bibliorama's reviews
162 reviews

For the positives, I really enjoyed the setting in the first part of this book when the majority was in Prague. I had a good sense of the space and the different environments and I feel like the set up of some interesting questions was well done. However, this book is definitely a romance with light fantasy elements (and while I've definitely read books like this in the past) it was not what I expected from this story. That alone really isn't what dropped my star rating, but there is a big contrast between the level of detail put into the surroundings once the love interest is introduced. It started to feel like their interactions could've been happening anywhere. Also there's a switch in the story that without giving to much away answers some of the books biggest questions, unfortunately this section felt like there was a lot of info dumping. I did really enjoy the female friendship that we got at the beginning, but it completely disappears off the page by the end. I will most likely not continue with the last two books.

This review has very light spoilers in the section that talks about characters.

I had to go back and reread my review for Truthwitch so I could compare my feelings from book 1 to Windwitch (book 2). And, in my first review I mentioned how towards the middle and into the end I lost steam and the book took a lot longer to finish. Windwitch is this same feeling but multiply it by 100. It also didn't help that once I was in a POV and interested in what was going on the chapter would end and it would switch POVs really pulling me out of the story.

For the length of this book, I feel like not a lot of action happened until the end. It seemed like a lot of details were being added for future books in the series, but the characters seemed to be slightly goalless at the beginning. Or rather the goals that they did have seemed to not be as fleshed out, which I think I'll be able to explain better when I breakdown each character. Overall this book had serious second book syndrome where it felt like its purpose was a lot of setup for future books.

Okay my feelings on each character is where most of my feelings around the book hinge.

Safi - This might differ from others' opinions, but I thoroughly enjoyed Safi's chapters. She definitely takes more of a backseat in this book compared to the first which may put those who really liked her in the first off. But, she as a character always is interesting to me. Her personality is my favorite of all the POVs. For the most part she doesn't repeat her internal feelings and woes over and over so her chapters tend to always feel like something new will happen. And, the plot with the Hell-Bards is intriguing to me and had me asking questions.
Iseult - I also really liked Iseult's personal growth in this book. Her growing confidence was great to read through. Though her motivation at the end

where she decided to stay with Adeuan and help him return Owl

didn't have a lot of build up to so it felt out of character for me and put me off a bit.
Safi and Iseult are the main reasons I'm considering still moving forward with this series.
Merik - The namesake for this book. He was not my fave at all in the first one, but I appreciated him more and his journey by the end of this book. Still found him boring at the beginning because I didn't really understand what his plan or goal was with trying to find evidence on Vivia. So, a lot of his beginning chapters were him wallowing and repeating the same emotions over and over. Which got old quickly.
Adeuan - I like the growing tension between him and Iseult, but I can't quite pin why his chapters didn't intrigue me as much as the first book. I think it's because I didn't quite get why he cared about chasing the money as desperately as he was. (If I missed the reason can someone fill me in on that)
Vivia - This is a new POV that dragged the beginning for me because I was more interested in the characters that I already had connections with and her chapters took a lot of screen time. However

I waited foreveerrrrr for her and Merik to reunite. I was deeply interested and invested in that plot point. I still wish there was more to the reuniting than what we got.

Okay in an effort to keep this review from being too long winded I'm going to end with this -- I'm debating continuing with the series. I'm not opposed to reading Bloodwitch, but as of right now it's not a priority book for me to read.

I finished Circe a few days ago, and overall my opinion has been one of I enjoyed it. I liked Circe's growth overall as a character, though there were things that I wished were a bit different. This story takes the bullet points that history has given to Circe and expands on them to give those points depth. One of the moments where the story goes more in depth is giving an explanation as to why Circe turns people into pigs, and I think this was a poignant interpretation. I also enjoyed how this story felt like it was told from a future Circe who is telling you her life story (perhaps by a hearth). Though this detail did at times make me feel a little distant from the Circe we are reading about. So, if you are a fan of Greek myth and want a story that stays close to the original myth while adding some logical explanations this would probably be a great read for you.

The only thing I wish this story had done differently was giving more depth and screen time to the relationships that Circe has with the women around her. There are a lot of complex relationships present, but I feel like they weren't given nearly as much time as they should have been, really they were just moments that seem to pass by in comparison to Circe's other relationships. But, that's my only complaint. Overall, I thought this was really well written and had a nice conclusion.

I'm only going to leave this -- This book made me feel so dumb at the end. I completely forgot the title and just had to

All around great finale. The action is fast paced all throughout and the emotional arcs build to a satisfying conclusion. If you loved the first two books, it's hard to imagine you won't love this final chapter.

I'm going to miss Vasya and Morozko, and maybe even Medved just a little ;)

Really enjoyed the audiobook for this. It was fast paced and easy to get through.

Slow pacing with not a lot of substance. Interesting concept, but ultimately I was bored of it halfway through. (Maybe it's the fact that I like democracy lol or maybe it's that I'm not as interested in a bunch of people hyping up 1 individual who didn't really show why they should be hyped up). I don't quite know how to feel other than I should've liked this book because what an interesting historical change that could have given me meaningful commentary on our present reality (I'm thinking the Man in the High Castle here), but most of the commentary that was there was surface level. It's probably best to go into this thinking you're reading a book about celebrity life in America with not a lot of political intrigue other than how it pertains to marriage relationships.

Improved on the issues that I had in the first book and also addressed some of the problematic historical implications that I felt like the first book glazed over. The pacing also flowed better in this book. Though it was pretty predictable.