Tag: review

Reviews

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Review

by amyleighreads1 Comment on Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Review

12000020Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime.

Ari, bless him is just trying his best to get through the summer and high school and has to deal with a lot. His family keeps a lot of secrets and doesn’t communicate with each other very well. He is a little awkward and puts himself down a lot. He definitely undergoes quite the evolution over the course of the storyline and it was really gratifying to see him come into himself and accept his flaws and acknowledge what he needs to work on.

Dante was a very interesting character; he contrasts starkly with Ari but their dynamic just works so well together. He is very talkative, spouts random knowledge all the time and is almost overly emotional. I like that when he is away from Ari in Chicago he makes friends and goes and experiments, really reinforcing with himself who he is. The letters that he shared with Ari were incredibly personal and I like that he is open and honest enough to want to discuss these things with a friend instead of internalising everything like Ari tends to do.

I loved that we got to delve into the characters backstories and we learn a lot about their families. It makes the book as a whole a lot more relatable and engaging. There were stages at the start where the pacing was a little on the slower side. All we really had was angsty Ari overthinking everything and I kind of had to push myself to continue.

This was really a lovely, touching, sometimes hard hitting story about two boys coming of age and discovering their own identities. I couldn’t predict what was going to happen next and I was extremely satisfied by the end!

⭐️4/5 stars just a truly lovely story

Reviews

Immortal Reign Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Immortal Reign Review

23367265We dive straight back into the action in this final book of the Falling Kingdoms series. Jonah is trying to defy his destiny, Lucia will do absolutely anything to get her daughter back from Kyan, Amara heads back home to Kraeshia to be throned and Cleo and Magnus continue to fight to bring the kingdoms together.

Magnus’s arc over the course of the series was wonderful to read. I had a feeling his character would change drastically because of how he was portrayed in the first couple of books and I find he was definitely vindicated himself for his past actions. Also the fact that Cleo still chose to overlook those past deeds and just accept Magnus for the person he has shown her was lovely.

Cleo I feel I have steadily enjoyed but haven’t loved in the series. She was definitely a little too naïve and spoilt but through all of the difficulties she has had to face over the last year she has matured and shown a lot of restraint and poise.

I think I have the most thoughts and feelings about Lucia above all because she had such a drastic plot line in the series. I always thought she was an unlikeable character and that feeling didn’t really change over the course of the series. When her powers were drained by her daughter she finally realises how much she has relied on those powers and how non effective she is without them.

I honestly wouldn’t of been mad if this book had another 200-300 pages to really draw out the plot and build up the anticipation. The short length was something I always appreciated in the previous book because all you really get is all the action and manoeuvres that brought them to this moment. I would of loved go fully in depth with each character and get the minute details of everything that is happening.

I thought the pacing picked right back up and I was on the edge of my seat throughout my read. The ending did kind of wrap up quite conveniently but after the epic journey these characters embarked on back in the beginning of this series I was very content with how it ended!

⭐️5/5 WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO READ THIS SERIES????

Reviews

Bitterblue Review

by amyleighreads1 Comment on Bitterblue Review

915sDFes1LLWhen Queen Bitterblue took the throne of Monsea, she was a child, and her advisers ran the kngdom for her. Now she is beginning to question their decisions, especially how they handle the legacy of her father Leck, who who ruled through his Grace–a special talent for mind-altering–and his taste for darkness and violence.

I found Bitterblue to be way too cavalier as Queen of Monsea for the first half of the book. She was unaware of anything that was happening in her kingdom and feasted control over to her advisors who were able to manipulate her. The way she handled herself at the start of the book was almost infuriating. She ran off in the middle of the night to listen to stories and ignored the concerns of her kingdom hiding in paperwork for the rest of the day in her tower. She doesn’t assert her control enough for me and let everyone walk all over her. She isn’t relatable at all, she didn’t even realize how privileged she was until three quarters of the way through the book when she seen how so many of her countrymen were struggling. She does strive to better herself and her kingdom though which I think is honourable, I just feel like it should of happened a lot sooner.

I just didn’t feel like there was enough Saf in the story for me. For the first 100 or so pages we don’t really learn much about him and what his purpose in the story is. He and Bitterblue continue to keep secrets from each other and don’t communicate well at all so the fact that they fall in love boggled my mind a little bit. I just didn’t think the romance aspect needed to happen at all. He was an interesting character though and I liked that we delved a little deeper into his backstory as the plot progressed.

It was nice having Katsa and Po come in and out of the story. It had been quite a few years since I read Graceling so it was nice to reacquaint myself with those characters.

