rachaelarsenault's reviews
234 reviews

So happy I finally got to read the conclusion to this duology! I loved The Sunbearer Trials, so I was anxiously awaiting this sequel. And it was worth the wait!

I will say, first off, that the prose is a little lacking in places. The best way I can describe it is that a lot of the prose is surface level, and there's a tendency to tell what's already been shown. This made action scenes in particular rough. It wasn't enough to stop me from enjoying the book, but definitely worth noting. 

I think what I loved most in this book was the furthered exploration of lore, history, and world-building. A lot of new things are discovered by various characters throughout (trying not to get into spoilers), and their understanding of elements of Reino del Sol's history is challenged and reformed. 

The characters and their dynamics with each other continued to be delightful, and I appreciated how they grew as individuals, teams, and (in case) a couple. There's also some genuine sacrifices in here, which I think went a long way to really impacting character growth and thematic throughlines, while still allowing for the story to have a largely happy, hopeful ending. 

And, of course, I loved how incredibly queer and diverse this world is. 

I had a solidly good time reading this one. While the prose had its issues (mostly with formatting and comma splices), the characters, world, and conflict shone through. Definitely curious to check out the sequel when I get a chance.

Another very sweet romance from Chloe Liese. I loved Viggo, Tallulah, and the way they played off each other - her a grumpy pessimist, him a sunshiney optimist. There were lots of cute (and hot) moments between them, plus a real emotional core to the story. The ending felt a bit long, but I recognize that this isn't just ending a book; it's wrapping up a whole series.

If you want my off-the-cuff thoughts in video form, you can find them here:
https://youtu.be/OlDjyidI4mk?si=tUVAYwWutR8zR1aC

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book, but I ended up really enjoying it! Sheetal's journey was equal parts fantastical and familiar, mixing the divinity/extraterrestrial nature of Star society with politics, relationship trauma, and family conflict. 

I felt for Sheetal's struggles all through the book, and was genuinely curious about how she was going to resolve the various conflicts that she grappled with throughout. The stakes were not only high, but I also /felt/ them - every choice would have a benefit and a very real consequence, and I understand why Sheetal was torn through so much of the story. 

The worldbuilding was interesting, if a bit hard to follow at times (an issue I largely attribute to my white ass having a hard time remembering names and vocabulary in this Indian-inspired fantasy), and Thakrar did an excellent job at making Star society feel genuinely otherworldly.

My biggest complaints would be prose and transitions. For the most part, this book reads very YA - if you don't like YA, you will not enjoy this book. But a lot of the times when Sheetal is trying to describe magical or otherworldly things, the prose veers very purple. I understand and appreciate the choice to do this, and I recognize that this largely comes down to stylistic preference, but sometimes it got over the top for me. I would be pulled out of the narrative and/or start skimming until the prose settled down again. The other main issue I found was a lack of scene breaks and proper scene transitions. It was not uncommon for characters to be wrapping up a conversation, and then suddenly the narrative has shifted to a completely different room, with different characters, at a different time of day. No scene break. No transitional text like, "twenty minutes later, Sheetal found herself in the Hall of Mirrors." Nothing. Just from one paragraph to the next, the scene completely changes. This was the most jarring and difficult to follow aspect of the prose.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and definitely recommend it to YA readers.

If you want my off-the-cuff thoughts in video form, you can find them here:
https://youtu.be/8_T9cZrcnAY?si=t2B5IGtUfADasRvH

There isn't really anything objectively wrong with this book, it just wasn't the story for me. I liked some of the worldbuilding and lore - mining divinity and using it to power magic and tech is really interesting. But overall I just didn't really connect with the story. Definitely down to my personal taste, though.

Another fun romp from Ali Hazelwood, this time with a supernatural twist and honestly quite compelling mystery. I thought everything going on with Serena was foreshadowed and built up really well, and though I predicted a couple twists, there were others that I completely did not see coming (but absolutely understood the signs of once it had been laid out).

I thought the romance was well-paced too. Ali Hazelwood is very good at setting up romances where the readers can readily identify what the love interests true feelings are, but it's still understandable in-context why the main character remains oblivious or consistently misinterprets signs. As someone who loves the trope of mutually oblivious pining, i absolutely love how consistently she writes to dynamic.

I really enjoyed the scientific and philosophical aspects of this book, and the writing itself was often quite beautiful. However, I found some of the specific advice/guidance offered unrealistic at times. It's one thing to encourage that people should be barefoot more often, and even to assert that a certain level of risk with barefoot walking will heighten awareness and connection with surrounding nature. But that applies to, like... stepping on pinecones or dog poop. Not /rattlesnakes/ and literal life threatening situations. 

I was also left with the impression that Haupt probably doesn't personally know any poor people, as a lot of her suggestions (e.g. go camping alone in the woods for a week without a phone) are not possible for a wide host of reasons for lower income folks. There was also a surprising emphasis on individualism when it comes to making change to protect/preserve nature, versus acknowledging climate crisis and ecological disaster as largely caused by corporations and mass-scale environmental disruption.

Overall, though, I did enjoy this and will probably reread it at some point so I can annotate.