outsidestar's reviews
82 reviews

Well, this was a huge disappointment. I don't even know where to start, I just kept rolling my eyes half the time. It wasn't bad, maybe it's more of a me problem, but I was expecting so much more than what I got.

Eighteen year-old Celaena (which is just a weird way of spelling Selena) is pretty much the greatest assassin ever. However, for the past year she's been kept prisoner in the death camp of Endovier, as nothing more than a slave working the salt mines. Until one day the Crown Prince (Dorian) and his Captain of the Guard (Chaol - don't even get me started on how this is pronounced because it sounds too much like kale) show up and offer her a chance at freedom. To earn that freedom, she must win a tournament to become the King's Champion and serve him for 4 years. And then there's also some dark evil looming around for her to deal with.

So we've got this badass assassin and a tournament that looks a lot like The Huger Games. Did the book focus on that? Not really. Yes, we did see her training and competing in some of the stupid tests but from the moment Celaena steps into the palace she's more worried about dresses, being invited to balls, doing nothing but reading and pondering whether or not Dorian and Chaol find her attractive. I like the idea that a badass assassin can still have a girly side to her, but where did all the badassery go? She's the greatest assassin ever, has spent a year in a death camp and still will not jolt awake the second someone steps into her room or won't give a second thought to eating a whole bag of candy someone left in her room when Champions are dropping dead everywhere.

The love triangle was ridiculous. I hate love triangles to begin with, but this one felt like it was there not because the story needed it, or in any way benefited from it, but just to check a box of things that need to be included in a book. I mean, the two guys just keep showing up at her door like she's just a court lady and not an assassin that could kill them in little more than two moves. Ugh I can't come up with the words to express how I feel about this stupid love triangle and why it was completely unnecessary. This book needed to focus on the tournament and everything around it and forget about court and kissing. This series needed a slow burn romance. With Chaol.

 

And when she ends things with Dorian because it wouldn't be appropriate now that she's the King's Champion? Excuse me, wasn't that the plan from the beginning? But of course now she can go kiss Chaol in the next book without worring about the prince. Her relationship with Dorian makes no sense and pisses me off. They should've become friends. That's it.

I just think Dorian is... a fool? he kind of reminds me of Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses sometimes.

That brings me to my next point. I recently read the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy also by Sarah J Maas and, though I know Throne of Glass came first, there were details that reminded me of it all the time. Some were little, others not so much. Parts of this just felt like a bad first version of A Court of Thorns and Roses.

And the characters. I couldn't care less. I didn't really connect with any of them. Chaol was the best of them all. But the rest... just meh. And was Kaltain really necessary? I mean I kind of get it with the Duke's plot line but ugh. It could have been done so much better.

That's my main issue with the whole book though, it reads like there are some great ideas in the works but it could have been improved so much. I get that a lot of it is build up for the following books (or at least I'm assuming so) and I've heard Crown of Midnight is much better, so we'll see what happens. 

Bastante meh. Sin más. Es todo muy cuqui y para todos los públicos, en la más pura esencia Lara Jean.

En este último libro Peter y Lara Jean ya llevan un año saliendo en serio, están en el último curso del instituto y llega el momento de elegir universidad, graduarse y tomar decisiones que cambiaran sus vidas para siempre.

Igual soy yo, que me he hecho mayor y ya no me van los libros de instituto, pero me da la sensación de que es todo muy mono y muy cuqui pero no pasa nada relevante que vaya a evitar que me olvide de este libro en dos semanas. 

<b>This book would make a great movie.</b>

Given how this started, I'm surprised that I liked it as much as I did. During the first couple chapters I didn't really understand what was going on and it was all entangled with explanations about Christine's marriage and why she decided to leave her husband. Which I didn't care about. But then Adam showed up and the actual story started and I enjoyed it very much.

Before I tell you about the book, <b>be warned suicide is a big part of this book. So trigger warning for that.</b>

Meet Christine: a 33 year-old woman who has just seen a man shoot himself. This has made her think about her own life and, as a result, she decides to finally make some changes and end her unhappy marriage. A couple days later, she's walking around Dublin and sees a man (Adam) ready to jump off Ha'penny Bridge. She decides she cannot let that happen again and they somehow agree that he won't jump but, in exchange, she has 2 weeks to make him fall in love with life again. There's a lot for Christine and her self-help books to tackle, but the main goal is helping Adam to win both his girlfriend and his job back.

