paocmanfra's reviews
162 reviews

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

First, I’m so glad I read AB before this book. AB set me up to care more for Celaena and I think if I had read this first, she wouldn’t have grown on me because I don’t find her quite as lovable in this book. Also being able to catch subtle references was nice. Second, I liked this book but you can really feel that SJM hasn’t fully fleshed out her style yet. I imagine the writing will improve as the series progresses but this book definitely felt young. So! Many! Exclamation! Marks! Excited to keep reading but missing the “can’t put this book down” feeling. 
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I am ruined. That is all. 
A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

Kinda sexy, very silly. This version of Persephone killed me - so very dumb. This book reads like Wattpad fanfic. 
The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

V.E. Schwab has done it again and boy am I SO delighted to be back in this world. I really didn’t know what to expect. I loved the Shades series and was hopeful that this new series in the same world wouldn’t do the original a disservice. Let me tell you it absolutely did not. What a treat it is to get more of the characters I fell in love with and dive deeper into their worlds as well as get to know other characters more along the way. I am literally frothing at the mouth for the next book in this new series. 
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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funny informative inspiring lighthearted sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Such a wonderfully written book. This is a book for people who love video games but it’s written so accessibly I think even someone who doesn’t like video games would absolutely enjoy it. I wasn’t expecting this book to take me through so many emotions and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. I’m a huge fan of the way the author time jumps - it gives us little nuggets of the future or the past without being confusing and always leads us cleanly back into the plot. 
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House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This is by far the best series in the book. It was such a great pay off after reading be first two. I’m so curious where we go from here because it slightly feels like the series could end at the end of this book, but now that
Prythian
has sort of come into play, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of these characters together and I honestly can’t wait.
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I liked this book significantly better than the first one. I think it’s entirely too long and could be cut down by 200-250 pages, but the payoff at the end is worth it. I docked it by .25 because there were times I was so bored I avoided reading it and there were other time that I was actively finding pockets of time in my day to keep reading. Ultimately it was worth my time but SJM is killing me with these 800 page reads lol
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I stuck through it because so many people I know love it. But good god did I find it boring. All for the last 150 pages where it finally picked up for me. I’ll say that it’s not SJM’s writing. I think I do enjoy her writing just like I did in Acotar. But I think this whole murder mystery/buddy cop vibe it has going on along with how insanely dense the world-building was, it was just not for me. I am a sucker and a completionist so I haven’t given up on this series just yet. I’m moving on to the second book to see how I fare but here’s hoping it’s a little more interesting than this one. 
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked this book a tad less than the first and once again took me a bit to get into the flow of. I have to say my love of the main characters really took a dive in this book. I specifically took a huge issue with Xaden and the dynamic of not disclosing things to Violet unless she asked. In some cases, like
his second signet
, I could understand because
it’s literally life or death
. It was hard for me to come back from
him never being fully truthful about Cat
. I had a lot of ups and downs with this book. Overall I felt like this book lacked the same punch as the first one did, but damn does Rebecca Yarros know how to hit us with a good cliffhanger.
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Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

It took me a bit to get into the story but when it picked up, IT PICKED UP. Wasn’t quite sure if it would be for me but I think I just personally did not connect with the heavy military info needed at the beginning for world building. But once I got my bearings, the characters were so easy to connect to, making the relationships and later action scenes so much more worth it. After about 200 pages, I could literally not put this book down.