Aken
❝ Because if love doesn't allow change, then what the **** is that love worth? ❞
✎ . . 5.00/5 stars
i. at a glance
• characters ; found family my beloved <3
• atmosphere/setting ; definitely a lot more built than the first one
• plot ; perfect pacing compared to #1
• intrigue ; v. action packed which really helped with the flow
• enjoyment ; wished it was longer because i want more of the characters
❝ Maybe there isn't such a thing as fate. Maybe it's just the opportunities we're given, and what we do with them. I'm beginning to think that maybe great, epic romances don't just happen. We have to make them ourselves.❞
✎ . . 5.00/5 stars
• characters ; amazing and unique
• atmosphere/setting ; beautiful
• plot ; loved how neatly done the multiple povs was done
• intrigue ; read a huge chunk in a single sitting :)
✎ . . 3.00/5 stars
• characters ; alix (mc) was annoying but beau (side character) stole the show
• atmosphere/setting ; magical realism was really nice here but it didn't explore book worlds like i was hoping it would
• plot ; it was alright but felt a bit childish towards the end
• intrigue ; kept me interested
• enjoyment ; the first half was great, wished the last half was executed differently
✎ . . 3.75/5 stars
• characters ; emika + the crew was great but i hated hideo (he was so flat)
• atmosphere/setting ; loved it (and hello it's canonically set 100 yrs before legend??)
• plot ; saw the plot twists v. early on but enjoyed it
• intrigue ; kept me hooked
• logic ; hideo had none despite being so smart
• enjoyment ; fun but not as much as legend
✎ . . 4.25/5 stars
• characters ; absolutely loved them all (esp. kiela & cas)
• atmosphere/setting ; amazing
• plot ; cosy fantasy is new to me so it naturally felt slow but it was perfect
• intrigue ; hooked the entire time
• logic ; gotta love me a magic system that makes sense
• enjoyment ; enjoyed it from beginning to end
"There is no must to the life of a mortal, except death."
✎ . . 2.00/5 stars
• characters ; okay-ish though i hated circe's family the most
• atmosphere/setting ; amazing setup but it got boring quickly
• plot ; repetitive and slow
• intrigue ; also got boring quickly
• logic ; well i question the actions of certain characters in mythology (/lh)
• enjoyment ; anything else that wasn't circe
"For her the magic was not what words had been, but what they were capable of: their ability to sketch, with one sweeping brushstroke, the contours of an experience, the form of a feeling."
✎ . . 4.50/5 stars
• characters ; well developed and amazing, loved bird's character his viewpoint of the world
• atmosphere/setting ; painfully reciprocal of our own world
• plot ; not really applicable to this book
• intrigue ; bird's pov kept me reading, struggled with margaret's pov since it didn't hook me in
• logic ; understandable why characters made decisions
• enjoyment ; painful and relatable read in certain aspects but i enjoyed
"Never forget, she told us. The world began with a dream. Our lives are the same. Keep dreaming, my daughters. The world is greater than you know."
✎ . . 2.75/5 stars
i. at a glance
• characters ; didn't like any of them
• atmosphere/setting ; huge shift from the magical world of tea
• plot ; huge setup for a rushed ending
• intrigue ; only got me towards the ending which even then wasn't all that good imo
• logic; same as the first , certain things didn't make sense
• enjoyment ; eh not as much
ii. thoughts
pretty much same as the first book - a fun premise but sadly lacked in execution. i have very mixed feelings though.
i didn't feel the oomph of the plot i was supposed to feel. a huge chunk of the book felt like a setup for the finale, which was lowkey lacking. the plot was super predictable and i already knew how everything was going to play out by chapter four (there's forty-six chapters total). but then again it's a solid ending for the duology and i can't imagine it any other way?
ning's character felt more worse than the first one, and the rest felt even more flat. i couldn't bring myself to like any of them really. kang's pov was also a little displaced.
it shifted from the tea and the magic of it all to ancient relics. i just wish there was more to it than there is. i really liked the world that the author was trying to setup and especially loved the tea aspect of it but it was missing in this one.
iii. recommendation
i don't think i'd recommend it but it's a solid conclusion to the duology (since the first book ended on a cliffhanger), the first book was better in my opinion.
"Keeping secrets is like a thorn beneath the skin. You can get used to it, but it is always there, festering."
