goutham

2 stars

I'm finally free of this series. I cannot listen to more cheesy YA romance jeez. Ok overall this series was alright for YA stuff. It felt cohesive and it juggled perspectives well but it dragged soooo much and felt very contrived + predictable

spoiler alert
The first half of this book felt like an eternity and it wasn't very interesting? It was a lot of characters learning about something happening and and then getting another character's perspective on the same thing happening. It felt super grindy and idk the angst was just a little bit too much. I also do like the characters but they felt very trope-y or they were summarizable by just a few words so their characters felt a lot less interesting. I didn't really comment on it in the past books since I was hoping for a better conflict in this one but it never really makes sense why Levana wants to be Empress instead of just using her powers or her forces to get her way. It felt like the whole marriage bit was oddly contrived as though marriage was the only way for her to get what she wanted. The schemes and plots from Cinder and friends were also really straightforward and didn't need that much setup when it ended up being a “just confront them” plan. I wouldn't say I'm dissatisfied since it met my expectations but it was just a 24 hr audiobook and it felt like I was listening to the same thing forever.

all the spicy stuff happened in the end hmmm im interested in the next book because of the ending and the world but the mystery felt super long and winding but still fun

hard to rate cuz its a memoir

neil gaiman is always so good

I think I want to dig into more novellas after reading The Empress of Salt and Fortune. I've only read a few novellas before but this one felt above and beyond a lot of other longer length books. Even though the setting felt really familiar to other time period fantasies, it was still really evocative and the main locations felt lived in. The format of the story was also excellent with the story of the Empress dropped through the items Rabbit remembered her by. I couldn't help but wonder what the story would've been like if it had been told during the events rather than after but I'm happy with it either way.