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sofia_bookishwanderess's reviews
1447 reviews
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
The writing as always was fantastic, I loved the fact that we get to see some characters from previous books and I loved how strange and vicious most of the characters were and I really liked that in this book in particular we see how much going to their worlds skewed the way they think. Also, I love Sumi and Cora so much! I can't wait for a book about Cora. One of my favorite things about this book is the mental health rep, some of the things Jack said were very relatable for me even if I struggle with anxiety and not OCD like Jack does.
4.0
The writing as always was fantastic, I loved the fact that we get to see some characters from previous books and I loved how strange and vicious most of the characters were and I really liked that in this book in particular we see how much going to their worlds skewed the way they think. Also, I love Sumi and Cora so much! I can't wait for a book about Cora. One of my favorite things about this book is the mental health rep, some of the things Jack said were very relatable for me even if I struggle with anxiety and not OCD like Jack does.
Wrapped by Rebekah Weatherspoon
3.0
*3,7 stars*
This book started really promising but then it dragged a bit, the conflict felt a bit forced and the ending was rushed.
This book started really promising but then it dragged a bit, the conflict felt a bit forced and the ending was rushed.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
4.0
*4,5 stars*
After years of hearing about this series, I finally decided it was time to pick it up and I'm so glad that I did. The hype and love surrounding this book are absolutely earned, the world building and magic system are impressive, the characters are interesting and lovable and the plot is engaging. The pace slows down in the middle of the book, because the characters get separated and then we have to read about the same part of the journey from three different perspectives and even if the different groups of characters have different experiences, it did get a bit slow and repetetive in a sense. Also, since there were perpectives that I cared for more than others, that also affected my enjoyments of that part of the book. With that I mean that I was loving the book, then I was still enjoying the book just a little bit less and then by the end I was loving the book again. That's why I knocked half a star. But overall, this was fantastic.
After years of hearing about this series, I finally decided it was time to pick it up and I'm so glad that I did. The hype and love surrounding this book are absolutely earned, the world building and magic system are impressive, the characters are interesting and lovable and the plot is engaging. The pace slows down in the middle of the book, because the characters get separated and then we have to read about the same part of the journey from three different perspectives and even if the different groups of characters have different experiences, it did get a bit slow and repetetive in a sense. Also, since there were perpectives that I cared for more than others, that also affected my enjoyments of that part of the book. With that I mean that I was loving the book, then I was still enjoying the book just a little bit less and then by the end I was loving the book again. That's why I knocked half a star. But overall, this was fantastic.
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
3.0
*3,4 stars*
I went into An Enchantment of Ravens with weird expectations that were not met. I thought I was gonna love this book because I had heard that it was romance heavy, it had great characters and a amazing love story, which are things I usually love. I had also heard that it wasn’t particulary strong in terms of plot, world building and magic system, but I was sure I could love it even if that was true. All of these ideas were based on reviews I had read and all of these ideas were wrong.
So let me tell you about what I liked and what I didn’t like about this book:
WHAT I LIKED
The whole concept around the Crafts: In this world, humans can do Crafts while fairies can’t: they can’t cook or write or paint or sew or do anything that involves creating something. They will literally die if they create anything. I think this concept is one of the only unique things about this book and I found it incredibly fascinating. The book addresses in a very brief and superficial but interesting way the idea of what’s the purpose and meaning of life if you can’t create anything and if don’t leave anything behind when you die. I wish there was even more of that in the book.
The way painting and feeelings are entwined: I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll just say that in this world, fairies can’t have feelings, but as the story progresses, it becomes evident that that’s not exactly true and painting plays a big part of that discovery. It’s something that adds an intriguing and thought-provoking element to the story.
The writing: this book has a beautiful and poetic writing style that isn’t too flowery or distracting from the story.
