets to be dark and evil and it's never his fault but it's also his fault but then it's not? Like we'll get to how wishy-washy we are in regards to Blake in future books but we're starting to see it emerge here that Blake is held to different standards.
- Other stuff probably. I tried real hard to take notes but this book took a lot out of me.
I also want to mention that I really never bought Elena and Lucien's relationship/romance and ultimately didn't care about it. It felt hallow and too much like a rapid-fire fantasy story written by an 11 year old who just thinks like "and then they were in love and then they married and then they kissed and then happily ever after" without the necessary development in between the events to establish things properly. I think she does a much better job with Blake and Elena's relationship (the missing information of that novella not withstanding) and that she can pull emotional beats, but Lucien... woof. The ball was dropped there.
I think that about sums it up.
azjonti's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
efrancis's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
adacakes's review
2.0
I really like the plot, but I honestly can't deal with the terrible writing. It's even worse in this book. An editor should be able to help with this.