Karissa
I can appreciate what this book was trying to do and what it was trying to say. I know this is a fantasy romance, but it was clearly very political and spoke a great deal to current climates and situations we face in the real world. If the book was simply just the deconstruction of narrowminded, bigoted views, I may have enjoyed it more. If it had leaned into Floss' deconstruction more. Plus, the ending was very rushed, while up until the 70% mark the book dragged and was so slow going.
6 FUCKING STARS.
I can't do anything right now but scream. You want a review?
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
That is your review. I need to delve into book 3 NOW, but then it'll be over and what will I do with my life? My life has forever been divided into life before War of Lost Hearts and life after and I don't know what I'll do once I've crossed into the “life after” era.
This one was such a hard one to decide if it was a 5 star or 6 star read for me. 6 stars means that it's a favorite of the year. I may end up adjusting the more I sit with my thoughts because man did this book have me screaming, crying, throwing up at MULTIPLE points in the story. It makes me want to go back and read the other 2 in the series (I read out of order because of a travelling book club I'm in, not that ya'll care).
However when I say this book's plot was unhinged, I mean UNHINGED. It was more unhinged than a broken door. I won't get into why this book was unhinged to avoid spoilers, but know that there were many times that I sat there, stared at the book, and went “What in the world?” then shrugged and said “Why the fuck not at this point?” and kept on reading.
I'm not sure what to rate this one so I'll come back to it. I'm between a 4.5 and a 5. I honestly enjoyed this twist on a murder mystery and the way the narrator broke the 4th wall. There were moments where I laughed out loud and I can honestly say I didn't predict the ending.
Edit: I'm giving it a 5. I really did like it and while I'm not running to read my copy of the 2nd one right away, I definitely am glad I bought it and am excited to read it at some point.
6 stars across the board. I was so afraid that I wouldn't like this book as much as the first one, but I am happy to say that I was so wrong. It took me a while to finish because I didn't want it to end– I wanted to stay with Roman and Iris longer and prolong their story. I just... Ahhhhhhh it was so good man!
I have no words right now. I live for Ildiko and Brishen's relationship. This book was very different from Radiance in that in Radiance the conflict was very much external and applied to the couple, whereas Eidolon, while it had external conflict, also had more internal conflict between Brishen and Ildiko. It was still so good though!
Pretty good intro to the main series. I wish the cruelty of scion was more apparent. Like obviously you know they are bad but I really wanted to see the awfulness of them played out. It was just kinda thrown out there about people being executed on tv? (Idr very well) while she and Eliza hung out. Like I feel like it could have been more impactful if paige was to actually have been present at an execution or at least reacting to it being on the screen. But I get it. That wasn't the project of the book. I just wanted a little more.
DNF @ Chapter 2 (I didn't look at the percent.. probably 5%) - Honestly this book just read too young for me and I could tell from the first chapter it wouldn't be for me. Shame because it has such a beautiful cover and the premise was interesting. I hope it finds its way into the hands of the right reader
Update upon reread: Ya'll this book ATE and left absolutely NO crumbs. It is so freaking good. I was worried that I was hyping it up so much that on reread I'd be disappointed but I had absolutely no reason to be worried because it is phenomenal!
I wanted to sit in my feelings for a few hours after finishing this book to be able to articulate exactly how I feel. This book.... Guys, This. Book. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I laughed out loud so many times, I squee'd, I almost cried– like this book is so good. Ildiko and Brishen and their relationship is everything. There's a quote towards the end of the book where Ildiko says "This should have never happened, Brishen. We were unimportant, you and I. We weren't supposed to mean anything to anyone." To which Brishen responds, "Woman of day,"..."You mean everything to me." and I just have to say I. AGREE. These two mean everything to me.
The way they go from finding each other repulsive and accepting that of each other regardless. Plus, forming a deep friendship with banter. THE BANTER GUYS. This is a true slowburn of showing how affection and love can develop over time. I just..... UGH GUYS YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. PLEASE. And then come to me so we can gush about it because YOU WILL LOVE IT.
The main character was black? Could have fooled me. There was very little characterization in this book. What we know about Tanith: she has black curly hair. What we know about the piper: he is devestatingly handsome and has red hair. Woo...
There were many wtf moments throughout reading this book. I'll give it the fact that I read over 200 pages in a fairly short amount of time. But.... meh. If you like standard “new adult” fantasy romances that are not really doing anything different, you'll get on with this one.
1.5 rounded up to 2 ⭐
I should have probably DNF'd early on, but I kept reading to see if it would get any better. Spoiler alert, it didn't get better (for me). I hated the talk of virginity as if it was a conquest, no matter how short that section was. I hated the sex scenes, I hated the war plot because it felt so lacked depth and was as shallow as a puddle. Only reason it's getting the 1.5/2 star rating is because I finished it.
I don't know what I was expecting? And I don't entirely know how I feel.... it was okay?? I don't regret reading it but I also don't think it necessarily did anything for me. I feel like I'm going to look back on this one and be like it was a book that I read and that's that. There were some lines I liked but I was looking forward to more poetic lines that resonated within me.
This was pretty good. I liked the conversations and ideas that were brought up over the course of the book. The only thing keeping me from giving it a 5 is that I wanted more suspense/thrilling moments. I wanted to be on the edge of my seat and I wanted the sinister level to bump up to 11. That being said, I enjoyed the book. I don't know why it has such low ratings.
There are many parts of this I wish were drug out more, specifically when it came to Maerea and Alcaeus' courtship and romance. There were other parts I feel like we did not need, like the last steamy scene between them towards the end of the book. All and all though, I enjoyed this prequel and my mouth dropped at the reveal in the latter third of the book. It was a sweet, hard-won love story between the two main characters. I just wanted more of a courtship between them before things got to rocking and rolling.