Play Book Tag discussion

There are so many things I liked about this, but I also had a really hard time staying focused on it. I think that was about 50/50 my fault vs. the book's fault.

It takes a while to get going, mostly to establish where the MC is coming from at the start of the book so we can fully appreciate where she ends up by the end of it. That's necessary, but still drags out a little too much for my tastes.

I was surprised by how much of the previous book came back to me as I was reading this, but I was also surprised by how lost I think you'd be if you hadn't read that book. This is one of those series that's supposed to be made up of standalones, but I'm not sure how true that is. Or maybe that setup felt dragged out to me because it's aimed at the new readers? I'm not sure, but I know that it wasn't the only place I felt the book dragged everything out just a little more than it needed to be. In fact, I think if you take this same exact story and condense it by about 75 pages, it would be perfect.

Ista really does become a great character, and the plot ends up being really well-structured as much as I struggled to keep my focus on it.

The dry, subtle humor is great, and again, cut about 75 pages of the other stuff and that could stand out even more. And then, if you devoted a few more of those remaining pages to the lovely, slow-developing relationship, this would be tailor-made for me :)

I remember feeling like the other book dragged a little more than it needed to as well, but the other thing I have on my TBR from this author is a series of novellas, so I think I will try those to see if the pacing works better for me and decide whether I will try anything else from there.

I am in a fantasy group and was warned that although some say these are stand alone, they need to be read in order. I liked this one more than you though and do anticipate the next