Lena

DISCLAIMER: hii, English is not my first language and I don't have auto correct turned on, so I wanted to quickly apologize for poor writing and any gramatical and spelling mistakes. Anyways, enjoy the review haha

I was so excited to return to Ilya. The book was a lot more engaging than I thought it would be. I've never predicted 'Fearful' to be exeptionally good, because of it being an 'extra' standalone mainly written to keep fans entertained. Maybe that approach resulted in me feeling pleasantly surprized, unlike most readers. In the triogy we were mainly following Kai and Paedyn (for obvious reasons) so there was not THAT much Kitt in the story as I wanted. I've never been a Kitt hater. I genuinly felt bad for him and understood his motives no matter how harmfull they might've been. I found his character to be particularly interesting in this book though. I like that we got to see his gentle side a bit more and, dive a little deeper into his personality and past experiences. At the same time we got to question his decisions and approach to certain things and situations. his amd Mara's relationship is not a fluffy love story I expected. She was deffinitely hurt some time in the past. She demands Kitt's love that he's not able to give her, because (as tragic as it might sound) the only person he's ever loved and probably ever will was his brother. Kitt's demandinn controll. He's jelous and possesive of power to the limit. In his arrognce, he stopped fearing Death and wanted to outgrow her too. I love what the author did here. We got to see not only his good side, but also all the dark and negativity in him. To see how he rapidly falls into this spiral of madness he's willingly brought onto himsef. In 'fearful' in the end Death wasn't shown as something that can be taimed. We should never underestimate her, nor try to bend to our will. Because death turned ot to be a vicious creature in the body of a beautiful, hurt, betrayed woman. I believe that this part of the plot was very much needed for the character's sake. On the other hand, blair and Lenny's part was, in my opinion totally unnecessary. If it was more in deapth and developed, maybe I would've enjoyed it more. The banter fell a little flat for me. The whole situation seems fake, too rapid. I have to say though, It's not as annoying as I thought it would be. I don't hate Blair, even if her motives and backstory, again, feel a bit flat. I was very apprehensive about reading about those two, because I did not like 'A court of silver flames' by S.J. Maas, which also talks about a rough edged, complex character who is unstandable on the outside. Of course, I'm not comparing those two books as a whole. I'm just saying that this particular thing is somewhat simmilar. Though, this was definitely a plus, I still didn't really enjoy that part of the plot. The book reads very fast and smoothely and I had a great time reading it. I don't think it was a waste of time and money, but yes, it leaves a lot to be desired. I'm still not quite sure who is she and what part she's played in the sick and Azer's family. Maybe I just didn't quite inderstand that part of the plot or thare is going to be another book in Lauren Robert's universe. I guess we'll just have to weit and see...

it was so nice returning to Sapkowski's works. I had no idea how much I've missed him, especially his unique writing style. I felt so excited going back to the world of 'The Witcher' saga, being able to read about Geralt's parents and all the characters I fell in love with a long time ago. But, of course besides of 'The Witcher', the book contains many more, previously unknown to me, short stories with amazing worlds and peculiar characters. I like that the selection contains many genres. Fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi and more. My favourite ones were 'Golden Afternoon' (that was a great interpretation of 'Alice in Wonderland', I had a blast reading about it, especially in Polish, as it contains heaps of Polish humor) and 'Maladies' (This retelling of 'Tristan and Isolde' was so bright and thought provoking. I found it quite beautiful and was really impressed and taken back) I found a lot of joy in reading the introductions the author had written and learning more about each soort story the collection contains. Not all of the works spoke to me, that's why I gave 'Maladies' 3,5 stars, but overall I had lots of fun. This book will be remembered by me as selection of Sapkowski's works and always associated with lovely memories.