Ridley Aris

I received an ARC of What We Can Know from NetGalley. All feedback and opinions expressed are my own.

Where to start? This book was extremely challenging for me on several levels. The first being the formatting. The flow and structuring of sentences where certain things were bolded, where the break in the sentence moved to another line at the start of a new paragraph, etc., put me off from the beginning. I found myself having to go back and re-read to make sure I didn't miss something. The second being the narration/povs. It was like being on the outside looking in on someone's paraphrased recounting of events but the paraphrasing was being presented as a dissertation. It was a struggle to get through the first half of this book and by that point I feel I just wasn't invested.

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this story as an ARC, I struggled to connect with it and appreciate the story for what it is.

I am all for a bridging novella, but this just feels out of place. With ACOTAR being the glacial pace of story building, then jumping right into ACOMAF and ACOWAR with amazing writing, content, pace, etc... this reflective little novel seems like it could have been a preface to ACOSF considering what all of our characters are struggling with for the first 40-50% of that book.

Even the writing in this one seemed off compared to the two before it. I appreciate it was supposed to be more reflective, but you can only take so much of a scenic detour around a point before you need to get back to it...

Let me start by saying I have never read fan-fiction before now, and I had no idea this story was out there until I saw it trending on TikTok. Manacled is hands down the best book I have read in all of 2023. This story is so well written and an interesting take on the Potterverse.

SenLinYu has written the most heartwrenching masterpiece of torture, despair, and longing which is the ultimate enemies-to-lovers story.

While there are a lot of strong themes in this story (read and re-read the trigger warnings), the story is unique while also not being completely unrelatable or irrelevant to the main storyline. This story is extremely dark in some parts and may not be for every reader, but the emotional damage is worth it in the end.

Being a fan of cozy fantasy, this is a great edition to my shelves. I loved this book because in true cozy fantasy, it was an easy read that allowed me to get immersed into the world without having to break my brain on complex world building. The magic system concept was very interesting to me and quite honestly, the limitations of magic being based on proximity and what defines a house/home resonated extremely deep.

The writing is well done, and I am a huge fan of the banter/snark between the characters.

If you are looking for a cozy fantasy that has several books in the series (as well as spin off series), I would highly recommend The House Witch.

After not being impressed, and quite honestly disappointed, by the first book...ACOMAF restored my faith in the series.

I am so glad my bookish friends pushed me to get past ACOTAR and start ACOMAF. This book had better writing, pace, content, etc. A world of difference (like, night and day) from book 1 and turned out to be everything I wanted from the series and longed for when i got through book 1.

I loved the character development in this book as well. Feyre, sorry to say, was a miserable and whiny character in the first book. ACOMAF shows her coming into her own, developing confidence, realizing just how special she came back with the the combination of gifts (no spoilers).

If you are like me and struggled with ACOTAR, please ride that struggle bus all the way to ACOMAF. The destination is absolutely worth it.