And that's where all the <i>fun and games</i> happens. I loved reading Christine's ideas to make Adam see the good in the little things (some of which went terribly wrong) and how he followed her crazy, especially when it came to ideas about getting his girlfriend back. It was great seeing them together and picking up the broken pieces of each other <i>because Christine, as much as she tries to fix and help everyone, is just as broken as Adam in her own way</i>.

I also loved Christine's family. I found her dad and sisters to be really fun and easy-going. And her little niece is the cutest 3 year-old ever.

YES. Finally. I don’t even know how to write this review.

This book took me by surprise and just completely blew me away. I can’t even begin to describe what this did to me. I’m a mess. A sobbing mess. My eyes hurt from crying.

I was hugely disappointed with Throne of Glass, then found that Crown of Midnight bored me to death for the first half until the great stuff happened. And the same goes for the novellas. I just kept seeing this pattern of dragging and dragging until the “shocking thing” happened and hell broke loose.

Then I read the reviews for this and kept seeing things like “this is a filler book” or “the pace is much slower” and so on. I actually took a one-week break and read something else before picking this up and bracing myself to be bored to death for the first 200 pages.

But I wasn’t. This book took the story we had and turned it into the epic story I had been hoping for when I first picked up Throne of Glass. I gave that first book 2.5 stars, but this one… this one has become one of my all-time favorite books.

In the first 2 installments we had different POVs all telling the same story, but here we have different POVs telling different stories:

At the beginning I was much more invested in Celaena’s story than the other 2, but that was just for the very beginning until Aedion, Manon and Abraxos started growing on me.

And the romance in this book. This is the kind of beautiful slow burn romance I wanted, where they don’t even know it’s love yet but it’s crystal clear to the rest of us, which just further proves my point that the ridiculous love triangle with Dorian and Chaol was completely unnecessary. Rowan is the perfect love interest for Celaena, they’re probably mates – if that’s possible, given that Rowan already had a mate. I’m not sure how that works. I just wish there hadn’t been a different guy thrown at Celaena in every book (novellas included).

It’s true this isn’t a super fast-paced, hell breaks loose kind of book. But it isn’t slow either, and there is something going on all the time, it’s by no means boring or a filler book. We’re introduced to new characters, who I liked better than Dorian and Chaol. And, if you’re one of those people that see plot twists coming from miles away like me, there are crumbs left here and there for you to start piecing together. There’s just this overall feeling of an epic story unfolding. I'm still crying writing this review and I can't wait to dive into Queen of Shadows. 

Heir of Fire was definitely a turning point for this series. Ever since Celaena left for Wendlyn the story improved enormously, becoming much richer and layered with characters and plot lines. That being said, this book was kinda slow. Not boring or dragging, just slow. I’ve found that the books in this series tend to have everything happen in the last 100-200 pages which are full of awesomeness, but that means this really didn’t need to be 650 pages long.

Just to get the point across, this is what gets accomplished in the first 500-ish pages:

–Saving Aedion
–Reuniting with Rowan
–Killing Arobynn
–Befriending and saving Lysandra
–Lorcan comes snooping around (I still don’t fully get this guy)
–Manon debating what she should do

And this is what gets accomplished in the last 100-ish pages:

–Freeing magic
–Saving Dorian
–Learning the truth about Erawan
–Killing the king
–Manon finally deciding to do something about the whole mess
–Kaltain redeeming herself and being a badass
–Going back to Terrasen

So yeah, that’s that. I’ve also been thinking that this whole series didn’t really need Fae in it. Badassery and magic? Yes. Fae? Not really. And it would’ve made it different from A Court of Thorns and Roses because they are too similar in too many ways. But what’s done is done.

Now can we please talk about the women in this book? Because damn. The guys are nothing without the ladies saving their sorry asses. Rowan sort of disappointed me in that regard. He’s supposed to be pretty much the greatest warrior in history. He’s a legend, men tell stories about him around fires, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had written a song about him at some point. And yet he still manages to almost get himself killed several times.

