Kaiti Kyle

I have a lot of feelings about this book. I feel like there were aspects of Eleanore that were never explained or delved into. The story went into a lot of detail about many (in my opinion) side stories that didn't matter church, but didn't explain the whole Declan story, her mother's motives, etc. The book left me wanting less explanation about deeper story. It felt like it only skimmed the surface and because of this, I felt empathy for Eleanore but never connected to any of the characters intensely. It's quite a heartbreaking story, that's for sure.

You know the horror book is good when I gives you nightmares.

I rated this book 4.75 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed it overall. The only reason for the slight deduction is that the writing style didn't completely align with my personal preference, though I recognize the value and beauty in its complexity. We love a good timey whimey story with little to no plot holes!

Huh.

Maybe it's because I'm a teacher but the whole apprentice falling in love with their older teacher is just super weird to me. I also felt like only 1/8 of the book actually had Ceony and Mg Thane even interacting. They knew each other for less than a month AND he was gone for a week of that time! So to me, it was super unbelievable that she would even know him well enough to be in love with him. To me, their relationship seemed like a father/daughter type of relationship since it seemed kind of innocent, so the love interest part was not my favorite.

I liked the magic in the book and I'm giving it a 3 because LOVED Fennel. Such a cute idea. The idea of Excisioners is super interesting as well. I'm open to reading the sequels to these books, but I really hope they are better and lean toward magical world building instead of weird power-dynamic romance arcs.