Scan barcode
A review by sincerelyabiblio
Last Memoria by Rachel Emma Shaw
3.0
This book really sparked my interest and I was really excited when Rachel Emma Shaw reaches out and offered a free digital copy for an honest review!
There were a lot of things I liked about this story and a lot of things I struggled with. Overall, I think it was a good story and I’m intrigued to read the second part but I’m not exactly dying for a continuation of the story. That being said, I think I would still recommend it to certain readers.
My non-spoiler 3 pros and cons are:
Pros:
1. Falon was a really interesting character that was well written! I also loved Havric as well.
2. The memoria world was amazing. I loved the physical descriptions, their world, their magical abilities. You can tell this is where most of the authors initial focus was in writing the story as it’s the most flushed out. I even wish we could have stayed in the memoria world longer!
3. The descriptions of the cities were so good, I loved that you had one underground, one building upwards towards the sky and another that was your basic city. Arvendon was definitely my favorite!
Cons:
1. It took me until chapter 11 to get into the story and even then the second half was written much better and the plot was more interesting. It just was a con for me that it took so long to get to that point.
2. Sarilla began to get a little annoying. She was constantly keeping secrets and deciding who got to know some things when. And then she would go through phases of being really independent and wanting more for herself to just following whoever was around her that decided they were in charge. I think it would have been better to get more of her character in the beginning than at the very end.
3. There were a lot of characters we didn’t spend a lot of time with that sad things happened to and I just did not care about them at all. (More in spoiler section below.) I wish we could have had more time with these people!
Beware minor spoilers ahead!!
By certain readers, I mean those who don’t quit reading a book the second they become disinterested. I think that’s a very fair way of reading but I’m always the type to push myself to finish! And in this case, I was super glad I did!
This beginning of the novel was super hard for me to get into. I was really confused by what was going on, what it exactly meant to be a memoria and how the memories seemed to suck them in. It seems like a power that was really out of control and made Sarilla a hard narrator to follow. By about chapter 11, I understood what was going on and the plot really began to develop. This felt like a really late start and I wish we would have either spent more time with her and her brother or that we had spent no time with them at all. In all honestly, I didn’t really care about his fate. I didn’t know his character enough to like him but knew enough to be turned off by him. I felt the same indifference with her sister, father, and the whole memoria population. The surprise factor of what happened to them was totally there, we just didn’t get the time to fully connect with these characters!
The second half of the novel is narrated by Falon. I loved the second half! I really liked how conflicted Falon was and how we got to see what it was like for someone who had gaps in their memories. He had so much emotion that flipped between hating her and loving her. It felt pretty real for the situation he was in. And this brought us to the ending which I really liked because even though Sarilla was starting to really annoy me, it made sense why she had become the way she was and in the end I was happy with her fate.
As I said, this book is definitely not going to be for all readers but for those who stick with it, you won’t regret it!
There were a lot of things I liked about this story and a lot of things I struggled with. Overall, I think it was a good story and I’m intrigued to read the second part but I’m not exactly dying for a continuation of the story. That being said, I think I would still recommend it to certain readers.
My non-spoiler 3 pros and cons are:
Pros:
1. Falon was a really interesting character that was well written! I also loved Havric as well.
2. The memoria world was amazing. I loved the physical descriptions, their world, their magical abilities. You can tell this is where most of the authors initial focus was in writing the story as it’s the most flushed out. I even wish we could have stayed in the memoria world longer!
3. The descriptions of the cities were so good, I loved that you had one underground, one building upwards towards the sky and another that was your basic city. Arvendon was definitely my favorite!
Cons:
1. It took me until chapter 11 to get into the story and even then the second half was written much better and the plot was more interesting. It just was a con for me that it took so long to get to that point.
2. Sarilla began to get a little annoying. She was constantly keeping secrets and deciding who got to know some things when. And then she would go through phases of being really independent and wanting more for herself to just following whoever was around her that decided they were in charge. I think it would have been better to get more of her character in the beginning than at the very end.
3. There were a lot of characters we didn’t spend a lot of time with that sad things happened to and I just did not care about them at all. (More in spoiler section below.) I wish we could have had more time with these people!
Beware minor spoilers ahead!!
By certain readers, I mean those who don’t quit reading a book the second they become disinterested. I think that’s a very fair way of reading but I’m always the type to push myself to finish! And in this case, I was super glad I did!
This beginning of the novel was super hard for me to get into. I was really confused by what was going on, what it exactly meant to be a memoria and how the memories seemed to suck them in. It seems like a power that was really out of control and made Sarilla a hard narrator to follow. By about chapter 11, I understood what was going on and the plot really began to develop. This felt like a really late start and I wish we would have either spent more time with her and her brother or that we had spent no time with them at all. In all honestly, I didn’t really care about his fate. I didn’t know his character enough to like him but knew enough to be turned off by him. I felt the same indifference with her sister, father, and the whole memoria population. The surprise factor of what happened to them was totally there, we just didn’t get the time to fully connect with these characters!
The second half of the novel is narrated by Falon. I loved the second half! I really liked how conflicted Falon was and how we got to see what it was like for someone who had gaps in their memories. He had so much emotion that flipped between hating her and loving her. It felt pretty real for the situation he was in. And this brought us to the ending which I really liked because even though Sarilla was starting to really annoy me, it made sense why she had become the way she was and in the end I was happy with her fate.
As I said, this book is definitely not going to be for all readers but for those who stick with it, you won’t regret it!