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romantasyandtea's reviews
211 reviews
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan
5.0
Non-spoiler review
I NEEDED this five-star read. After the books I've read lately, all the DNFs, I so badly NEEDED something so full of life and color and feel-good relationships that warmed my heart and had me laughing, crying, and on the edge of my seat every step of the way.
Oh my gods, Ana is such a wonderful character. She's intelligent without putting others down, she's strong without needing to beat fifty grown men to prove it, she's vulnerable and kind in such an honest way. I absolutely loved her, I loved reading from her POV.
The study of oceanography in this book is so fascinating, I've learned so much. The action was so amazing, so exciting, the characters were all so loveable and fleshed out, and the plot twists were insane. (I didn't see ANY of them coming!)
I was on the verge of a reading slump, and this book saved me. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it as it truly is, as I expected it to be from Uncle Rick, a brilliant masterpiece that I was more than happy to dive deep into.
I NEEDED this five-star read. After the books I've read lately, all the DNFs, I so badly NEEDED something so full of life and color and feel-good relationships that warmed my heart and had me laughing, crying, and on the edge of my seat every step of the way.
Oh my gods, Ana is such a wonderful character. She's intelligent without putting others down, she's strong without needing to beat fifty grown men to prove it, she's vulnerable and kind in such an honest way. I absolutely loved her, I loved reading from her POV.
The study of oceanography in this book is so fascinating, I've learned so much. The action was so amazing, so exciting, the characters were all so loveable and fleshed out, and the plot twists were insane. (I didn't see ANY of them coming!)
I was on the verge of a reading slump, and this book saved me. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it as it truly is, as I expected it to be from Uncle Rick, a brilliant masterpiece that I was more than happy to dive deep into.
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
2.0
I personally... hated this book so much 😂
The two stars are for Wrath, and maybe Nonna, because that grandmother is awesome. (How is she related to Emilia?)
First off, I will say that the only reason this book didn't drag was because I was constantly waiting for Wrath, so if turning the page because you're waiting for another character to show up is worth it to you, then this book is definitely worth the read. It was not worth it to me. With every page that we had to focus more on this useless, pretentious, stupid main character, I felt more and more of my sanity being chipped away at.
Aside from the fact that everything conveniently worked out for Emilia, her motivations were very, very poor. How do I open my sister’s diary? Oh, I know! I’ll summon a demon!
Now, you might be thinking, Okay, so is she going to summon a demon to ask who the killer is? To give her power to find the killer herself? To summon her sister so that she could tell Emilia who her killer was?
Nope! She just wants to summon a demon so that he could open the diary for her! Which he doesn’t even end up doing! That’s so smart, right? I’ll get a demon to open the diary that might have some information that could potentially lead me to someone or something that may or may not help me maybe find out who might have killed my sister! No? Okay, well what about her lunging at the demon after discovering he’s got to be a Prince of Hell and has the power to kill her with one flick of his wrist?
Oh? Is that unbelievably stupid, too? No kidding.
There were millions of easier, less risky solutions to her problems that when she constantly chose the most outlandish, it came off as dumb on her part.
There is so much telling and not showing, so much cataloguing details and focusing on the wrong things at the wrong times, so much of the narrative trying to convince us that Emilia had no choice but to do this very stupid thing and that this danger couldn’t have been avoided and that other characters were the selfish, cruel ones while she was this intelligent, innocent gem. OH PLEASE.
Emilia comes off as very arrogant when she constantly assumes Wrath is protecting her for any reason other than being, you know, eternally bound to protecting her? I’m not saying he didn’t protect her for that reason, but to have her say it instead of him, it’s just so egotistical, especially considering there had been no reason for him to want to protect her at all. All she’d done was trap and insult him. She’d shown no kindness, no strength, no intelligence, and yet the story constantly tries to make you think she’d done something terribly heroic.
Phrasing a question differently so that you ask Greed more than one thing isn’t that impressive or clever, it’s really not. There’s a part in the book where she gives herself all the credit for escaping these horrible demons that were on the verge of killing her for her stupid mistakes, but only ended up surviving because Wrath showed up at the last second and sacrificed something of himself to save her.
Vittoria’s death was not written in any way that tugged at my heartstrings, and Emilia’s flat reaction was even worse. I felt no love between those siblings, and I think the reason was because the blurb tells you that Vittoria’s going to die, so during her scenes, I’m just waiting for her to die. There was no point, in my opinion, to showing any scenes with her after the prologue at all as it added nothing to the story.
