rachieanniereads's reviews
55 reviews

umm… girl what the fuck

i decided to dabble into dark romance...
tbh when i heard 'secret society' i was thinking occult ninth house vibes. this was definitely not that and it was more like the mafia.
i was just along for the ride with this book. way more smut than i'm used to or comfortable with, but the plot was interesting and twisty enough to keep me reading regardless.

took me entirely too long to read

a sci-fi equivalent of a mary oliver poem mixed with tea dragon society

short and sweet!

fun & sexy little story. there are some spoilers from the first novella, but this follows new characters in another part of the mead realms!

love a talking sword and hot fox demon men. 

OMG THIS WAS SO FUNNNN. i needed a lighthearted, fun fantasy read and this was THAT and more!

finally a book with a LOVABLE black fmc that wasn't riddled with stereotypes. she was relatable and exactly what most of us would act like if we were suddenly thrust into a dangerous adventure. 

equal parts funny, fun, some high stakes moment and sexy.

loved the banter, the romance, and the CONSENT!!

will definitely be reading all the rest. this is what i've been wanting out of a fantasy romance for YEARS.

i am usually worried going into novellas, but this book was able to pull-off everything that some full length fantasy romance novels can't even do. the pacing and plot was great and didn't feel too compact or rushed at all. i just wish it was longer so i could spend more time with this couple!

there were equal parts good and bad things about this book. i've been hesitant to read sanderson for a while for a few reasons, and i think i was correct about my personal reservations.

the good:
i enjoyed kelsier's character. i liked his charisma paired with his mystery, and i just quickly trusted that he would pull through despite his absurd decisions. 

the hard magic system was really interesting and very unique, i haven't yet read another fantasy story with a magic system similar to this. it was well explained and yet there were still things that were mysteries about how the magic works that keeps you wanting to read the rest of the series to crack those secrets. 

the action scenes were, while using repetitive language (i'll get to that in the "bad"), really cool. the different maneuverings and uses of magic/metal while fighting was really interesting to read and often really clever. 

i loved the court/ball scenes, and seeing the political maneuverings and how those started to unfold as their plan snapped into place. 

vin grew on me. i didn't like her at first and she made a lot of stupid decisions, but i enjoyed seeing her character growth. 

i also liked elend, even though i have problems with the romance. 

sanderson's writing is very readable and straightforward, but that's also one of its disadvantages. 

the ending and the plot twists/reveals were spectacular. i think the last 150 or so pages kept it from being demoted to a 2 stars for me.

the bad:
the writing was very repetitive. sanderson uses the same words within a paragraph repeatedly and after 500+ pages of that, it's quite grating. yes his writing is readable and simplistic, but at times it felt rudimentary and the world building in terms of descriptive language was severely lacking. aside from the fact that the foliage/plants in this world have lost all color and everything is covered in ash, i don't really know what anything is supposed to look like...?

the romance... it felt very forced and random. i am interested to see how or if it will progress, but it just developed too quickly for me to suspend my disbelief. 

a lot of the development of the crews plan was repetitively TOLD rather than SHOWN. a lot of developments happened off page, and then we would have a crew meeting in which we would just get infodumped dialogue of what happened since the last meeting. 

i've heard that sanderson's humor either really works for you or REALLY doesn't...i think i am of the latter camp. he can't write humor, i'm sorry. 

i did feel like a few of sanderson's personal beliefs seeped through very subtly. for me, that takes me out of a story if i can start to feel the authors hand trying to make a message. 

 i will continue on with the series/sanderson's cosmere as a whole, and i'm hoping i'll fall in love with the way of kings more easily than i did the final empire. 

overall i thought this was a good conclusion to the series. this was the only book in the series that i didn’t give 5 stars, and that was mainly due to pacing issues. i felt like the first half of this book dragged, while the latter half improved in pace, intrigue and began wrapping up the various plot lines that were carried throughout the series. 

the ending (around the last 100 pages) was fantastic. open-ended enough where the reader can still wonder and imagine what happens when the book closes, but wrapped up enough that we are satisfied. 

i also cried! it’s usually an automatic 5 stars when a book manages to make me cry, but due to some the issues i had, i couldn’t give it a full 5 stars. will be reading ronan’s spin-off series!

blue & her boys <3

this book solidified this series as an all-time fave.
the nature writing in here is beautiful.
literally could never guess what would happen next.

this was a re-read and i loved it just as much the second time around.
ronan is my favorite character in the series, so i loved this book for more of the focus on him and his subplot.
the pacing and foreshadowing in this one is chefs kiss.