Laura SebastianBesprekingen

stuff happened the last twenty percent of the book, but I can't speak for the rest.

You all know by now that I typically don't read fantasy. However, I picked this one up at the library after I saw the cover. (I think you know what I mean.)
I was not disappointed in the least by this book. For a fantasy book - or any ya book - it was very clean with only a few thing that had me going ehh.
The characters were addictive and I flew through it as if it were a contemporary novel.
Rating: 4/5
Crude Language: Maybe one or two? I didn't catch any but it's possible I overlooked something.
Romance: a few kisses, none detailed
Spiritual: This fantasy world has multiple gods.
Violence: The main character uses violence only when necessary. She does not like doing it and looks for other ways.

This was enjoyable, but I would have preferred a complete story. This was more in the line of a cliffhanger. I also would have preferred it if the story didn't jump perspective so often. But the characters were interesting and the individual story lines were engaging.

* I got this book for review form the publisher*
I think this book was a wrong place wrong time situation. I liked all the elements of this read but really struggled to stay on task and follow the various POV and it was struggle for me to follow but it had all the vibes i normally like and def gave me 3 dark crown vibes but i wanted a more magic element and wish the character vocies were easily to tell apart. i will still read book 2!!

I overall thought this was fun take and unique look at the camelot myth. It was a really fun and unique look at the characters in the Camelot world. I really loved the wiring style of this read and it had a very lyrical writing style that captured me. the one element of this read that I sort of struggled with was the time frame and the time line could be a bit confusing but it still was engaging read. I found the book to also deal with harder topics like sucied and depression and was a strong focus of the read! I def want to read more by this author in the future it was a really unique look at the camelot myth.

*I got this book for review my thoughts are my own*
I really loved this book so much. It has so many of my favorite elements all my mixed together in such a unique novel. I especially loved the former friend comes back to work with the princess, the lost princess, the prince who is conflicted and just some much political intigue. I thought it was such a fast pace novel. It was super hard to put down and the pace even thought it was alot of world building was done so well. I really loved this book and the lead character. This is def one of my favorite reads of the month. I can't wait for book 2... now i must wait :(

* I got this book for review form the publisher*
I think this book was a wrong place wrong time situation. I liked all the elements of this read but really struggled to stay on task and follow the various POV and it was struggle for me to follow but it had all the vibes i normally like and def gave me 3 dark crown vibes but i wanted a more magic element and wish the character vocies were easily to tell apart. i will still read book 2!!

I overall thought this was fun take and unique look at the camelot myth. It was a really fun and unique look at the characters in the Camelot world. I really loved the wiring style of this read and it had a very lyrical writing style that captured me. the one element of this read that I sort of struggled with was the time frame and the time line could be a bit confusing but it still was engaging read. I found the book to also deal with harder topics like sucied and depression and was a strong focus of the read! I def want to read more by this author in the future it was a really unique look at the camelot myth.

*I got this book for review my thoughts are my own*
I really loved this book so much. It has so many of my favorite elements all my mixed together in such a unique novel. I especially loved the former friend comes back to work with the princess, the lost princess, the prince who is conflicted and just some much political intigue. I thought it was such a fast pace novel. It was super hard to put down and the pace even thought it was alot of world building was done so well. I really loved this book and the lead character. This is def one of my favorite reads of the month. I can't wait for book 2... now i must wait :(

Grief and forgiveness and healing are big themes.
The swamp, creatures and kids were wonderful.

Three sisters. Three kingdoms. One plot to destroy everything for the Empress...except she's been lying to her daughters about everything.

A sweeping story of sisterhood and loyalty told from three distinct and powerful points of views. Seduction, rebellion, betrayal--all elements of a great fantasy, and an interesting magic system with Stardust to boot!

I have to say I'm so glad I decided to try reading this author again because this book was fantastic. It's a big 5-star read for me. If you haven't read it, go get it now. I'm already dying with anticipation over how long it'll be until the next book is out. This is so well written and well done how the plot(s) are woven together and the three stories and points of view of the three princesses in each of their unique situations. There's also swoon-worthy romance and sadness and all the emotions. There's intrigue, poisons, treachery, and magic. I love this magic in this book with the stars - it's simple and unique and interesting all at the same time. I love the close bonds and relationships between the three sisters and the differences and how each of them navigates their situation. The ending left me feeling all the feels and hanging on the edge of my seat, the cliffhanger ending is a hard one that totally shocked me and left me reeling. Go read this now!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Delacorte Press for letting me read and review this amazing book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I couldn’t finish or even read much of it. It was too much darkness and violence for me to be able to read it.

I tried to push through the first bit but I couldn’t do it and I thought why spend my time on something that clearly isn’t going to work for me when there are other books that will be great for me.

This was a great finish to the Ash Princess trilogy. I loved the final scene between Theo and Cress, Theo showed much more compassion than Cress ever would have given her. I really liked the way that Theo and the group decided to deal with the people that had taken over Astrea nearly a decade ago, again they showed compassion but that decision also helped the other countries rebuild and will hopefully prevent future wars.

Cress has gone so dark now and I love it. Looks like they are heading to war in Ember Queen (book #3) and I am hoping that Theo and her rag tag group of "soldiers" are able to take Cress down and Theo actually starts using her abilities. Glad to see the Kaiser got what was coming to him, that was epic.

