Elle > Recent Status Updates

I was excited for this after other great POC uprising books this year but Aicha is a struggle. Terrible pacing - 45% is way too long for introduction, it should have been 20% max. Action finally starts around the 50% mark but I’m already too divorced from characters & story. Also very concerned over the casual misogyny & male-on-female violence that the author doesn’t care to frame as bad.

At some point the whimsy-overload starts to hurt the novel's serious aspects. Demelza's dad wants to cut out her heart... but she shows up to the bride contest with mud magically bonded to her hair by her mum to make her less attractive, lol that crazy mum Arris' whole family is routinely murdered by their brides, but they turn into trees who you can go talk so, so the murder part isn't really that bad.

Enjoying this so much. I read a few too many T Kingfisher books in a row that were too similar in terms of tropes, character archetypes, etc. So far this one is shaping up to be more original - I'm hoping this will be another 4/5 star read, not one I struggle to finish.

This definitely picks up as it gets further into the contest, & has time to develop both Demelza and Arris more. I'm also enjoying a lot of the side characters. The growing attraction/romance & the understandable reasons for arguments/misunderstandings are very well done. I think this is above average for YA, but still a bit in the middle age-range, not at the upper almost-adult range that works better for me.

Worldbuilding is both excessive & bare-bones. Everything is magic & unique, therefore depth is rarely given to any of the MANY unique magical things (plant, animals, clouds, breezes, gems, etc.) so I never really know what anything is or what it looks like. Over-gilded worldbuilding, if that makes sense. Shiny but not functional. Still, a good read so far & I like the characters. I'm a bit over bride contests though.

I love it so muuuuuuch!!! Not sure how many of the characters I will wind up liking, given the beginning (I do not see myself forgiving Gwyn (?) anytime soon). But there's some excellent complications and setup for the main duo. Worldbuilding is cool and has some unique elements on top of a fairly traditional base to let people adjust quickly.

Worldbuilding is very interesting, but there's not much subtext or complexity to characters yet. We are in the prologue, MC not even born yet, but my high expectations (given the hype & reviews around the author's previous works) are not being met. It feels a bit young in terms of prose & the level of the book, not higher end of YA with the authors who write complex, layered works.

Prose is clean & clear, fast to read, but seems younger than TGUWG because there is zero subtext or complexity. Chinese inserts that made sense for TGUWG don't work here: 1) they are overexplained, 2) the novel is set in China so everything should be spoken & written in Mandarin, no need for constant translations within a translation.

So far I feel nothing for either love interest. They're both a bit too bipolar.

Really digging the worldbuilding. Fola is cool. First fight scene was done very well. But the worldbuilding with gods who experimented on people, ghosts, fae, four-armed love interest... it's piqued my interest.

Formatting on the digital arc is wonky, so this one is currently on pause and waiting for my physical copy to arrive so I can give it the focus it deserves instead of being distracted by the text layout.

Pride and Prejudice with dragons? I'm in.

This was a slow start (again) but god when the mystery gets going do these novels shine. So excited about a Moriarty-type enemy for Ana's Sherlockian self, I'm hoping he doesn't end up dead by the end of this novel because the best thing about a nemesis is if you don't remove them completely in their first showing. Don't be a Marvel movie, please.

This is very difficult to read with the flu, my brain is struggling. Very happy to revisit Din and Ana and this crazy plant world again, though.

I've DNFed the last two GGK books I tried, so was planning to sell this book-box one on, but decided to give it a try first. Maybe I'm just looking for the right GGK book.

Not in love with the prose. It waffles, it Tells, it dumps backstory for every character who appears (they can't all be that important). I'm here for the murder mystery & to see if he's improved his female characters.

I think the biggest issue (apart from not buying into the romance) is that when I put this down, I have no urge to pick it back up again. It's not doing anything overly wrong, there is definitely an epic fantasy feel to setting and plot, but nothing is actually hooking my interest.

Almost 50% before we go to the underwater realm - seems late. A LOT of intro & set-up, I'm surprised an editor didn't cut it down. Surprisingly enough I never got bored reading it, but I'm not sure we needed protag-length setup for Tru, both her sisters, her mother, Tru's con-artist friend, two minor antagonists, and the lord of the region. That they were entertaining scenes does not make them critical scenes.