I still like Rowan and he’s the perfect match for Aelin, but do you know who I love? Aedion. For his personality, for everything he is and is not and for everything he stands for. He’s such a perfect lovely cinnamon roll and needs to be protected at all costs. He deserves to be happy.

And you know who else deserves that? Lysandra. My baby girl has gone through so much and she’s such a badass and I love her to death. I would really love for Aedion and Lysandra to be together. That has the potential to be a love story for the ages. Side note: to fully get Lysandra's character, do yourself a favor and read the novellas first. You're welcome.

I also have to mention my third baby and cinnamon roll: Abraxos. He likes to look at the stars and sniff flowers and is just the cutest. He knows right from wrong and can tell when someone needs help and I just want to befriend him and hug him.

As for the rest of the characters, I really like the witches and their story line but not much happened with them other than Manon debating what to do the whole time. Oh, and that epic fight were she almost gets killed. I don’t care about the rest of the witches but I really want the Thirteen to ally with Aelin and Dorian. Speaking of which, I felt kinda meh about Dorian in the first books but he’s been growing on me lately and I think Manon will do wonders for him. Then there’s Chaol and Nesryn, who I do not care about at all.

By the way, I feel like this series has too many fake love interests:

In typical Throne of Glass fashion, this was slow. But also in typical Throne of Glass fashion, it had me crying my eyes out by the end.

I feel like this took me forever to read but, more than anything, I think it was because I didn’t have that much reading time. It didn’t drag, it was just slow at certain points. I mean, it is a 690 page book.

Getting into details about a fifth book of a series is kinda spoilery, so I’m just going to leave you with my highlights for what I liked and didn’t like about this:

THE GOOD:
1. There was absolutely no Chaol or Nesryn in this whole thing. Thank you.

2. Manon finally standing up for her Thirteen and being awesome in every possible way. When her back story is revealed it made her all that more interesting, if that’s possible. However, I do feel like it’s Aelin’s story all over again:

a would-be queen who could save her people and allow them to return home is made into a deadly weapon with no heart by a wicked master/grandmother

. I also really liked her and Aelin together, I feel like they can become really good friends. Them two and Lysandra are the Erilean version of Charlie’s Angels.

3. Abraxos being a caring mother hen and a clever little beast. I just love him so much. He’s saved everyone’s lives countless times by now.

4. Fenrys. Okay, so we all know by now that I have 3 babies that need to be protected at all costs: Aedion, Lysandra and Abraxos. Well, we can now add Fenrys to my baby list too. I instantly liked him, I want him for myself. I loved his personality and how he gave everything up for his twin and still tries to fight that damn oath every day. I also really liked his relationship with Aelin, I feel like they could be best friends.

5. Aelin pretending to be Celaena and shamelessly flirting with Rowan in front of everyone. This scene had me grinning non-stop. The girl knows how to make an entrance.

6. Lysandra being fierce and full-on badass in Skull’s Bay. That battle with the sea wyverns with everyone holding their breaths and cheering for her. I’m so proud of my baby girl.

7. Aedion and Lysandra. I’ve been craving a love story between these two since Queen of Shadows and I was screaming when he made that promise to her in Skull’s Bay. I just… my babies deserve to be happy.

8. Aedion and Gavriel. I loved getting to know more about what happened all those years ago and having Gavriel actually caring. Deep down, Aedion is just a precious little boy with the purest of hearts and needs to be loved and protected instead of him willingly putting himself out there for everyone else because that’s what he’s been taught to do and he thinks his life isn’t worth as much.

9. The last 100-ish pages. As always, the last 100 pages are full of awesomeness. I’m not even going to say anything else.

10. All the reunions at the end. I got all the feels with everyone coming together and knowing that Aelin actually knew but she still set it all into motion and gave them all the tools and power to actually have a shot at this.


THE NOT SO GOOD:
1. Elide. I really liked her in Morath but in this book she’s just running around in all the wrong directions looking for Aelin and being hunted every other chapter.

2. Lorcan. I don’t get this guy. I didn’t get him in Queen of Shadows and I still don’t get him now. I feel like he was just thrown in here for

him and Elide to fall in love

. I like who he is when he’s with Elide but, how does that match with the Lorcan from Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows? It doesn’t. It’s like he’s a whole different person. And also, how is he demi-Fae? He has magic and immortality and not even Rowan can best him. What part of him is human and not Fae?

