Nina > Recent Status Updates

Am loving it so far!

An empress randomly sends a one-page personally-written note to invite you to tea? Really? I’m supposed to believe this? Obviously it’s fiction but COME ON. It’s the kind of plot a ten year old comes up with.

I’m only about 10% in and not impresses. It feels like this book was written for teenagers. No—it feels like I’m reading the description that Stephanie Gerber wrote to her agent. Like, what happened to Show Don’t Tell?!
I’m gonna soldier on, but this is not a promising start.

Beautiful. Just stunning.

Booooooooriiiiiiiiiing

Jeepers this has been a week of bad parents, it seems.

Lots of domestic abuse. Ai.

I am crying.

This is turning out FAR better than I expected.

That was a let down.

Things are definitely picking up at this end of the book but I just realised how weak the motivation is for the characters to try to break in to the eternal city’s archives. They just want to get in there to, what, see what’s inside? Jaaaaa, you wouldn’t be able to convince me to risk my life just to have a peek in a room, just to satisfy my curiosity. No guys, this book is not sharp. Suspend your disbelief.

I don’t know how many more f*ck’s and f*cking’s I can handle. It’s like someone said to the author: sure you can swear, this book’s for adults. And she was like, F*UCK YEAH LET’S DO IT!

Just when I thought Bryce was super smart, she goes and does something so stupid. Really? Hide someone everyone is looking for with people close to you? Yeah, they’re not gonna look there at all. Huh.

A bunch of people die right in front of you and your friends, and you, what, continue your discussion as if nothing happened? Seriously guys, I don’t know how much more ridiculousness of this book I can handle.

Also can I just say how ridiculous it is that someone who works for the rebellion is now part of a team of people that he doesn’t even know he can trust but values their opinions more than the organisation he works for? This is so not how espionage or whatever works. Just, like, wtf. And in terms of being secretive, I am thoroughly surprised they haven’t been caught due to a lack of it.

Honestly, I am not afraid of smut, but this just feels like a bunch of collage kids getting it on. It just doesn’t have any… passion? Romance? I don’t know, but whatever it is that’s missing is causing me to cringe — literally cringe — whenever Bryce and Hunt feel each other up. I mean, in the hallway, guys? Seriously? Where someone just walked pst? So over it.

Meh

I’m at chapter 43 and in it the main character has her biased world view challenged and finds out that most people have myths of pure races. So. The criticism that this book promotes pure race etc is BS. This story just follows a very biased young woman as she comes to question her upbringing religion and culture. I wasn’t comfortable with it at first, but good books don’t always make us comfortable.

Very unlike anything I’ve read in a long time and I’m bot sure if I like it but I can’t seem to stop reading it💁🏻‍♀️

This reads like a modern romance and I’m not sure I like it. Even if we were to give up reality for a moment and forget that a lady born in the prim England of yesteryear would so easily forego her scruples and do so many naaaasty acts from the get-go — which is already a big ask, I tell you — the way these characters swear just Does.Not.Feel.Authentic. Like I said: modern romance. Jeez.

Is it just me or does the author sometimes forget that the heroine isn’t really a governess? Like, she acts as if this is all in her stride instead of her first rodeo.

So far so fantastic!

Can I just ask, what the hell is up with Camilla’s family? Like, wow, if my fam spoke like that to me I would be in tears. And also, wtf, the mmc picking a fight over THE stupidest little thing. I’m sorry, but I am so not impressed with this type of conflict. It’s not even a misunderstanding. It’s literally just being short-sighted and selfish. Ugh.