Speaking of added nothing; the little excerpts from the di Carlo grimoire served no purpose and the remedies brought up never had any value.
Wrath was a fascinating character, but we get so little of him because the story constantly shuns him out. He doesn’t act like a prince of war so many times, he’s not ruthless or rough or smart when he lets Emilia take the lead on things she knows nothing about, and it comes off a disservice to his character because he has so much potential.
Characters showed up for no reason other than to info-dump for a page, then left, other supernatural creatures were introduced with only fifty pages left of the book, the romance in this was laughable, nothing was resolved by the end, and Emilia’s entire investigation was ridiculous. She kept talking about wanting revenge (and I’m thinking, How, bitch, YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT COOK??!), and then moments would come when she’d act like her entire quest was to save others from being harmed. Umm no?? That wasn’t your motivation two chapters ago??
The writing is just very poor, Emilia doesn’t react like a real person to anything, and she has a complete 180 in every aspect of her personality after Vittoria’s death. (I get the angry or stubborn part, but she was a shy and anxious person beforehand. Suddenly, she’s the type of cliché who says she wants to push Wrath off a cliff just for being handsome? Seriously?) Antonio’s complete 180 when she threatens him was ridiculous. (Yeah, the man that believes he’s a godsend here to murder witches is going to beg one for mercy? Sure.) And the narrative just keeps contradicting itself.
Emilia outwardly tells Wrath that she risked death to get her sister’s amulet, then she says he doesn’t know what she went to get. She does nothing but insult and hate on Wrath, and then acts betrayed when he doesn’t tell her certain things that she’d either caused herself or has no reason to know. She says near the end that she’d met four Princes of Hell when she’d met five.
I don’t see myself picking up the second book in the trilogy. I might end up having more patience to deal with Emilia at some point again, but for now, I think I’ll get my tall, dark, and handsome quota from something else. I sincerely hope others enjoyed this book more than I did, and if that’s the case, I really envy you. And no, no Prince of Hell is having me raise a dagger to my own heart for that one.
The two stars are for Wrath, and maybe Nonna, because that grandmother is awesome. (How is she related to Emilia?)
First off, I will say that the only reason this book didn't drag was because I was constantly waiting for Wrath, so if turning the page because you're waiting for another character to show up is worth it to you, then this book is definitely worth the read. It was not worth it to me. With every page that we had to focus more on this useless, pretentious, stupid main character, I felt more and more of my sanity being chipped away at.
Aside from the fact that everything conveniently worked out for Emilia, her motivations were very, very poor. How do I open my sister’s diary? Oh, I know! I’ll summon a demon!
Now, you might be thinking, Okay, so is she going to summon a demon to ask who the killer is? To give her power to find the killer herself? To summon her sister so that she could tell Emilia who her killer was?
Nope! She just wants to summon a demon so that he could open the diary for her! Which he doesn’t even end up doing! That’s so smart, right? I’ll get a demon to open the diary that might have some information that could potentially lead me to someone or something that may or may not help me maybe find out who might have killed my sister! No? Okay, well what about her lunging at the demon after discovering he’s got to be a Prince of Hell and has the power to kill her with one flick of his wrist?
Oh? Is that unbelievably stupid, too? No kidding.
There were millions of easier, less risky solutions to her problems that when she constantly chose the most outlandish, it came off as dumb on her part.
There is so much telling and not showing, so much cataloguing details and focusing on the wrong things at the wrong times, so much of the narrative trying to convince us that Emilia had no choice but to do this very stupid thing and that this danger couldn’t have been avoided and that other characters were the selfish, cruel ones while she was this intelligent, innocent gem. OH PLEASE.
Emilia comes off as very arrogant when she constantly assumes Wrath is protecting her for any reason other than being, you know, eternally bound to protecting her? I’m not saying he didn’t protect her for that reason, but to have her say it instead of him, it’s just so egotistical, especially considering there had been no reason for him to want to protect her at all. All she’d done was trap and insult him. She’d shown no kindness, no strength, no intelligence, and yet the story constantly tries to make you think she’d done something terribly heroic.
Phrasing a question differently so that you ask Greed more than one thing isn’t that impressive or clever, it’s really not. There’s a part in the book where she gives herself all the credit for escaping these horrible demons that were on the verge of killing her for her stupid mistakes, but only ended up surviving because Wrath showed up at the last second and sacrificed something of himself to save her.
