Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to Readers First and Hot Key Books for giving me the opportunity to win this book. All views and opinions discussed here are my own.
Ahh I have been so excited about this book having adored To Kill a Kingdom when I read it earlier this year; this is probably the book that is my most awaited book. So it definitely breaks my heart to say I didn't love this one; whereas To Kill a Kingdom felt so unique and fresh, this one just felt very similar to other magic books and didn't feel unique or exciting to me. This may be in part because i'd put a lot of hype into this book, but I've seen that i'm not the only one who didn't enjoy it.
This book didn't feel like anything overly unique to me; you've got a mostly well crafted magical world, a rag-tag group of individuals who are somehow connected, not necessarily friends, but need each other to make it through their plot, add in some betrayal and twists and turns and there you go. There just wasn't anything that stood out to me for this book, and I hate to say it, but at times it was just a bit boring. I wasn't gripped by it, I didn't overly care what happened to the characters or the plot. I have seen a lot of people say it's very similar to Six of Crows, but I haven't read that one yet.
I did enjoy the magical world; I liked the idea that magic had died off and that buskers were selling what they could to misty-eyed tourists. I thought that it was mostly explained well in terms of how the charms worked and that crafters could be the only ones to create new magic. I also liked that this book did have some action, mostly towards the end to be fair, but there was some and it was well written so that it was easy to follow.
Part of what I really struggled with was the characters.
I really did not like Saxony and found her to just be so so irritating; don't get me wrong, I do feel for her. Having lost the majority of her family and having to live in a place that essentially destroyed crafters is awful. But she acts so holier-than-thou throughout the book and then towards the end to find out that she's the one that's been betraying the group, and to have let an innocent man die because of it, I just thought she was a hypocrite. Even after she finds out that her sister left of her own volition, after seeing all the possible futures and deciding this was the best one, she still takes it out on Wesley. He was nothing but a pawn in people's games and she can't see further than her own nose. She just irked me.
Karam and Tavia were okay, but I just felt they were underdeveloped in a way. Intriguingly Wesley was probably my favourite character but that's because I feel he was the most developed throughout the book and we got the most insight into him. But even he wasn't some big villain. They were all just a bit bland.
I think this is the probably - if asked to describe this book in one word it would just be 'meh' - it didn't thrill me or overly entertain me; I didn't hate it, and I do think Christo writes well, but this didn't feel as unique or as exciting as her debut novel. I would be tempted to read a sequel, but I won't be as eager to read it now that i've read this one.
Ahh I have been so excited about this book having adored To Kill a Kingdom when I read it earlier this year; this is probably the book that is my most awaited book. So it definitely breaks my heart to say I didn't love this one; whereas To Kill a Kingdom felt so unique and fresh, this one just felt very similar to other magic books and didn't feel unique or exciting to me. This may be in part because i'd put a lot of hype into this book, but I've seen that i'm not the only one who didn't enjoy it.
This book didn't feel like anything overly unique to me; you've got a mostly well crafted magical world, a rag-tag group of individuals who are somehow connected, not necessarily friends, but need each other to make it through their plot, add in some betrayal and twists and turns and there you go. There just wasn't anything that stood out to me for this book, and I hate to say it, but at times it was just a bit boring. I wasn't gripped by it, I didn't overly care what happened to the characters or the plot. I have seen a lot of people say it's very similar to Six of Crows, but I haven't read that one yet.
I did enjoy the magical world; I liked the idea that magic had died off and that buskers were selling what they could to misty-eyed tourists. I thought that it was mostly explained well in terms of how the charms worked and that crafters could be the only ones to create new magic. I also liked that this book did have some action, mostly towards the end to be fair, but there was some and it was well written so that it was easy to follow.
Part of what I really struggled with was the characters.
I really did not like Saxony and found her to just be so so irritating; don't get me wrong, I do feel for her. Having lost the majority of her family and having to live in a place that essentially destroyed crafters is awful. But she acts so holier-than-thou throughout the book and then towards the end to find out that she's the one that's been betraying the group, and to have let an innocent man die because of it, I just thought she was a hypocrite. Even after she finds out that her sister left of her own volition, after seeing all the possible futures and deciding this was the best one, she still takes it out on Wesley. He was nothing but a pawn in people's games and she can't see further than her own nose. She just irked me.
Karam and Tavia were okay, but I just felt they were underdeveloped in a way. Intriguingly Wesley was probably my favourite character but that's because I feel he was the most developed throughout the book and we got the most insight into him. But even he wasn't some big villain. They were all just a bit bland.
I think this is the probably - if asked to describe this book in one word it would just be 'meh' - it didn't thrill me or overly entertain me; I didn't hate it, and I do think Christo writes well, but this didn't feel as unique or as exciting as her debut novel. I would be tempted to read a sequel, but I won't be as eager to read it now that i've read this one.