The Procrastinators Book Club discussion

Welcome to The Merciful Crow Buddy Read Discussion thread! This thread officially opens on December 8th and anyone can join at any time. Please keep in mind that spoilers are allowed in this thread but only up to the group's current reading place. Do not spoil the book if you've read further than the group. Any extra days can be used to catch up!

Each week we will be reading by chapters. The suggested Buddy Read discussion schedule is as follows:

Week of 12/8
December 8: Chapters 1-3
December 9: Chapters 4-6
December 10: Chapter 7-9
December 11: Chapters 10-12
December 12: Chapters 13-15
December 13: Chapters 16-18
December 14: Chapters 19-21

Week of 12/15
December 15: Chapters 22-23

PARTICIPANTS
- Bopeep
- Laura
- HeatherH
- Mina

Just started this!

Thoughts so far

Chapter 1 (view spoiler)[ So far I'm intrigued by all this 'Crows' and ' sinners' and plague business.. WHY are the crows untouched by the plague? What causes these infections (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 2 (view spoiler)[ The imagery is so vivid - I'm really enjoying the writing style!

Ok...I did not expect him to be alive! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 3 (view spoiler)[I actually like Fie! She's so snarky!

The whole evil step-mum thing is such a cliche though! (hide spoiler)]

I'm going to start it tomorrow and catch up. Today I'm hoping on finishing Spin the Dawn and catching up a bit on Little women.

So I've read ahead a bit! Not sure I'll have much time tomorrow..

Chapter 4 (view spoiler)[ I'm intrigued by this magic system and these dead gods!

Although I can smell a romance / possible love triangle happening.... I just wish for once they'd leave it alone! @mina I think we talked about this before (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 5 (view spoiler)[Yup there's definitely going to be something between Fie and Tavin (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 6 (view spoiler)[ Awwwww Jas saved the kitty! (hide spoiler)]

ch 1-3

(view spoiler)[ I do like the imagery in this one and so far the plague concept is super intriguing. I'm curious why the crows are immune as well but I dig their group and how they operate.

I read the first couple of chapters back in like September but couldn't really get into it. This time I'm hooked and definitely want to know how the story progresses, so I'm glad I'm giving it another go! That being said, I wasn't surprised the prince was alive still but I do love how Fie's father set it up to sneak him and Tavin out!

Fie is feisty for sure and I think she will be fun to read, but I think I'm more interested in Tavin/Jasimir currently. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 8 (view spoiler)[I'm seeing a lot of this strong-heroine-can't-read trope lately and I'm not that fond of it. (hide spoiler)]


So far I'm actually quite enjoying this overall!

Ok I'm sorry I'm a terrible buddy for this one but I kind of got sucked into this book and I have so much more coming up so I raced ahead a bit (or a lot)

One thing that I forgot to mention earlier - the fact that they keep using the word 'ken' for know makes me think that they all have Scottish/Northern English accent! Haha

Chapter 12 (view spoiler)[ Tavin is adorable! 'Is this edible?' 'What about this?' hahahaha (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 14 (view spoiler)[Oh dear the cliché almost-kiss moment. blegh haha (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 15 (view spoiler)[ I like sassy Jas...and wow that Tavin/Fie situation escalated fast! And also where on earth was Jas through all of that? Aren't they meant to be sticking together? (hide spoiler)]

I finished the first 5 chapters. So far I find it interesting but I'm not that pulled to it. I'm curious about the castes.

@laura for love interest (view spoiler)[ yes, we talked about love triangles, for a moment I had to think for which book we talked then I remembered - Serpent and Dove. I don't know about the love triangle but Tavin, yep definitely a love interest.. i mean the moment she punched him-which was super awesome- i knew where that was going. (hide spoiler)]

@Mina I think for Wicked Saints as well?

Sooo I kind of finished the book haha sorry!

Chapter 19 (view spoiler)[ “You can’t start being nice to me. It’s
terrifying.” I died hahahahah I love Jas (hide spoiler)]

Overall thoughts (don't read until you're finished)
(view spoiler)[ I actually really enjoyed this! the world-building was great, and both Fie's and Jas's character development was also interesting to watch! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 6 (view spoiler)[ Yes, he saved the cat :D Now they showed they are going to be a bit useful to the Crows. I have a question about the Oleanders, they hunt crows right? because they blame them for all the plague and the Oleanders can be of any caste?
I like the system with castes, but I'm still confused by some of it and that's not because I read only 6 chapters, because when I'm typing this I'm at chapter 14. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 7(view spoiler)[ Hangdog -.- gosh. It's good we don't have a love triangle.. just a guy being possessive of someone that he's not with. I'm glad what happens happens. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 8 (view spoiler)[I'm surprised that Jasimir thinks that everything is soooo swell. First he thought the Oleanders are not really a threat, now he's surprised how they threat the Crows and that they basically take all their money. I mean, I understand that there are people that think everything is great because they never had to live through some things but it's still shocking. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 10-16 (view spoiler)[
- Tavin's reaction when she asked for the root, oh, gosh that was perfect xD
- I like how they act towards her like she's their chief.
- The names: Jasimir and Draga, and the one of the guy that was supposed to help them they are Slavic and I'm liking that a lot.
- Well of course there has to be a almost-kiss how else would we know that they are going to end up together?
- Yep that escalated fast..at least it wasn't too detailed. I was so shocked by that in Serpent and Dove because I was under the impression it's a tame YA..although I don't remember reading "wild" YA xD And as for where Jas was... maybe he was washing clothes xD
- One would think the prince would get smarter with the things he experienced and know that thanks to Fie he's alive...but apparently not. I'm soooooo happy she slapped him.
- Oh-oh, Tavin taking Jas' place. (hide spoiler)]

@Laura Maybe we did. Honestly, with this winter war challenge I have no idea what I thought about something past a few books.. and Wicked Saints was soooooooo past few books.

Hahaha yes! To all of that

(view spoiler)[ yeah the oleanders can be of any caste! (hide spoiler)]

I started today and the wriring is so weird for me. There's a lot of words I don't understand and have to search x.x I will read so slowly for this reason, and I probably drop the buddy read.

in fact, I need to reread all the first chapter to understand something haha oTL

I finished it!

Thoughts on all of it (view spoiler)[
I liked it enough. The world was the most interesting thing to me and the magic system, I'm looking forward to more of that. Liked the character development, especially Jas cuz you know how I felt about him in the beginning...well most of the book actually. Fie was impressing, she was strong in the beginning but now she's a badass and I'm actually looking forward to her journey. Tavin on the other hand didn't have much development and now that I think of it that's kinda bad.. I mean Owen developed two great characters and just left the third. Hopefully Tavin's time will come. (hide spoiler)]

Going to work on some of this tonight and tomorrow at work.. so behind - days off don't give me much reading time unfortunately.