Vittoria’s death was not written in any way that tugged at my heartstrings, and Emilia’s flat reaction was even worse. I felt no love between those siblings, and I think the reason was because the blurb tells you that Vittoria’s going to die, so during her scenes, I’m just waiting for her to die. There was no point, in my opinion, to showing any scenes with her after the prologue at all as it added nothing to the story.
Speaking of added nothing; the little excerpts from the di Carlo grimoire served no purpose and the remedies brought up never had any value.
Wrath was a fascinating character, but we get so little of him because the story constantly shuns him out. He doesn’t act like a prince of war so many times, he’s not ruthless or rough or smart when he lets Emilia take the lead on things she knows nothing about, and it comes off a disservice to his character because he has so much potential.
Characters showed up for no reason other than to info-dump for a page, then left, other supernatural creatures were introduced with only fifty pages left of the book, the romance in this was laughable, nothing was resolved by the end, and Emilia’s entire investigation was ridiculous. She kept talking about wanting revenge (and I’m thinking, How, bitch, YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT COOK??!), and then moments would come when she’d act like her entire quest was to save others from being harmed. Umm no?? That wasn’t your motivation two chapters ago??
The writing is just very poor, Emilia doesn’t react like a real person to anything, and she has a complete 180 in every aspect of her personality after Vittoria’s death. (I get the angry or stubborn part, but she was a shy and anxious person beforehand. Suddenly, she’s the type of cliché who says she wants to push Wrath off a cliff just for being handsome? Seriously?) Antonio’s complete 180 when she threatens him was ridiculous. (Yeah, the man that believes he’s a godsend here to murder witches is going to beg one for mercy? Sure.) And the narrative just keeps contradicting itself.
Emilia outwardly tells Wrath that she risked death to get her sister’s amulet, then she says he doesn’t know what she went to get. She does nothing but insult and hate on Wrath, and then acts betrayed when he doesn’t tell her certain things that she’d either caused herself or has no reason to know. She says near the end that she’d met four Princes of Hell when she’d met five.
I don’t see myself picking up the second book in the trilogy. I might end up having more patience to deal with Emilia at some point again, but for now, I think I’ll get my tall, dark, and handsome quota from something else. I sincerely hope others enjoyed this book more than I did, and if that’s the case, I really envy you. And no, no Prince of Hell is having me raise a dagger to my own heart for that one.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
4.0
I very nearly gave up after the prologue.
Let it be known that I absolutely despise the phrase, "stared defiantly." Reading it, I almost put the book down. So if you take anything from this review, it's this; don't let the prologue trick you, this is actually a pretty good book.
I'm going to be completely honest, I think I've just outgrown the Cassandra Clare-style writing at this point. I'm sick of the poetic language that sounds like nothing anyone would ever say, I'm sick of the urban fantasy that feels like dark, high fantasy instead, and I'm so, so sick of the lack of contractions. What do these people have against the apostrophe?
I spent the entirety of the first two halves in this kind of mindset. The third half, however, is where things start to pick up, and I couldn't put the book down. Oh, don't get me wrong, I couldn't put the book down at any point, but in the beginning, it was more because I was waiting for more interactions between the main characters, Jude and Cardan. It was only in the third half when they started having the banter that I'd been expecting much earlier on. And the third half COMPLETELY makes up for the rest of it.
I get Jude. I wouldn't ever want to be her friend or live in her world, but I get her decisions and the person she feels she's supposed to become. It's not ideal, and I wish she'd made different choices, but I also get it. She was clever and tough in a dark way. I liked Cardan only in the third half. Before that, he's a despicable bully with no redeeming qualities. Even by the end, I had mixed feelings about him. He had tortured Jude for so long and in the worst ways, were we supposed to forgive him so quickly? No, I hope he gets a taste of his own medicine. I hope some things are hard for him. I'm also too intimidated to read the second book because the ANGST is STRONG in this one.
If you're a fan of enemies to lovers, truly decent world building, the darkness of the Fae, and morally ambiguous characters, then I think you'll enjoy this story. However, keep in mind that the romance is nearly non-existent until the very end. I will say this though; I thought I knew what would happen, and I may have been right in one big thing, but I was also very wrong.