I'll write a longer review later but first of all, don't be tricked by the "feminist retelling" marketing. It isn't feminist.

Looking forward to reading book #2 to see what happens with Theodosia and her people.

Once upon a time when I was between twelve and seventeen, this would have been my jam. Good thing I grew out of eating garbage and going back for seconds.

So at six years old we start that classy YA trauma coming in hot. But then they keep the kid they orphan and strip of everything alive. Seriously that's asking for a revenge arc.

And it is.

Okay, she's not an orphan yet, they tell her to kill her dad in the start. It's... A thing.

As in it takes one page for that.

Am I alone in thinking they tried to autism code the prince? He's obsessed with boats like the stereotype of autistic people love trains. He even knows who all the boats are named after!

So there's a lovely triangle in this YA. And water is wet. Well... She decides the best approach is to kill one. But oh no, she can't kill someone! So she decides to have someone else do it. A. Child.
Truly the most skilled to do such a task.

Interesting retelling, dark and magical with the love of friends throughout. Sudden 'ending that felt rushed and left many questions

After having read the first two books of this trilogy, I believe that Sebastian has fallen victim to the YA trilogy trend and is trying to drag a really great book out into three mediocre volumes. (I reserve the right to change my mind after I read volume 3 of course). Very very little actually happens in this book despite it being almost 500 pages. There are scenes after scenes of Theo meeting with potential marriage partners, many of whom will never be seen again. Now, if those scenes are funny or character building or even just beautifully written, I might be willing to overlook how they don't move the plot forward at all. But they honestly aren't. Theo continues to be a whiny, insecure child the entire book who thinks she is so "smart" because she is manipulating someone only to find out she's the one being manipulated.

That said, I do think there's an interesting story in here, I just wish we could get to it a lot faster!

After a year, I finally end this one! I got sick after so long and couldn't do anything else so I continued the last 7 hours of the audiobook. I don't know if I expected less or more, but I certainly did enjoy the plot and the characters.



Spoilers ahead




The thing is that at some point the victory seemed inevitable, since Cress was proven mind mad, however the how and when they where going to establish victory was unclear. So I wasn't worrying much about whether our characters were going to win or not. Blaise's death appeared inevitable too after everything that happened and it was very convenient for the love triangle to take its final form.

The story was built around the relationship of two childhood friends, "heart-sisters", Theodosia and Crescentia. It felt like besides the main and side romances (lgbtq which I loved, even if they don't make a longterm appearance) the focus was on the friendship to hostility to hatred for the two protagonists (the hero and the villain). Friendship was built on unstable ground, so it was never truly unconditional or limitless, but it was what helped both of them survive and grow. Cress was indeed kind to Thora when they were younger, if we consider how their people had been taught to behave to Astreans. The turn the story took was reasonable, Theodosia wouldn't go on living in a cage, and Crescentia was sure to get vengeful after what happened to her by her allegedly best friend. Cress wasn't truly a leading figure and she didn't have a big plan on how to govern. She was hurt and desperate. Every move she made was so that she could harm and cause all kinds of pain to Theo, her character cannot stand alone without the existence of her former friend. While Theodosia is surrounded by people that truly support her, Cress is heading for utter self destruction.
The way everything ended between them was sad and heartbreaking, but also it was the only way. One could never forgive the other for the actions they had taken.

I give this book 4 stars because I liked the adventure and I appreciated the characters, but the story seemed a bit predictable after some point.

A Dark tale of a tortured princess.

Listened to its audiobook, there were times when I stopped what I was doing (painting, cleaning ect) because I was shocked by what was happening to the princess, curious if she would be bold enough to execute the plans that had been made or dizzy by the Prince's actions...

A story with dark elements, beautifully executed by the narrator, hooked me enough so that I could binge most of its chapters in a couple of days.

TW/CW: Suicide, talk of sexual situations, fantasy violence, talk of incest

RATING: 3/5

REVIEW: Half Sick of Shadows is the story of Elaine, the Lady of Shalott, and her connections to King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. It is a feminist retelling of the traditional myth.

I really wanted to like this book. I love Arthurian legend and I love fantasy, so this seemed like the perfect book for me. But this book took me forever to get through, and I had to push myself not to DNF it. There’s nothing that stands out as being wrong with it, except that it’s just, well, boring. It’s always bouncing from the past to the present and then the future and never giving us enough of anything to actually connect to it. I loved the idea, but it just didn’t work for me in the end.

This came pretty highly recommended to me, so I was disappointed to find it was a pretty formulaic YA fantasy, love-triangle included. Ash Princess follows Theodosia, a young woman who was a princess until her country was conquered and now lives as a captive. She, of course, is contacted by a rebellion that needs her to save the country, which (of course) requires seducing the prince and betraying a friend. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to reading a formulaic plot (I read romance novels for heaven's sake!) but the characters and setting need to propel me forward. Unfortunately, none of the main characters in Ash Princess feel particularly real and no one really acts in a way that would be surprising. I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next one or not and I wouldn't recommend the series to anyone looking for something to start.

A solid conclusion to the Ash Princess trilogy. Theodosia and her band of friends and allies are on a determined warpath in this book, as they seek to take back the kingdom of Astrea. I appreciated several elements of this book which complete storylines and provide a satisfying conclusion. Overall, a good read, but definitely read the other two books first.