Sabrina
DNF 7%
Okay so I haven't read for four days since I started this book and it's a good indicator of how I feel about this book. I really wanted to power through but I cannot STAND Rin and reading through her POV would drive me mental.
This series had a lot of potential but I just can't put myself through this pain and suffering over a mediocre book.
It took me a bit to get into this. It's not an overly long book but it took a week for me to finish it, which says a lot. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the start and the academy part of this book more than the later part, despite it being far more ‘action packed'.
The premise is very unusual. Kuang dances between history and fantasy so eloquently, you have no choice but to get fully invested in this fictious world. I keep calling the federation Japs in my head though. For my peace of mind, I wish I hadn't read up on what the inspiration behind the works was...
Like most of my reads lately, I did not like my main character. Rin was arrogant and obnoxious and I was so pleased when people beat her up
To say I was absorbed into this mystical, magical, witch infested world is an understatement. What a beautiful picture Ms Fawcett paints with her words. I know this is meant to be for YA but it doesn't read like a YA book.
Similar to everyone else, I loved River and didn't really gel with Kamzin. I know they are supposed to be mirrored but there's something about Kamzin that I didn't quite like. She was very... 2D to me. I also didn't like Lusha. I liked Tem though and which he had more real estate in the book.
All in all, fantastic read. I liked both of the books in the duology, didn't really understand the negatives for the first one. You needed the first book to understand the second better.
This book was a such a waste of my time. I haven't hated a narrator as much as I hated Trey/Earl in a long time. He is the most selfish, arrogant, hot headed person with the most self absorbed view of righteousness and my face has been set to a constant state of cringe the past couple of days. How this book has the high review it does baffles me.
Yes, granted, I'm neither black nor gay and probably can't appreciate his viewpoint but he received some sound advise from multiple people and this dipshit was too good to listen to any of them.
The plot is also so pointless. Like what was the point of this entire book??? There are too many books out there to waste my time on this mediocre piece of literature but I persevered thinking surely, it'll get better. Maybe we will find out what happened to Martin? Maybe he ends up being the next Dr King? Maybe, ironically, he gets Aids? Nope. Nothing. Just a big fat load (no pun intended) of disappointment.
Avoid.
DNF.
I have read all the original trilogy and had high expectations for both the movie and this book. They were both a disappointment. Collins tried to give Coriolanus more depth and had a good hot go at painting him in light and dark however, he is not likeable. He is smug, obnoxious and self serving and I could not continue the book with him being the main character.
The writing is also very dull. I started reading this on the 11th of December and im only 16% completed so you can guess as to how much I struggled to read this.
DNF.
This is the third TJR book I have attempted. The first, Ms Hugos book, of course, was such a roaring success with me. The second, Daisy, was also a did not finish and this is another one. I feel like the writing style is so different in all three books that if I didn't actually know it's her books, I would have assumed it was written by three different authors. Obviously, this one and Daisy Jones are such huge hits generally so this is definitely a me problem (I think).
Okay, so, listen up everyone, I think i may be into the young romance trope, probably to make up for my lack of ‘romance' or ability to ‘romance' during my teens. I almost get a second chance at having my heart broken, yay me!
I really enjoyed how this book was written, kudos to Ms Nowlin. The inconsistency of the chapter lengths, the short burst of emotions, the all consuming feelings that Autumn felt, it really elevates the readers emotions and keeps you on your toes. Doubt it's a popular opinion but it is mine.
The only part I was a bit meh'd by was the fact that Autumn was meant to be weird. She did nothing, other than the fact that she knew she was pretty, that makes her weird. She should have seen me in high school
This got me out of the reading slump that ‘The Atlas Six' put me on (not in a good way) but man, that was all it was good for. What a boring and pointless book. Did it want to be a romance? Did it want to be a drama? Did it want to be an existential crisis? Found it so hard to gel with Dannie too! I don't kmow who recommended this book to me but will not be listening to them again!
What. A. Book.
I just went back to the last chapter to re-read after I finished it this morning. Nothing sank in over all the blubbering I was doing with my dog ferociously licking my tears away.
This was so beautiful written, such melancholic writing that it just draws you, entrances you into this cocoon of sadness. I never thought I'd give a book that made me feel so sad five stars but here I am.
This resounded a lot with the movie The Age of Adaline but even though I kept defaulting to Addie looking like Blake Lively, it's not quite right, I think.
Needless to say, I'm now officially a Schwab fan. I can't wait to read more of her work.
Three stars because their stories were riveting however, I will echo what everyone else said - this did not give me the conclusion / end the book deserved. Why? It felt like such a waste of a fantastic build up! I loved the narrative, I loved the story she was trying to tell, I loved the peak into the uber modern work of South Korea. If only we were given the ending we probably deserved.
So who else is thinking ‘been there and done that' when relating to Tate? Definitely me! I have been on the ‘I can fix him' bandwagon many times and unfortunately, my endings weren't as happy as Tate's.
I was meant to start a serious read next but I saw this first and thought why not? I loved Miles' character. I mean, duh, obviously I wanted to fix him. I felt like the character arch in Ugly Love wasn't very favourable to Tate. She was just a secondary character. Probably because she was so compliant and placid to him. I don't know, I didn't see why he was attracted to her over other girls?
Either way, I did enjoy Ugly Love. I read it in a day so that's a testament to how much I liked it. Was it the best romance book I have ever read? Probs not but it's good nevertheless. Now to find some sadistic thriller as the last couple of books have been way too mushy for my liking.
I started reading this right after I finished ‘A Little Life', which I loved so unfortunately, it had no chance. I didn't read it. I stopped at 33% and went to the last chapter. I am not sure why it has such a high rating. The writing is very amateurish - you know it's written by someone whose first language is not English. The plot is meh. The big twist at the end could be predicted a mile away. I'd skip it.
This was an OK read. I'm probably biased because this really isn't my genre but this book is ON ALL THE LISTS so I thought I'd give it a read as a filler before I get into my next ‘heavy' book.
It was okay. The story was... Okay. The writing was... Okay. The spicy scenes were... Okay. I did gasp and go ‘what' in the last chapter (nice one, Ms Sheridan) but overall, it was okay. Did I say okay enough to illustrated how meh I felt about this book?
I do not understand the high ratings and reviews this book gets. I don't think it's justified. But that's only my humble opinion.