mcaliz's reviews
475 reviews

Content warning; mentions of child abuse, emotional abuse

Rep: animal companions, slow burn romances, sisterly love

Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:

I honestly had a good time with this. It had me laughing out loud & kept me reading. This was cheesy & predictable, but I had a good time. I recommend this. I listened to the audiobook as I read along & it enhanced my experience. I am VERY curious to see what happens in book 2 after the ending, so I can't wait!

Pros:

I liked the lore in this! I liked how witches were at the core of the earth, the world & the magic (obviously). I feel like there's more to learn, but what we got in this was cool.

I loved Tor & Shen. They had me CACKLING. Some of the best love interests that I've come across in a while & I can't wait to see more of them in book 2.

Elske, Tor’s wolf. She was so cute & I loved her.

The romance(s):
I loved Tor & Wren. There is quite bit of angst that occurred between them at the end of the book & I am VERY excited to see what happens between these two.

Rose & Shen were funny & I can't wait to see their relationship flourish.

Content warning; mentions of sexual abuse, bulimia, surveillance of virginity, gaslighting, unwanted physical contact, insinuated rape

Rep: sapphic side character

Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:

I really don’t know how I feel about this book. Reading/listening to the story just felt AWKWARD. And I don’t know if it’s because Marlinchen just felt SOOOOO WEIRD. She was so naive & timid & horny that I just honestly could NOT with her. But I will give this book an A+ for the gross, unconfortable feeling that it aimed to create. I honestly had to skim a lot of this book & skip around in the audiobook at certain parts/scenes.

Pros:
I loved the lore in this.

Gripes:

Marlinchen?

Trigger Warnings: PTSD, anxiety, self harm, body gore, eye gore, blood/bleeding, murder, CANNIBALISM (done thru compulsion NOT freewill), loss of body parts

I cannot wait for the second book in this duology!! I like how each book has started off with a story from Serilda that is going to echo the events in the story. I am VERY interested in seeing how the story is going to progress from just the little bit we were able to read/see in this little sampler. The angst is real and THRIVING in just the little bit that we got & I honestly can't wait!

This retelling was really interesting. I love the movie Rapunzel, so I was intrigued to see where this retelling would take the story. It had twists & turns that were enjoyable and different from the movie, but that's all I really have to say about this. I had fun listening to the audiobook, but the story was just overall fell really flat for me.

I would recommend this to someone who likes Rapunzel & loves retellings themselves.

Overall: 3.5 ⭐️s

Content warning; murder

Rep: queerness, slow burn, found family

Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:

I had fun with this. I followed along with the audiobook & it really made the story go by. I wasn't the biggest fan of the narrator for Adrian--I thought that he sounded too old for the character of Adrian & too robotic. But as the book went on, I was able to push thru my dislike for his voice portrayal & enjoy the story that Marissa Meyer was creating for us.

I thought the powers were interesting & how someone gained their superpower was unique (even though how they were obtained was, for the most part, really sad). This was very action heavy, and while that sometimes doesn't bother me, there was A LOT of that in this & I found myself just absently listening to those parts. There were some parts that I found cheesy & there were some tidbits of information/things that I saw happening or being found out, but it was the way that they were revealed that I really liked & I'm gonna start book ASAP.


We do the see the start of a slow burn romance blossom between Adrian & Nova in this & I'm curious to see how its going to play out given Nova's real identity & Adrian being an actual Renegade. I already feel the angst!!