I found the entire plot to be a little boring to be totally honest. There wasn’t really any stakes that kept me engaged in the storyline. It was basically just Bitterblue walking around her castle deciphering codes and reading books, trying to figure out who was lying to her and scheming against her, which I think was pretty obvious from the start…

⭐️2/5 I’m glad I read it, didn’t really enjoy though…

Reviews

Crystal Storm Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Crystal Storm Review

23367261Wild!

Once again we are continuing straight off where Frozen Tides concluded. Magnus and Cleo have decided to accompany King Gais to visit his mother who was thought to be dead. Jonas, Felix, Nic and Taran are sailing back to Paelsia along with Prince Ashur who was also thought to be dead.

So Lucia is warming up to me now. I like that we see her acknowledge all of her wrongdoings not only to Timotheus but to Jonas as well. Saying she deserves to die for all of the pain and devastation she has caused around Paelsia. I think her discovering she is pregnant really made her stop and think about what she was actually doing and why. I still think she is quite selfish and arrogant but that is really a cause of her upbringing, I just hope we see her mature and gain a little bit more humility in the upcoming conclusion.

Magnus and Cleo didn’t have enough moments together for me. We still see them continue to keep secrets from one another, which is causing issues in their relationship. I didn’t like the fact Cleo won’t open up to everyone and let them know she loves Magnus, I just think it shows she’s a little ashamed of her emotions and doesn’t want her friends to hate her. I think sure they might be a little disappointed, Nic in particular but if they really love her as much as they claim to, they would get over it. I enjoyed that we see Magnus be a little insecure and jealous of Cleo’s friendship with the other rebels, Jonas in particular. I just wish he would communicate his feelings to Cleo more openly instead of bottling them up.

I liked the inclusion of Selia into the plot. I thought she was intriguing and interesting characters. I loved her interactions with Cleo and I thought her devotion to her son was quite relatable, even though he’s this horrible person. When her real motives are finally revealed it was definitely a twist that I didn’t see coming!

This book was a little more stagnant compared to the previous books. The pacing is still quite fast and there are many twists and revelations that keep you invested and entertained. For a good chunk of the story all of the characters are in one place. I like that the story has kind of been centralised and all of the main players have come together and we see some of the schemes and plans come to fruition.

⭐️5/5 Ugh, they just keep getting better!

Reviews

Assassin’s Quest Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on Assassin’s Quest Review

assassin-s-quest-the-farseer-trilogy-book-3King Shrewd is dead at the hands of his son Regal. As is Fitz or so his enemies and friends believe. But with the help of his allies and his beast magic, he emerges from the grave, deeply scarred in body and soul.

I really enjoyed seeing Fitz’s evolution over the course of the plot. At the start he is still more wolf than human and watching him struggle to retain his humanity was highly entertaining to read. The scenes between Fitz and Burrich during this time were incredibly poignant and touching. Burrich really displayed how much he loves Fitz and we see him step up and save Fitz time and time again. I can’t say I appreciated the way Fitz spoke to him and pushed him away but I’m glad we see him eventually move on.

I found Fitz to be a little petulant and childish for most of the book. At the start when he starts on his journey to kill Regal with no plan just his ego and his wit leading him into a trap. The fact that he even thought to himself what if Will was using the skill to coax him to Tradeford and then walk right into the trap was frustrating. He was so hell bent on killing Regal for his own gain that all of his assassin skills just went right out the window.

Nighteyes was one constant in the story that I loved. His relationship with Fitz and his simple way of life was a breath of fresh air in the plot. His dedication to Fitz and steadfast logic I think really prolonged Fitz’s survival.

Starling wasn’t a favourite character of mine. I found her to be a bit of an opportunist and didn’t really care for Fitz or his wellbeing, just wanting to us him for her own personal gain. I think the fact that she followed him so far and her song didn’t even end up being about him was ironic. Selling out Nettle to the Farseer throne was really the last straw for me with her. She never even really apologised to Fitz about it either which really grated me.

The story as a whole just really dragged and got very repetitive. I understand the book is really centered around this quest that Fitz has to undertake to find King Verity but I think a solid 400-500 pages was just Fitz travelling and making and breaking up camps. There wasn’t enough action or a real sense of adventure for me. By the end when we started finally finding out answers to all the questions that have been posed throughout the series I wasn’t really interested or invested anymore.

I story is very immersive, epic and I can respect the way Robin Hobb wove the plot in a way that makes you really delve deep into these characters, it just wasn’t the story for me.

⭐️2/5 stars Not enough happened for me to justify the length…