3. I found that this book centered around romance a little too much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for romance, but fantasies need slow burn romances that intertwine with the story. Like Aelin and Rowan in Heir of Fire or Aedion and Lysandra here, where we know they’re falling in love but nothing major really happens, because what’s the key word? Slow burn. Also, there’s nothing wrong with being single. Not every character needs to find true love, friendships make for as powerful relationships. It doesn’t make it rare or special if they all find love/mates at the same time. In my review for Queen of Shadows I already talked about how this series has too many fake love interests, but now some of the real ones just seem forced. I'm talking about

Elide and Lorcan and Manon and Dorian. Let’s talk about Dorian. He was pretty much a side character during this whole book and then when he’s with Manon I don’t recognize him. He becomes a completely different person.

4. The writing. Not in general, but there were details that pushed me right out of the story. For instance, I read the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy about a month ago and I swear some of the dialogue is word for word the same. And there are references and comparisons that are used a billion times, like comparing everything to the darkness or the gaps between the stars. In every damn book. I loved it the first time but now it just like here we go again *eye-roll*.

5. That tiny little detail about Vaughan coming over with Gavriel and Fenrys but not showing up at all. I mean, his hunting skills must be awful. That, or he just took it as a vacation.

6. The fact that I now have to get through a 660 page book about Chaol and Nesryn before getting to the end of this. I’m going to give it a try but just thinking about it bores me already.

This should have been a novella.

Seriously. Had this been a 200 page novella instead of a 660 page brick of a book, we would all have loved it that much more. But it wasn’t, so I can’t give it more than 3 stars.

This takes place at the same time as Empire of Storms, but follows Chaol and Nesryn in their journey to the southern continent to rally an army to fight for Terrasen and get Chaol healed in the meantime.

I have to say that I liked this more than I thought I would. I went into it pretty skeptical because I didn’t care for Chaol or Nesryn. Her I didn’t really mind but him… ugh. My prayers for new characters were answered, though. Sartaq and Yrene made this bearable, even enjoyable to some degree, but Borte was definitely my favorite.

What’s the problem then? Well, this is supposed to be a fantasy series following Aelin Galathynius and her quest to save the world. This book was none of that. Except for a couple reveals near the end, this read more like a romance than a fantasy. The whole plot line was Chaol and Nesryn finding true love. But you know what? I don’t really care about the side story of two side characters. Yes, I liked Yrene. Yes, I would’ve fallen in love with Sartaq too. But that’s not what I was here for. I covered this already in my review for Empire of Storms, but romance doesn’t drive the plot in fantasies, great fantasies have romance as a side plot. And I'm tired of every freakin character in this series finding true love. What is this, a Disney movie?

What I’m trying to say is that this book was unnecessary. Especially after how Empire of Storms ended. We didn’t get to see how Ansel won Melisande’s fleet, so why did we need a whole book on how Chaol and Nesryn manage to win over an army from the southern continent and fall in love in the process?

*Chaol rant begins*
And then there’s that other little detail: I hate Chaol. I don’t get how Yrene would prefer him to Kashin, who is a lovely human being and not at all appreciated. I don’t even know where to start with Chaol. Just… the way he treats Nesryn as a crutch and a replacement for other women. I get that they both drift to someone else, but he’s the one making promises to her that knows mean nothing, even in Queen of Shadows. And how he shouts at Yrene whenever he's angry for whatever reason that has nothing to do with her, when all she’s trying to do is help him. I can’t stand him.

And then we get to the part where he thinks that it would've been easier if Aelin would've played the distressed queen and that she may cost them the war. EXCUSE ME???? SHE'S THE ONLY SHOT YOU'VE GOT AT WINNING THE FREAKING THING. But Chaol still doesn’t trust her, even after everything she’s done and the countless times she has thrown herself into danger to save his ass. He can’t see the lines that she will and will not cross. Dorian trusts her with his life, yet Chaol somehow could love her as Adarlan’s Assassin but can’t accept her as Aeiln Galathynius. And he only got to meet Yrene because of Aelin, she’s alive because of her.

