A review by aotora
City of Ships by Mary Hoffman
5.0
I don't remember reading this book when I was younger because I don't think that the last three in the series were ever translated.
But this was the book that made me fall in love with Talia all over again. And this was the book that made me fall back into the world and that made me love reading all over again - truly reading. Just sitting and falling into the book for a few hours and just forgetting everything around me.
I loved the story, it was intense, the stakes were high, the final battle was interesting and intense and the fact that anyone could die at any moment- even the characters we've been following for 5 books at this point was good.
The protagonist was finally interesting again - she didn't have as intense of a backstory as Georgia and Luciano had but it was still better than both Sky's and Matt's story.
I didn't really like Alice in this story though. She acted like a brat and a garbage person for no real reason other than being jealous of Sky for spending so much time with his other friends and making a new friend in the protagonist, Isabel.
All the new characters in this book were likeable and I loved learning more about Filippo Nucci as he was a really interesting character in the third book but then didn't appear in the fourth book. I like seeing princess Beatrice being good too. And the side characters were interesting as always.
I also loved that compared to the last book a lot of this book is happening in Talia and not focusing on present day as much as the previous one did. And I love that the other Stravaganti play a much bigger role in this one instead of just being there to support and encourage the new Stravagante but not really doing much beyond that. Seeing them also stravagate back into Talia alongside Isabel and visiting the other cities with her made me smile and it was refreshing to read.
The book does start a little bit slowly like all of them do- we are introduced to Isabel and it takes a while to get going but once it does start and gets going the story is intense, the setting is intense, you find yourself cheering for the protagonist and the final battle feels much better than all the other final tasks Stravaganti are sent to Talia to do - in this one it actually felt like Isabel could die whilst in other books you somehow know that the protagonist will make it out alive or translate to the other world safely like in the first book.
So all in all - this is my favourite book in the series, it reignited my passion for this series and I can't wait to read the last one. I just wish that it wasn't the last one because there are so many interesting side characters in these books and I wish we could see their stories as well.
But this was the book that made me fall in love with Talia all over again. And this was the book that made me fall back into the world and that made me love reading all over again - truly reading. Just sitting and falling into the book for a few hours and just forgetting everything around me.
I loved the story, it was intense, the stakes were high, the final battle was interesting and intense and the fact that anyone could die at any moment- even the characters we've been following for 5 books at this point was good.
The protagonist was finally interesting again - she didn't have as intense of a backstory as Georgia and Luciano had but it was still better than both Sky's and Matt's story.
I didn't really like Alice in this story though. She acted like a brat and a garbage person for no real reason other than being jealous of Sky for spending so much time with his other friends and making a new friend in the protagonist, Isabel.
All the new characters in this book were likeable and I loved learning more about Filippo Nucci as he was a really interesting character in the third book but then didn't appear in the fourth book. I like seeing princess Beatrice being good too. And the side characters were interesting as always.
I also loved that compared to the last book a lot of this book is happening in Talia and not focusing on present day as much as the previous one did. And I love that the other Stravaganti play a much bigger role in this one instead of just being there to support and encourage the new Stravagante but not really doing much beyond that. Seeing them also stravagate back into Talia alongside Isabel and visiting the other cities with her made me smile and it was refreshing to read.
The book does start a little bit slowly like all of them do- we are introduced to Isabel and it takes a while to get going but once it does start and gets going the story is intense, the setting is intense, you find yourself cheering for the protagonist and the final battle feels much better than all the other final tasks Stravaganti are sent to Talia to do - in this one it actually felt like Isabel could die whilst in other books you somehow know that the protagonist will make it out alive or translate to the other world safely like in the first book.
So all in all - this is my favourite book in the series, it reignited my passion for this series and I can't wait to read the last one. I just wish that it wasn't the last one because there are so many interesting side characters in these books and I wish we could see their stories as well.