
Reserved Seating

Reserved Seating

General Admission

Again, I would have liked the magical realism to be explored a bit more. It was more active and transparent than in the previous two books but I would have loved for more explanation and involvement. It was odd to me that in both books the magic is there but nobody really talks about it or questions it. Odd. I adored the relationship between Zoe and her grandma. You could really feel their love and how much they care for one another. The romance between Alex and Zoe has been my favorite so far of the series. And the sexiest. Always a bonus. I felt like this book of the series felt more organic and real and not so bland and vanilla. Kleypas spiced it up in this one and I loved it. I enjoyed the books but what's weird is that if I hadn't known Kleypas was the author and I read the books blind I never would have guessed. It didn't feel like her style of writing at all.
General Admission

So yeah.This is an odd one to rate. The first 100 pages were really difficult to get into. So much so that if one of my very best friends didn't love it so much I might have DNF'd it. But I kept reading and I'm glad I did. The book does pick up even if the overall plot remained a bit of a mystery to me. The good? My favorite part of this book was the romance. I felt like this was the most fleshed out and tension filled aspect of the plot. Merik is a fantastic character. Selfless, patriotic, loyal. His devotion to his country was truly inspiring. He was the main reason I kept reading to be honest. And the girls. Safiya and Iseult were both great, together and separately. BUT, this book is pitched as an epic friendship and I didn't get that at all. They spend most of the book apart (I'm talk on legit 300 pages they are not interacting/if they're together one of them is unconscious) and while the moments they do have were great, it was not the strongest relationship in the book to me. Sadly. I really wanted to love their friendship! The bad? I felt like the reason behind a lot of the conflict and the rationale as to why people were doing things was never fully explained. The world building was subpar at best. The history of this world and all that it makes up wasn't explained; the war, the different witches, who gets powers, why this one group of people is completely prejudiced against, etc remains a mystery. The book kept me interested enough but overall it felt like a compilation of a lot of other fantasy books I've read. Shadow and Bone + Girl of Fire and Thorns + Assassin's Blade = Truthwitch.
Standing in Line Outside
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