I don't want to get into spoilers, but I'll just say that I think these kinds of books really aren't for me anymore. I'll finish the Folk of the Air series, but I've had enough of the too-dark stories with only one, maybe two, slightly decent characters. I didn't hate or dislike Jude, but I really didn't like her that much either, which I think was the point.
Overall, good book, frustrating moments. I'm scared of the sequel, but then I think that should be expected when visiting Holly Black's faerie world.
Let it be known that I absolutely despise the phrase, "stared defiantly." Reading it, I almost put the book down. So if you take anything from this review, it's this; don't let the prologue trick you, this is actually a pretty good book.
I'm going to be completely honest, I think I've just outgrown the Cassandra Clare-style writing at this point. I'm sick of the poetic language that sounds like nothing anyone would ever say, I'm sick of the urban fantasy that feels like dark, high fantasy instead, and I'm so, so sick of the lack of contractions. What do these people have against the apostrophe?
I spent the entirety of the first two halves in this kind of mindset. The third half, however, is where things start to pick up, and I couldn't put the book down. Oh, don't get me wrong, I couldn't put the book down at any point, but in the beginning, it was more because I was waiting for more interactions between the main characters, Jude and Cardan. It was only in the third half when they started having the banter that I'd been expecting much earlier on. And the third half COMPLETELY makes up for the rest of it.
I get Jude. I wouldn't ever want to be her friend or live in her world, but I get her decisions and the person she feels she's supposed to become. It's not ideal, and I wish she'd made different choices, but I also get it. She was clever and tough in a dark way. I liked Cardan only in the third half. Before that, he's a despicable bully with no redeeming qualities. Even by the end, I had mixed feelings about him. He had tortured Jude for so long and in the worst ways, were we supposed to forgive him so quickly? No, I hope he gets a taste of his own medicine. I hope some things are hard for him. I'm also too intimidated to read the second book because the ANGST is STRONG in this one.
If you're a fan of enemies to lovers, truly decent world building, the darkness of the Fae, and morally ambiguous characters, then I think you'll enjoy this story. However, keep in mind that the romance is nearly non-existent until the very end. I will say this though; I thought I knew what would happen, and I may have been right in one big thing, but I was also very wrong.
I don't want to get into spoilers, but I'll just say that I think these kinds of books really aren't for me anymore. I'll finish the Folk of the Air series, but I've had enough of the too-dark stories with only one, maybe two, slightly decent characters. I didn't hate or dislike Jude, but I really didn't like her that much either, which I think was the point.
Overall, good book, frustrating moments. I'm scared of the sequel, but then I think that should be expected when visiting Holly Black's faerie world.
The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling
5.0
This book was all the feel-good, Christmas magic I was hoping it would be, and more. By the end of Part One, I'd cried three times and laughed even more, which I was not expecting but thoroughly pleased about.
I absolutely loved Jack, he's such a great protagonist, he's so kind and loving and brave. The Things are all so fleshed out, I felt SO MUCH with each of them. Some cracked me up, some infuriated me, some tugged at my heart, some made me cheer for them. The Land of the Lost was so immersive and real and frightening and wonderful, the friendships were as powerful as expected from Rowling, and the adventures were just as incredible.
I definitely see rereading The Christmas Pig every Christmas as a new tradition. What a wonderful, magical gift befitting a wonderful, magical season.
I absolutely loved Jack, he's such a great protagonist, he's so kind and loving and brave. The Things are all so fleshed out, I felt SO MUCH with each of them. Some cracked me up, some infuriated me, some tugged at my heart, some made me cheer for them. The Land of the Lost was so immersive and real and frightening and wonderful, the friendships were as powerful as expected from Rowling, and the adventures were just as incredible.
I definitely see rereading The Christmas Pig every Christmas as a new tradition. What a wonderful, magical gift befitting a wonderful, magical season.
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
5.0
Not much to say — another phenomenal reread.
I tried the audiobook for the first time for most of it, and it was pretty good. Would absolutely recommend.
I tried the audiobook for the first time for most of it, and it was pretty good. Would absolutely recommend.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
4.0
Wow, this book was a rollercoaster. There's so much to get into, so I'll just start. This review is non-spoiler, but if you've read the book, then you'll know what I'm talking about.
First, I should tell you that if you think you know ANYTHING about what's going to happen in this book - you don't.
I was so sure that I was going to rate this 3 1/2 stars because I was SO SURE I'd guessed how everything was going to go. I knew who everyone was, who everyone was pretending to be, I knew the lie, the trick, the game - I WAS WRONG. I was SO PAINFULLY AND WONDERFULLY WRONG.
