House of Beating Wings

This book evoked a lot of mixed feelings from me but ultimately I'm glad I finished it and will try book 2 for sure.

The setting/world: Olivia did a good job world-building albeit it did feel like it slowed the story down a bit in the beginning. I absolutely loved the world and the setting though. As a person of Italian descent, the Italian influenced culture had me vibing. I especially connected with Fallon's complicated relationship with her grandmother... and loved that she's called Nonna. I think a lot of girls with Nonna's will be able to relate to that relationship. I don't know if the author is of any Italian descent, so she may have not realized it, but Nonna's can be the biggest pains in the ass but also protective and loved no matter what shenanigans they pull.

Characters: Fallon is 50/50 for me. I like a strong-willed FMC but the naivety was almost overused as a character trait. I loved Antoni and Lorcan and the rest of the crew, so it was worth putting up with Fallon's annoying nature. I did enjoy all of the scenes portraying her connection with animals because that's always an epic plot line.

Writing: The writing was good, all things considered. A little repetitive especially overusing the line “I must have said it outoud because XYZ replies...” or similar. How many times can a person think something and not realize they said it out loud? I think it was used 5 times and I rolled my eyes after the first time. The dialogue and banter was well done.

Summary: All in all, it was a story worth reading and it was very well thought out. At first it all seems a little too convenient and a bit shallow especially between 25-45% (I almost DNFd at that point especially because the FMC pining over her love interest was getting to be too much) but it picks up and the last half of the book is nonstop action and uncovering of the plot and getting questions answered. I was happy with the ending because we weren't left wondering about much that happened in the first book and it set up for book 2 with a small cliffhanger, but nothing obnoxious or that left you scratching your head. I'd say this is most definitely a Romantasy, heavy, heavy on the romance the first half of the book.

I'd recommend to folks who enjoyed ACOTAR!

The concept of this book was interesting and I'll be honest. I love crows and that was a lot of the reason I picked this up. And to be fair, the parts of this book that had to do with crows were really great!

The rest of it was not.

Honestly, the entire plot felt like a whirlwind and a bit of a mess. The goal was clear but it felt more like were whipping from scene to scene without much transition. I didn't like many of the characters except for one or two side characters who didn't get much screen time. I didn't enjoy the casual sexism in the book that no one really tried to fight against. I didn't enjoy either of the love interests (thought I disliked one less than the other, but that's not saying much). Fallon was fine in the beginning but she got really annoying as the book went on.

Not to mention she spent the entirety of the book only going on the quest so she could marry the prince, who never gave her anything worth enough to endanger her life like she did. I'm glad she didn't end up with him in the end, but I didn't like Lore by the end either. Taking away her agency at the very end and basically kidnapping her? Super sexy, I'm sure.

I will definitely not be picking up the rest of the series. Even despite my problems with the characters and plot, it also started dragging on halfway through and I had to force myself to finish it.