Alice in Waterdeep

I was looking forward to this book since I loved First Lie Wins, but unfortunately I was quite disappointed. I found this one predictable and not very interesting after the first few chapters.

The characters were flat and felt kind of all the same to me, especially the two protagonists even though they should be very different given how different their lives are. Way too many secondary and tertiary characters I struggled to keep track of, at least for a novel of this size with this kind of plot. Silas is one exception, I genuinely liked him even though I'm not a fan of how his character arc resolved. Very disappointed.

I was very annoyed that both women had a Strong Man (who eventually turned into love interest) to look out for them. Nothing bad about that, but the fact that it was for both protagonists didn't sit right with me. Also, I didn't care at all about the relationship between Deacon and Aubrey. I felt zero anything between them. To be honest, Deacon was high up on my suspects list, he kept acting weird! As in, perhaps, too perfect to be real? But it was real, apparently. I don't know. Wasn't a fan.

Margaret being the one who was driving the truck was stupidly obvious since the first flashback of that night. Instead I did not call Sullivan being Ben's murderer, but I didn't really enjoy that "twist". You can't play the "actually the detective is the culprit!" card when said detective has had perhaps three scenes total.

The resolution also felt too clean. Everyone got away with everything, Silas came up with the perfect plan in 0.2 seconds and it worked on the first try, no flaws, no hiccups. Camille's father went from being this unescapable threat to not a problem anymore, and for no real reason. Ben's murderer died five minutes after being revealed as the culprit. Margaret died without facing consequences. What else. There's probably more but I forgot. I admit I was quite disturbed by how Silas dealt with his wife, though.

That said, it wasn't terrible. It was still enjoyable and an easy read, but nothing exciting.

This book was such a lovely surprise. I read the first half while on the train and was disappointed I had to get off and couldn't keep reading right away! It is a charming, sweet and slightly magical read. I liked both protagonists, though Zhi Lan really won my heart (and Master Dan! What a nice guy). The writing is quite simple and straight to the point which, honestly, I enjoyed. The pacing is also quite good, no scenes drag and there are no weird stalling ploys, if anything I'd say things happen a tad too fast.

I'm not a fan of how the resolution happens behind the scenes thanks to a secondary character and the protagonists are suddenly free from all sorts of consequences. But it doesn't bother me too much in the grand scheme of things.

Honestly one of my favourites in the series! I loved it. Witnessing Murderbot let Tula cling to him made me feel all the emotions, and Murderbot half mentoring Three and getting frustrated with it was so good to see. 5+ read!

It was a good read (well, listen) but nothing exceptional in my opinion. The mystery was intriguing but the entire middle portion of the story was slow and boring, and oftentimes just involved two characters talking to each other about the mystery. It picked up again when Mengele tricked Liebermann but I found the confrontation very unsatisfying, and then the book was over.