I never once saw the twists and turns coming, and they were RELENTLESS. Just when one secret was revealed, another HUGE secret showed itself in the next few pages. I was reading at one point in a public library, and I gasped SO LOUD, I think I startled some poor man. I thought if the book could just surprise me at least once, I would bump up the rating, and it definitely did that. It's intricate, it's well thought-out, it's so freaking clever - I loved it.
Second. The romance. Oh my gosh, I absolutely LOVED the romance. Julian and Scarlett are your classic hate-to-lovers couple. They don't even really like each other in the beginning, but Julian's so flirty and charming that neither Scarlett nor I had a hope of not falling in love with him.
Now, to mention the few things that bothered me; Scarlett's thing with color. Listen. I still have no idea how it works. I know there are people who can see color based on what they hear or feel, but if that's what Scarlett had, it was never explained. Some of the descriptions also bordered on ridiculous and made no sense, like how Scarlett at one point had "an emerald-green premonition."
I just kind of grimaced every time I read something like that because I'm not a huge fan of poetic language, I don't think it does that good a job of description or enticing emotion or sounding the least bit realistic, and there was just too much of it.
The other thing that started to bug me was Scarlett herself. Don't get me wrong, she's a good character and I really liked her (I definitely think she deserves better), but there was SO MUCH holding up the scene so that she could ask a million questions about Tella and where Tella could be and how they knew that Tella was even around wherever they were. I was surprised Julian didn't lose patience with her because I was definitely starting to. It doesn't last too long, but there was a point there in the beginning where it was really starting to get on my nerves, especially because they were on a deadline, and Scarlett just kept holding everything up.
Speaking of, we don't get to the blurb until 25% into the story. We don't find out that Tella had been taken as part of the challenge (which is the summary on the back, not a spoiler) until really late, and it gets a little boring because the author really tries to build up this mystery of "Where's Tella?" and "Where could Tella be?" and we all know she's been taken as part of the game. There's no suspense there, you're just trying to get into the beginning of the story already.
That said, I really enjoyed this book, I finished it really quickly, I was eager to find out more about Legend (hell, I'd take a sequel just about him), I loved the build up to him, I loved the reveal, I loved this book. Highly recommend, I will definitely be picking up more by this author because her stories are ones I would gladly get swept far away into.
First, I should tell you that if you think you know ANYTHING about what's going to happen in this book - you don't.
I was so sure that I was going to rate this 3 1/2 stars because I was SO SURE I'd guessed how everything was going to go. I knew who everyone was, who everyone was pretending to be, I knew the lie, the trick, the game - I WAS WRONG. I was SO PAINFULLY AND WONDERFULLY WRONG.
I never once saw the twists and turns coming, and they were RELENTLESS. Just when one secret was revealed, another HUGE secret showed itself in the next few pages. I was reading at one point in a public library, and I gasped SO LOUD, I think I startled some poor man. I thought if the book could just surprise me at least once, I would bump up the rating, and it definitely did that. It's intricate, it's well thought-out, it's so freaking clever - I loved it.
Second. The romance. Oh my gosh, I absolutely LOVED the romance. Julian and Scarlett are your classic hate-to-lovers couple. They don't even really like each other in the beginning, but Julian's so flirty and charming that neither Scarlett nor I had a hope of not falling in love with him.
Now, to mention the few things that bothered me; Scarlett's thing with color. Listen. I still have no idea how it works. I know there are people who can see color based on what they hear or feel, but if that's what Scarlett had, it was never explained. Some of the descriptions also bordered on ridiculous and made no sense, like how Scarlett at one point had "an emerald-green premonition."
I just kind of grimaced every time I read something like that because I'm not a huge fan of poetic language, I don't think it does that good a job of description or enticing emotion or sounding the least bit realistic, and there was just too much of it.
The other thing that started to bug me was Scarlett herself. Don't get me wrong, she's a good character and I really liked her (I definitely think she deserves better), but there was SO MUCH holding up the scene so that she could ask a million questions about Tella and where Tella could be and how they knew that Tella was even around wherever they were. I was surprised Julian didn't lose patience with her because I was definitely starting to. It doesn't last too long, but there was a point there in the beginning where it was really starting to get on my nerves, especially because they were on a deadline, and Scarlett just kept holding everything up.
