Fonda Lee

I really want to give 4.5 stars but because of early struggles cannot bump it up to 5 stars.

It took me until about 1/3 into this book before I started to feel invested. I am very much a character-driven reader, but world building and atmosphere are also important. I am not going to dwell on why it took until around page 190 to become engrossed, but it wasn't that it was unenjoyable up to that point - just hadn't yet pulled me in.

From chapter 22 on, however, I was fully immersed. The characters are real and complicated. Their flaws play a role as much as their strengths but in a very relatable way. Sometimes books can make flaws a jolt to the senses when characters jump between flaws and strengths. This book's flow of that struggle was very realistic. In other words, Fonda Lee's characters were all marvelous.

I loved the end. Okay, I cried a bit in the final chapters. I can't wait to move on to book 2, Jade War.… (meer)

After reading Jade City, I was completely hooked on the characters/story and ready to dive right into this 2nd book of The Green Bone Saga, I had read and was told by some that this book suffered from 2nd-book syndrome and was just meh, but equally read and heard the opposite from others. I ended up falling hard into the latter camp.

The way Fonda Lee writes her characters has me drawn tightly into their perspectives, and I feel it all. Granted, there really aren't any good guys (so far) in this story, but I absolutely care about them - laughing and crying throughout. If you have ever watched the series The Sopranas, it is a very similar dynamic.

Normally, I would insert a light and quick read in between books with this type of heavy and somewhat dark plot line, but I am jumping right into the 3rd book - Jade Legacy.… (meer)