I not vibing with the romance. Partly it's that this uses the exact tropes/kinks from Paladin's Grace, & partly the characters feel Flanderised before even 50%. The ratio of romance to fantasy-plot skews too romance for me, even more than PG, with plot disappearing for too long.

* I think PG was technically written later than SH but PG did everything better--& with comedy--so SH feels like a worse initial draft.

There was a long section post-escape where this really dragged - things happened, but were so easily resolved & of little cause-or-effect that it felt like filler so TK could say "it's not just romance in this section, I promise" (but it really was). Things finally picked up on the journey back, though I dislike Halla treating Sarkis like a science experiment, casually forgetting his humanity as it suits her.

I'm not buying the main romance - something about it feels vaguely off, like Grey's all-in but Kier is giving micro-signs that he's not, despite the story trying to push it. Feels low-key toxic and/or manipulative, and it's hard to seperate how much is the abusive magic system vs the individuals. I won't be surprised at a last-minute betrayal, is all I'm saying...

This is straining belief, trying to insta-love & insta-trust the pair doomed to have one kill the other. Simran wants to escape to rescue her kidnapped friend; when the knight destined to kill her begs to come along, Simran says 'no why would I give you more chance to kill me?' Vina says 'but I don't think you can kill the enemy alone, I can help' and apparently that's enough to overcome Simran's unavoidable murder??

We finally get a definite goal at 17%, with a quest & some mysteries for Simran to solve. But then it immediately deviates into court/political drama instead??? I love the lore, but the pacing of this is all off. I share Simran's frustrated rage at these roadblocks, but otherwise still no real connection to the characters. Are we at court to try and develop Vina? Why can't we do that on the road to rescue Hari?

The worldbuilding is interesting and the writing has no issues, but I'm not emotionally connected. It feels like the author is trying to keep too many secrets - I couldn't tell you what either protagonist actually WANTS despite multiple chapters in each POV already.

Welp, there goes all my respect for Elo. What a rotten turn this series has taken, destroying every bit of found family it promised in book 1, and completely reversing Elo’s development arc. That’s an auto “minus 2 stars”, let’s see if this book can even keep a 3 star rating or if there’s more dumpster fires coming…

The lore intrigues me, but it feels better as a concept than a reality. In reality, people would be gaming the hell out of this system, hacking it via black market "banned" books, black market ink sales, etc.

Elo got tolerable once we hit war scenes & he got to be proactive + not whine about Arren all the time. I really hope Arren dies but I have the sad feeling the novel is hinting he'll become a full god as the only way to stop Hseth. Kind of hoping Elo dies - not something I thought I'd be saying in #1-2. My 'found family' seems to be ruining itself - I don't like the idea of Kissen as Inara's stepmom either.

I hate Elo's POV, role, & lack of development this book. He was decent in #1, wishy-washy in #2 but not the worst POV, & in #3 remains wishy-washy while also pining over the asshole who literally tried to rip the heart from his chest but the asshole now wuvs him so he's CONFLICTED, GUYS, IT'S COMPLICATED. (It's not that complicated.)

I groan whenever I see an Elo or Arren ch & usually end there for the night.

I love Jen Williams so I'm excited for this book. I think this is her first YA & it's sadly a bit more 'tell than show' than her adult novels are. But the worldbuilding is still exquisite, the magical creatures are unique (can't wait for someone to draw them), and the two protags both have very intriguing setups. (Three protags? Lucien is also super interesting.)

Still in the prologue, but the prose is good, the lore & setting are interesting, MC (even as a child) is being set up with a good moral conflict / choice to make in the future. My interest is piqued, my hopes are raised!

SO MUCH INFO-DUMPING. SO MUCH "AS YOU KNOW".

MC is upset she's not taken seriously, but also is constantly disrespectful & sarcastic with her boss (& presumably all other authority figures, too). Wow, I wonder why they treat you like a kid, you dumbass. There's nothing remotely likeable about MC yet.

We finally get a goal and stakes AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER. What was the point of all the filler before that? ¬_¬