Good storyline but too many confusing multiple POVs.
I'd really enjoyed Alexandra Christo's first book, To Kill A Kingdom, and the hype around Into The Crooked Place was huge, so I was beyond happy when I received an ARC from Hot Key Books in exchange for a review (thank you!!). But honestly, this book didn't live up to the hype for me and I was a little disappointed, so I'm only rating it 3/5 stars.
I'm not a huge fan of multiple POV books anyway, but I really didn't think it worked in this book. There were just so many characters and switching between their POVs all the time meant I didn't really feel connected to any of them, and I felt they were sometimes lacking depth because of this. I couldn't keep up with each of their backstories, motivations, feelings, and personalities - especially as they also all came from different realms, meaning there was so much worldbuilding for each character that again I ended up getting lost!
The world is interesting and I liked the magic system, with crafters who can create magic and everyone else who can use charms and trick magic. But I felt at times that the world was too big - I had just wrapped my head around one realm when another three were thrown at me. A map definitely would have been useful in this book, because I kept forgetting which cities were part of which realms, and which realms each of the characters were from.
I think I could have liked Tavia as the main protagonist if more of her POV had been in the book, because I liked her backstory and her attitude. Her relationship with Welsey confused me though, and I didn't really ever find myself caring whether they got together or not.
The idea behind the book and the storyline was interesting to me, but I personally couldn't get along with the constant POV switching and I felt like that massively took away from the actual story.
I'd still recommend giving this book a go, and if you enjoy multiple POVs then you might have a very different opinion to me!
I'm not a huge fan of multiple POV books anyway, but I really didn't think it worked in this book. There were just so many characters and switching between their POVs all the time meant I didn't really feel connected to any of them, and I felt they were sometimes lacking depth because of this. I couldn't keep up with each of their backstories, motivations, feelings, and personalities - especially as they also all came from different realms, meaning there was so much worldbuilding for each character that again I ended up getting lost!
The world is interesting and I liked the magic system, with crafters who can create magic and everyone else who can use charms and trick magic. But I felt at times that the world was too big - I had just wrapped my head around one realm when another three were thrown at me. A map definitely would have been useful in this book, because I kept forgetting which cities were part of which realms, and which realms each of the characters were from.
I think I could have liked Tavia as the main protagonist if more of her POV had been in the book, because I liked her backstory and her attitude. Her relationship with Welsey confused me though, and I didn't really ever find myself caring whether they got together or not.
The idea behind the book and the storyline was interesting to me, but I personally couldn't get along with the constant POV switching and I felt like that massively took away from the actual story.
I'd still recommend giving this book a go, and if you enjoy multiple POVs then you might have a very different opinion to me!