3.5 rounded up for my girl Vanja and for sheer fun factor. I love a selfish, self-sabotaging, abrasive, and conniving heroine who is embarrassed by th3.5 rounded up for my girl Vanja and for sheer fun factor. I love a selfish, self-sabotaging, abrasive, and conniving heroine who is embarrassed by the burden of inconvenient emotions! I especially love when that heroine falls for a glasses-wearing buttoned up scholarly detective and she bullies him during their cat-and-mouse relationship. This did not need to be 500 pages and the juvenile humor was unnecessary but this is a really solid YA fantasy. Some of those pages are spent on the framing device of Vanja’s backstory told to the reader as fairy tales, but we also get told that same information through Vanja’s inner monologue, and I would have liked to see either the page count trimmed or that time spent on some of the side characters, who are charming but at times a bit flat. Ragne in particular had less page time once they all team up and that was a bummer. I loved her blossoming friendship with Vanja. It was cute to see her side romance with Giselle but I think I would have rather had more time with Ragne&Vanja and/or Ragne&Giselle vs some of the repetition.
I see this has a sequel (and another on the way) but this should be a standalone and I’m treating it as such....more
This is an extremely niche reference, but the vibes here almost reminded me a bit of Warehouse 13. I enjoyed what I saw of Kit in the other Guild CodeThis is an extremely niche reference, but the vibes here almost reminded me a bit of Warehouse 13. I enjoyed what I saw of Kit in the other Guild Codex books so even though I don’t generally go for a male MC I finally got around to this side series. I don’t know if I would have found this quite as interesting if I hadn’t already read a ton of these books though. I’ve noticed that Spellbound and Demonized do the best job of worldbuilding and these other side series do a more minimum job of re-explaining things, so while they can stand on their own I wouldn’t recommend it.
Kit is giving Shawn Spencer and I mean that in a good way. He’s kind of a charming fuck up with lots of natural talent but has the capability to be cool if he tries. I know this also just isn’t that kind of book, but I appreciated that despite this being a first person POV with a male MC, we were not subject to constant objectification of Lienna, his partner and love interest. Who, speaking of, I like as the Scully to his Mulder, but we didn’t get to learn much about her. Hopefully with the dynamic change in the next book she gets more page time.
Some of the inner monologue/pop culture references are already dated and more than a little try hard (stuff like “all the feels” “Holy forking shirtballs” makes my skeleton leave my body) but the general movie and television references didn’t bother me much and worked more than they flopped.
These books continue to be a great light and fluffy no thoughts head empty urban fantasy series, even the ones that don’t quite work for me like Zak’s books. ...more
I went back and forth on my rating for this one but I’m settling on 3 stars. This was charming and I loved the concept and writing but it kind of fumbI went back and forth on my rating for this one but I’m settling on 3 stars. This was charming and I loved the concept and writing but it kind of fumbled at the halfway mark for me.
This was definitely the kind of book my teenage perfectionist teacher’s pet gifted kid self really needed to read. Alice is a great protagonist. Common complaints I have about YA are that the characters don’t actually act like teens, or the dialogue is forced, or the stakes are disproportionate. None of that was a problem for me here. I think here the teens felt like teens and the banter was great. Overall the stakes felt (mostly) appropriate for a bunch of rich private school students.
This was almost a 4 star book for me until about 60%, when Alice is presented with her big moral dilemma. I could actually suspend my disbelief about the kidnapping, because this was way more plausible than anything Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars ever wanted us to believe high schoolers were involved with. I wanted a bit more emotional escalation from Alice’s Beijing Ghost tasks. I wanted to see her struggle with difficult morally grey situations before she was hit with something like the kidnapping task, something unequivocally wrong, because as it was presented it really felt like she went zero to sixty and was like “yeah I stole some exam answers that’s basically like kidnapping anyway.” Am I expecting too much critical thinking from a teenager? Maybe.
I didn’t mind that the invisibility was left unexplained but it did feel like it was left unresolved? I guess her conversation with her teacher at the end was the “bookend” on that thread but idk not even an acknowledgment about turning invisible again after her final Ghost task?
The romance was very cute, nicely done academic rivals to lovers. If you like your rivals to lovers on the sweeter side, this would be right up your alley. ...more
Despite the pacing issues and the third act breakup conflict being overly drawn out, I did enjoy this a lot. I loved the chemistry and banter between Despite the pacing issues and the third act breakup conflict being overly drawn out, I did enjoy this a lot. I loved the chemistry and banter between Lucie and Tristan but found the b-plots to be a bit dull, so I ended up putting this down for quite a while because the pacing slows to a crawl around 65%. I know the idea behind this series is the suffragette movement and the politicking, but the characters are the real star here and frankly I would love to see this author combine such fun characters with a tighter plot. ...more
this was so fun and fast paced. I know the bar for YA characterization is on the floor but I enjoyed Avery. The brothers and even the side characters this was so fun and fast paced. I know the bar for YA characterization is on the floor but I enjoyed Avery. The brothers and even the side characters were entertaining. I love a puzzle solving mystery, this was an extremely targeted read for me. ...more
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