Speaking of, we don't get to the blurb until 25% into the story. We don't find out that Tella had been taken as part of the challenge (which is the summary on the back, not a spoiler) until really late, and it gets a little boring because the author really tries to build up this mystery of "Where's Tella?" and "Where could Tella be?" and we all know she's been taken as part of the game. There's no suspense there, you're just trying to get into the beginning of the story already.
That said, I really enjoyed this book, I finished it really quickly, I was eager to find out more about Legend (hell, I'd take a sequel just about him), I loved the build up to him, I loved the reveal, I loved this book. Highly recommend, I will definitely be picking up more by this author because her stories are ones I would gladly get swept far away into.
The Wicked King by Holly Black
4.5
It may seem like a high rating, but it's actually kind of a letdown because until the last few pages (I'm talking the two to three last few pages), this book was going to be five stars. First I'll get into everything I loved, and then I'll talk about why I knocked down the rating. This review is non-spoiler.
Jude. I love that girl. That's to say, I love her character. She's definitely not someone I would ever want to be friends with, but you can't deny she's tough and really clever when she needs to be. And she ALWAYS needs to be. I usually can't stand that Feyre-type character that's nothing but mean and ruthless, and yet she's considered a "strong female character." But you SEE Jude's struggles, you SEE why she feels she has to outmaneuver the Fae. You see their cruelty, you're not just told about it and then when Jude acts cruel back then it feels like it's just her who's attacking. Because that's exactly the point, she's not attacking, she's defending herself.
I like that you could really believe that the High King's land would go to war if she wasn't there to take care of everything. That's what she does, she gets things done, and I LOVE it.
The story is well-written, too, I don't see a lot of the twists coming. I knew about Cardan's proposition at the end simply because of the title of the last book and that's what everything was leading up to, but what happens in the last few pages, I couldn't have guessed. Probably because... they weren't great like the rest of the book had been.
Which brings me to my few issues. Sorry, rant time.
First, it's Cardan himself. Listen. I LOVE Cardan. I do. He's very charming, he has his moments, I love him and Jude together, I do! I just... don't think a few pretty words and his traumatic childhood are a good enough justification for the way he's acted towards Jude. He was definitely a lot crueler in the first book, but he's yet to really redeem himself in any way. He doesn't defend her, he doesn't stand by her, he doesn't show her any sympathy, he doesn't provide any comfort. I don't really... forgive everything he's done. (Cruel Prince references here) He's ripped a wing off a faerie who didn't kneel before him, he's allowed Jude to be all but assaulted in the first book, and he's not that brutal in the second, but he's not anything mind-blowingly great either. He doesn't do ANYTHING to earn her trust or love or respect. I'm sorry I don't sympathize that much with a bully who's only given a few pretty, pitiful words for his behavior.
There's a moment at the end where I'd hoped that Cardan would take Jude's side because, yes, she's killed people before, I'm not saying it's great, but also, these people were monsters who put her at a life or death situation, and then she's punished when she defends herself. I'd just hoped that he would've done or said something about that, but he made things worse.
There's no whimsy in these stories at all. None. At least with Cassandra Clare, you have the safety of the Institute, you have Magnus's charm and the comfort of his character and his apartment. There are safe places, safe characters. There are NONE here, which is why I just can't, for the life of me, understand Jude's desire to stay amongst the faeries. It's so hard to understand, so when she's constantly fighting to stay, to be recognized, to rise there when there's the safety of the mortal world on the other side of the pond, I just don't get it. I'm in awe of her strength and cunning, but I also just don't understand. Even people who are born, raised, and grow up in the trenches don't want to stay in the trenches. She's been humiliated, mutilated, and yet when asked why she stays, she says, "It's home."
Girl. Sweetie. Beautiful. Listen to me, home is not a place where you're raised. It's the people, the comfort. Some might call it cowardice to say that she's better off in the mortal world where it's safer, but the only reason she stays with the faeries (who all hate her, by the way), and according to her, is because it's all she's ever known. That's not good enough for me to root for her to stay there. (Also, can Taryn die already? And Nicasia. I want them dead. Hell, throw in Locke, too.)
Now, in terms of the ending. It's not that I disliked the choices made. It was an interesting one, and I would've loved it, had it been handled better. Instead, Jude was made to seem very - well, I'm just going to say it; pathetic. For her to speak the way she did, to be handled the way she was, it was very out of character. She ran the country for the entirety of the book, and then THAT happens at the end, and it was a completely unsatisfying payoff. I know the series isn't over yet, but the way she was depicted in her reaction, the way Cardan was depicted, the choices HE made about a certain fish - it just didn't put anybody in a good enough light that I'll be super eager to pick up the last book right away.
