lena

 2.5

did not meet expectations. before I start this review, please note that this is MY honest opinion.

after reading the brothers hawthorne (and being disappointed) i did not really want to read this book. but, when i saw people saying its about grayson and his character arc, i decided to give it a go.

but, i had two problems. 1, you cant buy the physical copy in my country and 2, the kindle price baffled me. i read a pdf in the end, and im glad i didnt spend money on this.

first of all, everything was RUSHED. (it could be because i finished it in 2 days, but i also read other books in a similar time and i rarely found things THIS fast) by the end of the book we basically had 3 relationships out of nowhere (and gigi is either shipped with a guy 7 years older or the guy who KIDNAPPED her, but i dont blame jlb for what the fandom does) . the game itself felt an okay speed, but the other things definitely werent. i found myself unable to fall in love with the characters' dynamics because of that.

the characters, on the other hand, ARE well written. some are annoying, some arent, but thats just them. sometimes characters may be written that way on purpose, so i wont judge for that. and as a person who is basically gigi (minus the rich and cats parts) she is the one who got me through the book. i kept skimming over rohans chapters and kinda being okay with lyras because of the mystery. i loved that in lyras chapters because it felt the same as the wine cellar in tfg, maybe its just me but i adore when jlb does this.

while im on the theme of chapters, this is a no. in the brothers hawthorne jlb also did the same thing, 2 povs (now 3) which arent CONNECTED. sure, in tgg they were, but not for most of the book. i couldnt handle the complexity of the game while constantly switching povs, it felt jumbled and id much rather prefer first reading gigis, then rohans, then lyras or any other order, spoilers for the next or not. i was confused and had to go back and forth the whole time.

i was considering dnf-ing but then it got sorta interesting so i kept going, and with the way it ended ive got to read glorious rivals, i cant handle leaving it on the cliffhanger. though if its also as expensive i might just wait for a pdf again...