This book is an attempt to give him depth and some sort of development but it didn’t do it for me. I think SJM really didn’t know what to do with Chaol. He was useful for the love triangle in Throne of Glass (as stupid as that was to begin with) and he was the only one who could be used to draw Aelin away from Nehemia in Crown of Midnight, but after she left for Wendlyn the story didn’t need him anymore. What’s the point of this character? I’m still waiting for that grand revelation.
*End of rant*

That being said, I can’t wait for all the reunions in Kingdom of Ash. I can’t wait for Aelin to meet Yrene and see how bright a spark of kindness can burn. How that army is there because of someone that’s only alive to begin with because of her. And I can’t wait to see Aedion’s face when he sees

the thousand ships and ruks. And Lysandra’s uncle

.

Hello, I just read a 980 page book in 4 days. No regrets, though.

This was epic and there’s only one way to describe how I feel now: I am lost and I do not know the way. I started crying with the prologue and I don’t think I really stopped until now. Every other chapter had me sobbing. I don’t think I have any more tears left in me.

I must say this last book had a very strong Lord of the Rings vibe to it. It begins 2-ish months after Empire of Storms where we have:

I loved loved loved the friendship between Aelin and Fenrys. That bond they forged after going through months of hell together was just precious. And the relationship between Aedion and Gavriel warms my heart, seeing how proud Gavriel is of his son and how everything he does is not for Aelin or Terrasen or anyone but Aedion. Also, quick shout-out to Borte and Evangeline for being awesome and my new best friends.

Now, I have to mention 2 moments that I thought were exquisitely done. The first one is

Manon being crowned queen and her rallying the crochans with the whole “your queen summons you to war, will you fly?”. It gave me chills. And the second one is Dorian channeling his inner Aelin in Morath, very impressive.

What bothered me the most is that the whole find the wyrdkeys and forge the lock drama that has been going on since the very beginning was

utterly useless. Aelin forged the lock and what changed? She lost her power. That’s it. She didn’t get anything useful out of it. Not a very wise thing to do, if you ask me.

Just because I had fun writing it, here’s a summary of sorts (mild spoilers ahead):
Me: Rowan get your ass to Doranelle.
Rowan: *Looking for Aelin in all the wrong places for months*
Elide: Wouldn’t she be in Doranelle?
Lorcan and Rowan: No.
Aelin: I’M IN DORANELLE YOU BUZZARD
Fenrys: *Saves Aelin*
Rowan: We came to save you, oh you’re already running free.
Me: Everyone get your asses to Terrasen.
Aelin and the cadre: Coming
Chaol and the khaganate: Coming
Rolfe: *Out of office*
Manon and Dorian: *Flirting*
Erawan: Let’s send our spare soldiers to Anielle.
Chaol and the khaganate: Let’s completely change our route and waste precious time and soldiers saving Anielle.
Aelin: Oh look, a ruk! Why help Terrasen when we can delay ourselves for weeks and help save Anielle? We can go hang with some royals and deplete all my power because why would I save it anyways? Fun times.
Aedion: I’ve been holding the damn line for months. Everybody get your asses here!
Vaughan: Can’t, I’m hunting for Lorcan.
Dorian: Can’t, I’ve decided it’s finally time to look for the third wyrdkey since no one else seems to care about that little detail.
Rolfe: I’m back, how do you like pirates?
Manon: Here I am, saving you poor mortals once again. What would you ever do without me?
Aelin: Everybody chill. No rush. Oh look, a spell that opens a portal between locations, that’s useless.
Aedion, Lysandra, Galan, Ansel, Ilias and the Whitethorns: AELIN EVERYONE IS FUCKING DYING FOR YOU, GET YOURSELF UP HERE
Aelin: Oh, hello Dorian. Let’s get rid of our powers before going to Terrasen because why would we ever need them?
Manon: Aelin, if you don’t bring that army to Orynth I will drag all of you here myself and it won’t be pretty.
Aelin: Can't, we're trapped in a snowstorm.
Some tree spirit: Aelin you must hurry.
Aelin: Okay everyone, we’re getting to Orynth right now. Oh look, something fancy for me to ride on.

And I’ll leave it at that because you know, spoilers. All you need to know is that it involves tears, a lot of them.

You know what I need now? Novellas. On Borte and Yeran's backstory and future and everything that happened in between but we did not get to see. On the days after the battle for Aedion and Lysandra and 

their wedding

. On Rowan and Aelin's kids. Just gimme some novellas. 