Don't get me wrong, the book was great, and I highly recommend it, but I guess I'm just a little down that it was the last two to three pages that bumped down the rating. I loved the story, but I think I'll hold off on returning to the faeries for a bit.
Jude. I love that girl. That's to say, I love her character. She's definitely not someone I would ever want to be friends with, but you can't deny she's tough and really clever when she needs to be. And she ALWAYS needs to be. I usually can't stand that Feyre-type character that's nothing but mean and ruthless, and yet she's considered a "strong female character." But you SEE Jude's struggles, you SEE why she feels she has to outmaneuver the Fae. You see their cruelty, you're not just told about it and then when Jude acts cruel back then it feels like it's just her who's attacking. Because that's exactly the point, she's not attacking, she's defending herself.
I like that you could really believe that the High King's land would go to war if she wasn't there to take care of everything. That's what she does, she gets things done, and I LOVE it.
The story is well-written, too, I don't see a lot of the twists coming. I knew about Cardan's proposition at the end simply because of the title of the last book and that's what everything was leading up to, but what happens in the last few pages, I couldn't have guessed. Probably because... they weren't great like the rest of the book had been.
Which brings me to my few issues. Sorry, rant time.
First, it's Cardan himself. Listen. I LOVE Cardan. I do. He's very charming, he has his moments, I love him and Jude together, I do! I just... don't think a few pretty words and his traumatic childhood are a good enough justification for the way he's acted towards Jude. He was definitely a lot crueler in the first book, but he's yet to really redeem himself in any way. He doesn't defend her, he doesn't stand by her, he doesn't show her any sympathy, he doesn't provide any comfort. I don't really... forgive everything he's done. (Cruel Prince references here) He's ripped a wing off a faerie who didn't kneel before him, he's allowed Jude to be all but assaulted in the first book, and he's not that brutal in the second, but he's not anything mind-blowingly great either. He doesn't do ANYTHING to earn her trust or love or respect. I'm sorry I don't sympathize that much with a bully who's only given a few pretty, pitiful words for his behavior.
There's a moment at the end where I'd hoped that Cardan would take Jude's side because, yes, she's killed people before, I'm not saying it's great, but also, these people were monsters who put her at a life or death situation, and then she's punished when she defends herself. I'd just hoped that he would've done or said something about that, but he made things worse.
There's no whimsy in these stories at all. None. At least with Cassandra Clare, you have the safety of the Institute, you have Magnus's charm and the comfort of his character and his apartment. There are safe places, safe characters. There are NONE here, which is why I just can't, for the life of me, understand Jude's desire to stay amongst the faeries. It's so hard to understand, so when she's constantly fighting to stay, to be recognized, to rise there when there's the safety of the mortal world on the other side of the pond, I just don't get it. I'm in awe of her strength and cunning, but I also just don't understand. Even people who are born, raised, and grow up in the trenches don't want to stay in the trenches. She's been humiliated, mutilated, and yet when asked why she stays, she says, "It's home."
Girl. Sweetie. Beautiful. Listen to me, home is not a place where you're raised. It's the people, the comfort. Some might call it cowardice to say that she's better off in the mortal world where it's safer, but the only reason she stays with the faeries (who all hate her, by the way), and according to her, is because it's all she's ever known. That's not good enough for me to root for her to stay there. (Also, can Taryn die already? And Nicasia. I want them dead. Hell, throw in Locke, too.)
Now, in terms of the ending. It's not that I disliked the choices made. It was an interesting one, and I would've loved it, had it been handled better. Instead, Jude was made to seem very - well, I'm just going to say it; pathetic. For her to speak the way she did, to be handled the way she was, it was very out of character. She ran the country for the entirety of the book, and then THAT happens at the end, and it was a completely unsatisfying payoff. I know the series isn't over yet, but the way she was depicted in her reaction, the way Cardan was depicted, the choices HE made about a certain fish - it just didn't put anybody in a good enough light that I'll be super eager to pick up the last book right away.
Don't get me wrong, the book was great, and I highly recommend it, but I guess I'm just a little down that it was the last two to three pages that bumped down the rating. I loved the story, but I think I'll hold off on returning to the faeries for a bit.