The twists: The last 40% of this book got better for me just because it’s full of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, so actually became engrossed in the story for the first time in the last 100 pages.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The characters: I found almost every character in this book, but specially the main characters, two dimentional; their personalities were flat and they felt like characters I have seen before. Also, Isobel was so annoying sometimes and that was my main problem with the first half of the book, I just didn’t like her.
The romance: I could have gotten over the whole instalove thing (and there is instalove, I don’t care what anyone says) if I had believed in the connection between Isobel and Rook, but alas I did not. I didn’t understand why or when they fell in love, it made absolutely no sense to me and even after they were supposedly in love, I didn’t feel like they had any chemistry or real connection. I started to like them together a little bit in the last like 15%, but even then I wasn’t a big fan.
The pace: the first 15% of this book was engaging even if the pace was slow thanks to the beautiful writing. But once Isobel and Rook met this book got so slow, there were like 50 pages of them stumbling around the woods and since I didn’t care for the characters and found them annoying, it wasn’t fun to read. Then things got a bit more interesting but still the pace was slow and then all of the sudden everything started to happen at once. Basically, the pace was all over the place and it negatively affected my reading experience.
The ending: It was ok, it just felt too easy.
I went into An Enchantment of Ravens with weird expectations that were not met. I thought I was gonna love this book because I had heard that it was romance heavy, it had great characters and a amazing love story, which are things I usually love. I had also heard that it wasn’t particulary strong in terms of plot, world building and magic system, but I was sure I could love it even if that was true. All of these ideas were based on reviews I had read and all of these ideas were wrong.
So let me tell you about what I liked and what I didn’t like about this book:
WHAT I LIKED
The whole concept around the Crafts: In this world, humans can do Crafts while fairies can’t: they can’t cook or write or paint or sew or do anything that involves creating something. They will literally die if they create anything. I think this concept is one of the only unique things about this book and I found it incredibly fascinating. The book addresses in a very brief and superficial but interesting way the idea of what’s the purpose and meaning of life if you can’t create anything and if don’t leave anything behind when you die. I wish there was even more of that in the book.
The way painting and feeelings are entwined: I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll just say that in this world, fairies can’t have feelings, but as the story progresses, it becomes evident that that’s not exactly true and painting plays a big part of that discovery. It’s something that adds an intriguing and thought-provoking element to the story.
The writing: this book has a beautiful and poetic writing style that isn’t too flowery or distracting from the story.
The twists: The last 40% of this book got better for me just because it’s full of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, so actually became engrossed in the story for the first time in the last 100 pages.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The characters: I found almost every character in this book, but specially the main characters, two dimentional; their personalities were flat and they felt like characters I have seen before. Also, Isobel was so annoying sometimes and that was my main problem with the first half of the book, I just didn’t like her.
The romance: I could have gotten over the whole instalove thing (and there is instalove, I don’t care what anyone says) if I had believed in the connection between Isobel and Rook, but alas I did not. I didn’t understand why or when they fell in love, it made absolutely no sense to me and even after they were supposedly in love, I didn’t feel like they had any chemistry or real connection. I started to like them together a little bit in the last like 15%, but even then I wasn’t a big fan.
The pace: the first 15% of this book was engaging even if the pace was slow thanks to the beautiful writing. But once Isobel and Rook met this book got so slow, there were like 50 pages of them stumbling around the woods and since I didn’t care for the characters and found them annoying, it wasn’t fun to read. Then things got a bit more interesting but still the pace was slow and then all of the sudden everything started to happen at once. Basically, the pace was all over the place and it negatively affected my reading experience.
The ending: It was ok, it just felt too easy.
The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova
4.0
*3,8 stars*
This review was originally posted on Bookish Wanderess
I had a bit of trouble getting into this book and it has to do with the fact that the descriptions are not that great and, because of that, I had a hard time picturing what was happening in any given scene but specially WHERE it was happening because the descriptions of places, weapons and creatures are really vague, so it gets a bit confusing. That issue continues throughout the book, I did get used to the writing style and I was able to picture things more clearly, but never as well as I would have liked.
