3.5 stars
"Time will be carried in strange hands, across the realms and through stranger lands. What is done will be undone, a battle lost is a battle won. When midnight rings on a child's betrayal, your every success is doomed to fail."
Firstly, I want to thank Readers First and Hot Key Books for giving me an early review copy of this book. I absolutely love To Kill a Kingdom so when I found out that Alexandra Christo had a new book including crooks and magic coming out I knew that I had to get my hands on it!
I am so sad to say that this book disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. However I didn't love it like I expected. Maybe I set my expectations far too high due to my love of her debut novel, but I hate to say I didn't love her second book.
Firstly, I would like to say that Alexandra Christo's writing style is one of the best that I have ever read. She definitely has a way of being able to describe magic to its readers and immersing them in so much that they believe they are magic. I was so absorbed that there were moments I believed I was a crook with magic. Unfortunately I am not, however on a serious note I love her writing style. I would 100% read an instruction manual written by Alexandra Christo.
I really struggled to connect to the characters in this book. I didn't really like any of them and I definitely didn't care for them. This lack of care really made me struggle to want to pick the book up because I didn't really mind what happened to the characters that much and therefore the different plot twists just did not have an affect on me like I feel they probably should have. I also feel that the magic system was a bit too complex and I found myself having to reread parts of the book to get my head round it. I think that there was maybe a little bit too much magic going on and if Christo focused on one area the systems would have been a lot easier to get on with.
From reading To Kill a Kingdom, yes I know I keep mentioning this book but I loved it so much I cannot help to compare them), I was aware that Christo can write brutal, "no fucks given" scenes. I don't want this review to have spoilers so I am trying to work this in a way that does do that. I was really disappointed in the characters that died and the way that they did. I feel that more brutal choices could have been made in relation to both the actual character and the way that they died. This would have redeemed the book for me but it just did not.
I did like the ending, whilst I probably did predict it, it did leave me wanting more so I will be buying the next book. Hopefully Into the Crooked Place is a warm up for what Alexandra has in store for us in the sequel. Please read this book, it is a good book, it just didn't compare to her debut for me.
Would love it if you would visit my blog to look at other reviews that I have written:
www.theanxiousbookworm.video.blog
"Time will be carried in strange hands, across the realms and through stranger lands. What is done will be undone, a battle lost is a battle won. When midnight rings on a child's betrayal, your every success is doomed to fail."
Firstly, I want to thank Readers First and Hot Key Books for giving me an early review copy of this book. I absolutely love To Kill a Kingdom so when I found out that Alexandra Christo had a new book including crooks and magic coming out I knew that I had to get my hands on it!
I am so sad to say that this book disappointed me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. However I didn't love it like I expected. Maybe I set my expectations far too high due to my love of her debut novel, but I hate to say I didn't love her second book.
Firstly, I would like to say that Alexandra Christo's writing style is one of the best that I have ever read. She definitely has a way of being able to describe magic to its readers and immersing them in so much that they believe they are magic. I was so absorbed that there were moments I believed I was a crook with magic. Unfortunately I am not, however on a serious note I love her writing style. I would 100% read an instruction manual written by Alexandra Christo.
I really struggled to connect to the characters in this book. I didn't really like any of them and I definitely didn't care for them. This lack of care really made me struggle to want to pick the book up because I didn't really mind what happened to the characters that much and therefore the different plot twists just did not have an affect on me like I feel they probably should have. I also feel that the magic system was a bit too complex and I found myself having to reread parts of the book to get my head round it. I think that there was maybe a little bit too much magic going on and if Christo focused on one area the systems would have been a lot easier to get on with.
From reading To Kill a Kingdom, yes I know I keep mentioning this book but I loved it so much I cannot help to compare them), I was aware that Christo can write brutal, "no fucks given" scenes. I don't want this review to have spoilers so I am trying to work this in a way that does do that. I was really disappointed in the characters that died and the way that they did. I feel that more brutal choices could have been made in relation to both the actual character and the way that they died. This would have redeemed the book for me but it just did not.
I did like the ending, whilst I probably did predict it, it did leave me wanting more so I will be buying the next book. Hopefully Into the Crooked Place is a warm up for what Alexandra has in store for us in the sequel. Please read this book, it is a good book, it just didn't compare to her debut for me.
Would love it if you would visit my blog to look at other reviews that I have written:
www.theanxiousbookworm.video.blog