“The moral of this story is:

Beware the man who faces you unarmed.

If in his eyes you are not the target, then you can be sure you are the weapon.”

I’m blaming myself for having such high expectations for this book.

The plot promised this book to be filled with magic, history, friends/enemies, competition… something very straightforward, even if thick with development. However, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. There. I said it. It pains me too, believe me.

What made this book so hard for me to read was how painfully slow it was (not in a good way). It is so dense with its story that my head ached after reading each chapter. Don’t get me wrong, I love a book that is thorough in letting us know its characters/context so we can immerse ourselves more easily into a world unknown to us. But, I kept waiting for the action to start, the story to peak and it never did. Or, it did, but too late into the story for me.

I enjoyed the plot twists and the bits and bobs which you won’t find relevant until something reminds you of their importance and, of course, Libby Rhodes - my absolute spirit medeian, made the story for me.

I guess I was expecting a Triwizard Tournament but got a boring memoir instead.

I will be buying the sequel to this book mostly to end my own suffering - this book was 100% introductory. As I mentioned, it peaks in the last chapters, and then it’s over.

I’m giving it a 3.4., I guess it’s an almost 4… as it could have been an almost 5. Could have… That was bitter, sorry.