✎ . . 4/5 stars
i. at a glance
• characters ; every character felt somewhat flat and boring but i still liked them all
• atmosphere/setting ; beautifully described and i felt really eased into it without being info-dumped
• plot ; took a bit to actually kick in but lots of plot twists i didn't see coming
• intrigue ; last half kept me going - read it in a day
• logic; things made sense
• enjoyment ; i had a blast reading it and am excited for #2
ii. thoughts
okay i really need to read up more on the arthurian legend because i've never read the original and i had so much more fun than i expected. also wanna gobble all the retellings i can get my hands on >:)
the characters felt a bit flat but they were otherwise alright. arthur + the rest felt pretty boring though (i liked his character of him being a king yet because he's so young he participates in normal activities and interacts with his people more than just as a ruler, there's something comforting about it). lancelot and brangien were my fave of the bunch. guinevere herself was interesting because her character is built as the story progresses (also pls what is her name i wanna know)
plot wise, there were quite a decent amount of twists i did not see coming, but it was a slow build. the first half explored camelot through guinevere's perspective and focused on her relationships with people of the kingdom as she begins to get familiar with both her status and new home (to my taste it was a bit boring but it was necessary for the worldbuilding). the latter half is when everything picked up and the plot began to move on.
iii. recommendation
an immersive and solid story inspired by the arthurian legend! easy to understand and get a grasp of even if you've never read the original legend (like me).
❝ The taste of being human. Of making mistakes. Of being young again. The reminder that sometimes we are the laborer and sometimes we are the one at rest. ❞
✎ . . 3.25/5 stars
i. at a glance
• characters ; didn't like the mc but liked the rest of the side characters
• atmosphere/setting ; really cool with tea being used as a magic system
• plot ; felt convenient
• intrigue ; slow start, only picked up ~60% in
• logic; did feel a bit inconsistent at times ?
• enjoyment ; only enjoyed when it started to pick up
ii. thoughts
ᝰ spoilers ahead .ᐟ
first book of 2026! i loved the use of tea as a magic system in this book but i wish it was described in more detail. there was no real explanation with how it all worked, maybe until the latter half of the book and even then i still don't fully understand how it all works because it seems like it's used differently across each individual. the golden key tea used in the beginning was shown to still have effects on both ning and kang and it wasn't explained why and how. the description of food was beautiful and made me hungry though, i always appreciate when the author describes the various kinds of dishes.
the whole bit of ning (mc) managing to pass all the trials despite having little to no formal training of being a shennong-tu. i wanted to see her struggle with the trials and for her lack of training to be more evident in the way she did things, but it never happened. and the final trial showed that apparently she can talk to plants - something unique to her? the amount of luck she had was insane i also felt that characters would have just teleported to parts of the world and the timeframes in which things happened wasn't exactly too realistic. shu (her sister) was mentioned to be at death's door yet managed to research and experiment an antidote during the course of the story..
i managed to forget there was even a romance being built up here because there seemed to be no connection between ning and the li. i started to grow a liking towards the other characters (particularly the princess), but ning was just not it for me
the last 30-40% did pick up and it's where i started to feel the stakes more (funnily enough the competition lacked that survival and sabotages i was looking forward to). the book ends on a cliffhanger so i will be picking up the next to see where it's headed (also a duology so i can tick a series off my yearly goals!)
iii. recommendation
a slower paced ya with the chosen one trope with a unique + not-so-heavy worldbuilding.
"the only way not to fear death is to meet it"
✎ . . 1.5/5 stars
i. at a glance
• characters ; basic & boring
• atmosphere/setting ; felt lazy
• plot ; predictable & repetitive
• intrigue ; nothing groundbreaking but it's an easy read
• logic ; -
ii. thoughts
this was pitched as a hunger games x fantasy mix, but i didn't get any of that. where were the high stakes, the tension and the violence? i LOVED the hunger games (fav. series of the year), lightlark left me feeling disappointed. i'm definitely the wrong target audience for this but i feel like i've read better ya.
it was hard to believe the characters actually had relationships with each other. the age gap between isla (mc who's presumably under 25) and grim / oro (both who are 500+) irked me. the romance between them was non-existent, it's hard to believe they actually loved each other. the magic system & curses were the only thing that interested me, even the naming felt a bit lazy (moonlings for moon isle, etc). plot was repetitive and predictable, a major chunk of the book being the characters searching for something then being unable to find it, and repeating a few times. i still don't understand the whole point of the centennial to be honest. a bit of a shame because the cover was really pretty.
iii. recommendation
no, i personally wouldn't recommend it.
⤷ 4.50 ★
audiobooked this one! really enjoyed the author's writing style, it was so immersive i could feel myself being transported to the world. definitely a slow-burn book, not as fast-paced i would have expected from a horror/thriller book, but i enjoyed the character development and conversations, alongside the main character's inner narration. the emotions conveyed and reasons why the characters did things felt so real, it was an enjoyable reading experience. the ending fell a little flat, it was really rushed and wrapped up with little explanation (and yes, some parts of it didn't fit at all).