One of the most interesting aspect of the book is that there are no humans in this world, there are two main species, the fenthri and the dragons, which both resemble humans but their skin color, their hair color, the shape of their fingers and of their ears are different. To be clear, in this world humans don’t exist at all and I had never read a book where that was the case before.
In this book, there are two societies in this book that have completely different structures and value different things and it was fascinating to see what happened when those two societies came into contact with each other and the way the book disscusses colonialism in a very organic way within the story was very thought-provoking. Also, it was interesting to read a steampunk fantasy and see how the steampunk elements were mixed with the magic and the consequences that has, which leads to a discussion about progress and how sometimes the things we create can have unexpected results, which was really insightful.
The main plot of this book revolves around a journey to the Alchemists Guild and throughout that journey the author gets to show us the world, or at least the Fenthri world and some of the five guilds that exist in that society, which was enteratining to read about. My only problem is that I don’t feel like Elise Kova managed to create enough tension, so, when the characters had troubles throughout their journey I was never really worried or scared for them, I felt like they were gonna be fine. So, as much as I was entertained the entire time, I was never completly engaged by the plot.
What I was captivated by when I was reading this book were the characters. This book has four perspectives and I liked all of them. One of the POVs is actually one of the antagonists and, at the beginning, I didn’t understand why it was included but it ended up beign my favorite perspective to read from, because she was so ruthless and loyal. Another perspective was the main character’s friend, Florence, and I loved how observant and kind she was as well as the role she played in the groups dynamic. As for the main characters, Arianna and Cvareh, I really liked them as individuals and enjoyed their dynamic that went from hate and mistrust to the opposite.
If you are someone who likes character-driven fantasy books I think you would enjoy this one and if you like fantasy that it’s light on the descriptions, this may also be for you.
This review was originally posted on Bookish Wanderess
I had a bit of trouble getting into this book and it has to do with the fact that the descriptions are not that great and, because of that, I had a hard time picturing what was happening in any given scene but specially WHERE it was happening because the descriptions of places, weapons and creatures are really vague, so it gets a bit confusing. That issue continues throughout the book, I did get used to the writing style and I was able to picture things more clearly, but never as well as I would have liked.
One of the most interesting aspect of the book is that there are no humans in this world, there are two main species, the fenthri and the dragons, which both resemble humans but their skin color, their hair color, the shape of their fingers and of their ears are different. To be clear, in this world humans don’t exist at all and I had never read a book where that was the case before.
In this book, there are two societies in this book that have completely different structures and value different things and it was fascinating to see what happened when those two societies came into contact with each other and the way the book disscusses colonialism in a very organic way within the story was very thought-provoking. Also, it was interesting to read a steampunk fantasy and see how the steampunk elements were mixed with the magic and the consequences that has, which leads to a discussion about progress and how sometimes the things we create can have unexpected results, which was really insightful.
The main plot of this book revolves around a journey to the Alchemists Guild and throughout that journey the author gets to show us the world, or at least the Fenthri world and some of the five guilds that exist in that society, which was enteratining to read about. My only problem is that I don’t feel like Elise Kova managed to create enough tension, so, when the characters had troubles throughout their journey I was never really worried or scared for them, I felt like they were gonna be fine. So, as much as I was entertained the entire time, I was never completly engaged by the plot.
What I was captivated by when I was reading this book were the characters. This book has four perspectives and I liked all of them. One of the POVs is actually one of the antagonists and, at the beginning, I didn’t understand why it was included but it ended up beign my favorite perspective to read from, because she was so ruthless and loyal. Another perspective was the main character’s friend, Florence, and I loved how observant and kind she was as well as the role she played in the groups dynamic. As for the main characters, Arianna and Cvareh, I really liked them as individuals and enjoyed their dynamic that went from hate and mistrust to the opposite.
If you are someone who likes character-driven fantasy books I think you would enjoy this one and if you like fantasy that it’s light on the descriptions, this may also be for you.