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A review by emleemay
Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee
1.0
Just in case you missed the blurb, let me remind us all what this book is supposed to be about:
In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time... She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.
Magic... check.
Adventure... check.
Sibling love... check.
Recipe for awesomeness... sure sounds like it to me!
But, you see, here's the thing. Apparently, Kai is some badass, talented manipulator of time - that's what we're told. But I guess I missed all her hardcore magical talents somewhere between her poetic ramblings about Avan and her "oh my, Avan's sexy arm just brushed against my innocent, blushing virginal arm" nonsense. Okay no, the author didn't say her arm blushed (or was a virgin), I made it up. But I'm sure you catch my drift.
And apparently there was some adventure and apparently their lives were in danger and maybe I would have got a better sense of that if not every single one of Kai's thoughts were about Avan. The original plot line of her brother being kidnapped intrigued me, but it was quickly lost beneath the romancing and angsting. I felt like I kept waiting for the good stuff to happen in this book. It has such a great title and interesting premise that I was sure something really good was just around the corner.
So... I waited. And got:
“Without Avan in front of me, I felt unsteady. I leaned forward, resting my hands on the seat. It was warm. I drew away, flustered.
Sometimes, with the shop counter between us, it was easy to look at Avan and admire him from the safe standpoint of a friend, to see him as just a boy from the Alley.”
And then:
“Being this close to Avan was a practice in contradictions. His body heat and the solid comfort of his back soothed me. I could relax against him and feel secure enough to sleep, even if only lightly. It was almost like being with Reev. But Reev didn’t also make me hyperaware of every point of contact between us. The shift of his muscles beneath my cheek. The backs of his thighs. The way our hips aligned on the seat. For the first hour, my heart pounded so hard, it was like a battering ram against my ribs.”
And: “I leaned against his side and felt his arm circle my shoulders. Even though I knew it wasn’t true, I imagined his warmth like a Sun that shone just for me.”
I thought this was going to be fantasy, not romance. And interesting, not boring. But this book was about 90% romantic angst; and boring romantic angst at that. The "heroine" was prudish to the point that even thinking about a kiss made her blush... I just lost interest so quickly that I'm amazed I managed to force myself through. I will say that the last quarter is marginally better than the rest but it wasn't enough to rescue the book, in my opinion.
So disappointed.
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In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time... She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.
Magic... check.
Adventure... check.
Sibling love... check.
Recipe for awesomeness... sure sounds like it to me!
But, you see, here's the thing. Apparently, Kai is some badass, talented manipulator of time - that's what we're told. But I guess I missed all her hardcore magical talents somewhere between her poetic ramblings about Avan and her "oh my, Avan's sexy arm just brushed against my innocent, blushing virginal arm" nonsense. Okay no, the author didn't say her arm blushed (or was a virgin), I made it up. But I'm sure you catch my drift.
And apparently there was some adventure and apparently their lives were in danger and maybe I would have got a better sense of that if not every single one of Kai's thoughts were about Avan. The original plot line of her brother being kidnapped intrigued me, but it was quickly lost beneath the romancing and angsting. I felt like I kept waiting for the good stuff to happen in this book. It has such a great title and interesting premise that I was sure something really good was just around the corner.
So... I waited. And got:
“Without Avan in front of me, I felt unsteady. I leaned forward, resting my hands on the seat. It was warm. I drew away, flustered.
Sometimes, with the shop counter between us, it was easy to look at Avan and admire him from the safe standpoint of a friend, to see him as just a boy from the Alley.”
And then:
“Being this close to Avan was a practice in contradictions. His body heat and the solid comfort of his back soothed me. I could relax against him and feel secure enough to sleep, even if only lightly. It was almost like being with Reev. But Reev didn’t also make me hyperaware of every point of contact between us. The shift of his muscles beneath my cheek. The backs of his thighs. The way our hips aligned on the seat. For the first hour, my heart pounded so hard, it was like a battering ram against my ribs.”
And: “I leaned against his side and felt his arm circle my shoulders. Even though I knew it wasn’t true, I imagined his warmth like a Sun that shone just for me.”
I thought this was going to be fantasy, not romance. And interesting, not boring. But this book was about 90% romantic angst; and boring romantic angst at that. The "heroine" was prudish to the point that even thinking about a kiss made her blush... I just lost interest so quickly that I'm amazed I managed to force myself through. I will say that the last quarter is marginally better than the rest but it wasn't enough to rescue the book, in my opinion.
So disappointed.
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