This is such an endearing, cute and yet hilarious story.

Meet Leena Cotton, ever the problem solver, hard-worker and fix-it-all. Except the cancer that took her fierce little sister a little over a year ago. That she couldn’t fix. Her way to cope? Work, work and then work some more. The result? A two-month paid leave after blowing a big presentation and almost losing a client.

Now meet Eileen Cotton, Leena’s grandmother. At her 79 years old she’s ready to give love another chance after her husband left her for their dance class instructor four months ago.

They both need a change in their lives, so they decide to swap houses for two months. Leena will stay in Hamleigh-in-Harksdale, a little town in Yorkshire, and Eileen will move into Leena’s flat in London and dive into the world of online dating.

Had I physically read this, I may not have liked it as much. Not only because it is a slow, unhurried story but because the narration was utterly flawless, especially Eileen’s. She was my favorite in every possible way. She’s a sassy old woman who lists the pros and cons of every eligible men, is on neighborhood watch and leaves Leena labeled diagrams of the TV remote. She knows that “you can get away with an awful lot when you’re an old lady” and plays that card to her advantage whenever she can, to my utter delight. Of course, Leena’s flatmates fall in love with her and she manages to get acquainted with everyone in the building. And her friendship with Fitz, one of Leena’s flatmates, is priceless.

Overall, it's a fun, fluffy contemporary but it’s 100% character driven, so the audiobook is definitely the way to go.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing this audiobook in exchange of an honest and voluntary review. 

Well, that was disappointing. I would’ve DNFed it if it weren’t so short.

This is a typical case of a great premise but not so great execution.
The premise: One prince wants her out. Another wants her as a pawn. Someone wants her dead. And also: A badass female MC? A royal competition? Dark magic? Court games?
The execution: There are princes. And a female main character who suddenly starts crying every now and then. Also a competition and some magic. And everything is written like this. Very anti-climatic.

In this book we follow Zora as she cheats her way into the Royal Games as the ‘chosen’ champion to represent the Dark Valley and the only female in the competition. So full-on Throne of Glass vibes. Book one, that is.

The plot was pretty solid, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about this book. And that it’s short.

For starters, the writing was overly simple, which bothered me to no end. Most of it read like a middle-grade novel. I needed more descriptions, more depth, more background on the world, the Blood Cup, the magic system. The world-building was practically non-existent.

There was a whole lot of telling instead of showing, so I didn’t feel any real tension or development, things just happened and I felt absolute indifference throughout the story. Without depth, a lot of the scenes felt rushed and, without tension or a sense of struggle, it just looked like there were no stakes at all and the characters had nothing to work for or worry about, which in turn made it very difficult to connect with them.

Which gets me to my next point: the characters. They were all one-dimensional. We got no backstories, no character arcs, we didn’t even get to see their personalities. I still don’t know who these people are, their hopes and dreams, the reason that drives them to behave the way they do. Obviously, that makes it a little difficult to actually care for any of them. Larzen was probably the most interesting character, I could see a rough draft of someone along the lines of a gay version of Nikolai from Shadow & Bone in him but, like the rest of them, he needed a whole lot of development.

There was no actual foundation for the relationships either, friendly or romantic. They just happened out of the blue. Relationships need to be built. For example, the romantic relationship between Zora and her love interest could have been a great enemies-to-lovers slow-burn romance, but instead it just felt rushed, underdeveloped and totally anti-climatic.

And then we have the plot holes and inconsistencies, the main one being the games themselves. We are told over and over again how dangerous and life-threatening they are, but the challenges weren’t very impressive at all. Not to mention that we don’t even know who Zora is up against or what the Blood Cup actually is, so that sense of urgency and dire need to win the games is not conveyed at all.

I understand that there are things left open for future books to tackle, like who is this sun goddess Zora dreams about? But then there’s the issue of Seth. He just seems to be chillin in the dungeons and everyone just forgets about him. I get that he’ll be mad at her when she goes back home and all, but it was still a useless plot point.

Overall, this felt like a first or second draft of a great idea. It just needs more in every aspect: more world building, more character depth, more relationship development, more tension. Basically, more writing like this was meant for a YA audience and not for a 10 year-old. It had so much potential but it fell way short for me.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.