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A review by brittanica_bold
Justice in Magic by Ky Venn
2.0
First, I want to sincerely thank Ky Venn for the opportunity to read this ARC. Any time I am able to transport away from my every day life to a fantasy realm, I am sincerely grateful.
Unfortunately, I did not feel that the style of this book was right for me.
What I liked about the book:
1. I liked Addie’s passion and her reasoning behind why she wanted to become a lawyer. I thought this was fantastic and showed true growth from her undeniable trauma. This fact alone made her a total badass to me and made me respect her.
2. I liked the theory behind this book. I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Caraval, and Zodiac Academy. I love the idea of a “normal” person gong into a “world” they don’t know and having to learn to survive the best they can.
3. The romance was fantastic! You could definitely feel the tension between her and her many options. Honestly, I kept reading in hopes we would get an Addie/Ezra scene!!!! He called her "freckles" for goodness sake!!!!
What could have been better:
1. I was not a fan of the main character. While I understand she had some traumatic events in her past, I felt she played the victim in everyday circumstances and she is was bratty. Unfortunately, someone that had a great backstory and a lot of potential was also selfish and self-centered, and was most of the reason this was a tough read for me.
One of the examples I can remember that had me grimacing was when her roommate woke her up nicely so she wouldn’t be late. Then, not long after that day, her roommate asked for her to wake her up since she had a habit of sleeping through her alarm. Instead of thinking nothing of it or even as a “this is what friends do for each other” type of thing, she grimaced to herself and thought “why is that my job?” Her roommate had been nothing but nice to her and pulled her under her wing, and this was her response? To add to this, right after this Addie comes back and sees her roommate has done her own hair very nicely and Addie hopes that her roommate will help her with her hair as well. Just makes her seem very selfish and like all of her relationships are one-sided, like she's only thinking what she can get out of them.
2. Overall, I wish the details in this book were in different places. I would have loved more expansion on the world building and less on her day-to-day activities. It seemed like every time the different regions of Evvalor were brought up, they were all packed into a very small sentence and referenced at the same time, so it was very hard to remember anything about any of them. And the “final showdown” felt like it was an afterthought. When references to this showdown start out the beginning of the book, I thought this chapter would be the longest one in the whole book, but it was over quickly and was rather anticlimactic for me personally.
On the other hand, I found there was an excessive amount of detail around things that just didn’t matter to the overall story. We would read sentences like, “Addie did her homework. Then she made a sandwich. Then she took a shower and joined her friends.” At which point, the main conversation with her friends would actually mean something. I understand that books need filler, but this went a different direction than I typically like. This was not interesting to me, and I found it hard to keep invested in the story when this was a frequent style choice.
3. I found there were a lot of inconsistencies in the book, especially around Ezra. I think I’ve figured out the entire plot of this story, but there are still many things that just don’t add up or were contradicted later on.
Rating: 2.5 stars
Unfortunately, I did not feel that the style of this book was right for me.
What I liked about the book:
1. I liked Addie’s passion and her reasoning behind why she wanted to become a lawyer. I thought this was fantastic and showed true growth from her undeniable trauma. This fact alone made her a total badass to me and made me respect her.
2. I liked the theory behind this book. I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Caraval, and Zodiac Academy. I love the idea of a “normal” person gong into a “world” they don’t know and having to learn to survive the best they can.
3. The romance was fantastic! You could definitely feel the tension between her and her many options. Honestly, I kept reading in hopes we would get an Addie/Ezra scene!!!! He called her "freckles" for goodness sake!!!!
What could have been better:
1. I was not a fan of the main character. While I understand she had some traumatic events in her past, I felt she played the victim in everyday circumstances and she is was bratty. Unfortunately, someone that had a great backstory and a lot of potential was also selfish and self-centered, and was most of the reason this was a tough read for me.
One of the examples I can remember that had me grimacing was when her roommate woke her up nicely so she wouldn’t be late. Then, not long after that day, her roommate asked for her to wake her up since she had a habit of sleeping through her alarm. Instead of thinking nothing of it or even as a “this is what friends do for each other” type of thing, she grimaced to herself and thought “why is that my job?” Her roommate had been nothing but nice to her and pulled her under her wing, and this was her response? To add to this, right after this Addie comes back and sees her roommate has done her own hair very nicely and Addie hopes that her roommate will help her with her hair as well. Just makes her seem very selfish and like all of her relationships are one-sided, like she's only thinking what she can get out of them.
2. Overall, I wish the details in this book were in different places. I would have loved more expansion on the world building and less on her day-to-day activities. It seemed like every time the different regions of Evvalor were brought up, they were all packed into a very small sentence and referenced at the same time, so it was very hard to remember anything about any of them. And the “final showdown” felt like it was an afterthought. When references to this showdown start out the beginning of the book, I thought this chapter would be the longest one in the whole book, but it was over quickly and was rather anticlimactic for me personally.
On the other hand, I found there was an excessive amount of detail around things that just didn’t matter to the overall story. We would read sentences like, “Addie did her homework. Then she made a sandwich. Then she took a shower and joined her friends.” At which point, the main conversation with her friends would actually mean something. I understand that books need filler, but this went a different direction than I typically like. This was not interesting to me, and I found it hard to keep invested in the story when this was a frequent style choice.
3. I found there were a lot of inconsistencies in the book, especially around Ezra. I think I’ve figured out the entire plot of this story, but there are still many things that just don’t add up or were contradicted later on.
Rating: 2.5 stars